February 27, 2025 • 53 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:47):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy
when it comes to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Hello, hello everyone , we're going to jump right in.
This is Money in the Military.
Thank you for joining us.
I really appreciate you guys'time.
We are joined with Becky andRob, your guys' time.
We are joined with Becky andRob.
We had them a couple weeks ago,week after last, and we're
going to go through somefinancial stuff with them.
(03:12):
Thank you for joining us.
This is Military BroadcastRadio.
You guys have probably heard mypitch a hundred times by now.
Becky and Rob, we left off witha little bit of homework, maybe
a little bit of something tothink about.
So I just wanted to do a quickcheck in with you guys and just
see, all right, what, what wasthe uh, what was the um?
(03:35):
Oh yeah, I was going to talk toyou about the, the, the date,
if you guys did like a date,money, date thing, but I wanted
to do a quick rundown, just realquick, and just see, okay, what
did you guys do in the lastcouple of weeks?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
well, the first thing we did was we downloaded rocket
money and we ended up doing thepaid subscription one, because
it wasn't very much money at allto to do the paid one and I'm
able to see everything.
The only one that's not onthere, though, is GM financials
not on rocket money yet, sothat's his car payment, so I
(04:12):
can't see that, but.
But I requested that they addit, so maybe they will.
And then I also did smarty pigand I made a couple budgets.
I mean not budgets, sorry acouple of savings accounts or
whatever savings goals on there.
Yeah, I did like four of them.
I did a Christmas one, a.
(04:33):
What was the other one I did?
I did a vacation on there.
That's what it was Christmasvacation, car and emergency fund
, yeah, and then we have gone ona money date, we've gone on two
(04:53):
, two Well, one and a halfSecond.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
one restaurant was loud.
It's out of control.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, because the first one we went somewhere that
was a little quieter so we wereable to pull up the laptop and
look at everything.
And then the other one, we werelike huh, I can't hear you.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
So now we do have to budget in a divorce.
So figure that out.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh, that's a big budget item right there.
That was good man, that wasgood, okay, you got a couple of
dates in, so that's really cool,so, all right.
So is that pretty much all thebig bullet items that you guys
actually did on the tail end?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that was our homework, yeah, we
got everything laid out.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
We got all the finances set up.
We got the insurance set up.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh yeah, we changed over, we changed our insurance.
We did that yesterday, saving alittle bit of money in the
house, but had to pay a littlemore because of the 15-year-old
added on to the car.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
So the financial realities of having another
driver starting to kick in alittle bit.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah just starting because we got one next year as
well.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
We'll have to.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Okay, what has been your biggest light bulb moment
or what has been something thatyou guys really kind of like an
aha thing that you guys had?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yeah, well, um anything but just, yeah, I'm
trying to think.
Well, you know, I don't know,because I was looking at the
budget and I guess the grocerieswere super high and I don't
know if that's if we're beingwasteful or if things are
actually that high right now, orif we're just, like you know,
spending a little bit of bothsometimes.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
So yeah, it's yeah well, becky does have to have
her eggs every morning.
I mean, we could lay off theeggs for a while, you know oh
man, yeah, the luxury eggs.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Oh man, all right, so okay.
Well, so so what?
What would you say?
That the grocery bill wassignificantly higher, or just
like more than you guys justexpected?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
It was significantly higher than I expected.
I mean, it was like double whatI thought it was going to be,
and yeah.
So I was like I don't knowwhat's going on with that.
Maybe we're just stopping at,like we'll pick this up, pick
this up and then getting toomuch.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
I don't know oh, no, but we did have.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I looked we did have a bunch of like big expenses,
this month like.
So our spending is higher thannormal this month, which was not
fun to see, but I mean I cansee it, so hopefully next month
won't be so bad.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
well, that's the thing that.
That's the part of the wholebeauty of this whole exercise,
too, is that it kind of forcesyou to see it, you know, or
forces you to look, and mostpeople most times just don't
really want to look at it, sothey just don't.
Yeah, it's understandable, it'shuman nature.
You know, like we, especiallywith money, there's all kinds of
like emotions attached to it,like shame and guilt and all
(08:03):
this other stuff, and we, wedon't have to go down, go into
that category.
But you know, that is somethingthat in all of my work that
I've seen is a lot of timespeople they're, they're like
they don't even realize thatthey have these money habits,
you know, until until it comesto light, you know, um, they
might not realize that they're aspender until they're in their
(08:26):
twenties and they're like oh man, I'm actually kind of a kind of
a spender, you know, but thatdoesn't mean that that's set in
stone.
So that's the other thing.
Like you have these, thesethings, these like programming
built in, but then you canchange your programming.
So that's where you last timeyou guys said, oh well, we're
not savers, well, you're savingright now.
(08:47):
Right, so you guys are saversright now.
You know, now did you guys makeit an automatic withdrawal for
those?
Yeah, there you go.
That's the first step andusually the hardest.
And now the beauty of it, ofthe situation, is going to be,
it's going to be automatic.
So you don't have to think, youdon't have to actively think
(09:10):
about okay, now we have to put50 bucks towards the Christmas
account.
You know what I mean.
It just comes out automatically.
And then at the end of the year, when it comes time for
Christmas shopping, you guys aregoing to thank yourselves,
you're going to thank past Beckyand Rob.
Okay, so we got some actually apretty good amount of light
(09:32):
bulbs, I think.
Was there any positives, anythings that you guys found that
you're like oh okay, we'reactually doing better at this
than maybe we thought?
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Well, we did our taxes and we made a lot more
money than we thought.
That's kind of sad.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Because we're like where did it go?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I gotcha, I gotcha.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And then you guys going to get a tax return.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah, it just came today actually, so that was
exciting.
Yeah, that was fast yeah, Iknow, we did it on friday and we
got it today got it in beforethe irs shuts down okay, let me
ask you what?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
what is your guys's initial re?
Or what have you done in thepast with your tax returns?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
oh pay bills immediately like we don't go and
buy a tv or anything it's moreof just like okay, we need this,
you know we well I mean we wentand bought the tv and then we
were waiting for that to goahead and pay for.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
No, no, no usually it's just like oh, thank
goodness you know that kind ofthing okay usually comes at a,
at a moment in need.
Yeah, because it comes rightafter christmas, so we usually
do it in january.
We waited longer this year thannormal okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So what, what is?
Do you guys have an earmark forwhat you're going to do with
that one this time, or have youguys already okay?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
no, just uh.
Right now my main goal is topay off the credit card, because
after christmas we were justpaying what we could on it and
now he gets his bonus or theprofit sharing on tomorrow yeah,
tomorrow so we're gonna.
Yesterday I sat down and I paida bunch of things that we
needed, like, like medical billsand things like that that we
needed to pay, and so the thecredit card is looking real real
(11:21):
hot, so like it's been a bighelp too.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
I get we didn't even mention that like my health
insurance awesome yeah, so Imean you go in, it's just a like
, it doesn't matter, it's justlike a copay of like, what?
25 for a regular doctoremergencies, whatever, yeah, so
that's been like a weight off ofour shoulders, like we're not
as scared to like go to thedoctor for anything so like I
had to get like a, like a mri,and it was, it was free, it was
(11:48):
covered, and I was like wow.
Well, now you take our eyes andour dental.
On the other hand, we're payingsome money for that, but, like,
the main part of not having toworry about health care is, yeah
, uh it's game changing too.
I just wanted to add in therelittle, uh little plug for GM
there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Huh, nice little.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Well, it's like the military, we don't have to worry
about that.
You just walk into the doctor's.
It's basically what we do now.
Yeah, that's awesome, that'sreally cool.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So maybe I'm thinking of a career switch now.
Maybe I need to go intocorporate.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
No, you found your good spot.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Keep helping people.
Let's be the best.
Fair enough, fair enough, allright.
Well, with that in mind, withthe helping mindset, let's
figure out what's going to beour next step with these little
chunks of money that we'regetting.
We got the bonus check, andthen we got the tax return right
.
So is that just going to sit ina checking account for the
short term?
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Two big problems with that.
So we're having people out forthe pool and our first quote was
what was it?
$25,000.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, about $25,000.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
So that makes it done .
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
When he said it I was like don't act.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Don't look, you're going to throw up.
Don't look.
No, I was out there with him.
This is how naive I am.
He was like it's going to beabout $2,500, $3,500, something
like that.
I was like, oh OK, $2,500,$3,500.
That seems like a pretty gooddeal in my.
I did want to say that becauseI was like he might be talking
thousands I'm going to have totouch base with.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Beckham, I'm trying not to puke and you're just like
, oh hang on.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
What else do you do?
Oh yeah, there's no way we canafford this Keep talking.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
That's funny.
Well, okay, well, that's a bignumber.
Obviously that's not somethingto shake a stick at, but I guess
the I think we had messagedeach other a little bit, becky,
but like the idea, like you'vebeen given some initial advice,
but like, since those times,since that happened, has there
(13:58):
been any other things that comeup?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
You're getting other quotes and stuff too, right?
Yes, for our AC we had someonecome out to do a tune up and
they found there was like debrisin it or something, and and
there's, there's just we havesome rain.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Do you know?
No are you supposed to cleanout your ac?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
yes, that's what the tune up is.
But they, um, they said there'slike stuff growing in it and
all this stuff, our homewarranty is not going to cover
it.
Our home warranty won't coverit.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Because it's growth or something.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
It's like biological growth.
I was like what does that mean?
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I mean, it's a unit outside.
Is that not like I don't?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
know, I don't know, but they suggested us getting a
new one.
They wanted us to get a new one.
What they did say was that ithas a new one, you know, they
wanted us to get a new one, andso and they said but what they
did say was that it has a newkind of like heater something I
can't remember what it wascalled now that's supposed to
save us money on our electricbill.
And I actually talked to my momyesterday, because they just
got a new one a year or two ago.
