February 13, 2025 • 58 mins
Please join me on my different platforms and follow along my journey towards FIRE.
https://laswell.veteran.cards/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Introducing LT Defense Tactical Gear, your
ultimate solution for top-notchprotection and performance in
the field.
Our armor bundles provideunmatched safety and comfort,
while our battle belts andholsters ensure quick and easy
access to your gear.
Stay prepared for any situationwith our high-quality medical
supplies designed to keep youready for action at all times.
(00:21):
Looking to enhance your skills,Our firearms training programs
will take your proficiency tothe next level.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Trust LT Defense for all your tactical gear needs and
gear up for success on thebattlefield.
This entire military is onecohesive, dedicated force.
And the threats to our nations?
They don't sleep.
They're watching our every moveIran, russia, china, north
Korea, isis, al-qaeda.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
They may be watching this right now.
Our military should not bemistaken for our cable news gab
fest show.
We don't care what you looklike.
We don't care who you voted for, who worship what you worship,
who you love.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when
he died or if you knew who yourfather was we have been honed
into a machine of lethal movingparts that you would be wise to
avoid if you know what's goodfor you.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.
We don't want war, but if youwant war with the United States
(01:35):
of America, there's one thing Ican promise you, so help me.
God, someone else will raiseyour sons and daughters.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Find us on the web at mbradious Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since and that
(02:20):
was 10, 12 years ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
So, ladies and gentlemen, yourbattle buddy when it comes to
(03:04):
finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
All right.
Sorry about that A little bit ofa technical glitch we also have
, my son is decided that hewants to interact right now.
All right, so my name is Joey,this is Jack, and we'll have to
deal with him for a second.
This is Money in the Military.
(03:25):
This is a broadcast radio.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So, this is Jack's audition.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Sorry about that.
He is now requesting Nikki, Allright, Okay.
So apologize for the adorabledistraction, but so this is
Military Broadcast Radio givingveterans a voice.
And today we're going to havean old friend of mine, a pair of
(03:57):
friends from Las Vegas.
We have Rob and Becky Salazar,and basically we were roommates
with Rob back in the day.
We were at Creech together,which was middle of nowhere in
the desert.
We lived together.
(04:17):
We had a great time, a lot ofgreat memories from what I
remember, and you know, we'rejust, I'm just glad to see them.
This is kind of a blast fromthe past, but just excited.
We're going to talk to themabout their financial journey
from being from Rob separating,becoming a veteran, and
basically they're just kind oftrying to trying to make it, you
know.
(04:37):
So we're going to talk to themabout their, their journey and
then we'll kind of take it fromthere.
So this is Becky and Rob.
Hello.
Hello.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
I like the intro.
Thank you, I forget I'm aveteran sometimes.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I don't, I don't, I always remember.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
All those light bulbs I was changing.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, well, we did, we did some.
You know, we were part of thedrone program when it was kind
of first starting out and a lotof hush, hush stuff, but I mean
we got to do some cool things,um and then, um see, you did
four years right and then yougot out after four years yeah,
yeah, it was kind of cool.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
I got reclassed in the comm, but the problem was
with like uavs, like I didn'treally have any skills
afterwards and when I was in andby the go to school, when
you're in gentlemen like after.
I got out I was kind of, uh, Ijust job to job really.
And then I got lucky.
I got a solid spot.
We used the GI bill to get thehouse and then money was still
(05:38):
kind of tight.
So we got a roommate and whatwe should have been saving with
the roommate, uh, we didn't,were just sending our money.
So that's when our debt startedto get on to us.
So I don't know what happenedafter that you said out loud, I
wrote it down.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
I'm a little nervous.
So at the time we weren'tpaying all our credit card bill
Like we were just like accruingdebt that way and we really
didn't talk about it Like he andI did not talk about it at all.
It was all on my shoulders andit's getting a little more to
(06:18):
where, you know, we talk aboutit more now it's kind of like
the same way with you.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Remember, when I was roommates, I didn't know
anything about the money.
You're like, tell me how muchit sent, I'm like, all right,
I'll throw money at this, andI'd never had to worry about any
of it.
It was like that in themilitary.
It was like that when I was athome.
My parents didn't teach meanything about finances really,
and so you know, you just getperson who knows what they're
doing, the money and then you'refine.
And it took me a while.
I'm still like catching up withlike every all these terms of
finance.
(06:41):
I didn't have any credit when Iwas in the military.
I paid everything in cashbesides my car.
Nobody told me that was amistake.
I got with Beck.
I was like, how do I have nocredit?
I've been the most financiallyresponsible person on the earth.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Buying our house and buying my car, I was like, I'll
just do it myself.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
My name's not on anything, I'm pretty sure.
No it is now.
She could leave me high and dry.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Oh gosh, we got some work to do, apparently.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
Where's our?
So what are the most that weget?
Where was the highest that weever got at?
So that went on for a whilelike that.
I quit my job without a backupplan, which is also let me give
you a red flag on that Don't dothat.
Have a backup plan.
But I was so fed up I was likeI can't do this anymore, I just
quit, yeah he told me I think itwas a Sunday.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
He was like, okay, I'm going to quit my job soon.
And I was like, fine, that'sfine, I know you hate it, go get
another job.
First he was like, yeah, sure.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
and then the next day he was like I quit and in my
mind I was like it's not gonnabe hard to find another job.
I'll just go get six months,dude, and I was working at up, I
was doing everything I couldwork.
Break, dude, if you work at ups.
Respect, bro, respect youworked during christmas season
too so it was like okay yeah, solike and that's like barely any
(08:07):
money, so we're credit carddebt keeps going up.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
We still get, we still need groceries, we still
need all this other stuff yeah,so we had to use the credit
cards to really stay afloat then, and I'm a teacher, so like I
make, not bank enough you know,and so we.
I was like consolidating ourcredit cards into like one, and
then after a while it just gotso high.
(08:30):
Oh, we also.
I don't remember, did we go onthe vacation before or after
that?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Before before we're not still working.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
We were able to save money for a vacation.
And then we went on thevacation and, of course, it was
more than we expected, and sothat I had to do it.
And then, um, I had toconsolidate everything.
And then, uh, we ended upgetting a personal loan because
the interest rate was much lowerthan the credit card.
And uh, um, then we were ableto, after what three?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
years of paying on it and it was struggle, a struggle
, I mean, man.
We couldn't go anywhere.
Our friends were going out.
We were like sorry guys, yousure you don't want to stay at
home?
We had some help from family.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
My parents gave us some.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
We would have sank without family if they hadn't
helped us out.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
We would have made mom and dad some money, that's
what was helpful.
Yes, and a lot of people don'thave that.
So, yeah, we were veryfortunate in that.
And then, um, after we did thepersonal loan, we finally got
caught up.
I mean as much as we can.
Uh, robbie got his job at gmand, uh, now we were just
talking about this the other dayhe gets profit sharing, so it's
(09:39):
like a bonus every march and,um, it's like a life raft yeah,
you get this thing that'skeeping us afloat.
And then, as the year goes on,it just like seeps out, you know
, and then by November, december, christmas time, we're like, oh
, just make it to.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
March.
There's no way to live.
There's no way to live.
We know there's a better way.
Probably, yeah.
Plus we have an old house, wehave stuff going out, we have to
fix our pool.
That's going to be 15 grand,yeah we had to get a new roof
the new roof um new carpets.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
We haven't got those yet.
Those are like lowest priority,I guess but pool is number one.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
It's gonna mess with the foundations too yeah, oh,
wow um yeah so so listen to youkids out there want to buy a
home.
Just know that.
Uh, it's not just the monthlymortgage cost at all as anyone
yeah, anyone who's had a homefor a few, for a few years,
knows that it's um, it's justone, one cool breeze, away from
(10:40):
falling over at any or it feelsreally help.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
What has really helped us?
We have used this company thatcomes out and replaces our AC,
because our AC is one of so manytimes.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
We have a home warranty because we have the
pool With the filter.
It can be simple.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
It's definitely worth it.
We've got our money out of it,Even when they deny some of the
stuff, the stuff they do cover.
I mean thousands, Thousandsyeah.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
We've got a, the stuff they do cover, I mean
thousands, Thousands, yeah, butanyway.
So you made a couple differentthings.
Okay Well, do you have a networth?
I guess we didn't really talkabout homework before this, but
like, do you have, like, yournet worth ahead of time or do
you have?
You guys figure that part outon previous sessions.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
Net worth.
It's probably not that much.
We we probably counted all inone hand, I imagine.
No, I haven't really thoughtabout it.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Because we used to have that Mint Budget app and
that was great because I couldsee everything.
I mean, it still was going intothe red, but I could see it and
I knew how much we had.
I knew how much we owed.
And now that that's gone, I'mkind of looking for something
new.
I haven't found anything that Ilike yet.
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Well, I will go ahead and plug for Mint, not Mint.
You just said Mint Rocket.
I was a Mint user for manyyears too, and I was really sad
that they shut their doors.
But yeah, rocket Money You'veprobably seen commercials for
them.
I just recently started usingthem and you can use what's
called Plaid.
They basically link up to youraccounts, your bank accounts, so
(12:16):
they don't actually get thedata.
They're like the middleman ofthe data.
So basically, you can link upall of your bank accounts
through Plaid, through Rocket,and then it'll pull all your
information like almost in realtime.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
So it's like Mint was .
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, what Mint was, where it aggregates all your
data into a single likeeasy-to-use space.
That's awesome, like mint.
Then, um, yeah, I'll go aheadand pitch, pitch, pitch for um,
rocket money, which they do havea free tier, but I think it's
like 10 or 12 bucks for the fullsuite of services.
(12:59):
So I mean, like, I personallyspend that money because I feel
like it's worth it just to haveall that data.
But if you're cutting costs,then that might be one that you
want.
That's a luxury, but when itcomes to managing your guys'
finances, I think it's probablyworth it in the long run.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Just something to explore.
Um, because it so, if you guyshad to put one topic of your
struggle, your main struggle, isit like um spending, or is it
we have a saver and a spender,or what?
Speaker 7 (13:37):
what do you guys would, would highlight, is like
the, your biggest struggle, manprobably like we want to be able
well our philosophy is that weneed to learn how to save, but
we want to live life and enjoylife but also have money for
later in life.
So how do we do that balancing?
Speaker 6 (13:53):
it because we were there with like ramen noodles
and nothing before, and like man, do I not want to be at that
again.
But if we never learned to save, we're just going to be there
every year in november.
You know what I'm saying.
So the biggest part for me, thebiggest part that I needed to
pick up on, was communication.
I had no idea what our financeswere, so if I was going out and
(14:15):
maybe making a big purchase, Ididn't know if we were broke or
if we had the money to cover it,and so it was communication.
And then not doing such fastfood got us for a while, but
just like those random spendingsyou know I'm out, why not?
We can spend $20 here, but now,like every time you go out to
eat, we got the two kids.
That's like 50, 60 bucks, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
That adds up really quick, yeah, so it sounds like
if you guys are able to use therocket money and like maybe have
like I've heard of peoplecalling the money dates, for
basically they meet up once aweek, maybe on a Sunday
afternoon, sunday evening, andjust kind of talk
(14:56):
non-confrontationally about themoney for the last week, which I
don't I don't imagine that's aproblem.
But for some, some people, it'ssomething about being called
out like did you spend you know80 on, uh, magic store, um, but
but yeah, how do you know aboutmy magic addiction?
Speaker 6 (15:14):
oh my god, we were gonna bring that up.
Did she tell you?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
well, you know, old habits die hard back to the 2014
.
But okay, so that's a goodstart.
We're going to take a quicklittle musical break and then,
when we come back, we're goingto kind of dig into some of the
numbers and we can start comingup with some game plans based
(15:38):
off of.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Yeah, we'll start getting some of that together
All right.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Well, right now we're going to listen to our usual
guy, which is Noah Peterson, theUSMC Marine Corps veteran out
of San Antonio.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Actually, so he's my main guy to go to, and we'll be
(18:02):
back with Becky and Rob rightafter this.
