May 8, 2025 • 42 mins
In this week's episode, we're diving into all the critical things you didn’t learn in school — from budgeting basics to building credit, paying taxes, and investing wisely. I’m joined by Rob Finlay, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Hey Dad, who shares some incredibly helpful insights for anyone navigating adult finances. Whether you’re just starting out or trying to get your budget back on track, this conversation will help you develop a financial foundation that actually works in real life. Plus, I share a little behind-the-scenes on why investing in yourself is always worth it.
💡 Money Talking Points:
- How can tracking your expenses help you get started?
- What’s something you wish you had been taught in school?
- How can you avoid the early dangers of finance?
⏱️ Episode Breakdown + Timestamps:
- [03:30] What school didn’t teach us: adulting with money
- [04:30] Why budgeting is a path to financial freedom, not restriction
- [07:00] Compounding returns & balancing investing vs. debt payoff
- [09:00] Good interest vs. bad interest: How to make smarter choices
- [11:00] Rob’s take on investing vs. paying off debt
- [12:30] Smart credit card use + the truth about carrying a balance
- [15:00] Avoiding common financial traps and the role of financial literacy
- [16:30] Why understanding basic taxes is crucial
- [18:00] When and how to seek professional help with finances
- [19:00] Vetting your financial advice sources in the age of influencers
- [23:00] What financial freedom means to Rob and how to achieve it
- [24:30] First steps to getting out of debt and taking control
- [26:00] How tracking expenses helps you make better spending decisions
- [28:00] Final thoughts on financial literacy, opportunity, and getting started
🔗 Resources & Mentions:
- Rob Finlay’s Website & Book: robfinlay.com
- Text Skyler your money wins or questions! Link at the top of the show notes
Sign up for my newsletter: https://money-talk.kit.com/64cbd24b05
Schedule a free Money Talk at https://moneytalk.show/chat
Get your free Money Talk resources at https://moneytalk.show/resources
Sign up for a free trial with MyBudgetCoach and select me as your money coach: https://www.mybudgetcoach.com/coaches/skyler-fleming
Find even more Money Talk at moneytalk.show/quick-links
"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Skyler (00:00):
Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money
Talk.
This week we're talking aboutwhat we didn't learn in school,
financial freedom and creditcards.
I'm your host, Skylar Fleming,and let's get talking.
(00:23):
Today we're going to be talkingabout adulting and how to handle
your finances.
When you're just gettingstarted, it can feel so daunting
because you aren't sure what todo, and we've all told ourselves
the age old saying, I wish Iwould've learned this in school.
And that's why it's so importantto talk about money so that we
can all learn about these thingsthat we were not taught about,
like taxes, budgeting,investing, credit cards, and all
(00:44):
the other things that we'regonna talk about on today's
show.
Today's Money Buddy wrote a bookexactly to help address that.
So we're gonna spend some timetoday talking about some of
those main things that are leftout of our education when it
comes to money, and dive intohow you can learn about them, as
well as the importance of havinga trusted resource when it comes
to money for Skyler's StoryTime.
Today I want to talk a littlebit about the changes that
(01:05):
happened last week on thepodcast.
I hope you like'em.
I hope you like the new website,the new show.
And one of the main things thatI like so much about the new
changes and the recent updateswe did to the show is your
ability to text me directly.
Thank you so much to everybodywho texted me last week and
entered that$10 giveaway that Imentioned on the rollout of all
the new changes.
(01:25):
On Money Talk.
Thank you so much to Scott fromOgden, Utah.
You are the winner of the$10gift card.
And make sure if you have anyquestions throughout the show,
head to the show notes and clicksend me a text message.
If you want a direct reply, makesure to include some way for me
to text you back.
Otherwise, I'd love to read'emon the show and talk about your
specific question.
So please make sure to text me.
I would love to interact withmore people in this way and who
(01:48):
knows, maybe we'll do anothergiveaway in the future.