She said she's seen a hugedifference in her electric bill
(15:00):
well, we are leaking our, theycall them.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
I'm using my ac skills here um plan them.
Whatever the little vent.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Oh yeah, there's a hole in it yeah, so it's leaking
air out and so we're wasting.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I mean, I we could probably fix that with tape.
Right duct tape works on thatduct tape.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It's a duct putting them together so we're we're
debating, yeah, getting a new acto try to save money in the
long run.
I mean okay, so the sales guysaid it's net positive.
So I'm like, what do I believe?
Speaker 5 (15:32):
he saw us coming a mile away.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Let me tell you I know but you know, the sales
guys, they, they never lie, oror never yeah, they're just
honest all the time well, theydon't always disclose everything
that they're supposed todisclose, right?
Yeah, yeah but uh, well, okay,well, let's so as far as the ac
unit you know um.
(15:55):
Did they give you an estimateon that, right, or?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
yeah, it would be eight thousand something, almost
nine thousand, and they saidnormally right now it'd be
thirteen thousand.
So we're getting a deal.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Oh yeah, I'm not buying that I mean they were
definitely upselling there, butI mean it is old and we might
yeah because they said theoutside unit was from 2008 and
the other one is from 2013, so Imean they're old, I years or so
I don't know how long they last.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know, yeah, I don't even know what the shelf
life is for some of those thumbs.
All right, well, let's focus onthe pool first.
Okay, so you've got multiplequotes, but the general number
is about the same.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Well, one guy already sent us the quote, and then the
other guy I'm still waiting onit.
And then we have one on Tuesdayand one is going to come out
this week.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
So you can say anywhere between 15,000 to
20,000 will probably be a goodaverage 25, 30,000 possibly, oh
yeah, possibly 30.
All right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So 15 to 30.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, 15 to 30.
Yeah, 15 to 30.
We'll go in to estimate thehigh end, just because, um, you
know, might as well, if they'regiving you that high end, then
we might as well lean towardsthat.
Anyways, yeah, just as painfulas it is, it's just you know,
especially with costs rising andtariffs and stuff like who
knows what, like metals andthings like that might go up in
(17:24):
price, and so I don't know, itmay actually be a good time to
lock something in with,especially even for the ac unit.
I, I don't know, we'll have to,we'll have to do some, some, um
, some cogitating on that one,but yeah, so we'll.
Uh, yeah, that's my littlescrabble word for the day, um,
but all right.
(17:45):
So what do you?
What are your initial thoughtswhen it comes to how do we pay
for this expense?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
well, I was thinking we might have to get a loan.
I mean, we would have to, wewould have to.
I mean we don't have 20, 30thousand dollars, how?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
much do children go for on the black market?
Speaker 4 (18:01):
you probably sell one , yeah, yeah I mean but yeah, so
we would.
We would have to get some sortof loan.
I mean, I wanted to use thebonus, but it's it's not going
to cover it and we, when we needto use that, throughout the
year too, we have to have thecredit card we kind of use it
throughout the year just in casewe overspend.
(18:23):
We're like, oh, we have this.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Well, that was our mistake.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
We will be saving now .
We are.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And our cars as well.
We got a little separate partfor the car now.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, oh, you did a maintenance fund for the car, is
that?
Speaker 5 (18:38):
what you said, mm-hmm .
Speaker 3 (18:42):
We have a little separate thing for that.
So see, you're already steppingin the right direction, because
now it'll take a few months.
But once you build up theselittle mini savings goals, then
when those bigger expenses comeup, then you're not as affected
by them If anything.
You're already ready.
You're literally preparing forthose expenses right now.
(19:02):
Ready, you're literallypreparing for those expenses
right now.
This time next year, you guys,I think we're going to be in a
lot better position becauselet's think about it too Now
your check, your tax return andyour bonus will not be going
towards paying back theChristmas money.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
Yeah, that'll be nice .
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, the christmas money, that's true, yeah, yeah,
that'll be nice, right, yeah,light bulb, yeah, so, so that's,
that's something exciting tolook forward to.
But in the meantime, we got todeal with the present day, which
is how do we deal with this,this, how do we get caught up?
Yeah, right, um, and you meanlike the rocket money that, like
I, that's going to do reallywell for you guys, just giving
you that visibility, um, but uh,as far as the loan for the pool
(19:51):
, so there's a few differentthings.
Um, let me see if I can pull.
So I, we had talked a little bitabout um, different loan
options.
So I mean you can go with likea traditional bank loan, um,
like they do have like homeimprovement, slash, repair loans
.
Some banks do that like it'sspecifically geared towards like
(20:11):
you have to use it towards likehome repairs.
Yeah, the other alternative, Imean there's there's a lot of
different ways, honestly, butyou know, like if you have
equity in your house, you couldtap into that and get like a
home equity line of credit thatsometimes people kind of shy
away from that because you know,like it, it it adds an extra
(20:36):
loan to your, to your for and,yeah, basically adds an extra
loan to your uh, to your houseso it's like a, like a.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
That's what I was gonna ask.
Is that the one you said was alien in the house.
We don't want to do that, yeahwell, I mean I don't, I don't
know well, which that's a?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
yeah, I so just full, you know, full transparency.
I've done one of those beforetoo in my, my previous house
with, uh, an ac unit.
You know, like it was one ofthose things.
That ac unit went out and I hadthe money well, I had most of
the money but I basically I didit, I did it strategically and
they had like a pretty goodinterest rate at the time.
So I kind of just was like, allright, well, I'm going to take
(21:14):
out this loan and just pay itoff, you know aggressively, and
that's basically what I did.
So it was it was a short termloan, but they do have options
to make it pretty affordable.
You know, like 10-year loans,um, you know, like so the longer
, obviously, you go out, the themore affordable it's going to
be, and I mean this is a prettybig number.
So I mean you yeah, you mightwant me, just for the sake of
(21:37):
your budget, you might want tokind of like start looking at
the different options as far astime of the loan and length of
the loan goes.
But the other thing and I knowlast time you talked about this
was something that you knew wascoming but how were you
envisioning paying this in thefirst place, or did you guys not
(22:01):
?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
We thought we'd be able to use the bonus or the
profit sharing.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yeah, for most of it at least, and then have maybe a
pavement plan that we couldafford Now some places the
maintenance, like the people thepool repair companies.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
sometimes they'll have in-house financing options
too.
So you got to be careful withthose because sometimes they can
be less than reputablefinancing options.
But sometimes they're actuallylegit and you can get 0% for a
certain amount of time orgenerally a low interest.
(22:38):
But how much in your guys'budget would you say you would
feel comfortable putting towardsthat kind of loan?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, I don't know, because with our savings we were
talking about, um, doing like,allocating like a thousand
dollars a month, but we ended updoing it to where it was only
like 490 something, so 500.
So just because we haven't hadit, we haven't been in the green
in a while, you know.
(23:08):
So I don't know, I, right now,with all with this month, I'm
not sure, like because it's nota typical month of spending, so
I'm not sure what we normallyspend, which is hard, you know,
because I don't know what'snormal for us.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yeah, I guess you don't really have like a set
budget.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It's always very normal.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yeah, that's, that's what I'm yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Honestly, I don't feel bad about that at all,
because that's, that's actuallyvery, very common that's.
But that's also where you knowwe could do a little bit of of
work towards getting things alittle bit more predictable.
So that way you, you kind of doknow how much you have extra in
your, you know, in your budgetor in your, uh, in your spending
(23:56):
plan.
So, um, so let's just put out anumber and just see how
comfortable you feel with it.
All right, so let's say, um$200 a month for the next five
years, would that be somethingthat you guys could support?
(24:18):
I mean that's a low number, butI don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
All right, yeah, what were you thinking?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
$1.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Well, so the other thing is For the next 30,000
days, 30,000 days to go.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
So, yeah, that's where we're probably probably
gonna have to do a little bit ofmore follow-up homework and
just kind of figure out, okay,um, because you don't want to go
in there and say, okay, um,give me you know, I was going
buying a car like, yeah, justgive me whatever at this.
You know, just give me whatever, uh, price point that I can
afford.
You want to go in there and say, okay, I want to spend this
much money and I want this muchloan for this long, this period
(24:56):
of time.
So, yeah, we're going to we'regoing to have to do a little bit
more homework, but that's,that's okay.
That's part of part of managingyour finances.
Sometimes is you got to do alittle bit of homework, but but
you'll, once again, your, yourfuture selves are going to thank
you because you didn't justjump into this willy-nilly.
You're doing your homework,you're doing your due diligence.
(25:18):
So you guys should definitelyfeel you're going to be more
prepared than most jumping intosomething like this.
So, yeah, so there are somedifferent options and I mean you
can literally go on and startlooking up, like maintenance or
pool.
I just looked up pool,maintenance loans and I mean,
(25:41):
granted, some of these areprobably, you know, um, not that
great, but just just out of afor reference, like, uh, let me
say, wow, this, this sounds waytoo good to be true, but uh,
yeah, so some of these, some ofthese, are going to be home,
(26:03):
like they're.
They're going to be similar toa home equity loan, but, uh,
we're going to try to avoidthose types of loans if we can
because, like you guys said,you're not really feeling that
and that's fine, you know.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
But there are other options out there I mean, if
it's a good deal, I'm not goingto turn it down.
Just yeah, it sounds very scaryputting the lien on my house
with something that largewithout like knowing what's
going to happen, absolutely likejobs and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, I mean, you're very valid in thinking that way,
you know.
But you know people, especiallywith big ticket items like this
, you know this is a prettycommon thing.
You know pools need maintenanceand you know like there are
many different ways to financethose types of things.
(26:50):
So so, yeah, we'll, we'll startthe process of doing doing, you
know, like doing that homework,and then we'll we'll work on
that.
But I think we've I've gone alittle too long and I need to do
a little commercial break.