Thank you, thank you.
Military broadcast radio, thestation that's giving veterans a
voice find us on the web atmbradious.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Opinions expressed in this program are those of the
speakers and do not necessarilyreflect the views or positions
of any entities they represent.
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
And we're back.
Here we go.
This is Money in the Militaryand this is Military Broadcast
Radio.
All right, that's my horribleDJ voice.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
I like it.
You're getting there, you'regetting there, you're getting
there.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
But so yeah, so this is Money in the Military.
I have some old friends, Beckyand Rob Salazar, who basically
we were in the trenches togetherin Las Vegas, Nevada, A lot of
golf courses.
A lot of golf courses, a lot ofbunkers, a lot of bunkers, a lot
of seven irons that weredamaged in the harming of our
(19:07):
golf course.
But, yeah, we're going to talkto them about their finances,
and there's Jack, so Jack.
So, yeah, we're going to talk alittle bit about their finances
, some of their lessons learnedalong the way, and then maybe
some things that we could dotogether to kind of help them
(19:29):
and then, um, you know, we cando like a follow-up session or
series of sessions and then justkind of track your, your
trajectory and make sure thingsare going okay, sound good, all
right yeah, we got some numbersfor you.
Yeah, let me give me a rundownof like the big picture stuff
and then we can kind of drilldown after that.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
All right, Like what kind of what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Like the basic debts, like maybe do you have like a
total of all your debts, andthen like maybe you're just your
general income, then we cancompare and contrast okay, so
our last tax.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
We haven't done our taxes yet this year, but
together we made what about120,000?
Yes, I think it was around120,000 together, which is the
most we've made.
Yet.
You know and I, we both had tobuy new cars recently and not
recently, I guess in the lastcouple years, yeah, and so we're
(20:32):
both still paying on our cars.
Um, I have about 18,000 left onmine, which I realize is less
than I thought.
Um, we have the house.
I don't remember how much wehave left on the house with a
while yeah we bought it about2013?
.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Yeah, a couple years before we got married.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Nice.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
There's some credit card stuff, but we're slowly
paying that off.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
No student loans.
We paid those off first.
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Oh yeah, Student loans are done.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
Good idea.
Plus I was like we're notmaking this back Teach and back.
It's not this bad boy out.
Yeah, I was tired of those,plus I was like we're not making
this back, teaching back.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It's not this bad way out.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
Yeah Well, there wasn't any personal service,
loan forgiveness programs thatwere available to you Not that
we were aware of, but we werereally so financially dumb we
were just Googling stuff tofigure it out.
You know Anything you could do,yeah.
But you get so many weirdthings like, oh, I wonder if
this?
And you get so many grifterstoo, so you like you never know
what to like follow.
(21:36):
We're just kind of lost.
We just becky would hearsomething and I'd hear something
on the radio.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
We're like, oh, let's try this, let's try this dave
ramsey, that snowball thing fora while and that helped.
I mean, I got the student loansdone.
I had the personal loan.
That was our highest one.
We were paying on that monthly,but we finally got that
personal loan paid off.
That felt great.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
That was like a personal victory right there
that was such a struggle.
I can imagine.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
Besides the cars in the house, the credit card.
We usually pay that off everymonth until about November.
November, December is when it'slike Christmas, Thanksgiving,
like all the things, and that'slike.
Right now it's higher than itnormally is, but our next
payment will take off a lot ofit, so so how much do you say
(22:28):
you guys spend on the creditcard a month on average?
Normally.
Well, it's gone up so much Likebefore it was $3,000 a month
because we put everything on itand then to get the points and
stuff which I don't know ifthat's even financially smart.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
At least a wash, if anything.
It's not usually the greatestmathematical you know like.
Unless you're paying it offevery month in full, then yeah,
you're kind of losing money onon the interest.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
I mean, we usually do until November yeah yeah, but
still you know, it's like one ofthose things.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
If you're going to spend the money anyways, then
you might as well get points onthem.
That's always been myphilosophy.
But if you have a problem withspending or credit cards, then
you can easily rationalizepurchases because you're getting
points, and I've done it Ididn't think about that.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Yeah, I guess I just think of it more like not
necessarily for the points justlike this is where our money
comes from, Like this is thecard I use now, you know,
instead of the debit card and wewere having a problem before
with the debit card we wouldoverdraw.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
And so the credit card just feels like a safety
net almost, I guess.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
It's almost like you're money laundering your own
money, exactly.
Yeah, you're just like okay, Iknow I have the money, but I'm
going to float it.
Yeah, that's crazy to think ofit that way.
Yeah, it's, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't worry about that toomuch.
Like, if you're getting thepoints and you're being
responsible, then just go for it, you know.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Okay points and you're being responsible, then
just go for it, you know, okay.
Well, it looks like I'm lookingat our credit card statements.
It's usually around the 8 000ish thing per month, but that's
mostly where our money is like.
There's a couple things on ourwells fargo credit card, but
that's like your microsoft stuffand like things like that, and
terminates um, just so, theynever switched them over.
(24:29):
And then we don't use our debitcard ever.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
No, hardly ever.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
Because we know that money is going towards the
credit card later Gotcha.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Okay Well, would you estimate you guys are at a
surplus neutral, or are you guysactually putting more money
away than you're actuallyspending?
Speaker 7 (24:51):
We really don't put too much money away, because
let's see a month we make what.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
They can hear you.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Okay, a month we make $9,400 yeah, it's about
literally and so we're spendingright up to there sometimes you
know it just depends on themonth.
Really like christmas, was you?
Speaker 6 (25:19):
know, besides christmas sometimes we have like
school stuff.
Like adrian is in hockey, so wegot all the hockey stuff and
then the other kids learning howto drive.
So now, oh, we have to budgetedinsurance and any suggestions
you have on a kid turning 16with insurance.
That's probably going to takeour little net positive down, I
imagine.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah it's gonna be tricky when there's no way to
navigate that one without maybejust just drive without
insurance.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
It's safer, safer for me drive without insurance.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It's safer.
It's safer for me save a freewallet now.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Just run away.
Just run away, kid.
It's fine, just run away fromthat so we're worried about that
.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
But yeah, lifestyle increases.
Uh, not necessarily like lavishlifestyle, it's just like
everyday living expenses for youguys, you know yeah, so yeah
yeah.
So that's something that youdefinitely you're going to have
to re-evaluate every so often,like your food budget.
I don't know how, how often youguys have done that.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Well, that's like the last thing that they think
about but we've cut back on theon the fast food, like before it
was like we're out, we're busy,I don't want to cook.
Let's get something to pick,but that's few and far between.
Now we don't eat out fast food.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
It's special what we do.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
It's kind of like when I was growing up a little
bit yeah.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
It's not expected anymore.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Right Nowadays you have the DoorDash and all that.
Basically, you don't even haveto leave the house anymore,
right.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
We do have the grocery delivery through.
Doordash because that's tooexpensive.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
We do do the grocery delivery?
That's probably a neededexpense, but I understand.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I've actually seen people talk about how they're
actually saving time.
Yes, it's hard to put a dollaramount on the time that you're
saving and the mentalfrustration going to the store.
So I'm actually an advocate for, for, like some of those
subscription services, thedelivery stuff like Walmart plus
I actually do subscribe to themWell you were right.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Also it helps me from overspending at the store too,
cause I'm like this is what I'mgetting, this is I don't know.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, look at that.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
So that helps a lot yeah, hit me up with some logic,
I like it um, but yeah, sothose are just little things,
but, um, you know, ultimately Iwas just trying to get a vibe
for where you guys feel likeyou're at, you know, as far as
like your overall spending andthen your income and outgoing
and all that good stuff, but itsounds like really like for us
(27:56):
to sit.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
I'm sorry, go ahead I was gonna say.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It sounds like you guys have a pretty good like
feel for where you're at.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
You just want a little bit, I mean I think
whenever I had the mint thing, Icould look and see who spent
what.
What are we spending our moneyon?
Where is it going?
And now we don't really havethat.
So I think that what did youcall it?
Money date or something.
I think that would be reallygood for us.
Yeah, I like that idea, to kindof see like, oh you spent,
maybe we should like go look.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Yeah, that's something I think we're going to
implement.
That's an awesome idea.
We just kind of need a path, apath forward to savings, just to
be proper savers.
You can't help the stuff you'vegot to buy, but the stuff that
you don't need.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What's your?
Speaker 6 (28:39):
feeling on subscription services.
Having Netflix and all thisother stuff, I feel like you
don't need them all.
Pick one that you like.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
One of the things that ramit uh seti talks about,
um, spending lavishly on thethings that you love but then
cutting everything else to thebone.
So if you truly value yournetflix shows and, like you know
, your subscription services,then then spend on them, you
know, and not have to feelguilty about it, um, but if it's
(29:10):
something that you really don'tget a lot of value of, but then
you have almost like a socialpressure sometimes like CrossFit
maybe is something that well, Idon't know.
It's hard to put a price tag onhealth, but I don't really
necessarily say no tosubscriptions, like I said, but
(29:31):
if it brings value to your lifeand you can rationalize it, then
go ahead.
We're only here on this earthfor long enough.
There's no point in deprivingso much.
And that's one thing I'velearned on this journey is that
we tend to yeah, we tend to kindof overdo it sometimes, like
(29:53):
I've been guilty of, likebasically the financial
equivalent of going on anextreme diet, and then I
realized that that wasn't reallysustainable.
So I kind of went in the otherend of the spectrum where I was
like a spender, like crazy, andthat didn't really work.
So I found kind of a sweet spot.
But everyone's journey isdifferent and it's also not a
(30:14):
race.
So that's where I think a lotof people get caught up in that
Keeping up with the Jones is notin the sense of like, oh, I
have to have their car, thatthey have, but maybe they're
going on vacations morefrequently than we are, and that
makes you feel a little, youknow, like it does make you feel
a certain way.
You're like, oh, they're inBermuda or wherever.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Yeah my sister and her husband are both engineers
and so they make.
Just one of them makes what wemake together you know and more.
And so, like whenever they talkabout vacations, I'm like I
can't go.
And she's like, don't worryabout it, we'll pay for your
flights, and I'm like I wish Icould just be like, oh, we're
fine, we can go, we have moneyyeah but, yeah, no, that's,
(31:00):
that's definitely.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Um, it's a real thing to to want to go travel and do
things like that, I mean,especially while you're young.
There's another book that Irecently finished.
It's called Die With Zero.
Sounds really morbid, but it'sreally just a kind of a
different take on.
Instead of living till you're89 years old with this big nest
(31:22):
egg that you can't even spend,you actually enjoy your life as
you're young and as you're ableto enjoy it more.
Obviously, there's going to bea balance there, but I think
that kind of goes against someof the traditional thinking of
like, okay, well, you work tillyou're 65 and then you put 10%
(31:45):
away and then by the time you're65, you'll have enough to
retire off of.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
But I think a lot of people are rethinking the
traditional retirement, kind oflike yeah, that was my, that was
my argument to becky, whenwe're really saving.
I was like listen, man, I wantto enjoy europe when I'm 40, I
don't want to enjoy when I'm 70.
I can't make it up the steps.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's we've got to dosomething here.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Yeah.
So I think that's where youguys are trying to change things
around a little bit, maybe dosomething different, which I
like You're taking initiativeand you reach out to me and
you're like, hey, maybe Joeycould help us out with some
things, and I'm like I was onboard 100% immediately, just to
be able to see you, guys' lovelyfaces again was enough.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I used to get all this advice for free, anytime
you had a problem.
Joe was there.
I was like, hold on, I got togo talk to Wilson over the fence
here.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yeah, well, that's the thing I was really
passionate about all this stuffand nerding out and now just,
you know, trying to do it on aprofessional level.