But regardless, I'm happy togive away knowledge and help
answer your questions that youmight have.
So make sure to head over to theshow notes and send me a text.
But that does it for this littleshort snippet about texting from
last week's giveaway.
Let's get back into thisepisode.
And it's leading me to put alittle bit more investment into
this podcast.
I'm starting to spend a littlebit more money on it because I
(02:10):
really want to see it grow.
And for the story time today, Iwanna share some of the thoughts
that I've had around someprevious guests that have been
on, that have been encouragingme to.
To think outside of a budgetwhen it comes to things like
this, and think outside of thebox and think about investing in
myself because that's what I'mdoing by putting some more money
and time and effort into theshow while preparing for the CFP
exam.
So that's my story time today.
(02:32):
Real quick and short, honestly,just make sure you're investing
in yourself.
If there's something you knowthat you can do that may take a
little bit of money, whetherit's starting a podcast, a
YouTube channel, starting abusiness, starting a lawn care
business, those are just some ofthe things that come to my mind.
If it's gonna take a little bitof money, be okay with that.
But it's worth having theconversation of how much is this
gonna cost?
How can I prepare for thisfinancially?
(02:53):
So that's something to considerwith today's story time.
But let's get back into it withtoday's money Buddy, who is Rob
Finley?
I.
Rob Finley is a Wall StreetJournal, bestselling author,
seasoned entrepreneur, renownedspeaker, and father of four.
He is a successful entrepreneurand commercial real estate
investor.
When Rob is not in his day job,he's passionate about
agriculture, exploring newpractices and sustainable
(03:13):
methods to enhance environmentalstewardship and farming.
But he recently released a booktitled, Hey Dad, and that's what
brings him on today's podcast.
So we will get into his book andtalk about it a little bit more,
but.
Think of it as the premise of,Hey dad, how do I do this?
And we're gonna be talking aboutthat.
Hey dad, how do I manage myfinances?
Portion of it today?
But the money talking points forthis week are, how can tracking
(03:36):
your expenses help you getstarted?
Two, what's something you wishyou would've been taught in
school?
And three, how can you avoid theearly dangers of finance?
With those many talking pointsin mind, let's get talking with
Rob Finley and welcome him tothe show.
(04:00):
Welcome to the show.
Rob, thank you so much forjoining.
I'm excited to have you here forthis conversation.
Rob Finlay (04:05):
Oh, thanks for having me, Skyler.
It's great to be here.
Skyler (04:07):
This is gonna be a fun one.
I'm excited to talk about someof the ideas that maybe we feel
like we weren't taught inschool.
Some of those things thateveryone struggles with, they're
like, oh, I wish I'd have beentaught taxes, or everyone knows
those sort of things.
So I'm excited for thisconversation, Let's start off by
laying the groundwork with whatare some of the common things
that people feel like they don'tknow when it comes to adulting
(04:28):
with money?
Rob Finlay (04:30):
I think there's quite a few things.
one of the biggest things is.
Money and how it's used.
Is I think a lot of times youngadults come out and they think
more about how much moneythey're gonna make, but in
reality it's about planning andsetting budgets.
And so I think one of the firstthings that I always recommend
to young adults is budget.
(04:51):
And a budget is so importantbecause it's a map of where
you're gonna go and without abudget, you have no idea and
you're just gonna spend money.
And I think if I look back at mylife, When I had a budget,
things were okay.
When I didn't have a budget,things went sideways very
quickly.
and I think a lot of peopleassume that budgets are
restricted, like a budget is abad thing.
(05:13):
A budget will help you feelliberated and really deliver
financial freedom.
Skyler (05:17):
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
I like the idea that it deliversfreedom because.
it certainly can restrictpeople.
maybe if you're coming at itfrom too aggressive of an angle
or you feel like the only thingyou can do is cut back your
spending, and that's all thepurpose of a budget is.
How do you think people get tothat point where a budget can be
more freeing and lead to thatfreedom?