So I've been rambling a littlebit, but no, we had to get stuff
and but I think there isactually a new song.
(27:13):
Let me see if I can find it.
So we got, uh, andrew coffee.
Let's see if he's in here, buthe's not in here, yeah.
So we got a whole, like a wholebunch of veteran music.
That, uh, I mentioned that lasttime, but I guess I don't have
it in my uh, in my thing yet.
So I guess we'll have to playmy usual, which is no peterson,
(27:38):
the uh, super cool jazz guy.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
All right, so we'll be back last time, I like it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, yeah, makes you want to um watch to me.
I want to watch oceans 11 forsome reason.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
all right, so we'll be back after this one second.
Thank you, I'm ready to changethe music.
Thank you, military broadcastradio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
find us on the web at mbradious opinions expressed in
this program are those of thespeakers and do not necessarily
reflect the views or positionsof any entities they represent
find us on the web at mv radiouswe're back, all right.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Um, that was noah peterson, marine corps veteran
out of san antonio.
I actually auditioned to be inthat video, but it turns out
that I can't dance.
What is it?
What, what?
All right.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
A lot of us are plagued with that issue.
It's fine.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
All right.
So we're back here.
This is Money in the Military.
We have Air Force veteran RobSelzar and his lovely wife Becky
, and I don't think we've beenintroduced to the little dog.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
This is Leah man.
She's been here since thebeginning.
This one's like a.
Yoda of dogs, A thousand yearsold.
This one.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Nice, that's awesome, that's sweet, all right.
Well, before the break, we weretalking about the different
strategies that we can use forgetting this stuff done.
But I wanted to do a littlequick, shameless self-promotion,
because you know why?
Not?
It's my show.
And so this Sunday at 5, I'mgoing to be doing a basically
(31:29):
similar to this, but it's goingto be a group session, so we're
going to be doing just fivepeople.
It's going to be a groupsession, so we're going to be
doing just five people.
It's going to be a groupcoaching session.
It's going to be $100 or $99.
I'm not going to give you, I'mgoing to save you that $1.
So it's $99.
But basically it's going to bea 90-minute session and it's
(31:50):
going to be open-ended.
No real crazy agenda.
But if you're interested, youcan send me a message, dm me,
email me, um.
But yeah, that's my littlepitch for for this Sunday and
there'll be more in the future.
So if you, if you like whatyou're seeing, what, what I'm
spitting, then, um, just hit meup and we'll uh, we'll keep it
(32:11):
going, all right?
Well, with that being said,let's keep this conversation
going and let's see what we cando with the bonus money that you
got the bonus and the taxreturn.
Did we ever decide what we'regoing to actually do with that,
or what?
Speaker 5 (32:30):
do you?
Speaker 4 (32:30):
got the credit card.
That's the first priority.
Is that going to be anyleftover after that?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
yeah, I think probably about six thousand left
over yeah, so so you guys willhave a six thousand buffer for
after paying all your expenses.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
That'll be what we have in our checking account
after we pay it all that will beit, that will be it.
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Well, that's still you know.
It's still something to youknow, plenty to work with, as
far as you know.
Obviously you're going to havefuture paychecks too, but let's
play with that number Just outof curiosity.
How do you guys generally tallyup or divvy up your money, like
when you guys do like whatfirst the month you kind of like
go through and start makingpayments, or is it all automated
(33:22):
?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
or you guys do anything like it's all automated
, yeah, yeah, the only thingthat isn't.
We have a lawn uh person.
I have to pay her by check.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
She's very old school .
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Oh, check.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Okay, I didn't even know you have to mail her a
check, so I have to get stamps.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
I feel so bad she's so old that she's out there
mowing our lawn, you know.
So I was like, yeah, I'll writethe check, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
All right.
Well, so during that initialprocess of like rocket money and
things like that, Did you guyshave you said your grocery
expenses were higher than youexpected Did you guys have any
kind of game plan on what youguys wanted, like, is that is
that were you, or is it justlike, hey, you know what we love
(34:06):
, food, that's our thing andwe're going to, we're going to
do that, that's our guiltypleasure, kind of thing, or
whatever.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It's not a sustainable trend, I don't think
, if it keeps going up.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
yeah, I did think about like our pantry is full
right now, like the kids are,like we have nothing to eat and
I'm like there's so much food inthere yeah, teenagers so maybe
a challenge yeah, maybe I needto like write down everything we
have and like check it off whenit's used or something you.
I'm not going to buy anythingnew until most of that stuff is
gone or something like that it'snot even that.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
It's just the basics.
We're out of bread, we needlunch meat, we need all this
other stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, that's what we need today.
Yeah, but where did all thatcome from?
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Yeah, Agreed, agreed, doctor.
Okay, yes, agreed.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Agreed doctor.
Okay, well, I guess what Iwould challenge you guys to do
then, just like we did with theChristmas spending, is to kind
of go back and if you guys areable to look at your grocery
spending for the last month orso and kind of try to come up
(35:11):
with a good number, so like, um,you know, based off of previous
trends, this is how much we'vespent.
And then you can kind of like,based off of like, let's say,
two months, you can say, okay,this month we spent in whatever,
then the last month we spentthat, and then we kind of split
the difference.
Um, but I would also challengeyou guys, if you guys do any
(35:33):
kind of split the difference,but I would also challenge you
guys, do you guys?
Speaker 4 (35:36):
do any kind of meal prep or anything.
Not really, not anymore.
I used to, but not anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
It is time consuming and kind of tedious sometimes,
but from a financial perspectiveit can be very, very helpful.
Just start your groceryspending because you're you're
being more intentional with whatyou, what you cook.
You know what I mean.
So by also, and then it alsosaves you, like you know, from
(36:05):
eating out.
I don't know if you guys, ifyou know you guys don't eat much
more.
You guys said that already.
Um, okay, all right, well, thatwould just be a one little, an
actual food budget and thenmaybe, like somewhat
aggressively, try to try to pullback and see, survive off of
(36:29):
food.
What is the food?
Food is a big one for a lot ofpeople that ends up basically
eating away.
No pun intended, I'm just fullof dad jokes today.
I know you got it, but alright,so we got the grocery stuff.
(36:52):
We'll kind of deal with that.
Maybe we'll touch base on thatagain, but all right, so you
know we got.
We got the grocery stuff.
We'll, we'll.
We'll kind of deal with that.
Maybe we'll, we'll touch baseon that again.
But was there any other likemajor things that came up in the
in either your date, your moneydate, or just during this last
couple of weeks, that thatreally um kind of jumped out at
you or you had questions about.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Um trying to think.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
I don't think so we haven't really even talked about
investment and saving for thewell.
Not you're doing saving, butlike um, how are you guys with
retirement accounts and thingslike that?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
oh, um.
We have some money and like Ihave my 403B because I'm a
teacher, then he has hisFidelity account through General
Motors.
We have some money, but not awhole lot.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Listen, we're making it about a month.
We retire today.
Maybe a month Tops.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
A lot of people.
Okay, maybe a month tops A lotof people, but okay, well,
that's the other.
Like once, once we kind of getthe and maybe it's not time to
even prioritize that yet, but Ido want you guys to start
thinking that the money that yousave in your budget, that I
would, I would, I would reallyencourage you guys to start
slowly ramping up your investing.
You know, really encourage youguys to start slowly ramping up
(38:17):
your investing.
You know, um, uh, so that couldlook like one percent a month.
You increase you know anallotment or something at work,
or um, you know, would you howmuch like?
If you had to put a percentagelike of your paycheck, what
would you guys say you're guysputting towards your retirement?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
I don't remember, I can't.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
I set it up so long ago.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I can't, I don't remember mine at the lowest
because we needed money.
But the cool thing is gm ismatching whatever I put in there
.
So when we get extra money Icould actually raise it up and
actually build up a nice littlechunk of change when we're
actually in the green again.
Yeah I mean priorities andpriorities.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Right yeah, and it's tricky to think about, like you
know, 65 year old version of youwhen you're like, okay, this is
, you know, this is right now meand and we, we have all these
things to worry about.
So I totally get that.
I guess I want to put the bugin your ear that the being young
is one of those things that thecompounding effect, you know,
(39:18):
compound interest, all thatstuff.
Like you, we can't get thattime back.
So like I'm looking at, likeI'm looking at 30 year old Joey
and be like man, if I'd only putin just a little bit more, I
(39:38):
would be sitting much better.
You know what I mean.
And then if you really factor inthe time and you look at the
time lost, like 10 years of notinvesting versus even just 10
years of just small investingbut then doing it consistently
once again, your future selveswill definitely thank you.
So that's that's my.
My challenge to you guys is tokind of, like you know, oh, you
(40:00):
know, dust off the, the loginfor your, your retirement
accounts, and just kind of go inthere and just just see what,
what you're, what you're lookingat.
You know what I mean and maybeyou could even link up that to
rocket money.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I um and then, yeah, I did okay all right, so I can
see it, I just don't know howmuch I'm putting in back when I
quit with my job.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
We we pulled out all of my retirement that had saved
up from the last job.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So yeah, I mean, that's that, happens that okay,
we needed it at the time.
Yeah, yeah, I get that Okay.
So let's kind of recap a littlebit about, like, from the first
session to now.
We've got Smarty Pig.
You're saving for Christmas,saving for vacation.
(40:54):
Oh, and actually speaking ofvacation, what number did you
come up with for your vacationfund?
Speaker 4 (41:03):
I did $3,000.
You said like medium was like$4,000 to $7,000 or something
like that.
I think is what you said.
So I was like we'll go on thelower end maybe, yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
I don't know.
We'll do a little steak.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It sounds like.
It sounds like, yeah, you guysare frugal travelers and you're
not.
You're not, you don't need.
You know the lavished, you knowexpenses.
So so, yeah, that's a, that's agreat number.
What was your timeline?
What was your time window forthat trip?