But, um, yeah, so you saidsavings.
That was one of the firstthings that come, came to your,
to my mind, was that you guyswant to be savers.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
yeah, we just need that strict.
We need you to give us like astrict structure that maybe we
could try to follow or maybeloosely follow, because we're
really good at that.
But if we try to do it on ourown, we tend to make little, I
don't know.
We tend to veer off a littlebit.
We never really stick to ityeah you know, yeah, well,
that's where it's like anoutline maybe okay, like a, like
(33:22):
a roadmap, almost like a gps.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Just yeah, you, you'll get there on your own
terms, but then here's like ageneral map for how to get yeah,
that's exactly what I'm lookingfor.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
Okay, cool all right.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Um, well, I mean what ?
What really comes down?
Just when it comes to saving, alot of people have this
perspective of I'll never be asaver.
It's, it's it.
There's a, there's a mindsetthere where people say, oh, I'm
never going to be a saverbecause I'm, I'm such a spender,
um, but I think most people areon a spectrum and they're not
(33:57):
necessarily like a full saverand some, well, I don't know,
yeah, you're scrooge, mcducktypes generally will never spend
any money.
I'm definitely not in thatcategory.
I'm not.
I'm kind of somewhere in themiddle.
But but yeah, when it comes tosaving, I would say one of the
first things is you need to have, just like with a map, you need
(34:18):
to have a destination in mind.
So, with the savings it's goingto, I think what's going to
help you guys is to havetargeted savings.
So for like this trip, forinstance, when was the last trip
you guys took?
How much would you say youspent on that trip?
Speaker 6 (34:36):
We're pretty conservative on our vacations.
Speaker 7 (34:38):
Yeah, we drove to Michigan because, we didn't want
to pay to fly.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
How much did we spend ?
The last one was down at thebeach.
We didn't spend a lot.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
We paid for food.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
That's about it.
Our family's really generous mysister and brother-in-law paid
for the because otherwise we, wejust wouldn't be going yeah,
it's just not possible, we gottwo kids now.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
Both of them we got 15 and 14 yeah, so they're
getting into the needs a lot ofmoney time yeah um, and then the
other one.
Yeah, we drove to michigan andthen we went to the so how much
do you think we spend?
Speaker 6 (35:10):
maybe like five grand and under is usually what we
like, what we save is like fivegrand, but we never really spend
that, maybe somewhere betweentwo and three because we stayed
in one hotel room overnight andthen the rest of it.
We stayed with family and thenwe'll buy some dinners to make
up for, you know, not paying forrent yeah, we just try to keep
it as low as we can.
Speaker 7 (35:28):
I don't know about $1,000.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
I think average Bigger ones will probably be
more than that.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Birthdays for the girls go kind of big.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
See, I have a problem with that a little bit.
Speaker 7 (35:39):
I want to spoil them.
You only have one birthday ayear.
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Yeah, but you have one every year.
I think it's special.
They're going to be alive for100 years.
There's going to be a bunch ofthem.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
People live until their 80s, 90s.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Dollars start celebrating in the 90s.
Speaker 7 (35:54):
Come on my dad turned 70 this year and he was like
I've had enough.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
I understand she's taught me the birthdays are
important, but I don't thinkspending that much money.
I think $500 on a birthdayseems alright, including a gift
that's too much.
What about gift that's?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
too, much what about.
Speaker 7 (36:12):
Well, we're going to dallas stars this year well,
yeah, I guess you did.
How about that?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
never mind well like I said um, if you guys are,
let's say, if you're planningout a mid-range trip, let's say
you wanted to do two thousand$3,000 trip.
Next We'll say I mean, that'sthe other thing that determines
the timeline is how fast youwant to get there.
So, like you know, you have agas tank, you put the pedal to
(36:41):
the metal, you're going to gofast but you're not going to go
very far.
And then the other side of thatis, obviously you know you
could drive like an old man,you'll get there and you'll have
plenty to spare, but it'll takeyou forever to get there, you
know.
So it's really just all abouttrying to find that where you
guys want to go and how quicklyyou want to get there.
So if you guys were to able tosave up for, let's say, a $2,000
(37:07):
trip for the summer, how wouldyou guys go about doing that?
If this dream opportunity comesup and you're like all right,
we have to save $2,000 by August1st, how would you guys do that
?
Speaker 7 (37:20):
Who would?
Speaker 4 (37:20):
we do that.
Speaker 7 (37:21):
Well, the way I did it before, when I saved for the
first vacation, that big one, Ijust had a set amount go into
from our savings to our our Imean from our checking to our
savings every month, and it waslike a year of saving that way,
and so that money was just likethat's future becky money, you
know, like we can't use it.
(37:41):
But I, that's the only thing Icould think to do and we just
budget around.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
What's what we?
Speaker 7 (37:47):
have.
How do we budget?
Speaker 6 (37:48):
yeah, we still save, yet we still spend, we still
spend it right, but they aresomewhere else?
Speaker 4 (37:56):
yeah, well, that's where having separation from
your money sometimes can behelpful.
Um, so you mentioned a savingsaccount.
Do you have just the onesavings account or do you have
different counts that you can,maybe?
I?
Speaker 7 (38:08):
have one savings account and then in the same
bank there I have another onewhich is like the first.
One is like our home savingsone, the second one is like our
trips and whatever.
But, I had to use some of thehome savings one to pay the
credit card bill in December.
So I'm just telling you thetruth in December, I'm just
telling you the truth.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
I believe you.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
That one's not as high as the second one, because
I didn't want to touch thesecond one.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Okay, the only reason why I say that is that some
people, like I said, they likethat separation from their money
.
If it's in the checking account, it's almost like mentally,
like I can spend that, you know,it's just a weird like thing.
But then if it's like justphysically not there, still
(38:57):
somewhere in your banking system, just not in your checking
account, there's something aboutthat.
It can be really helpful for alot of people, just because out
of sight, out of mind, notemptation, you can't spend
something that's not there.
So really what I wouldencourage is to at least have
one additional account that issomething that you can't
(39:20):
actually access very easily.
So maybe like an online onlybank, or like if one of you guys
has, like a work bank orsomething like that, basically
just another account that's outof sight but still accessible.
So then you just set up like anautomatic withdrawal or you
could do it through the payrollsystem sometimes.
(39:42):
But yeah, like basically whatyou guys did, which was just put
that money away automatically.
That's literally what you wouldbe doing, but you would do it
in a targeted way.
That also is separate.
You know, like that physicalseparation is is also good
because you don't have thetemptation, because if it's
linked to your savings accountand your checking account, it's
(40:05):
really easy to just go in thereand transfer like 50, a hundred
bucks, right, generally.
Speaker 7 (40:10):
Yeah, that's what I did, exactly yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah, but this is a little bit easier or it's
actually difficult, because itadds an extra layer to
accentuate your money.
You still have it.
You just have to do a littlebit extra work to get there.
Bit extra work to get there.
Some people, would, you know,do this where they would like
freeze a credit card in water inin their freezer, you know, so
(40:33):
that they're not.
It adds an extra layer to it,you know, yeah, no, yeah, people
will.
There's something about havingthe credit in their wallet like
they're going to spend it.
But if they have it separatedfrom themselves and they have to
(40:58):
go through extra steps, likeeither thaw it or chip it away
or whatever, hack at it.
Speaker 7 (41:00):
Um yeah it works for some people, but it's an extreme
example.
What do you so?
I've been hearing about highyield savings accounts.
What do you know much about?
I mean how?
What do you know about those?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
well, they're basically, um, usually with an
online account.
An online bank doesn't have, um, the physical banking
infrastructure, so they don'thave physical banks usually and
they can save money or givemoney to the, to their patrons,
by having lower expenses.
So, basically, a lot of theseonline like ally and ally I
(41:29):
think ally a few other onlinebanks.
They offer a higher, like a 4%,interest rate.
So you're talking about, youknow, all that adds up over time
that, um, you know losing mytrain of thought.
Here we go, um, yeah, so, but,yeah, it's a high yield savings
account and every bank, a lot ofbanks, have them.
(41:51):
They just, um, they just don'tnecessarily advertise for them
as much, but nowadays people are, are interested in them because
, yeah, if you put a thousandbucks in, four percent is way
better than usually less thanone percent yeah yeah no banks
Right because it's like pointsomething.
Yeah, something crazy.
Speaker 6 (42:13):
Something rip-off-y.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Yeah, so yeah, I would look into that.
Maybe.
Another bank that I used to use, or account that I used to use,
was called SmartyPig.
It's like an online piggy bank,essentially, where you can
create like specific targetedsavings goals.
So I really like this because Iguess I'm more visual person
(42:39):
anyways, and I like the idea ofhaving all of my savings goals
and then you can have it likebroken down into oh, you're 12
percent towards your goal or youyou can look at it from a graph
or from you know all thedifferent data perspectives.
So if you're visual, then asmarty pig is really good
because it's like a little yeah,it's like a little piggy bank
(43:00):
for your, for your savings.
That's cool and it usually doesoffer a higher percentage than
a traditional bank.
So it's kind of kind-yieldsavings account, but it's kind
of gimmicky too.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
Whatever works really .
I'll take it.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
So, if anyone from Smarty Pig is watching, take a
check of $5,000 or gold bullionif that's available.
But yeah, so we got.
The initial task for homeworkis to create like a separate
account where you already haveaccess to, but what I want you
guys to do is to come up with anumber, and it sounds like maybe
that initial savings goal thatyou had for the last trip and
(43:53):
we're just doing an example youdon't have to do a trip If you
have something specific in mindthat you're going to purchase,
probably a trip.
Speaker 6 (44:01):
Yeah, we're saving up for this next one.
The pool, though.
Oh yes, that is number onepriority is that pool.
Speaker 7 (44:09):
So probably the pool then.
Speaker 6 (44:12):
Dang it Vacation next year.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Well then you said you haven't touched the tax
return yet, right?
Speaker 6 (44:20):
And we still haven't got it.
We get our bonus next week andthat was like $14,500.
So that'll be a nice chunk ofchange.
Heck yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
So you mentioned the bonus was a nice thing, but then
you also you maybe come to relyon it a little bit every year
yes, that's exactly.
Speaker 6 (44:35):
And like we, you well , we, we've been relying on to
take care of some stuff recently.
But I mean, it always seemslike, all right, we, we get up
to the, we get up to the bonus.
We need this, this, this done,this done.
Then, by the time we're done,divvying it up like here's your
hundred, here's your hundred,here's your hundred penny to the
kids yeah, yeah that soundsright, yeah, but then again,
(44:57):
like I said, you do have, thatis something that not everyone
has access to.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
So I mean, you see that, as you guys are fortunate,
yes, very much so, man.
Speaker 6 (45:06):
I wish everybody got that at the end of the year.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Dude, that'll make a big difference in my other jobs
yeah, well, uh, the idea that Iwas thinking about was christmas
spending.
Yes, you know, you guys justdealt with christmas spending.
This is something that a lot of, a lot of families struggle
with.
Like, they get to the end ofthe year, they do their shopping
(45:30):
, probably pretty mindlesslyusually, and then they have the
bill at the end of the year orend of January, and a lot of
times it's not exactly what theywanted, but he wanted to be in
the box.
I'm doing dual duty today, butyeah so, I'm doing dual duty
(46:00):
today, but yeah so I forgot mytrain of thought there, but what
was I saying?
Christmas spending people wereyeah yes, so Christmas spending
is one of the things that a lotof people overspend without
really thinking about.
So what I would say is to doyour an audit of your Christmas
spending, and this might bepainful, but it's fresh.
So I want you guys to take this, you know.
(46:22):
Basically, just get it.
Speaker 6 (46:24):
I'll enjoy this.
Yeah, no, no, no, I'll enjoythis.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
He said not confrontational.