Rob Finlay (05:36):
I think it comes down to a couple things.
One, living within your means,right?
And a budget will help you dothat.
I think where people get introuble is all of a sudden
you're an adult and you go andget your first apartment only to
realize like, oh wait a second,I have to pay for.
Rubb removal, or I have to paythis fee and this pet, or hey, I
just a, and adds an incredibleexpense to somebody's budget.
Skyler (05:59):
Yeah, we just got one, so I'm feeling that expense,
head on right now.
Rob Finlay (06:03):
There you go.
Right?
It's like, yeah.
I mean, nothing puts more in,you know, it's, it's a, it's
like a, you know, anotherconsumer in your, in your
household, one that hasunlimited budget.
but in reality we start to thinkabout the things where I I think
they can be liberating andthere's a lot of freedom in
understanding that if you'relooking at the expense and you
know it's gonna happen.
(06:23):
And you plan and you know yourbudget and where you can go into
it gives you the freedom so thatyou can make decisions quickly.
Can I afford this car?
Okay, I've done this budget andI've realized I can afford$500 a
month in a car payment.
Okay, well now let's go figureout, let's back into what kind
of car you can get.
So it's not like, you're doingit logically as opposed to being
(06:45):
very almost reactionary like,oh, I just bought a new I
thought it was gonna be$500.
Oh no, it's actually,$800 now.
I'm in trouble
Skyler (06:52):
How have you seen that ability to make quick decisions
because of a budget help you inyour life?
Rob Finlay (06:58):
Budget's about everything, right?
once again, I wanna focus on,people think, when I first went
with my own kids aboutbudgeting, they all thought, oh
no, this is bad.
I don't wanna do that.
But then all of a sudden theystart saying, well, this is
actually eye-opening.
And actually when you look atbudgets and you have things
like, Hey.
You you should put money for funstuff on your budget.
(07:18):
You should put stuff for savingson your budget.
that that you can enjoy on yourbudget.
it's not about delayinggratification.
It is all about knowing how muchgratification you can take at
this moment.
what helped me early on wasreally understanding
compounding.
The benefit of compoundingbecause when you start to say,
geez, if I just put a little bitof money away now, that's gonna
(07:41):
be a huge benefit going forward.
maybe I don't need that reallynice car now and but soon I will
be able to afford somethinggreat and, have some financial
freedom going forward.
Skyler (07:52):
Yeah.
I like that idea of just puttinga little bit away now, and
that's something that.
My wife and I are currentlydealing with we have these
student loans that we wanna payoff from her PA school, but we
also know that we're young andthis money has so much more time
to grow.
So that's a real battle.
How can people who are gettinginto their finances find that
battle within their budgetbetween saving or paying down
(08:12):
debt and investing?
Rob Finlay (08:14):
Yeah, I have this concept of good interest and bad
interest, right.
And I, And I, think, you know,obviously as, as you can start
to go into more financial stuff,you can look at it both ways.
I try to equate very simply forpeople who don't understand, I
wrote my book, Hey Dad, abouthelping young adults transition
from being, dependent.
(08:34):
On their parents to independentpeople.
And one of the things yourealize is Hey, you went to PA
school or you're a biology majorwe will talk about this later.
school isn't teaching us aboutinterest rates.
Right.
And, and things like that.
So the first experience youngadults could have to interest
rates.
Is when they start to look at itfor real and they're responsible
(08:56):
for it.
And so I take this approach ofgood interest versus bad
interest.
good interest is money thatpeople are paying you, right?
So I put money into a moneymarket, it pays me.
So that's good interest.
I take money and I pay my creditcard debt or my school loans,
that's bad.
(09:16):
And the way that I try toadvise.
Young adults is to, there's,there's a interest rate
associated with everything thatyou receive or pay.
So if I look at it and I say,okay, well my interest rate that
I'm receiving on my money marketis 3%, 4%, whatever it is, but I
pay 22% on my credit cards.