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Dude, did we set up a timeline?
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Well, we didn't discuss this.
There's another money date forthis one.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, this money date didn't happen.
Let me see I can pull it upreal quick.
Speaker 5 (41:47):
How efficient is it to have a money date at a fancy
restaurant?
Is that efficient?
Well, I mean, if you'vebudgeted for it, maybe, I guess.
Oh man, dude, I knew we werewrong, it didn't feel right it
wasn't.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
I mean, if it's something that you guys already
like no, I, I get what you'resaying now.
Yeah, no, it's fine.
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Um, sorry, it's loading we had had a nice brunch
we did have a nice brunch, butthat was a place that was too
loud so we couldn't even talkabout the money.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Ah okay, Rich people don't like to talk in silence.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I don't know, I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
I'm just assuming I've never been afforded that
luxury of talking in all thatnoise.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
All right, well, leah , so we've got $3,000 for the
vacation and then, yeah, you'relooking up the time frame, but
it's not a big.
I was just curious as, likewhat you were projecting and
then did that feel comfortablefor you guys?
Did it do that?
Speaker 4 (42:55):
I think I did it for next year.
I think I did it for next year.
I think I did it for next june.
Um, yeah, I'm that's.
I'm remembering that.
Why is this not?
Someone stole our smarty, butour smarty pig lost all this
money no, it's just not I don'tknow she's panicking.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
I'm not panicking she's going to have dreams about
putting in your passwords.
It's going to be impossible, ohman.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
All right, Well, so that's your Smarty yeah, Smarty
Pig was kind of.
I think their login was kind ofweird maybe.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
There we go Security was weird.
And that's not working Okay.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
It's fine like, yeah, if you're here yeah, we'll say,
uh, a good, a little over ayear, that's a great window and
honestly, yeah, like I'm surethe payment for that was pretty,
like maybe surprisinglyaffordable for that it wasn't so
bad.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Actually, I was surprised.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
So what other types of big ticket items Like do you
guys and you know you mentionedsports for the kids Are there
any like big sports expensesthat you guys have on the books
or like a musical instrument oranything like that?
Speaker 5 (44:08):
We'll have to do some lessons coming up.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Some hockey lessons, which is like $80 a lesson
lesson and it can be like once aweek.
And then she's also, um, shewants to do spring hockey, which
is five hundred dollars, fourhundred something, and so I paid
it in half, like I did 200something now, and then, like in
(44:31):
April I think, it comes outagain.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Try to take anything big for Kaylee besides insurance
.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Well, oh, what I mean and like, what are you guys
gonna do for a new driving car?
Do you guys have a plan forthat?
Speaker 5 (44:53):
Yeah, we have a car my parents were able to they
gave us one, one of their cars.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
They got a new one and gave us that one.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
So we got that registered.
We got, like I said, we gotinsurance on that now.
So we got that all set up.
And how much?
How much extra is that?
How much the insurance costs uson top of that?
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Um a hundred extra dollars a month, a hundred more,
which is something that Ithought was going to be a lot
more.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
It's actually doable, and then we'll have another a
hundred dollars next year.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
I was right about the goal.
I finally pulled it up it's the1st of June next year.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Nice, Awesome.
Well, I'll be looking forwardto seeing and hearing about your
awesome trip that you guys take.
It'll be exciting.
You have to send us somepictures.
So then I was going to askabout the car you guys are
saying is that like the caremergency fund that we talked
(45:45):
about, or is that just for afuture car?
Was the car fund?
Speaker 4 (45:50):
oh, car maintenance, yeah, because I mean the
inspection.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
We had to do inspections once a year.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Registration, that's like all together, that's like a
hundred and something dollarsyeah, but then dollars for the
registration, your inspection,everything's like 30 and then,
like I'm doing a tune-up likefor my car, and, um, that's
gonna be like three hundreddollars, I think.
So the 60 000 mile tune-up andthen the ac don't forget about
(46:16):
the ac.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
You're gonna have to worry about another 10 grand
yeah, well, it usually happensin threes, I hate to say, but
hopefully that doesn't happenhere.
But it sounds like we'regetting to a good spot in the
sense of maybe cleaning upthings, identifying maybe holes
or gaps in the spending, andthat's going to be a process.
(46:41):
It's not going to happenovernight, but if you guys are
interested, we could do somemore follow-ups and just kind of
check-ins with you guys.
Or if you want to just do itthat offline, that's fine.
But I would like to do somesemi-regular check-ins and just
kind of see how things are going, any updates or like you know,
(47:02):
because basically what I'mthinking is that right now
people are following along withyou guys.
So some of the things that youbrought up in the first episode,
I've gotten feedback thatthey're like oh yes, we're going
through that same thing.
So you guys are.
(47:25):
You might be surprised, but youare a snapshot of the modern
American couple right now anddealing with your finances the
way you.
You know, so, um, and and thethings that you're bringing up,
I I hear all the time and youknow, like it's not to say that
you're, you're not special, butyou, but you know like the
things that you're going throughare very common.
You know what I mean.
So I just wanted to to basicallyshow people that, hey, this is
what you know, this is whatmodern finances is looking like,
(47:47):
and you know, this is howpeople can, can kind of like
tweak things, improve things,and you know.
And then also people can followalong and they'll be like you
know, some sometimes like theymight be like, hey, what's going
on with Becky and Rob?
You know like, how are they?
How you know, like so they'll,they'll ask for check-ins and
things like that.
So so, yeah, so that's, that'ssomething that I want to do just
(48:11):
to you know, as long as youguys are cool with that, maybe
we can do like you know,depending on how comfortable you
are, we could maybe do like aonce a month check-in, uh, after
, after this, um yeah and then,um, and then just, you can, you
guys can always message meoffline and we can talk.
(48:32):
You know, uh, you know behindthe scenes and stuff too.
So, um, so we got, we got a lotof good, good stuff, and then I
can, um, you know, you will,I'll make sure that you guys get
to get a copy of this so youguys can watch it again.
Um, but was there anything thatI guess, any last minute things
(48:53):
, any homework for me that youguys think you want me to kind
of do some?
Speaker 4 (48:57):
research for you guys .
Um, if you can help us find aloan, I mean, you think I
probably will probably we'llhave to do alone, right Like?
Speaker 5 (49:04):
yeah, that's really been what we're worried about.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Like, pool has to be done.
It's falling apart.
Yeah, it's gonna be anoutrageous.
That's a crazy amount of money.
It is a huge amount of money.
And then like, should we do the?
Speaker 5 (49:19):
ac, and should we all put it on, one is it a net
positive after all.
I mean that hillbilly knew whathe was talking about?
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I mean yeah um, yeah, well, I guess we we will have
to, um, we'll have to talkoffline and try to figure out a
little bit more, um, you know,like, clarify some things, and
I'll do some more research onwhat is probably the best bet
for you guys, um, and then, youknow, I'll share it with the
audience too, that way they,they kind of can, can follow
(49:46):
along and, and you know, I'll dolike a blog update or something
, but, um, but, yeah, that's,that's all.
These are valid concerns andyou know I do.
I do appreciate you guys being,you know, honest and open with
all this.
So I appreciate, I really doappreciate that and, um, you
know it's going to be okay, youknow.
(50:07):
I already feel pretty good aboutyou guys in just two sessions.
Speaker 5 (50:16):
Somebody does.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Come on, you guys got to feel a little bit better,
right?
Speaker 5 (50:23):
No, it's nice man.
It's nice to be able to likeseeing our finances on that app
is game changing, do that.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
Yes, Rocket money.
If you're listening, I will.
I will shill for you for a verylow price.
Speaker 4 (50:38):
It did.
Actually, it has a thing whereit can negotiate for you with a
couple of bills and I got one ofthem.
It got down from $30 a month to$11 a month.
I was like I didn't know, itwas an option.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
We saw our subscriptions too.
We laid all that out.
We got rid of something that wedon't use, and then we added
another one.
That was great to see what wehave.
That was awesome, man.
That was great.
It's been great.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
Yeah, okay.
Well, like I said earlier,usually the most impactful part
of this process is that, pullingback all the things that you've
been sweeping under the rugover the last however long you
start to look at those things,but that's what that really
helps with.
So, but, once again, you guysare doing more more work than
(51:38):
most.
So, you know, give yourselvescredit that you're.
You're taking steps, and thenyou're now also showing other
people, hey, this is what youguys can do.
So, so, yes, so that's actuallygoing to be our time.
Oh man, I got a little bit of alate start, but so, anyways,
that's pretty much going to bethe show.
So, thank you, becky and Rob.
We're going to have you guysagain.
(51:59):
At the very latest we'll do amonth, but then maybe we'll see
about, you know, in a couple ofweeks, just to kind of do a
quick check in.
And you know we don't have todo like the full hour if you
guys don't want to, but you knowit is a lot to cover and I
really do want to make sure youguys are taken care of.
So, all right, well, that'spretty much going to be it.
(52:19):
For me, this has been money inthe military.
Thank you, becky and Rob, and Ialready forgot your little Yoda
dog's name.
Speaker 5 (52:28):
Leia.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
Okay, all right.
Well, thank you guys again andwe will check you guys out and
hopefully everyone is going tobe just really excited to see
what you guys do.
All right, thanks guys.
I appreciate it and we'll catchyou guys later.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
Bye, see you.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
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.
Will be available right afterwe go off the air.
So if you missed any part ofthe show or want to listen again
(53:10):
, be sure to check it out.
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter and we are committed to
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That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice, so don't forget to
(53:32):
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(00:42):
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They're watching our every move.
Iran, russia, china, northKorea, isis, al-qaeda 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.
(01:03):
We don't care who you voted for, who you worship, what you
worship, who you love.
It doesn't matter if your dadleft you millions when he died
or if you knew who your fatherwas.
We have been honed into amachine of lethal moving parts
that you would be wise to avoidif you know what's good for you.