Speaker 6 (46:29):
I'll have to do this nicely.
All right, it's not going to beas fun.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
But it's basically what we're trying to do here is
to get an actual accounting ofwhat you spent last year and
then we can basically figure out, okay, how much do we want to
allocate for spending this year.
So we're being proactive andwe're also learning from just
this past shopping cycle.
You know, which is probablygoing to be more shopping next
(46:56):
year, if you, if, if we're beinghonest, right Probably going to
go up a little bit.
So we may have to, like, comeup with a good.
You know I always say startwith 50 bucks a month, cause
that's $600 by the end of theyear.
Well, by now it's going to be alittle bit less.
But you know, you kind of justdo the math Like, like, okay, if
you guys spent a thousanddollars last year, and how how
(47:18):
much in 10 months can you putaway obviously that's going to
be, you know, 100 bucks a monththen you could, you could get
that 1200 pretty easy I didn'tthink about saving at the
beginning of the year we are twosmart people here god, you'd be
surprised that a lot of peopledon't think about this kind of
(47:39):
stuff, you know.
Speaker 7 (47:39):
But it's like it's an expense that's going to be
there yeah, every year it'sgoing to be there it's nuts.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
All right.
Honestly, you could, by bysetting a target, you can also
kind of like tweak things alittle bit to where, okay, we
spent 500 on whatever type ofgift Maybe we'll spend, we'll
split that up and then we'll do.
You know like, so you can.
You can almost like reverseengineer and learn from the last
(48:08):
spending cycle and say, okay,we can do things a little bit
better next year.
Speaker 7 (48:12):
Or, oh sorry, Last last year, not this past year,
but the year before I wrote downeverything and I saw how much
um that I spent.
And so then this year, I saved.
It was like eight hundreddollars that's pretty good less
under a thousand, yeah, um andthen this year I saved um.
All this past year I've savedall my amazon points because
(48:34):
most of the stuff I bought onAmazon.
So I saved all of our creditcard points for Amazon purchases
and I saved, I think, abouthalf.
I mean it was like $400 worthof points that I was able to
just take out the bulk of itthis year.
So I don't think we spent asmuch this year.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
Oh look, that'll be our money date.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
Kept me in, but you also did spend money to get
those points right.
We'll have to determine howmuch you're actually spending,
because I mean, if you thinkabout it, you got four hundred
dollars worth of gifts right for, yeah, free.
So four hundred dollars ofspending that you have to
account for.
Speaker 7 (49:12):
You know what I mean well, that was the, the credit
card.
That's our capital one yeah sothat's the stuff we used all
year.
Speaker 6 (49:18):
Yeah, but he's like explaining like all right, so if
you paid a thousand dollars toget that 400, 400 points, that
you really save it any money?
Speaker 7 (49:26):
I mean, we're spending that money anyway
that's the only thing.
That's how, I guess, I knowlike that's the whole money.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
Yeah, the money laundering thing works in that
situation.
That's the only thing.
Yeah, that's true, all right,raina.
Yeah, but ultimately the ideawas to get you guys thinking
about okay, how could we tackleChristmas this year in a more
economical way, in a morethoughtful way?
You could buy presentsthroughout the year instead of
waiting until the end of theyear.
(49:52):
You can be more intentional,look for sales, all these things
that could really help you guysin the long waiting until the
end of the year.
You know, like that, you can bemore intentional, look for
sales.
You know all these things thatcould really help you guys in
the long run.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
And it's just like you can also bite off.
You know, instead of waitinguntil the end of the year, you
space it out throughout the year.
So, like you know, spending $50on one thing would not be so
bad if you were, like you know,buying five or six things at $50
a pop.
That stings a lot more.
So by spacing it out, it'llkind of soften the blow a little
(50:24):
bit too.
That's a good idea, you kind ofstarted doing that though yeah,
I started buying a littleearlier.
Speaker 7 (50:30):
Yeah, not as good as my aunt.
She buys stuff like in Apriland she forgets who she bought
it for yeah well, I mean, it'sjust like in April, and she
forgets who she bought it for.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Yeah Well, I mean, it's just like little little
tips and tricks and hacks thatthat we can talk about, and some
of them are going to work foryou guys and some of them might
not.
But if you guys are areinterested, we can.
We can definitely do, causewe're coming up on another nine
minutes or so.
I think I was supposed to takea commercial break in there
somewhere, but I think they'llbe all right.
(51:01):
If you guys are interested, wecould do some future sessions,
do some follow-ups.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
We'll get all those numbers together for you.
We'll start working on thatstuff and just let us know.
Let's schedule it for a monthfrom now or whatever.
Speaker 4 (51:21):
What is your guys's biggest financial goal?
Speaker 6 (51:22):
for this year, just out of curiosity.
Oh well, the pool.
I got that.
Pull the pool number one.
Once that's done, dude, that'sgoing to be giant weight off the
shoulders.
That's one world.
Speaker 7 (51:29):
They'll just have to deal with the smaller worlds
yeah, because I mean there'slittle upgrades you need for the
house like new fans.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
It's a 70-year-old house, so this thing is falling
apart.
It was in 1975 is when it wasbuilt.
Oh yeah, my bad, it's 1970s.
Speaker 7 (51:44):
So it just needs a little bit at a time, and it
seems like everything's fallingapart at the same time.
Speaker 6 (51:53):
We just fixed a water leak in the bathroom.
Speaker 7 (51:56):
So that's an expense like $5,000 that I wasn't
expecting you know, and thathappened right before Christmas.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
Of course yeah.
Speaker 7 (52:04):
So I saved a little bit at Christmas, but then I had
to spend all of that.
But, thank goodness, my friendwas the one that did it, for,
like, he has a company and weknow a guy.
Speaker 6 (52:13):
Yeah, and he let me pay it in three different
increments that's like a bigthing too, if you can play in
like installments that you'renot getting like hit on.
That is the way to do it, man.
If you're just taking smallchunks out, that has been a
lifesaver for us not being ableto take the hit all at once.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Yeah, that really helped so another little bit of
homework.
I would be curious with youguys.
Since you're homeowners, I'mcurious how much did you spend
on your home last year?
Oh, it's interesting it doesn'thave to be an exact kind of
things.
Well, yeah, like in just thehomeowners expenses, you know,
(52:52):
because I think this is also agood way to help guide people
who maybe want to be homeownersand be like okay, yes, you have
your mortgage payment, that'sone thing, but then you just
said $5,000 for a water leak.
Who has that kind of money?
Speaker 6 (53:10):
Oh, we didn't, we did not, we did not Right.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
So you can figure out a way to get there.
Speaker 7 (53:17):
What I've noticed?
What I've realized about us iswe put our home in the last
priority.
We have not been up the properladder.
Speaker 6 (53:24):
Yeah, we've been terrible homeowners and that's
why stuff is falling apart.
Speaker 7 (53:27):
I think that's probably a big reason.
Honestly, we have notmaintained like we should.
Speaker 6 (53:33):
Why'd you have to bring that up?
We're being honest, that'sright, I maintained like we
should.
Speaker 7 (53:35):
Why'd you have to bring that up?
We're being honest.
Speaker 6 (53:38):
That's right, I love this.
I love this.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Accountability in this situation.
Speaker 7 (53:44):
That's really yeah, it's money that I'm like we need
.
We need something else.
You know, this can wait.
And then I'm like, by the timeit explodes, you're like, well,
I can't wait.
By the time it explodes,they're like well, now, I can't
wait.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
Now it's $5,000.
Our AC.
All we have to do is put alittle bit of bleach into a
little system thing and then itcleans it out, and we totally
forget to do that.
And then the AC shuts down.
Speaker 7 (54:05):
in the summer Everybody's sweating for two
weeks, and then that's anothermore money.
So now it's a reminder of myphone.
Speaker 6 (54:12):
Yeah, take care of it .
Speaker 4 (54:17):
Take care of it, take care of the house.
Yeah Well, that's you know,like, like I said, I wanted to
highlight that honestly justjust for other people to see you
know that that you know homeownership is nice and everything
, and yeah, you do make equityeventually, but that's a slow
process and it's it's just partof the bigger financial picture
is that you're not just spending$900 on a mortgage payment,
(54:42):
You're also pre-spending allthese homeowners' expenses.
And one thing that I did wantto put a number in your mind is
I think it's like 2% to 3% iswhat they estimate you should
put away for your house forrepairs.
So if your house is $200,000,then 3% would be $6,000 a year.
(55:09):
So basically, the idea is justlike with a car maintenance fund
like you know, your car isgoing to have problems, so you
put money away to prepare forthat.
Just like with the house stuff.
Speaker 6 (55:23):
You sound like everybody does that.
We don't do that at all.
We're like oh, hopefully itmakes sense.
We change our oil.
All right, we're good, it'sgoing to last forever.
Speaker 4 (55:31):
Yeah, but that's one of the things.
You could start with that, Evenlike a car maintenance fund 50
bucks.
So basically, what we're doinghere is we know we're going to
be spending this moneythroughout the year, but by
allocating it ahead of timeyou're kind of generating a
buffer.
Speaker 7 (55:49):
Yeah, are you saying to do different savings accounts
for each of these, or just kindof know?
Speaker 6 (55:54):
that this is what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
Yeah.
So that's where like thingslike the smarty pig can can help
.
Like you can actually give eachaccount a task.
So like you have a you know 500for the year, uh, account on
smarty pig and you just put 20bucks a month or whatever you
determine is what you're goingto save.
(56:16):
So in that sense, like if it'shelpful for you, then I would
say, go ahead and do it.
But the only thing that I wouldbe cautious about is
overcomplicating your financestoo much, which I'm guilty of.
But yeah, that's definitelysomething that I would be.
Just have that discussion belike okay, we want to have our
money put away separately, butwe don't want it to be too crazy
(56:39):
complicated, cause then it'sjust like hard to follow, you
know.
But okay, so we're running alittle bit low on time.
We got a couple minutes.
We have to do an outro.
But I wanted to say thank youguys for basically putting
yourself out there and like Imean I want to give you guys
credit.
Like you guys put, you know,put your stuff on blast, and I
(57:01):
just I know that that's notcomfortable, but you guys are
going to be helping who knowshow many thousands of people,
man as a veteran.
Speaker 6 (57:09):
Like any help I wish I would have.
Like saw some of these videosbefore I got out, you know, or
like, even like as I got out,you know, or like, even like as
I got out, I was like, oh, I'mgoing to make all those mistakes
.
Speaker 4 (57:18):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah Once again.
Thank you, Robbie and Becky.
We're going to have you guys onagain, hopefully soon.
Maybe not this week I gotanother guest but then maybe the
week after we can do that.
Just let us know, man, we got alot of stuff to go over.
So, okay, cool.
Well, thank you for your time.
This has been money in themilitary on a military broadcast
(57:41):
radio.
Thank you guys for for joiningand watching after the fact.
Thanks again for Becky and Rob.
All right, we'll talk to younext time and that's it.
Speaker 6 (57:52):
Thanks, joe, I appreciate it, man.
Keep up the good work, dude.
This is awesome thing you'redoing, man, awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (57:56):
Thanks Joe, I appreciate it, man.
Keep up the good work, dude.
This is an awesome thing you'redoing, man.
Awesome.
Thanks, man, I appreciate that.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (58:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio as wewrap up today's show.
We want to remind you that thepodcast of today's episode will
be available right after we gooff the air.
Today's episode will beavailable right after we go off
the air, so if you missed anypart of the show or want to
(58:22):
listen again, be sure to checkit out.
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter, and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice, so don't forget to
(58:42):
catch the podcast and stayconnected with us Giving our
veterans a voice.
Introducing LT Defense Tactical Gear, your
ultimate solution for top-notchprotection and performance in
the field.
Our armor bundles provideunmatched safety and comfort,
while our battle belts andholsters ensure quick and easy
access to your gear.