(09:40):
it makes more sense for me topay off my credit card debt than
it is for me to keep puttingmore money into my savings.
And so that's the, those are thekey concepts I want people to
look at.
Same thing with you, studentdebt.
Well, you have to look how muchare you earning on your savings
Skyler (10:01):
Yeah, it's about three and a half percent right now
versus 7% on the student loans.
Rob Finlay (10:05):
So, I mean, there you definitely want to have some
cushion, right?
I think one of the biggest fearsfor any young adult, and this is
the number one thing, have somerainy day savings have something
that you do not touch.
matter because ultimately youget your dog, and the dog gets
into, something and you have togo to the emergency room vet and
(10:25):
you're gonna have to pay forthat.
So always have some emergencyfunds.
But after that.
You should definitely be lookingat what is my cost of capital
versus, what am I borrowing atversus what am I receiving.
Skyler (10:40):
Yeah.
And you're gonna be hard pressedto find some sort of way that
credit card debt interest andcredit card debt makes sense to
keep, there is this trickybalance for my wife and I right
now, that these.
Student loans are there at aboutsix to 7%.
There are a couple differentloans, but could we earn more
than that over the long run inthe stock market?
Probably.
And so that's where it getsreally tricky, trying to debate
(11:01):
these returns that you don'thave an exact percentage for.
if I have that money marketaccount, if it for some reason
is earning 7% and our studentloans are at six, the math,
there's pretty simple that youcan earn more in one.
And if you.
Want to get into it and youwanna play the math game, there
is potential there to takeadvantage of those differences.
But that's what's tricky.
And I think what's hard,especially for young adults with
that incredibly long timehorizon, is that percentage that
(11:23):
you don't necessarily know orsee.
Do you have any advice forpeople on how they can still
consider investing money whenthey maybe don't see that exact
written out percentage?
Rob Finlay (11:32):
So I, it might be contrary to what many people
feel, but I would say don't.
Skyler (11:38):
Hmm.
Rob Finlay (11:38):
retail investors don't maximize and do not
achieve market results in thestock market.
they buy when it's high and sellwhen it's low, Unless you're
really astute and patient, yousaid that, and it's an operative
ward, a patient investor.
Sure if you put money in thestock market and you close your
eyes and you don't look at itagain, and you're well
diversified, you're in, fundsand index funds, whatever it is,
(12:01):
close your eyes and, over thathorizon, you're good.
if you're gonna watch that stockmarket every day and you're
gonna watch that stock and thinkthat you're gonna buy it at a
certain point, I don't know if Iwould do it.
So I think personally, here'sthe thing, no matter what.
You most likely will not getyour credit card debt interest
rate returned on
Skyler (12:22):
that one's not gonna happen.
You
Rob Finlay (12:23):
Right.
So, so for, so for anybody who'slistening, get rid of your
credit card debt.
Now, that's not to say don'thave credit cards.
Have credit cards.
Because one of the other thingsthat I talk about in my book
that's so important is creditscores.
Because as you mature yourhorizon, and I don't mean mature
physically or mentally, it'sjust like as your time horizon
(12:43):
as an adult continues yourpurchases.
We'll get bigger.
Right?
now you're looking to buy ahouse or a business or something
large.
if you were smart in thebeginning and understood how
credit scores work and theimportance of maintaining a
credit score, then you will havecredit cards and you'll use them
and and do it.
(13:04):
But you ultimately want a reallygood credit score when you go to
borrow large sums of money.
Skyler (13:10):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, this is fantastic.
we've covered a broad range ofthings already and we'll talk
about it.
We'll make sure to touch it atthe end.
your book, Hey, dad, is kind ofthat, Hey dad, what's this
solution?
What's this supposed to be?
I'm excited.
To hear more about the book, butwe're also covering a lot of
things, which I think is gonnabe great for everybody
listening, because there's gonnabe something that everyone
listening right now can say, oh,credit scores, I need to talk
(13:31):
about that more.
please reach out to us.