(01:23):
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.
We don't want war, but if youwant war with the United States
of America.
There's one thing I can promiseyou, so help me God.
Someone else will raise yoursons and daughters.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy
when it comes to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Hello, hello everyone , we're going to jump right in.
This is Money in the Military.
Thank you for joining us.
I really appreciate you guys'time.
We are joined with Becky andRob, your guys' time.
We are joined with Becky andRob.
We had them a couple weeks ago,week after last, and we're
going to go through somefinancial stuff with them.
(03:12):
Thank you for joining us.
This is Military BroadcastRadio.
You guys have probably heard mypitch a hundred times by now.
Becky and Rob, we left off witha little bit of homework, maybe
a little bit of something tothink about.
So I just wanted to do a quickcheck in with you guys and just
see, all right, what, what wasthe uh, what was the um?
(03:35):
Oh yeah, I was going to talk toyou about the, the, the date,
if you guys did like a date,money, date thing, but I wanted
to do a quick rundown, just realquick, and just see, okay, what
did you guys do in the lastcouple of weeks?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
well, the first thing we did was we downloaded rocket
money and we ended up doing thepaid subscription one, because
it wasn't very much money at allto to do the paid one and I'm
able to see everything.
The only one that's not onthere, though, is GM financials
not on rocket money yet, sothat's his car payment, so I
(04:12):
can't see that, but.
But I requested that they addit, so maybe they will.
And then I also did smarty pigand I made a couple budgets.
I mean not budgets, sorry acouple of savings accounts or
whatever savings goals on there.
Yeah, I did like four of them.
I did a Christmas one, a.
(04:33):
What was the other one I did?
I did a vacation on there.
That's what it was Christmasvacation, car and emergency fund
, yeah, and then we have gone ona money date, we've gone on two
(04:53):
, two Well, one and a halfSecond.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
one restaurant was loud.
It's out of control.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Yeah, because the first one we went somewhere that
was a little quieter so we wereable to pull up the laptop and
look at everything.
And then the other one, we werelike huh, I can't hear you.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
So now we do have to budget in a divorce.
So figure that out.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh, that's a big budget item right there.
That was good man, that wasgood, okay, you got a couple of
dates in, so that's really cool,so, all right.
So is that pretty much all thebig bullet items that you guys
actually did on the tail end?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that was our homework, yeah, we
got everything laid out.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
We got all the finances set up.
We got the insurance set up.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh yeah, we changed over, we changed our insurance.
We did that yesterday, saving alittle bit of money in the
house, but had to pay a littlemore because of the 15-year-old
added on to the car.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
So the financial realities of having another
driver starting to kick in alittle bit.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah just starting because we got one next year as
well.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
We'll have to.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Okay, what has been your biggest light bulb moment
or what has been something thatyou guys really kind of like an
aha thing that you guys had?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yeah, well, um anything but just, yeah, I'm
trying to think.
Well, you know, I don't know,because I was looking at the
budget and I guess the grocerieswere super high and I don't
know if that's if we're beingwasteful or if things are
actually that high right now, orif we're just, like you know,
spending a little bit of bothsometimes.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
So yeah, it's yeah well, becky does have to have
her eggs every morning.
I mean, we could lay off theeggs for a while, you know oh
man, yeah, the luxury eggs.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Oh man, all right, so okay.
Well, so so what?
What would you say?
That the grocery bill wassignificantly higher, or just
like more than you guys justexpected?
Speaker 4 (07:09):
It was significantly higher than I expected.
I mean, it was like double whatI thought it was going to be,
and yeah.
So I was like I don't knowwhat's going on with that.
Maybe we're just stopping at,like we'll pick this up, pick
this up and then getting toomuch.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
I don't know oh, no, but we did have.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I looked we did have a bunch of like big expenses,
this month like.
So our spending is higher thannormal this month, which was not
fun to see, but I mean I cansee it, so hopefully next month
won't be so bad.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
well, that's the thing that.
That's the part of the wholebeauty of this whole exercise,
too, is that it kind of forcesyou to see it, you know, or
forces you to look, and mostpeople most times just don't
really want to look at it, sothey just don't.
Yeah, it's understandable, it'shuman nature.
You know, like we, especiallywith money, there's all kinds of
like emotions attached to it,like shame and guilt and all
(08:03):
this other stuff, and we, wedon't have to go down, go into
that category.
But you know, that is somethingthat in all of my work that
I've seen is a lot of timespeople they're, they're like
they don't even realize thatthey have these money habits,
you know, until until it comesto light, you know, um, they
might not realize that they're aspender until they're in their
(08:26):
twenties and they're like oh man, I'm actually kind of a kind of
a spender, you know, but thatdoesn't mean that that's set in
stone.
So that's the other thing.
Like you have these, thesethings, these like programming
built in, but then you canchange your programming.
So that's where you last timeyou guys said, oh well, we're
not savers, well, you're savingright now.
(08:47):
Right, so you guys are saversright now.
You know, now did you guys makeit an automatic withdrawal for
those?
Yeah, there you go.
That's the first step andusually the hardest.
And now the beauty of it, ofthe situation, is going to be,
it's going to be automatic.
So you don't have to think, youdon't have to actively think
(09:10):
about okay, now we have to put50 bucks towards the Christmas
account.
You know what I mean.
It just comes out automatically.
And then at the end of the year, when it comes time for
Christmas shopping, you guys aregoing to thank yourselves,
you're going to thank past Beckyand Rob.
Okay, so we got some actually apretty good amount of light
(09:32):
bulbs, I think.
Was there any positives, anythings that you guys found that
you're like oh okay, we'reactually doing better at this
than maybe we thought?
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Well, we did our taxes and we made a lot more
money than we thought.
That's kind of sad.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Because we're like where did it go?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I gotcha, I gotcha.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And then you guys going to get a tax return.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah, it just came today actually, so that was
exciting.
Yeah, that was fast yeah, Iknow, we did it on friday and we
got it today got it in beforethe irs shuts down okay, let me
ask you what?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
what is your guys's initial re?
Or what have you done in thepast with your tax returns?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
oh pay bills immediately like we don't go and
buy a tv or anything it's moreof just like okay, we need this,
you know we well I mean we wentand bought the tv and then we
were waiting for that to goahead and pay for.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
No, no, no usually it's just like oh, thank
goodness you know that kind ofthing okay usually comes at a,
at a moment in need.
Yeah, because it comes rightafter christmas, so we usually
do it in january.
We waited longer this year thannormal okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So what, what is?
Do you guys have an earmark forwhat you're going to do with
that one this time, or have youguys already okay?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
no, just uh.
Right now my main goal is topay off the credit card, because
after christmas we were justpaying what we could on it and
now he gets his bonus or theprofit sharing on tomorrow yeah,
tomorrow so we're gonna.
Yesterday I sat down and I paida bunch of things that we
needed, like, like medical billsand things like that that we
needed to pay, and so the thecredit card is looking real real
(11:21):
hot, so like it's been a bighelp too.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
I get we didn't even mention that like my health
insurance awesome yeah, so Imean you go in, it's just a like
, it doesn't matter, it's justlike a copay of like, what?
25 for a regular doctoremergencies, whatever, yeah, so
that's been like a weight off ofour shoulders, like we're not
as scared to like go to thedoctor for anything so like I
had to get like a, like a mri,and it was, it was free, it was
(11:48):
covered, and I was like wow.
Well, now you take our eyes andour dental.
On the other hand, we're payingsome money for that, but, like,
the main part of not having toworry about health care is, yeah
, uh it's game changing too.
I just wanted to add in therelittle, uh little plug for GM
there.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Huh, nice little.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Well, it's like the military, we don't have to worry
about that.
You just walk into the doctor's.
It's basically what we do now.
Yeah, that's awesome, that'sreally cool.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So maybe I'm thinking of a career switch now.
Maybe I need to go intocorporate.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
No, you found your good spot.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Keep helping people.
Let's be the best.
Fair enough, fair enough, allright.
Well, with that in mind, withthe helping mindset, let's
figure out what's going to beour next step with these little
chunks of money that we'regetting.
We got the bonus check, andthen we got the tax return right
.
So is that just going to sit ina checking account for the
short term?
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Two big problems with that.
So we're having people out forthe pool and our first quote was
what was it?
$25,000.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, about $25,000.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
So that makes it done .
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
When he said it I was like don't act.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Don't look, you're going to throw up.
Don't look.
No, I was out there with him.
This is how naive I am.
He was like it's going to beabout $2,500, $3,500, something
like that.
I was like, oh OK, $2,500,$3,500.
That seems like a pretty gooddeal in my.
I did want to say that becauseI was like he might be talking
thousands I'm going to have totouch base with.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Beckham, I'm trying not to puke and you're just like
, oh hang on.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
What else do you do?
Oh yeah, there's no way we canafford this Keep talking.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
That's funny.
Well, okay, well, that's a bignumber.
Obviously that's not somethingto shake a stick at, but I guess
the I think we had messagedeach other a little bit, becky,
but like the idea, like you'vebeen given some initial advice,
but like, since those times,since that happened, has there
(13:58):
been any other things that comeup?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
You're getting other quotes and stuff too, right?
Yes, for our AC we had someonecome out to do a tune up and
they found there was like debrisin it or something, and and
there's, there's just we havesome rain.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Do you know?
No are you supposed to cleanout your ac?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
yes, that's what the tune up is.
But they, um, they said there'slike stuff growing in it and
all this stuff, our homewarranty is not going to cover
it.
Our home warranty won't coverit.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Because it's growth or something.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
It's like biological growth.
I was like what does that mean?
Speaker 5 (14:35):
I mean, it's a unit outside.
Is that not like I don't?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
know, I don't know, but they suggested us getting a
new one.
They wanted us to get a new one.