Stay prepared for any situationwith our high-quality medical
supplies designed to keep youready for action at all times.
(00:21):
Looking to enhance your skills,Our firearms training programs
will take your proficiency tothe next level.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Trust LT Defense for all your tactical gear needs and
gear up for success on thebattlefield.
This entire military is onecohesive, dedicated force.
And the threats to our nations?
They don't sleep.
They're watching our every moveIran, russia, china, north
Korea, isis, al-qaeda.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
They may be watching this right now.
Our military should not bemistaken for our cable news gab
fest show.
We don't care what you looklike.
We don't care who you voted for, who worship what you worship,
who you love.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when
he died or if you knew who yourfather was we have been honed
into a machine of lethal movingparts that you would be wise to
avoid if you know what's goodfor you.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.
We don't want war, but if youwant war with the United States
(01:35):
of America, there's one thing Ican promise you, so help me.
God, someone else will raiseyour sons and daughters.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Find us on the web at mbradious Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since and that
(02:20):
was 10, 12 years ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
So, ladies and gentlemen, yourbattle buddy when it comes to
(03:04):
finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
All right.
Sorry about that A little bit ofa technical glitch we also have
, my son is decided that hewants to interact right now.
All right, so my name is Joey,this is Jack, and we'll have to
deal with him for a second.
This is Money in the Military.
(03:25):
This is a broadcast radio.
Okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So, this is Jack's audition.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Sorry about that.
He is now requesting Nikki, Allright, Okay.
So apologize for the adorabledistraction, but so this is
Military Broadcast Radio givingveterans a voice.
And today we're going to havean old friend of mine, a pair of
(03:57):
friends from Las Vegas.
We have Rob and Becky Salazar,and basically we were roommates
with Rob back in the day.
We were at Creech together,which was middle of nowhere in
the desert.
We lived together.
(04:17):
We had a great time, a lot ofgreat memories from what I
remember, and you know, we'rejust, I'm just glad to see them.
This is kind of a blast fromthe past, but just excited.
We're going to talk to themabout their financial journey
from being from Rob separating,becoming a veteran, and
basically they're just kind oftrying to trying to make it, you
know.
(04:37):
So we're going to talk to themabout their, their journey and
then we'll kind of take it fromthere.
So this is Becky and Rob.
Hello.
Hello.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
I like the intro.
Thank you, I forget I'm aveteran sometimes.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I don't, I don't, I always remember.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
All those light bulbs I was changing.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, well, we did, we did some.
You know, we were part of thedrone program when it was kind
of first starting out and a lotof hush, hush stuff, but I mean
we got to do some cool things,um and then, um see, you did
four years right and then yougot out after four years yeah,
yeah, it was kind of cool.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
I got reclassed in the comm, but the problem was
with like uavs, like I didn'treally have any skills
afterwards and when I was in andby the go to school, when
you're in gentlemen like after.
I got out I was kind of, uh, Ijust job to job really.
And then I got lucky.
I got a solid spot.
We used the GI bill to get thehouse and then money was still
(05:38):
kind of tight.
So we got a roommate and whatwe should have been saving with
the roommate, uh, we didn't,were just sending our money.
So that's when our debt startedto get on to us.
So I don't know what happenedafter that you said out loud, I
wrote it down.
Speaker 7 (05:58):
I'm a little nervous.
So at the time we weren'tpaying all our credit card bill
Like we were just like accruingdebt that way and we really
didn't talk about it Like he andI did not talk about it at all.
It was all on my shoulders andit's getting a little more to
(06:18):
where, you know, we talk aboutit more now it's kind of like
the same way with you.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
Remember, when I was roommates, I didn't know
anything about the money.
You're like, tell me how muchit sent, I'm like, all right,
I'll throw money at this, andI'd never had to worry about any
of it.
It was like that in themilitary.
It was like that when I was athome.
My parents didn't teach meanything about finances really,
and so you know, you just getperson who knows what they're
doing, the money and then you'refine.
And it took me a while.
I'm still like catching up withlike every all these terms of
finance.
(06:41):
I didn't have any credit when Iwas in the military.
I paid everything in cashbesides my car.
Nobody told me that was amistake.
I got with Beck.
I was like, how do I have nocredit?
I've been the most financiallyresponsible person on the earth.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Buying our house and buying my car, I was like, I'll
just do it myself.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
My name's not on anything, I'm pretty sure.
No it is now.
She could leave me high and dry.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Oh gosh, we got some work to do, apparently.
Speaker 6 (07:12):
Where's our?
So what are the most that weget?
Where was the highest that weever got at?
So that went on for a whilelike that.
I quit my job without a backupplan, which is also let me give
you a red flag on that Don't dothat.
Have a backup plan.
But I was so fed up I was likeI can't do this anymore, I just
quit, yeah he told me I think itwas a Sunday.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
He was like, okay, I'm going to quit my job soon.
And I was like, fine, that'sfine, I know you hate it, go get
another job.
First he was like, yeah, sure.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
and then the next day he was like I quit and in my
mind I was like it's not gonnabe hard to find another job.
I'll just go get six months,dude, and I was working at up, I
was doing everything I couldwork.
Break, dude, if you work at ups.
Respect, bro, respect youworked during christmas season
too so it was like okay yeah, solike and that's like barely any
(08:07):
money, so we're credit carddebt keeps going up.
Speaker 7 (08:10):
We still get, we still need groceries, we still
need all this other stuff yeah,so we had to use the credit
cards to really stay afloat then, and I'm a teacher, so like I
make, not bank enough you know,and so we.
I was like consolidating ourcredit cards into like one, and
then after a while it just gotso high.
(08:30):
Oh, we also.
I don't remember, did we go onthe vacation before or after
that?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
Before before we're not still working.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
We were able to save money for a vacation.
And then we went on thevacation and, of course, it was
more than we expected, and sothat I had to do it.
And then, um, I had toconsolidate everything.
And then, uh, we ended upgetting a personal loan because
the interest rate was much lowerthan the credit card.
And uh, um, then we were ableto, after what three?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
years of paying on it and it was struggle, a struggle
, I mean, man.
We couldn't go anywhere.
Our friends were going out.
We were like sorry guys, yousure you don't want to stay at
home?
We had some help from family.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
My parents gave us some.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
We would have sank without family if they hadn't
helped us out.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
We would have made mom and dad some money, that's
what was helpful.
Yes, and a lot of people don'thave that.
So, yeah, we were veryfortunate in that.
And then, um, after we did thepersonal loan, we finally got
caught up.
I mean as much as we can.
Uh, robbie got his job at gmand, uh, now we were just
talking about this the other dayhe gets profit sharing, so it's
(09:39):
like a bonus every march and,um, it's like a life raft yeah,
you get this thing that'skeeping us afloat.
And then, as the year goes on,it just like seeps out, you know
, and then by November, december, christmas time, we're like, oh
, just make it to.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
March.
There's no way to live.
There's no way to live.
We know there's a better way.
Probably, yeah.
Plus we have an old house, wehave stuff going out, we have to
fix our pool.
That's going to be 15 grand,yeah we had to get a new roof
the new roof um new carpets.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
We haven't got those yet.
Those are like lowest priority,I guess but pool is number one.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
It's gonna mess with the foundations too yeah, oh,
wow um yeah so so listen to youkids out there want to buy a
home.
Just know that.
Uh, it's not just the monthlymortgage cost at all as anyone
yeah, anyone who's had a homefor a few, for a few years,
knows that it's um, it's justone, one cool breeze, away from
(10:40):
falling over at any or it feelsreally help.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
What has really helped us?
We have used this company thatcomes out and replaces our AC,
because our AC is one of so manytimes.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
We have a home warranty because we have the
pool With the filter.
It can be simple.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
It's definitely worth it.
We've got our money out of it,Even when they deny some of the
stuff, the stuff they do cover.
I mean thousands, Thousandsyeah.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
We've got a, the stuff they do cover, I mean
thousands, Thousands, yeah, butanyway.
So you made a couple differentthings.
Okay Well, do you have a networth?
I guess we didn't really talkabout homework before this, but
like, do you have, like, yournet worth ahead of time or do
you have?
You guys figure that part outon previous sessions.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
Net worth.
It's probably not that much.
We we probably counted all inone hand, I imagine.
No, I haven't really thoughtabout it.
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Because we used to have that Mint Budget app and
that was great because I couldsee everything.
I mean, it still was going intothe red, but I could see it and
I knew how much we had.
I knew how much we owed.
And now that that's gone, I'mkind of looking for something
new.
I haven't found anything that Ilike yet.
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Well, I will go ahead and plug for Mint, not Mint.
You just said Mint Rocket.
I was a Mint user for manyyears too, and I was really sad
that they shut their doors.
But yeah, rocket Money You'veprobably seen commercials for
them.
I just recently started usingthem and you can use what's
called Plaid.
They basically link up to youraccounts, your bank accounts, so
(12:16):
they don't actually get thedata.
They're like the middleman ofthe data.
So basically, you can link upall of your bank accounts
through Plaid, through Rocket,and then it'll pull all your
information like almost in realtime.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
So it's like Mint was .
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, what Mint was, where it aggregates all your
data into a single likeeasy-to-use space.
That's awesome, like mint.
Then, um, yeah, I'll go aheadand pitch, pitch, pitch for um,
rocket money, which they do havea free tier, but I think it's
like 10 or 12 bucks for the fullsuite of services.
(12:59):
So I mean, like, I personallyspend that money because I feel
like it's worth it just to haveall that data.
But if you're cutting costs,then that might be one that you
want.
That's a luxury, but when itcomes to managing your guys'
finances, I think it's probablyworth it in the long run.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Just something to explore.
Um, because it so, if you guyshad to put one topic of your
struggle, your main struggle, isit like um spending, or is it
we have a saver and a spender,or what?
Speaker 7 (13:37):
what do you guys would, would highlight, is like
the, your biggest struggle, manprobably like we want to be able
well our philosophy is that weneed to learn how to save, but
we want to live life and enjoylife but also have money for
later in life.
So how do we do that balancing?
Speaker 6 (13:53):
it because we were there with like ramen noodles
and nothing before, and like man, do I not want to be at that
again.
But if we never learned to save, we're just going to be there
every year in november.
You know what I'm saying.
So the biggest part for me, thebiggest part that I needed to
pick up on, was communication.
I had no idea what our financeswere, so if I was going out and
(14:15):
maybe making a big purchase, Ididn't know if we were broke or
if we had the money to cover it,and so it was communication.
And then not doing such fastfood got us for a while, but
just like those random spendingsyou know I'm out, why not?
We can spend $20 here, but now,like every time you go out to
eat, we got the two kids.
That's like 50, 60 bucks, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
That adds up really quick, yeah, so it sounds like
if you guys are able to use therocket money and like maybe have
like I've heard of peoplecalling the money dates, for
basically they meet up once aweek, maybe on a Sunday
afternoon, sunday evening, andjust kind of talk
(14:56):
non-confrontationally about themoney for the last week, which I
don't I don't imagine that's aproblem.
But for some, some people, it'ssomething about being called
out like did you spend you know80 on, uh, magic store, um, but
but yeah, how do you know aboutmy magic addiction?
Speaker 6 (15:14):
oh my god, we were gonna bring that up.
Did she tell you?
Speaker 4 (15:18):
well, you know, old habits die hard back to the 2014
.
But okay, so that's a goodstart.
We're going to take a quicklittle musical break and then,
when we come back, we're goingto kind of dig into some of the
numbers and we can start comingup with some game plans based
(15:38):
off of.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Yeah, we'll start getting some of that together
All right.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Well, right now we're going to listen to our usual
guy, which is Noah Peterson, theUSMC Marine Corps veteran out
of San Antonio.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Actually, so he's my main guy to go to, and we'll be
(18:02):
back with Becky and Rob rightafter this.