Or it's budgeting.
Maybe they say, oh, it feelsrestricting to me.
How can I get help?
Making it not feel restricting.
I love where we're going.
We're really covering.
A wide gamut today, and I thinkthat's great.
Let's talk a little bit aboutcredit cards, because this is
something I'm starting to getmore into.
I went a little too hard intocredit card hacking, at the
beginning and kind of burntmyself out on it.
(13:51):
But let's touch on how creditcards can be a useful tool.
are you a fan of credit cardrewards and such?
Rob Finlay (13:57):
I do, and some, I think if you do for travel and
things like that, there are somereally good opportunities for
people there.
quite frankly, I don't focus alot on that, because I think
there's better times.
Yes, You can always swap outcredit cards.
the most important thing withcredit cards is don't carry
balances.
I mean that to me is you you cansit there and yes, maybe it's a
(14:18):
habit, just like couponing is ahabit and a fun, uh, hobby for
people.
credit card hacking is anothergreat hobby.
ultimately, if somebody takesaway one thing from me talking
carrying credit card balances isbad.
Having a credit card is good.
Having it as a standby line ofcredit in case a real emergency
happens is good.
(14:38):
But using a credit card tocreate credit scores is what's
important.
Skyler (14:44):
And you don't have to pay interest to create a credit
score.
I think that's, that's a myth Ihave tried to bust is if you get
that statement to renew and thenyou pay off that statement
balance, there's no interestcharge and your credit score is
better off for it.
So it's kind of a myth thatthese banks and credit unions
sell that you call and you say,how can I.
Increase my credit.
They're like, well, get a creditcard, put your gas on it and
just pay the minimum payment.
(15:04):
It's like, you don't have to dothat.
They're just making free moneyoff of you.
Rob Finlay (15:07):
Right, right, right, If I was earning 22 or 28% on
you, I would tell you, to keepit.
I keep it in there.
too.
Let's just pay a little bit.
and I think that's for peoplewho aren't math majors or
finance majors, this is reallyimportant stuff, and that comes
back to.
an adult is a lot, right?
You're, I equate this to, ifyou've traveled in an airport
(15:29):
and they have these, walkwaysthat move, right?
sort of like an escalator, butthey're, walkways.
And I think our life as a youngadult is very much like you.
You get on at one part of theterminal and you go through all
the gates on this road.
You're going from first grade,second grade, third grade, so on
and so forth.
Ultimately.
You get off at your gate and nowyou have to figure out what
you're going to do.
(15:49):
a lot of things that happen thatare well beyond just, you know,
getting a job and where you'regonna live.
But ultimately it comes down tohaving the financial freedom and
the financial independence,which is why if you don't have
that background in it.
You really need to study.
You really need to allocate timeto understand the things that
(16:10):
make up your financial life.
All the stuff that your parentswere doing to support you.
You have to, and learn.
Skyler (16:17):
Yeah.
And it's important to learn itor at least try to learn it.
'cause if you just bury yourhead in the sand, you're gonna
end up in a worse off positionwith credit card debt and things
like that.
Rob Finlay (16:25):
Oh, yeah.
For taxes.
I mean, you can get in troublewith taxes not knowing you had a
side hustle don't pay yourtaxes, right?
Those are, Those are, realthings that happen.
Skyler (16:32):
Yeah.
And taxes was the next area Iwanted to touch on.
So thank you for this perfecttransition.
This is something that I thinkevery person ever has said.
Why was I never taught how to dothis?
why is it so important to makesure we know about this area?
Why isn't it taught, and thingslike that.
Rob Finlay (16:46):
Yeah, I think there's, a, tendency with a lot
of financial literacy.
Is to make it very confusing sothat you will go to experts.
And I think that is somethingwhere, financial stuff, I'm in
my, my day job is in capitalmarkets.
And, and, and so yes, it isvery, very.