What they did say was that ithas a new one, you know, they
wanted us to get a new one, andso and they said but what they
did say was that it has a newkind of like heater something I
can't remember what it wascalled now that's supposed to
save us money on our electricbill.
And I actually talked to my momyesterday, because they just
got a new one a year or two ago.
She said she's seen a hugedifference in her electric bill
(15:00):
well, we are leaking our, theycall them.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
I'm using my ac skills here um plan them.
Whatever the little vent.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Oh yeah, there's a hole in it yeah, so it's leaking
air out and so we're wasting.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
I mean, I we could probably fix that with tape.
Right duct tape works on thatduct tape.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It's a duct putting them together so we're we're
debating, yeah, getting a new acto try to save money in the
long run.
I mean okay, so the sales guysaid it's net positive.
So I'm like, what do I believe?
Speaker 5 (15:32):
he saw us coming a mile away.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Let me tell you I know but you know, the sales
guys, they, they never lie, oror never yeah, they're just
honest all the time well, theydon't always disclose everything
that they're supposed todisclose, right?
Yeah, yeah but uh, well, okay,well, let's so as far as the ac
unit you know um.
(15:55):
Did they give you an estimateon that, right, or?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
yeah, it would be eight thousand something, almost
nine thousand, and they saidnormally right now it'd be
thirteen thousand.
So we're getting a deal.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Oh yeah, I'm not buying that I mean they were
definitely upselling there, butI mean it is old and we might
yeah because they said theoutside unit was from 2008 and
the other one is from 2013, so Imean they're old, I years or so
I don't know how long they last.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know, yeah, I don't even know what the shelf
life is for some of those thumbs.
All right, well, let's focus onthe pool first.
Okay, so you've got multiplequotes, but the general number
is about the same.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Well, one guy already sent us the quote, and then the
other guy I'm still waiting onit.
And then we have one on Tuesdayand one is going to come out
this week.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
So you can say anywhere between 15,000 to
20,000 will probably be a goodaverage 25, 30,000 possibly, oh
yeah, possibly 30.
All right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So 15 to 30.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, 15 to 30.
Yeah, 15 to 30.
We'll go in to estimate thehigh end, just because, um, you
know, might as well, if they'regiving you that high end, then
we might as well lean towardsthat.
Anyways, yeah, just as painfulas it is, it's just you know,
especially with costs rising andtariffs and stuff like who
knows what, like metals andthings like that might go up in
(17:24):
price, and so I don't know, itmay actually be a good time to
lock something in with,especially even for the ac unit.
I, I don't know, we'll have to,we'll have to do some, some, um
, some cogitating on that one,but yeah, so we'll.
Uh, yeah, that's my littlescrabble word for the day, um,
but all right.
(17:45):
So what do you?
What are your initial thoughtswhen it comes to how do we pay
for this expense?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
well, I was thinking we might have to get a loan.
I mean, we would have to, wewould have to.
I mean we don't have 20, 30thousand dollars, how?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
much do children go for on the black market?
Speaker 4 (18:01):
you probably sell one , yeah, yeah I mean but yeah, so
we would.
We would have to get some sortof loan.
I mean, I wanted to use thebonus, but it's it's not going
to cover it and we, when we needto use that, throughout the
year too, we have to have thecredit card we kind of use it
throughout the year just in casewe overspend.
(18:23):
We're like, oh, we have this.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Well, that was our mistake.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
We will be saving now .
We are.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
And our cars as well.
We got a little separate partfor the car now.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, oh, you did a maintenance fund for the car, is
that?
Speaker 5 (18:38):
what you said, mm-hmm .
Speaker 3 (18:42):
We have a little separate thing for that.
So see, you're already steppingin the right direction, because
now it'll take a few months.
But once you build up theselittle mini savings goals, then
when those bigger expenses comeup, then you're not as affected
by them If anything.
You're already ready.
You're literally preparing forthose expenses right now.
(19:02):
Ready, you're literallypreparing for those expenses
right now.
This time next year, you guys,I think we're going to be in a
lot better position becauselet's think about it too Now
your check, your tax return andyour bonus will not be going
towards paying back theChristmas money.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
Yeah, that'll be nice .
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, the christmas money, that's true, yeah, yeah,
that'll be nice, right, yeah,light bulb, yeah, so, so that's,
that's something exciting tolook forward to.
But in the meantime, we got todeal with the present day, which
is how do we deal with this,this, how do we get caught up?
Yeah, right, um, and you meanlike the rocket money that, like
I, that's going to do reallywell for you guys, just giving
you that visibility, um, but uh,as far as the loan for the pool
(19:51):
, so there's a few differentthings.
Um, let me see if I can pull.
So I, we had talked a little bitabout um, different loan
options.
So I mean you can go with likea traditional bank loan, um,
like they do have like homeimprovement, slash, repair loans
.
Some banks do that like it'sspecifically geared towards like
(20:11):
you have to use it towards likehome repairs.
Yeah, the other alternative, Imean there's there's a lot of
different ways, honestly, butyou know, like if you have
equity in your house, you couldtap into that and get like a
home equity line of credit thatsometimes people kind of shy
away from that because you know,like it, it it adds an extra
(20:36):
loan to your, to your for and,yeah, basically adds an extra
loan to your uh, to your houseso it's like a, like a.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
That's what I was gonna ask.
Is that the one you said was alien in the house.
We don't want to do that, yeahwell, I mean I don't, I don't
know well, which that's a?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
yeah, I so just full, you know, full transparency.
I've done one of those beforetoo in my, my previous house
with, uh, an ac unit.
You know, like it was one ofthose things.
That ac unit went out and I hadthe money well, I had most of
the money but I basically I didit, I did it strategically and
they had like a pretty goodinterest rate at the time.
So I kind of just was like, allright, well, I'm going to take
(21:14):
out this loan and just pay itoff, you know aggressively, and
that's basically what I did.
So it was it was a short termloan, but they do have options
to make it pretty affordable.
You know, like 10-year loans,um, you know, like so the longer
, obviously, you go out, the themore affordable it's going to
be, and I mean this is a prettybig number.
So I mean you yeah, you mightwant me, just for the sake of
(21:37):
your budget, you might want tokind of like start looking at
the different options as far astime of the loan and length of
the loan goes.
But the other thing and I knowlast time you talked about this
was something that you knew wascoming but how were you
envisioning paying this in thefirst place, or did you guys not
(22:01):
?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
We thought we'd be able to use the bonus or the
profit sharing.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yeah, for most of it at least, and then have maybe a
pavement plan that we couldafford Now some places the
maintenance, like the people thepool repair companies.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
sometimes they'll have in-house financing options
too.
So you got to be careful withthose because sometimes they can
be less than reputablefinancing options.
But sometimes they're actuallylegit and you can get 0% for a
certain amount of time orgenerally a low interest.
(22:38):
But how much in your guys'budget would you say you would
feel comfortable putting towardsthat kind of loan?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, I don't know, because with our savings we were
talking about, um, doing like,allocating like a thousand
dollars a month, but we ended updoing it to where it was only
like 490 something, so 500.
So just because we haven't hadit, we haven't been in the green
in a while, you know.
(23:08):
So I don't know, I, right now,with all with this month, I'm
not sure, like because it's nota typical month of spending, so
I'm not sure what we normallyspend, which is hard, you know,
because I don't know what'snormal for us.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Yeah, I guess you don't really have like a set
budget.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It's always very normal.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Yeah, that's, that's what I'm yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Honestly, I don't feel bad about that at all,
because that's, that's actuallyvery, very common that's.
But that's also where you knowwe could do a little bit of of
work towards getting things alittle bit more predictable.
So that way you, you kind of doknow how much you have extra in
your, you know, in your budgetor in your, uh, in your spending
(23:56):
plan.
So, um, so let's just put out anumber and just see how
comfortable you feel with it.
All right, so let's say, um$200 a month for the next five
years, would that be somethingthat you guys could support?
(24:18):
I mean that's a low number, butI don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
All right, yeah, what were you thinking?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
$1.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Well, so the other thing is For the next 30,000
days, 30,000 days to go.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
So, yeah, that's where we're probably probably
gonna have to do a little bit ofmore follow-up homework and
just kind of figure out, okay,um, because you don't want to go
in there and say, okay, um,give me you know, I was going
buying a car like, yeah, justgive me whatever at this.
You know, just give me whatever, uh, price point that I can
afford.
You want to go in there and say, okay, I want to spend this
much money and I want this muchloan for this long, this period
(24:56):
of time.
So, yeah, we're going to we'regoing to have to do a little bit
more homework, but that's,that's okay.
That's part of part of managingyour finances.
Sometimes is you got to do alittle bit of homework, but but
you'll, once again, your, yourfuture selves are going to thank
you because you didn't justjump into this willy-nilly.
You're doing your homework,you're doing your due diligence.
(25:18):
So you guys should definitelyfeel you're going to be more
prepared than most jumping intosomething like this.
So, yeah, so there are somedifferent options and I mean you
can literally go on and startlooking up, like maintenance or
pool.
I just looked up pool,maintenance loans and I mean,
(25:41):
granted, some of these areprobably, you know, um, not that
great, but just just out of afor reference, like, uh, let me
say, wow, this, this sounds waytoo good to be true, but uh,
yeah, so some of these, some ofthese, are going to be home,
(26:03):
like they're.
They're going to be similar toa home equity loan, but, uh,
we're going to try to avoidthose types of loans if we can
because, like you guys said,you're not really feeling that
and that's fine, you know.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
But there are other options out there I mean, if
it's a good deal, I'm not goingto turn it down.
Just yeah, it sounds very scaryputting the lien on my house
with something that largewithout like knowing what's
going to happen, absolutely likejobs and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Yeah, I mean, you're very valid in thinking that way,
you know.
But you know people, especiallywith big ticket items like this
, you know this is a prettycommon thing.
You know pools need maintenanceand you know like there are
many different ways to financethose types of things.