Thank you, thank you.
Military broadcast radio, thestation that's giving veterans a
voice find us on the web atmbradious.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Opinions expressed in this program are those of the
speakers and do not necessarilyreflect the views or positions
of any entities they represent.
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
And we're back.
Here we go.
This is Money in the Militaryand this is Military Broadcast
Radio.
All right, that's my horribleDJ voice.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
I like it.
You're getting there, you'regetting there, you're getting
there.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
But so yeah, so this is Money in the Military.
I have some old friends, Beckyand Rob Salazar, who basically
we were in the trenches togetherin Las Vegas, Nevada, A lot of
golf courses.
A lot of golf courses, a lot ofbunkers, a lot of bunkers, a lot
of seven irons that weredamaged in the harming of our
(19:07):
golf course.
But, yeah, we're going to talkto them about their finances,
and there's Jack, so Jack.
So, yeah, we're going to talk alittle bit about their finances
, some of their lessons learnedalong the way, and then maybe
some things that we could dotogether to kind of help them
(19:29):
and then, um, you know, we cando like a follow-up session or
series of sessions and then justkind of track your, your
trajectory and make sure thingsare going okay, sound good, all
right yeah, we got some numbersfor you.
Yeah, let me give me a rundownof like the big picture stuff
and then we can kind of drilldown after that.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
All right, Like what kind of what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Like the basic debts, like maybe do you have like a
total of all your debts, andthen like maybe you're just your
general income, then we cancompare and contrast okay, so
our last tax.
Speaker 7 (20:11):
We haven't done our taxes yet this year, but
together we made what about120,000?
Yes, I think it was around120,000 together, which is the
most we've made.
Yet.
You know and I, we both had tobuy new cars recently and not
recently, I guess in the lastcouple years, yeah, and so we're
(20:32):
both still paying on our cars.
Um, I have about 18,000 left onmine, which I realize is less
than I thought.
Um, we have the house.
I don't remember how much wehave left on the house with a
while yeah we bought it about2013?
.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Yeah, a couple years before we got married.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Nice.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
There's some credit card stuff, but we're slowly
paying that off.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
No student loans.
We paid those off first.
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
Oh yeah, Student loans are done.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
Good idea.
Plus I was like we're notmaking this back Teach and back.
It's not this bad boy out.
Yeah, I was tired of those,plus I was like we're not making
this back, teaching back.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It's not this bad way out.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
Yeah Well, there wasn't any personal service,
loan forgiveness programs thatwere available to you Not that
we were aware of, but we werereally so financially dumb we
were just Googling stuff tofigure it out.
You know Anything you could do,yeah.
But you get so many weirdthings like, oh, I wonder if
this?
And you get so many grifterstoo, so you like you never know
what to like follow.
(21:36):
We're just kind of lost.
We just becky would hearsomething and I'd hear something
on the radio.
Speaker 7 (21:42):
We're like, oh, let's try this, let's try this dave
ramsey, that snowball thing fora while and that helped.
I mean, I got the student loansdone.
I had the personal loan.
That was our highest one.
We were paying on that monthly,but we finally got that
personal loan paid off.
That felt great.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
That was like a personal victory right there
that was such a struggle.
I can imagine.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
Besides the cars in the house, the credit card.
We usually pay that off everymonth until about November.
November, December is when it'slike Christmas, Thanksgiving,
like all the things, and that'slike.
Right now it's higher than itnormally is, but our next
payment will take off a lot ofit, so so how much do you say
(22:28):
you guys spend on the creditcard a month on average?
Normally.
Well, it's gone up so much Likebefore it was $3,000 a month
because we put everything on itand then to get the points and
stuff which I don't know ifthat's even financially smart.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
At least a wash, if anything.
It's not usually the greatestmathematical you know like.
Unless you're paying it offevery month in full, then yeah,
you're kind of losing money onon the interest.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
I mean, we usually do until November yeah yeah, but
still you know, it's like one ofthose things.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
If you're going to spend the money anyways, then
you might as well get points onthem.
That's always been myphilosophy.
But if you have a problem withspending or credit cards, then
you can easily rationalizepurchases because you're getting
points, and I've done it Ididn't think about that.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Yeah, I guess I just think of it more like not
necessarily for the points justlike this is where our money
comes from, Like this is thecard I use now, you know,
instead of the debit card and wewere having a problem before
with the debit card we wouldoverdraw.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
And so the credit card just feels like a safety
net almost, I guess.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
It's almost like you're money laundering your own
money, exactly.
Yeah, you're just like okay, Iknow I have the money, but I'm
going to float it.
Yeah, that's crazy to think ofit that way.
Yeah, it's, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't worry about that toomuch.
Like, if you're getting thepoints and you're being
responsible, then just go for it, you know.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Okay points and you're being responsible, then
just go for it, you know, okay.
Well, it looks like I'm lookingat our credit card statements.
It's usually around the 8 000ish thing per month, but that's
mostly where our money is like.
There's a couple things on ourwells fargo credit card, but
that's like your microsoft stuffand like things like that, and
terminates um, just so, theynever switched them over.
(24:29):
And then we don't use our debitcard ever.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
No, hardly ever.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
Because we know that money is going towards the
credit card later Gotcha.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Okay Well, would you estimate you guys are at a
surplus neutral, or are you guysactually putting more money
away than you're actuallyspending?
Speaker 7 (24:51):
We really don't put too much money away, because
let's see a month we make what.
Speaker 6 (25:02):
They can hear you.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Okay, a month we make $9,400 yeah, it's about
literally and so we're spendingright up to there sometimes you
know it just depends on themonth.
Really like christmas, was you?
Speaker 6 (25:19):
know, besides christmas sometimes we have like
school stuff.
Like adrian is in hockey, so wegot all the hockey stuff and
then the other kids learning howto drive.
So now, oh, we have to budgetedinsurance and any suggestions
you have on a kid turning 16with insurance.
That's probably going to takeour little net positive down, I
imagine.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah it's gonna be tricky when there's no way to
navigate that one without maybejust just drive without
insurance.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
It's safer, safer for me drive without insurance.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
It's safer.
It's safer for me save a freewallet now.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Just run away.
Just run away, kid.
It's fine, just run away fromthat so we're worried about that
.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
But yeah, lifestyle increases.
Uh, not necessarily like lavishlifestyle, it's just like
everyday living expenses for youguys, you know yeah, so yeah
yeah.
So that's something that youdefinitely you're going to have
to re-evaluate every so often,like your food budget.
I don't know how, how often youguys have done that.
Speaker 7 (26:20):
Well, that's like the last thing that they think
about but we've cut back on theon the fast food, like before it
was like we're out, we're busy,I don't want to cook.
Let's get something to pick,but that's few and far between.
Now we don't eat out fast food.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
It's special what we do.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
It's kind of like when I was growing up a little
bit yeah.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
It's not expected anymore.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Right Nowadays you have the DoorDash and all that.
Basically, you don't even haveto leave the house anymore,
right.
Speaker 7 (26:52):
We do have the grocery delivery through.
Doordash because that's tooexpensive.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
We do do the grocery delivery?
That's probably a neededexpense, but I understand.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
I've actually seen people talk about how they're
actually saving time.
Yes, it's hard to put a dollaramount on the time that you're
saving and the mentalfrustration going to the store.
So I'm actually an advocate for, for, like some of those
subscription services, thedelivery stuff like Walmart plus
I actually do subscribe to themWell you were right.
Speaker 7 (27:25):
Also it helps me from overspending at the store too,
cause I'm like this is what I'mgetting, this is I don't know.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, look at that.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
So that helps a lot yeah, hit me up with some logic,
I like it um, but yeah, sothose are just little things,
but, um, you know, ultimately Iwas just trying to get a vibe
for where you guys feel likeyou're at, you know, as far as
like your overall spending andthen your income and outgoing
and all that good stuff, but itsounds like really like for us
(27:56):
to sit.
Speaker 7 (27:57):
I'm sorry, go ahead I was gonna say.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It sounds like you guys have a pretty good like
feel for where you're at.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
You just want a little bit, I mean I think
whenever I had the mint thing, Icould look and see who spent
what.
What are we spending our moneyon?
Where is it going?
And now we don't really havethat.
So I think that what did youcall it?
Money date or something.
I think that would be reallygood for us.
Yeah, I like that idea, to kindof see like, oh you spent,
maybe we should like go look.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Yeah, that's something I think we're going to
implement.
That's an awesome idea.
We just kind of need a path, apath forward to savings, just to
be proper savers.
You can't help the stuff you'vegot to buy, but the stuff that
you don't need.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
What's your?
Speaker 6 (28:39):
feeling on subscription services.
Having Netflix and all thisother stuff, I feel like you
don't need them all.
Pick one that you like.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
One of the things that ramit uh seti talks about,
um, spending lavishly on thethings that you love but then
cutting everything else to thebone.
So if you truly value yournetflix shows and, like you know
, your subscription services,then then spend on them, you
know, and not have to feelguilty about it, um, but if it's
(29:10):
something that you really don'tget a lot of value of, but then
you have almost like a socialpressure sometimes like CrossFit
maybe is something that well, Idon't know.
It's hard to put a price tag onhealth, but I don't really
necessarily say no tosubscriptions, like I said, but
(29:31):
if it brings value to your lifeand you can rationalize it, then
go ahead.
We're only here on this earthfor long enough.
There's no point in deprivingso much.
And that's one thing I'velearned on this journey is that
we tend to yeah, we tend to kindof overdo it sometimes, like
(29:53):
I've been guilty of, likebasically the financial
equivalent of going on anextreme diet, and then I
realized that that wasn't reallysustainable.
So I kind of went in the otherend of the spectrum where I was
like a spender, like crazy, andthat didn't really work.
So I found kind of a sweet spot.
But everyone's journey isdifferent and it's also not a
(30:14):
race.
So that's where I think a lotof people get caught up in that
Keeping up with the Jones is notin the sense of like, oh, I
have to have their car, thatthey have, but maybe they're
going on vacations morefrequently than we are, and that
makes you feel a little, youknow, like it does make you feel
a certain way.
You're like, oh, they're inBermuda or wherever.
Speaker 7 (30:36):
Yeah my sister and her husband are both engineers
and so they make.
Just one of them makes what wemake together you know and more.
And so, like whenever they talkabout vacations, I'm like I
can't go.
And she's like, don't worryabout it, we'll pay for your
flights, and I'm like I wish Icould just be like, oh, we're
fine, we can go, we have moneyyeah but, yeah, no, that's,
(31:00):
that's definitely.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Um, it's a real thing to to want to go travel and do
things like that, I mean,especially while you're young.
There's another book that Irecently finished.
It's called Die With Zero.
Sounds really morbid, but it'sreally just a kind of a
different take on.
Instead of living till you're89 years old with this big nest
(31:22):
egg that you can't even spend,you actually enjoy your life as
you're young and as you're ableto enjoy it more.
Obviously, there's going to bea balance there, but I think
that kind of goes against someof the traditional thinking of
like, okay, well, you work tillyou're 65 and then you put 10%
(31:45):
away and then by the time you're65, you'll have enough to
retire off of.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
But I think a lot of people are rethinking the
traditional retirement, kind oflike yeah, that was my, that was
my argument to becky, whenwe're really saving.
I was like listen, man, I wantto enjoy europe when I'm 40, I
don't want to enjoy when I'm 70.
I can't make it up the steps.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's we've got to dosomething here.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Yeah.
So I think that's where youguys are trying to change things
around a little bit, maybe dosomething different, which I
like You're taking initiativeand you reach out to me and
you're like, hey, maybe Joeycould help us out with some
things, and I'm like I was onboard 100% immediately, just to
be able to see you, guys' lovelyfaces again was enough.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I used to get all this advice for free, anytime
you had a problem.
Joe was there.