(17:07):
Sophisticated and difficult tounderstand, but that's one
little part of it, right?
Understanding basic conceptslike taxes and uh, investing are
important and you should havethe basics.
But I do think that, that thereis a point where it is so cheap
and easy to get tax advice andyour taxes done, it makes sense
(17:30):
to use an expert because is alot to it, these tax codes.
So I, I go back to thisfinancial literacy.
I think we should, as youngadults and, and, and everybody
should understand the basics oftaxes, right?
What you need to do, exemptions,deductions, why you pay taxes,
why some things are morebeneficial than others.
(17:50):
But then really rely on theexperts to give you the real
specific guidance.
I do think, look, people go tograduate school just to
understand taxes.
Right.
So, So, these these are complexthings, so understand the
basics, you're in physicaltherapy, right?
Is that what you were saying
Skyler (18:05):
my wife is a physician assistant,
Rob Finlay (18:06):
Okay.
Oh, pa Okay, so, so a pa, right?
I know that if I have a fever,go take Tylenol.
But if it's anything more thanthat, I go to an expert.
And I think if we try to createfinancial literacy to understand
the basics, but knowing when togo to a professional is, is,
important.
Skyler (18:24):
Yeah, and same thing goes with money is there's these
different steps ofprofessionals, like maybe
there's a coach because you onlyneed to get past that basics of
budgeting and you need that nextstep on budgeting.
But then there's a CPA for maybelike you're starting that side
hustle and a business and thingslike that.
And you need the tax help orthere's financial planners that
are gonna help you with thewhole entire thing of retirement
planning and estate stuff Sothere's definitely the people
(18:45):
you can go to.
Why is it useful to have thesetrusted resources in our lives?
Rob Finlay (18:51):
Because I think there is some complexity into
it, right?
Having these, these expertsthough, can really help you get
to a much better foundation.
And they're not hard.
And I think that's the barrierwe should try to break down is
if you can go talk to somebodyat Fidelity Investments and they
have so many resources out therefor you to get.
(19:11):
Advice that you should takeadvantage.
Don't be afraid to ask peoplefor advice.
Don't be afraid to go to thesetrusted advisors because they
will help you incrementally growyourself and grow your
investments.
Help you grow your budgets ormaintain your budgets and really
get you into this financialfreedom.
I think I keep on using thisword financial freedom I think
(19:33):
if you look at the stress thatmost young people have, at least
me personally, when I wasgrowing up, it was all about
financial freedom.
Did I have enough money?
And it was so much stress, like,you know, most marriage and
relationship battles happen,with finances and stuff like
that.
So having a good understandingof your finances and a good
(19:55):
budget will help make your lifesmoother and easier.
Skyler (19:59):
Yeah, and I think so many young adults, or really
anybody now YouTube Universityis gonna be the first place they
go to learn about money, but.
You really gotta take that nextstep and ask someone directly as
well, because your questions,you're always gonna hear some
sort of financial advisor or adisclaimer at the end saying,
your situation is unique.
We didn't consider your specificthings.
And that's a cue to tell you,Hey, I need to ask somebody this
(20:21):
specific question.
I encourage this a lot because alot of people listen to the big
YouTube shows or big podcastsbut there's so many other people
out there too that you can askthese questions to.
Rob Finlay (20:29):
I interviewed 30 experts in all fields from
financial advice to budgetingto, investment parameters,
banking, you name it.
And I think that was theirthing.
That was, they're approachable,right?
And, and in fact, a lot ofpeople who take a lot of pride
in their, in their job and theirprofession.
Want people to ask them and, andwant their advice.
(20:51):
'cause the, the alternative, andyou talked about social media.
One of the biggest fears, andthis was, this was a, a, a theme
that was every single person Ispoke to in my interview, on my
book, especially aroundfinances, taxes, credit, all
said the same thing.
They all had this one theme,which is.
Make sure if you get advice, youknow the advice you're getting
(21:14):
is from a credible source.