(26:50):
So so, yeah, we'll, we'll startthe process of doing doing, you
know, like doing that homework,and then we'll we'll work on
that.
But I think we've I've gone alittle too long and I need to do
a little commercial break.
So I've been rambling a littlebit, but no, we had to get stuff
and but I think there isactually a new song.
(27:13):
Let me see if I can find it.
So we got, uh, andrew coffee.
Let's see if he's in here, buthe's not in here, yeah.
So we got a whole, like a wholebunch of veteran music.
That, uh, I mentioned that lasttime, but I guess I don't have
it in my uh, in my thing yet.
So I guess we'll have to playmy usual, which is no peterson,
(27:38):
the uh, super cool jazz guy.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
All right, so we'll be back last time, I like it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, yeah, makes you want to um watch to me.
I want to watch oceans 11 forsome reason.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
all right, so we'll be back after this one second.
Thank you, I'm ready to changethe music.
Thank you, military broadcastradio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
find us on the web at mbradious opinions expressed in
this program are those of thespeakers and do not necessarily
reflect the views or positionsof any entities they represent
find us on the web at mv radiouswe're back, all right.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Um, that was noah peterson, marine corps veteran
out of san antonio.
I actually auditioned to be inthat video, but it turns out
that I can't dance.
What is it?
What, what?
All right.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
A lot of us are plagued with that issue.
It's fine.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
All right.
So we're back here.
This is Money in the Military.
We have Air Force veteran RobSelzar and his lovely wife Becky
, and I don't think we've beenintroduced to the little dog.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
This is Leah man.
She's been here since thebeginning.
This one's like a.
Yoda of dogs, A thousand yearsold.
This one.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Nice, that's awesome, that's sweet, all right.
Well, before the break, we weretalking about the different
strategies that we can use forgetting this stuff done.
But I wanted to do a littlequick, shameless self-promotion,
because you know why?
Not?
It's my show.
And so this Sunday at 5, I'mgoing to be doing a basically
(31:29):
similar to this, but it's goingto be a group session, so we're
going to be doing just fivepeople.
It's going to be a groupsession, so we're going to be
doing just five people.
It's going to be a groupcoaching session.
It's going to be $100 or $99.
I'm not going to give you, I'mgoing to save you that $1.
So it's $99.
But basically it's going to bea 90-minute session and it's
(31:50):
going to be open-ended.
No real crazy agenda.
But if you're interested, youcan send me a message, dm me,
email me, um.
But yeah, that's my littlepitch for for this Sunday and
there'll be more in the future.
So if you, if you like whatyou're seeing, what, what I'm
spitting, then, um, just hit meup and we'll uh, we'll keep it
(32:11):
going, all right?
Well, with that being said,let's keep this conversation
going and let's see what we cando with the bonus money that you
got the bonus and the taxreturn.
Did we ever decide what we'regoing to actually do with that,
or what?
Speaker 5 (32:30):
do you?
Speaker 4 (32:30):
got the credit card.
That's the first priority.
Is that going to be anyleftover after that?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
yeah, I think probably about six thousand left
over yeah, so so you guys willhave a six thousand buffer for
after paying all your expenses.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
That'll be what we have in our checking account
after we pay it all that will beit, that will be it.
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Well, that's still you know.
It's still something to youknow, plenty to work with, as
far as you know.
Obviously you're going to havefuture paychecks too, but let's
play with that number Just outof curiosity.
How do you guys generally tallyup or divvy up your money, like
when you guys do like whatfirst the month you kind of like
go through and start makingpayments, or is it all automated
(33:22):
?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
or you guys do anything like it's all automated
, yeah, yeah, the only thingthat isn't.
We have a lawn uh person.
I have to pay her by check.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
She's very old school .
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Oh, check.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Okay, I didn't even know you have to mail her a
check, so I have to get stamps.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
I feel so bad she's so old that she's out there
mowing our lawn, you know.
So I was like, yeah, I'll writethe check, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
All right.
Well, so during that initialprocess of like rocket money and
things like that, Did you guyshave you said your grocery
expenses were higher than youexpected Did you guys have any
kind of game plan on what youguys wanted, like, is that is
that were you, or is it justlike, hey, you know what we love
(34:06):
, food, that's our thing andwe're going to, we're going to
do that, that's our guiltypleasure, kind of thing, or
whatever.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It's not a sustainable trend, I don't think
, if it keeps going up.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
yeah, I did think about like our pantry is full
right now, like the kids are,like we have nothing to eat and
I'm like there's so much food inthere yeah, teenagers so maybe
a challenge yeah, maybe I needto like write down everything we
have and like check it off whenit's used or something you.
I'm not going to buy anythingnew until most of that stuff is
gone or something like that it'snot even that.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
It's just the basics.
We're out of bread, we needlunch meat, we need all this
other stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, that's what we need today.
Yeah, but where did all thatcome from?
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Yeah, Agreed, agreed, doctor.
Okay, yes, agreed.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Agreed doctor.
Okay, well, I guess what Iwould challenge you guys to do
then, just like we did with theChristmas spending, is to kind
of go back and if you guys areable to look at your grocery
spending for the last month orso and kind of try to come up
(35:11):
with a good number, so like, um,you know, based off of previous
trends, this is how much we'vespent.
And then you can kind of like,based off of like, let's say,
two months, you can say, okay,this month we spent in whatever,
then the last month we spentthat, and then we kind of split
the difference.
Um, but I would also challengeyou guys, if you guys do any
(35:33):
kind of split the difference,but I would also challenge you
guys, do you guys?
Speaker 4 (35:36):
do any kind of meal prep or anything.
Not really, not anymore.
I used to, but not anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
It is time consuming and kind of tedious sometimes,
but from a financial perspectiveit can be very, very helpful.
Just start your groceryspending because you're you're
being more intentional with whatyou, what you cook.
You know what I mean.
So by also, and then it alsosaves you, like you know, from
(36:05):
eating out.
I don't know if you guys, ifyou know you guys don't eat much
more.
You guys said that already.
Um, okay, all right, well, thatwould just be a one little, an
actual food budget and thenmaybe, like somewhat
aggressively, try to try to pullback and see, survive off of
(36:29):
food.
What is the food?
Food is a big one for a lot ofpeople that ends up basically
eating away.
No pun intended, I'm just fullof dad jokes today.
I know you got it, but alright,so we got the grocery stuff.
(36:52):
We'll kind of deal with that.
Maybe we'll touch base on thatagain, but all right, so you
know we got.
We got the grocery stuff.
We'll, we'll.
We'll kind of deal with that.
Maybe we'll, we'll touch baseon that again.
But was there any other likemajor things that came up in the
in either your date, your moneydate, or just during this last
couple of weeks, that thatreally um kind of jumped out at
you or you had questions about.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Um trying to think.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
I don't think so we haven't really even talked about
investment and saving for thewell.
Not you're doing saving, butlike um, how are you guys with
retirement accounts and thingslike that?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
oh, um.
We have some money and like Ihave my 403B because I'm a
teacher, then he has hisFidelity account through General
Motors.
We have some money, but not awhole lot.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Listen, we're making it about a month.
We retire today.
Maybe a month Tops.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
A lot of people.
Okay, maybe a month tops A lotof people, but okay, well,
that's the other.
Like once, once we kind of getthe and maybe it's not time to
even prioritize that yet, but Ido want you guys to start
thinking that the money that yousave in your budget, that I
would, I would, I would reallyencourage you guys to start
slowly ramping up your investing.
You know, really encourage youguys to start slowly ramping up
(38:17):
your investing.
You know, um, uh, so that couldlook like one percent a month.
You increase you know anallotment or something at work,
or um, you know, would you howmuch like?
If you had to put a percentagelike of your paycheck, what
would you guys say you're guysputting towards your retirement?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
I don't remember, I can't.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
I set it up so long ago.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I can't, I don't remember mine at the lowest
because we needed money.
But the cool thing is gm ismatching whatever I put in there
.
So when we get extra money Icould actually raise it up and
actually build up a nice littlechunk of change when we're
actually in the green again.
Yeah I mean priorities andpriorities.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Right yeah, and it's tricky to think about, like you
know, 65 year old version of youwhen you're like, okay, this is
, you know, this is right now meand and we, we have all these
things to worry about.
So I totally get that.
I guess I want to put the bugin your ear that the being young
is one of those things that thecompounding effect, you know,
(39:18):
compound interest, all thatstuff.
Like you, we can't get thattime back.
So like I'm looking at, likeI'm looking at 30 year old Joey
and be like man, if I'd only putin just a little bit more, I
(39:38):
would be sitting much better.
You know what I mean.
And then if you really factor inthe time and you look at the
time lost, like 10 years of notinvesting versus even just 10
years of just small investingbut then doing it consistently
once again, your future selveswill definitely thank you.
So that's that's my.
My challenge to you guys is tokind of, like you know, oh, you
(40:00):
know, dust off the, the loginfor your, your retirement
accounts, and just kind of go inthere and just just see what,
what you're, what you're lookingat.
You know what I mean and maybeyou could even link up that to
rocket money.
Speaker 4 (40:14):
I um and then, yeah, I did okay all right, so I can
see it, I just don't know howmuch I'm putting in back when I
quit with my job.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
We we pulled out all of my retirement that had saved
up from the last job.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So yeah, I mean, that's that, happens that okay,
we needed it at the time.
Yeah, yeah, I get that Okay.
So let's kind of recap a littlebit about, like, from the first
session to now.
We've got Smarty Pig.
You're saving for Christmas,saving for vacation.
(40:54):
Oh, and actually speaking ofvacation, what number did you
come up with for your vacationfund?
Speaker 4 (41:03):
I did $3,000.
You said like medium was like$4,000 to $7,000 or something
like that.
I think is what you said.
So I was like we'll go on thelower end maybe, yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
I don't know.