I was like, hold on, I got togo talk to Wilson over the fence
here.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yeah, well, that's the thing I was really
passionate about all this stuffand nerding out and now just,
you know, trying to do it on aprofessional level.
But, um, yeah, so you saidsavings.
That was one of the firstthings that come, came to your,
to my mind, was that you guyswant to be savers.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
yeah, we just need that strict.
We need you to give us like astrict structure that maybe we
could try to follow or maybeloosely follow, because we're
really good at that.
But if we try to do it on ourown, we tend to make little, I
don't know.
We tend to veer off a littlebit.
We never really stick to ityeah you know, yeah, well,
that's where it's like anoutline maybe okay, like a, like
(33:22):
a roadmap, almost like a gps.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Just yeah, you, you'll get there on your own
terms, but then here's like ageneral map for how to get yeah,
that's exactly what I'm lookingfor.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
Okay, cool all right.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Um, well, I mean what ?
What really comes down?
Just when it comes to saving, alot of people have this
perspective of I'll never be asaver.
It's, it's it.
There's a, there's a mindsetthere where people say, oh, I'm
never going to be a saverbecause I'm, I'm such a spender,
um, but I think most people areon a spectrum and they're not
(33:57):
necessarily like a full saverand some, well, I don't know,
yeah, you're scrooge, mcducktypes generally will never spend
any money.
I'm definitely not in thatcategory.
I'm not.
I'm kind of somewhere in themiddle.
But but yeah, when it comes tosaving, I would say one of the
first things is you need to have, just like with a map, you need
(34:18):
to have a destination in mind.
So, with the savings it's goingto, I think what's going to
help you guys is to havetargeted savings.
So for like this trip, forinstance, when was the last trip
you guys took?
How much would you say youspent on that trip?
Speaker 6 (34:36):
We're pretty conservative on our vacations.
Speaker 7 (34:38):
Yeah, we drove to Michigan because, we didn't want
to pay to fly.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
How much did we spend ?
The last one was down at thebeach.
We didn't spend a lot.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
We paid for food.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
That's about it.
Our family's really generous mysister and brother-in-law paid
for the because otherwise we, wejust wouldn't be going yeah,
it's just not possible, we gottwo kids now.
Speaker 7 (35:00):
Both of them we got 15 and 14 yeah, so they're
getting into the needs a lot ofmoney time yeah um, and then the
other one.
Yeah, we drove to michigan andthen we went to the so how much
do you think we spend?
Speaker 6 (35:10):
maybe like five grand and under is usually what we
like, what we save is like fivegrand, but we never really spend
that, maybe somewhere betweentwo and three because we stayed
in one hotel room overnight andthen the rest of it.
We stayed with family and thenwe'll buy some dinners to make
up for, you know, not paying forrent yeah, we just try to keep
it as low as we can.
Speaker 7 (35:28):
I don't know about $1,000.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
I think average Bigger ones will probably be
more than that.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Birthdays for the girls go kind of big.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
See, I have a problem with that a little bit.
Speaker 7 (35:39):
I want to spoil them.
You only have one birthday ayear.
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Yeah, but you have one every year.
I think it's special.
They're going to be alive for100 years.
There's going to be a bunch ofthem.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
People live until their 80s, 90s.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Dollars start celebrating in the 90s.
Speaker 7 (35:54):
Come on my dad turned 70 this year and he was like
I've had enough.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
I understand she's taught me the birthdays are
important, but I don't thinkspending that much money.
I think $500 on a birthdayseems alright, including a gift
that's too much.
What about gift that's?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
too, much what about.
Speaker 7 (36:12):
Well, we're going to dallas stars this year well,
yeah, I guess you did.
How about that?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
never mind well like I said um, if you guys are,
let's say, if you're planningout a mid-range trip, let's say
you wanted to do two thousand$3,000 trip.
Next We'll say I mean, that'sthe other thing that determines
the timeline is how fast youwant to get there.
So, like you know, you have agas tank, you put the pedal to
(36:41):
the metal, you're going to gofast but you're not going to go
very far.
And then the other side of thatis, obviously you know you
could drive like an old man,you'll get there and you'll have
plenty to spare, but it'll takeyou forever to get there, you
know.
So it's really just all abouttrying to find that where you
guys want to go and how quicklyyou want to get there.
So if you guys were to able tosave up for, let's say, a $2,000
(37:07):
trip for the summer, how wouldyou guys go about doing that?
If this dream opportunity comesup and you're like all right,
we have to save $2,000 by August1st, how would you guys do that
?
Speaker 7 (37:20):
Who would?
Speaker 4 (37:20):
we do that.
Speaker 7 (37:21):
Well, the way I did it before, when I saved for the
first vacation, that big one, Ijust had a set amount go into
from our savings to our our Imean from our checking to our
savings every month, and it waslike a year of saving that way,
and so that money was just likethat's future becky money, you
know, like we can't use it.
(37:41):
But I, that's the only thing Icould think to do and we just
budget around.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
What's what we?
Speaker 7 (37:47):
have.
How do we budget?
Speaker 6 (37:48):
yeah, we still save, yet we still spend, we still
spend it right, but they aresomewhere else?
Speaker 4 (37:56):
yeah, well, that's where having separation from
your money sometimes can behelpful.
Um, so you mentioned a savingsaccount.
Do you have just the onesavings account or do you have
different counts that you can,maybe?
I?
Speaker 7 (38:08):
have one savings account and then in the same
bank there I have another onewhich is like the first.
One is like our home savingsone, the second one is like our
trips and whatever.
But, I had to use some of thehome savings one to pay the
credit card bill in December.
So I'm just telling you thetruth in December, I'm just
telling you the truth.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
I believe you.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
That one's not as high as the second one, because
I didn't want to touch thesecond one.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
Okay, the only reason why I say that is that some
people, like I said, they likethat separation from their money
.
If it's in the checking account, it's almost like mentally,
like I can spend that, you know,it's just a weird like thing.
But then if it's like justphysically not there, still
(38:57):
somewhere in your banking system, just not in your checking
account, there's something aboutthat.
It can be really helpful for alot of people, just because out
of sight, out of mind, notemptation, you can't spend
something that's not there.
So really what I wouldencourage is to at least have
one additional account that issomething that you can't
(39:20):
actually access very easily.
So maybe like an online onlybank, or like if one of you guys
has, like a work bank orsomething like that, basically
just another account that's outof sight but still accessible.
So then you just set up like anautomatic withdrawal or you
could do it through the payrollsystem sometimes.
(39:42):
But yeah, like basically whatyou guys did, which was just put
that money away automatically.
That's literally what you wouldbe doing, but you would do it
in a targeted way.
That also is separate.
You know, like that physicalseparation is is also good
because you don't have thetemptation, because if it's
linked to your savings accountand your checking account, it's
(40:05):
really easy to just go in thereand transfer like 50, a hundred
bucks, right, generally.
Speaker 7 (40:10):
Yeah, that's what I did, exactly yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah, but this is a little bit easier or it's
actually difficult, because itadds an extra layer to
accentuate your money.
You still have it.
You just have to do a littlebit extra work to get there.
Bit extra work to get there.
Some people, would, you know,do this where they would like
freeze a credit card in water inin their freezer, you know, so
(40:33):
that they're not.
It adds an extra layer to it,you know, yeah, no, yeah, people
will.
There's something about havingthe credit in their wallet like
they're going to spend it.
But if they have it separatedfrom themselves and they have to
(40:58):
go through extra steps, likeeither thaw it or chip it away
or whatever, hack at it.
Speaker 7 (41:00):
Um yeah it works for some people, but it's an extreme
example.
What do you so?
I've been hearing about highyield savings accounts.
What do you know much about?
I mean how?
What do you know about those?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
well, they're basically, um, usually with an
online account.
An online bank doesn't have, um, the physical banking
infrastructure, so they don'thave physical banks usually and
they can save money or givemoney to the, to their patrons,
by having lower expenses.
So, basically, a lot of theseonline like ally and ally I
(41:29):
think ally a few other onlinebanks.
They offer a higher, like a 4%,interest rate.
So you're talking about, youknow, all that adds up over time
that, um, you know losing mytrain of thought.
Here we go, um, yeah, so, but,yeah, it's a high yield savings
account and every bank, a lot ofbanks, have them.
(41:51):
They just, um, they just don'tnecessarily advertise for them
as much, but nowadays people are, are interested in them because
, yeah, if you put a thousandbucks in, four percent is way
better than usually less thanone percent yeah yeah no banks
Right because it's like pointsomething.
Yeah, something crazy.
Speaker 6 (42:13):
Something rip-off-y.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Yeah, so yeah, I would look into that.
Maybe.
Another bank that I used to use, or account that I used to use,
was called SmartyPig.
It's like an online piggy bank,essentially, where you can
create like specific targetedsavings goals.
So I really like this because Iguess I'm more visual person
(42:39):
anyways, and I like the idea ofhaving all of my savings goals
and then you can have it likebroken down into oh, you're 12
percent towards your goal or youyou can look at it from a graph
or from you know all thedifferent data perspectives.
So if you're visual, then asmarty pig is really good
because it's like a little yeah,it's like a little piggy bank
(43:00):
for your, for your savings.
That's cool and it usually doesoffer a higher percentage than
a traditional bank.
So it's kind of kind-yieldsavings account, but it's kind
of gimmicky too.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
Whatever works really .
I'll take it.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
So, if anyone from Smarty Pig is watching, take a
check of $5,000 or gold bullionif that's available.
But yeah, so we got.
The initial task for homeworkis to create like a separate
account where you already haveaccess to, but what I want you
guys to do is to come up with anumber, and it sounds like maybe
that initial savings goal thatyou had for the last trip and
(43:53):
we're just doing an example youdon't have to do a trip If you
have something specific in mindthat you're going to purchase,
probably a trip.
Speaker 6 (44:01):
Yeah, we're saving up for this next one.
The pool, though.
Oh yes, that is number onepriority is that pool.
Speaker 7 (44:09):
So probably the pool then.
Speaker 6 (44:12):
Dang it Vacation next year.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Well then you said you haven't touched the tax
return yet, right?
Speaker 6 (44:20):
And we still haven't got it.
We get our bonus next week andthat was like $14,500.
So that'll be a nice chunk ofchange.
Heck yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
So you mentioned the bonus was a nice thing, but then
you also you maybe come to relyon it a little bit every year
yes, that's exactly.
Speaker 6 (44:35):
And like we, you well , we, we've been relying on to
take care of some stuff recently.
But I mean, it always seemslike, all right, we, we get up
to the, we get up to the bonus.
We need this, this, this done,this done.
Then, by the time we're done,divvying it up like here's your
hundred, here's your hundred,here's your hundred penny to the
kids yeah, yeah that soundsright, yeah, but then again,
(44:57):
like I said, you do have, thatis something that not everyone
has access to.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
So I mean, you see that, as you guys are fortunate,
yes, very much so, man.
Speaker 6 (45:06):
I wish everybody got that at the end of the year.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Dude, that'll make a big difference in my other jobs
yeah, well, uh, the idea that Iwas thinking about was christmas
spending.
Yes, you know, you guys justdealt with christmas spending.
This is something that a lot of, a lot of families struggle
with.
Like, they get to the end ofthe year, they do their shopping
(45:30):
, probably pretty mindlesslyusually, and then they have the
bill at the end of the year orend of January, and a lot of
times it's not exactly what theywanted, but he wanted to be in
the box.
I'm doing dual duty today, butyeah so, I'm doing dual duty
(46:00):
today, but yeah so I forgot mytrain of thought there, but what
was I saying?
Christmas spending people wereyeah yes, so Christmas spending
is one of the things that a lotof people overspend without
really thinking about.
So what I would say is to doyour an audit of your Christmas
spending, and this might bepainful, but it's fresh.
So I want you guys to take this, you know.
(46:22):
Basically, just get it.
Speaker 6 (46:24):
I'll enjoy this.
Yeah, no, no, no, I'll enjoythis.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
He said not confrontational.
Speaker 6 (46:29):
I'll have to do this nicely.
All right, it's not going to beas fun.
Speaker 4 (46:33):
But it's basically what we're trying to do here is
to get an actual accounting ofwhat you spent last year and
then we can basically figure out, okay, how much do we want to
allocate for spending this year.
So we're being proactive andwe're also learning from just
this past shopping cycle.
You know, which is probablygoing to be more shopping next
(46:56):
year, if you, if, if we're beinghonest, right Probably going to
go up a little bit.
So we may have to, like, comeup with a good.
You know I always say startwith 50 bucks a month, cause
that's $600 by the end of theyear.
Well, by now it's going to be alittle bit less.
But you know, you kind of justdo the math Like, like, okay, if
you guys spent a thousanddollars last year, and how how
(47:18):
much in 10 months can you putaway obviously that's going to
be, you know, 100 bucks a monththen you could, you could get
that 1200 pretty easy I didn'tthink about saving at the
beginning of the year we are twosmart people here god, you'd be
surprised that a lot of peopledon't think about this kind of
(47:39):
stuff, you know.
Speaker 7 (47:39):
But it's like it's an expense that's going to be
there yeah, every year it'sgoing to be there it's nuts.
Speaker 4 (47:46):
All right.
Honestly, you could, by bysetting a target, you can also
kind of like tweak things alittle bit to where, okay, we
spent 500 on whatever type ofgift Maybe we'll spend, we'll
split that up and then we'll do.
You know like, so you can.
You can almost like reverseengineer and learn from the last
(48:08):
spending cycle and say, okay,we can do things a little bit
better next year.
Speaker 7 (48:12):
Or, oh sorry, Last last year, not this past year,
but the year before I wrote downeverything and I saw how much
um that I spent.
And so then this year, I saved.
It was like eight hundreddollars that's pretty good less
under a thousand, yeah, um andthen this year I saved um.
All this past year I've savedall my amazon points because
(48:34):
most of the stuff I bought onAmazon.
So I saved all of our creditcard points for Amazon purchases
and I saved, I think, abouthalf.
I mean it was like $400 worthof points that I was able to
just take out the bulk of itthis year.
So I don't think we spent asmuch this year.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
Oh look, that'll be our money date.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
Kept me in, but you also did spend money to get
those points right.
We'll have to determine howmuch you're actually spending,
because I mean, if you thinkabout it, you got four hundred
dollars worth of gifts right for, yeah, free.
So four hundred dollars ofspending that you have to
account for.
Speaker 7 (49:12):
You know what I mean well, that was the, the credit
card.
That's our capital one yeah sothat's the stuff we used all
year.
Speaker 6 (49:18):
Yeah, but he's like explaining like all right, so if
you paid a thousand dollars toget that 400, 400 points, that
you really save it any money?
Speaker 7 (49:26):
I mean, we're spending that money anyway
that's the only thing.
That's how, I guess, I knowlike that's the whole money.
Speaker 4 (49:32):
Yeah, the money laundering thing works in that
situation.
That's the only thing.
Yeah, that's true, all right,raina.
Yeah, but ultimately the ideawas to get you guys thinking
about okay, how could we tackleChristmas this year in a more
economical way, in a morethoughtful way?
You could buy presentsthroughout the year instead of
waiting until the end of theyear.
(49:52):
You can be more intentional,look for sales, all these things
that could really help you guysin the long waiting until the
end of the year.
You know, like that, you can bemore intentional, look for
sales.
You know all these things thatcould really help you guys in
the long run.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
And it's just like you can also bite off.
You know, instead of waitinguntil the end of the year, you
space it out throughout the year.
So, like you know, spending $50on one thing would not be so
bad if you were, like you know,buying five or six things at $50
a pop.
That stings a lot more.
So by spacing it out, it'llkind of soften the blow a little
(50:24):
bit too.
That's a good idea, you kind ofstarted doing that though yeah,
I started buying a littleearlier.
Speaker 7 (50:30):
Yeah, not as good as my aunt.
She buys stuff like in Apriland she forgets who she bought
it for yeah well, I mean, it'sjust like in April, and she
forgets who she bought it for.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Yeah Well, I mean, it's just like little little
tips and tricks and hacks thatthat we can talk about, and some
of them are going to work foryou guys and some of them might
not.
But if you guys are areinterested, we can.
We can definitely do, causewe're coming up on another nine
minutes or so.
I think I was supposed to takea commercial break in there
somewhere, but I think they'llbe all right.
(51:01):
If you guys are interested, wecould do some future sessions,
do some follow-ups.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
We'll get all those numbers together for you.
We'll start working on thatstuff and just let us know.
Let's schedule it for a monthfrom now or whatever.
Speaker 4 (51:21):
What is your guys's biggest financial goal?
Speaker 6 (51:22):
for this year, just out of curiosity.
Oh well, the pool.
I got that.
Pull the pool number one.
Once that's done, dude, that'sgoing to be giant weight off the
shoulders.
That's one world.
Speaker 7 (51:29):
They'll just have to deal with the smaller worlds
yeah, because I mean there'slittle upgrades you need for the
house like new fans.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
It's a 70-year-old house, so this thing is falling
apart.
It was in 1975 is when it wasbuilt.
Oh yeah, my bad, it's 1970s.
Speaker 7 (51:44):
So it just needs a little bit at a time, and it
seems like everything's fallingapart at the same time.
Speaker 6 (51:53):
We just fixed a water leak in the bathroom.
Speaker 7 (51:56):
So that's an expense like $5,000 that I wasn't
expecting you know, and thathappened right before Christmas.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
Of course yeah.
Speaker 7 (52:04):
So I saved a little bit at Christmas, but then I had
to spend all of that.
But, thank goodness, my friendwas the one that did it, for,
like, he has a company and weknow a guy.
Speaker 6 (52:13):
Yeah, and he let me pay it in three different
increments that's like a bigthing too, if you can play in
like installments that you'renot getting like hit on.
That is the way to do it, man.
If you're just taking smallchunks out, that has been a
lifesaver for us not being ableto take the hit all at once.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
Yeah, that really helped so another little bit of
homework.
I would be curious with youguys.
Since you're homeowners, I'mcurious how much did you spend
on your home last year?
Oh, it's interesting it doesn'thave to be an exact kind of
things.
Well, yeah, like in just thehomeowners expenses, you know,
(52:52):
because I think this is also agood way to help guide people
who maybe want to be homeownersand be like okay, yes, you have
your mortgage payment, that'sone thing, but then you just
said $5,000 for a water leak.
Who has that kind of money?
Speaker 6 (53:10):
Oh, we didn't, we did not, we did not Right.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
So you can figure out a way to get there.
Speaker 7 (53:17):
What I've noticed?
What I've realized about us iswe put our home in the last
priority.
We have not been up the properladder.
Speaker 6 (53:24):
Yeah, we've been terrible homeowners and that's
why stuff is falling apart.
Speaker 7 (53:27):
I think that's probably a big reason.
Honestly, we have notmaintained like we should.
Speaker 6 (53:33):
Why'd you have to bring that up?
We're being honest, that'sright, I maintained like we
should.
Speaker 7 (53:35):
Why'd you have to bring that up?
We're being honest.
Speaker 6 (53:38):
That's right, I love this.
I love this.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Accountability in this situation.
Speaker 7 (53:44):
That's really yeah, it's money that I'm like we need
.
We need something else.
You know, this can wait.
And then I'm like, by the timeit explodes, you're like, well,
I can't wait.
By the time it explodes,they're like well, now, I can't
wait.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
Now it's $5,000.
Our AC.
All we have to do is put alittle bit of bleach into a
little system thing and then itcleans it out, and we totally
forget to do that.
And then the AC shuts down.
Speaker 7 (54:05):
in the summer Everybody's sweating for two
weeks, and then that's anothermore money.
So now it's a reminder of myphone.
Speaker 6 (54:12):
Yeah, take care of it .
Speaker 4 (54:17):
Take care of it, take care of the house.
Yeah Well, that's you know,like, like I said, I wanted to
highlight that honestly justjust for other people to see you
know that that you know homeownership is nice and everything
, and yeah, you do make equityeventually, but that's a slow
process and it's it's just partof the bigger financial picture
is that you're not just spending$900 on a mortgage payment,
(54:42):
You're also pre-spending allthese homeowners' expenses.
And one thing that I did wantto put a number in your mind is
I think it's like 2% to 3% iswhat they estimate you should
put away for your house forrepairs.
So if your house is $200,000,then 3% would be $6,000 a year.
(55:09):
So basically, the idea is justlike with a car maintenance fund
like you know, your car isgoing to have problems, so you
put money away to prepare forthat.
Just like with the house stuff.
Speaker 6 (55:23):
You sound like everybody does that.
We don't do that at all.
We're like oh, hopefully itmakes sense.
We change our oil.
All right, we're good, it'sgoing to last forever.
Speaker 4 (55:31):
Yeah, but that's one of the things.
You could start with that, Evenlike a car maintenance fund 50
bucks.
So basically, what we're doinghere is we know we're going to
be spending this moneythroughout the year, but by
allocating it ahead of timeyou're kind of generating a
buffer.
Speaker 7 (55:49):
Yeah, are you saying to do different savings accounts
for each of these, or just kindof know?
Speaker 6 (55:54):
that this is what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
Yeah.
So that's where like thingslike the smarty pig can can help
.
Like you can actually give eachaccount a task.
So like you have a you know 500for the year, uh, account on
smarty pig and you just put 20bucks a month or whatever you
determine is what you're goingto save.
(56:16):
So in that sense, like if it'shelpful for you, then I would
say, go ahead and do it.
But the only thing that I wouldbe cautious about is
overcomplicating your financestoo much, which I'm guilty of.
But yeah, that's definitelysomething that I would be.
Just have that discussion belike okay, we want to have our
money put away separately, butwe don't want it to be too crazy
(56:39):
complicated, cause then it'sjust like hard to follow, you
know.
But okay, so we're running alittle bit low on time.
We got a couple minutes.
We have to do an outro.
But I wanted to say thank youguys for basically putting
yourself out there and like Imean I want to give you guys
credit.
Like you guys put, you know,put your stuff on blast, and I
(57:01):
just I know that that's notcomfortable, but you guys are
going to be helping who knowshow many thousands of people,
man as a veteran.
Speaker 6 (57:09):
Like any help I wish I would have.
Like saw some of these videosbefore I got out, you know, or
like, even like as I got out,you know, or like, even like as
I got out, I was like, oh, I'mgoing to make all those mistakes
.
Speaker 4 (57:18):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah Once again.
Thank you, Robbie and Becky.
We're going to have you guys onagain, hopefully soon.
Maybe not this week I gotanother guest but then maybe the
week after we can do that.
Just let us know, man, we got alot of stuff to go over.
So, okay, cool.
Well, thank you for your time.
This has been money in themilitary on a military broadcast
(57:41):
radio.
Thank you guys for for joiningand watching after the fact.
Thanks again for Becky and Rob.
All right, we'll talk to younext time and that's it.
Speaker 6 (57:52):
Thanks, joe, I appreciate it, man.
Keep up the good work, dude.
This is awesome thing you'redoing, man, awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (57:56):
Thanks Joe, I appreciate it, man.
Keep up the good work, dude.
This is an awesome thing you'redoing, man.
Awesome.
Thanks, man, I appreciate that.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (58:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio as wewrap up today's show.
We want to remind you that thepodcast of today's episode will
be available right after we gooff the air.
Today's episode will beavailable right after we go off
the air, so if you missed anypart of the show or want to
(58:22):
listen again, be sure to checkit out.
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter, and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice, so don't forget to
(58:42):
catch the podcast and stayconnected with us Giving our
veterans a voice.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.