We'll do a little steak.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
It sounds like.
It sounds like, yeah, you guysare frugal travelers and you're
not.
You're not, you don't need.
You know the lavished, you knowexpenses.
So so, yeah, that's a, that's agreat number.
What was your timeline?
What was your time window forthat trip?
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Dude, did we set up a timeline?
Speaker 4 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Well, we didn't discuss this.
There's another money date forthis one.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, this money date didn't happen.
Let me see I can pull it upreal quick.
Speaker 5 (41:47):
How efficient is it to have a money date at a fancy
restaurant?
Is that efficient?
Well, I mean, if you'vebudgeted for it, maybe, I guess.
Oh man, dude, I knew we werewrong, it didn't feel right it
wasn't.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
I mean, if it's something that you guys already
like no, I, I get what you'resaying now.
Yeah, no, it's fine.
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Um, sorry, it's loading we had had a nice brunch
we did have a nice brunch, butthat was a place that was too
loud so we couldn't even talkabout the money.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
Ah okay, Rich people don't like to talk in silence.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I don't know, I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
I'm just assuming I've never been afforded that
luxury of talking in all thatnoise.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
All right, well, leah , so we've got $3,000 for the
vacation and then, yeah, you'relooking up the time frame, but
it's not a big.
I was just curious as, likewhat you were projecting and
then did that feel comfortablefor you guys?
Did it do that?
Speaker 4 (42:55):
I think I did it for next year.
I think I did it for next year.
I think I did it for next june.
Um, yeah, I'm that's.
I'm remembering that.
Why is this not?
Someone stole our smarty, butour smarty pig lost all this
money no, it's just not I don'tknow she's panicking.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
I'm not panicking she's going to have dreams about
putting in your passwords.
It's going to be impossible, ohman.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
All right, Well, so that's your Smarty yeah, Smarty
Pig was kind of.
I think their login was kind ofweird maybe.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
There we go Security was weird.
And that's not working Okay.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
It's fine like, yeah, if you're here yeah, we'll say,
uh, a good, a little over ayear, that's a great window and
honestly, yeah, like I'm surethe payment for that was pretty,
like maybe surprisinglyaffordable for that it wasn't so
bad.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Actually, I was surprised.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
So what other types of big ticket items Like do you
guys and you know you mentionedsports for the kids Are there
any like big sports expensesthat you guys have on the books
or like a musical instrument oranything like that?
Speaker 5 (44:08):
We'll have to do some lessons coming up.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Some hockey lessons, which is like $80 a lesson
lesson and it can be like once aweek.
And then she's also, um, shewants to do spring hockey, which
is five hundred dollars, fourhundred something, and so I paid
it in half, like I did 200something now, and then, like in
(44:31):
April I think, it comes outagain.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Try to take anything big for Kaylee besides insurance
.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Well, oh, what I mean and like, what are you guys
gonna do for a new driving car?
Do you guys have a plan forthat?
Speaker 5 (44:53):
Yeah, we have a car my parents were able to they
gave us one, one of their cars.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
They got a new one and gave us that one.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
So we got that registered.
We got, like I said, we gotinsurance on that now.
So we got that all set up.
And how much?
How much extra is that?
How much the insurance costs uson top of that?
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Um a hundred extra dollars a month, a hundred more,
which is something that Ithought was going to be a lot
more.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
It's actually doable, and then we'll have another a
hundred dollars next year.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
I was right about the goal.
I finally pulled it up it's the1st of June next year.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Nice, Awesome.
Well, I'll be looking forwardto seeing and hearing about your
awesome trip that you guys take.
It'll be exciting.
You have to send us somepictures.
So then I was going to askabout the car you guys are
saying is that like the caremergency fund that we talked
(45:45):
about, or is that just for afuture car?
Was the car fund?
Speaker 4 (45:50):
oh, car maintenance, yeah, because I mean the
inspection.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
We had to do inspections once a year.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Registration, that's like all together, that's like a
hundred and something dollarsyeah, but then dollars for the
registration, your inspection,everything's like 30 and then,
like I'm doing a tune-up likefor my car, and, um, that's
gonna be like three hundreddollars, I think.
So the 60 000 mile tune-up andthen the ac don't forget about
(46:16):
the ac.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
You're gonna have to worry about another 10 grand
yeah, well, it usually happensin threes, I hate to say, but
hopefully that doesn't happenhere.
But it sounds like we'regetting to a good spot in the
sense of maybe cleaning upthings, identifying maybe holes
or gaps in the spending, andthat's going to be a process.
(46:41):
It's not going to happenovernight, but if you guys are
interested, we could do somemore follow-ups and just kind of
check-ins with you guys.
Or if you want to just do itthat offline, that's fine.
But I would like to do somesemi-regular check-ins and just
kind of see how things are going, any updates or like you know,
(47:02):
because basically what I'mthinking is that right now
people are following along withyou guys.
So some of the things that youbrought up in the first episode,
I've gotten feedback thatthey're like oh yes, we're going
through that same thing.
So you guys are.
(47:25):
You might be surprised, but youare a snapshot of the modern
American couple right now anddealing with your finances the
way you.
You know, so, um, and and thethings that you're bringing up,
I I hear all the time and youknow, like it's not to say that
you're, you're not special, butyou, but you know like the
things that you're going throughare very common.
You know what I mean.
So I just wanted to to basicallyshow people that, hey, this is
what you know, this is whatmodern finances is looking like,
(47:47):
and you know, this is howpeople can, can kind of like
tweak things, improve things,and you know.
And then also people can followalong and they'll be like you
know, some sometimes like theymight be like, hey, what's going
on with Becky and Rob?
You know like, how are they?
How you know, like so they'll,they'll ask for check-ins and
things like that.
So so, yeah, so that's, that'ssomething that I want to do just
(48:11):
to you know, as long as youguys are cool with that, maybe
we can do like you know,depending on how comfortable you
are, we could maybe do like aonce a month check-in, uh, after
, after this, um yeah and then,um, and then just, you can, you
guys can always message meoffline and we can talk.
(48:32):
You know, uh, you know behindthe scenes and stuff too.
So, um, so we got, we got a lotof good, good stuff, and then I
can, um, you know, you will,I'll make sure that you guys get
to get a copy of this so youguys can watch it again.
Um, but was there anything thatI guess, any last minute things
(48:53):
, any homework for me that youguys think you want me to kind
of do some?
Speaker 4 (48:57):
research for you guys .
Um, if you can help us find aloan, I mean, you think I
probably will probably we'llhave to do alone, right Like?
Speaker 5 (49:04):
yeah, that's really been what we're worried about.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Like, pool has to be done.
It's falling apart.
Yeah, it's gonna be anoutrageous.
That's a crazy amount of money.
It is a huge amount of money.
And then like, should we do the?
Speaker 5 (49:19):
ac, and should we all put it on, one is it a net
positive after all.
I mean that hillbilly knew whathe was talking about?
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I mean yeah um, yeah, well, I guess we we will have
to, um, we'll have to talkoffline and try to figure out a
little bit more, um, you know,like, clarify some things, and
I'll do some more research onwhat is probably the best bet
for you guys, um, and then, youknow, I'll share it with the
audience too, that way they,they kind of can, can follow
(49:46):
along and, and you know, I'll dolike a blog update or something
, but, um, but, yeah, that's,that's all.
These are valid concerns andyou know I do.
I do appreciate you guys being,you know, honest and open with
all this.
So I appreciate, I really doappreciate that and, um, you
know it's going to be okay, youknow.
(50:07):
I already feel pretty good aboutyou guys in just two sessions.
Speaker 5 (50:16):
Somebody does.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Come on, you guys got to feel a little bit better,
right?
Speaker 5 (50:23):
No, it's nice man.
It's nice to be able to likeseeing our finances on that app
is game changing, do that.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
Yes, Rocket money.
If you're listening, I will.
I will shill for you for a verylow price.
Speaker 4 (50:38):
It did.
Actually, it has a thing whereit can negotiate for you with a
couple of bills and I got one ofthem.
It got down from $30 a month to$11 a month.
I was like I didn't know, itwas an option.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
We saw our subscriptions too.
We laid all that out.
We got rid of something that wedon't use, and then we added
another one.
That was great to see what wehave.
That was awesome, man.
That was great.
It's been great.
Speaker 3 (51:13):
Yeah, okay.
Well, like I said earlier,usually the most impactful part
of this process is that, pullingback all the things that you've
been sweeping under the rugover the last however long you
start to look at those things,but that's what that really
helps with.
So, but, once again, you guysare doing more more work than
(51:38):
most.
So, you know, give yourselvescredit that you're.
You're taking steps, and thenyou're now also showing other
people, hey, this is what youguys can do.
So, so, yes, so that's actuallygoing to be our time.
Oh man, I got a little bit of alate start, but so, anyways,
that's pretty much going to bethe show.
So, thank you, becky and Rob.
We're going to have you guysagain.
(51:59):
At the very latest we'll do amonth, but then maybe we'll see
about, you know, in a couple ofweeks, just to kind of do a
quick check in.
And you know we don't have todo like the full hour if you
guys don't want to, but you knowit is a lot to cover and I
really do want to make sure youguys are taken care of.
So, all right, well, that'spretty much going to be it.
(52:19):
For me, this has been money inthe military.
Thank you, becky and Rob, and Ialready forgot your little Yoda
dog's name.
Speaker 5 (52:28):
Leia.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
Okay, all right.
Well, thank you guys again andwe will check you guys out and
hopefully everyone is going tobe just really excited to see
what you guys do.
All right, thanks guys.
I appreciate it and we'll catchyou guys later.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
Bye, see you.
Speaker 2 (52:49):
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.
Will be available right afterwe go off the air.
So if you missed any part ofthe show or want to listen again
(53:10):
, be sure to check it 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
(53:32):
catch the podcast and stayconnected with us Giving our
veterans a voice.
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