Because I think in this day andage, yes, YouTube is great, but
making sure that you understandwho is that person giving you
advice on YouTube and what istheir purpose for giving you
advice.
what are their credentials,right?
I can go on, right, or they can,right?
I, I go on, I go on Instagramand there's a guy there that
(21:35):
tells me I can make a milliondollars overnight.
Okay, well if you're making amillion dollars overnight, why
are you on Instagram telling mehow to make a a million dollars
overnight?
It's, it's that kind of stuff.
And if you look and peel thelayer of the onion back, you
realize this person's not reallyhas anything.
So making sure you get youradvice from credible people who
(21:59):
have experience, who understandthe technical requirements of
doing this, and once again, likeyou talk about taxes, like you
wanna get into trouble, right?
really ruin your life early,don't pay your bills, don't pay
your taxes, right?
You really wanna ruin yourselffor life, do those two things.
And making sure that you dothese things right and you're
(22:20):
paying your bills and you payingyour taxes is critical to
survival.
Skyler (22:24):
Yeah.
And paying your taxes isdefinitely up there.
the IRS is like any othercreditor except they have guns
and can take all your stuff.
they can just come and do whatthey need to do because they're
the IRS.
So if you're not gonna paysomebody, make sure it's not the
IRS.
Rob Finlay (22:37):
Right.
and quite frankly, you should bepaying everybody, right?
I mean, being in debt is a toughthing, right?
and debt is good and, valuableto you going forward.
But at that same token, Youcan't get over levered too much
debt, but you do need to payyour bills and your creditors
because if you don't pay it now,it grabs on and it stays with
(22:58):
you.
And, and learning about creditand understanding that these,
you know, Hey, I missed thatpayment, or, oops, I missed it
without trying to solve it.
Will not help you.
These things stay with you andwill be detrimental to your
ongoing borrowing and financialfreedom.
Skyler (23:12):
Yeah.
What does financial freedom meanto you?
So maybe you are, taking thesetopics and ideas that you're
learning about and applying'emto your life, I'm sure.
What does that freedom pointmean to you?
Rob Finlay (23:23):
Freedom means that you don't worry about it, right?
It's not that you're not worriedabout money and stuff like that,
but it just means I have enoughfinancial freedom to know that I
know what my money's coming in.
Where it's going and I haveenough in savings that if I have
an oh crap moment, I can coverit.
I have enough money that I'minvesting that will grow.
(23:44):
So I'm living within my means.
that doesn't mean I don't go onvacations.
That doesn't mean I don't go outto dinner and have fun.
Doesn't mean I don't haveNetflix and apple tv.
I live within, I know my topline revenue and I know my
expenses.
that's what financial freedommeans to me.
It's not about having unlimitedmoney.
in.
I'm not, I'm not Jeff Bezos whodoesn't have to worry.
(24:06):
I'm not that person.
So I have to think about.
Am I living within my means?
And within that means am Ienjoying and I'm not worried
about it.
The old me, when I first startedout, became a young adult and I
had a, a child at a very earlyage.
I had no financial freedombecause I had no budget.
I had no idea what kind of moneyI had, where I was spending my,
(24:28):
I had no idea.
I had no idea and I relied on mycredit cards to support my
lifestyle and, and I was a very,very bad situation.
So financial freedom is justbeing able to enjoy being
financially free.
Skyler (24:43):
And there you go.
I love that.
one of the things I love to tellpeople is you can worry about
your money just a little bit andmake sure to put some dedicated
focus into it.
Or if you don't do that, you'regonna worry about it all the
time, not be able to sleep.
It's always gonna have that bigburden on you, so you have to
commit at least some time tofocus on your money.
Think about it, because whetherwe like it or not, money touches
every aspect, every avenue ofour lives, and we're gonna have
(25:07):
to consider it at some point.
Let's say that young adult isjust getting started.
Maybe they had a bit of a rockyroad, but they're not buried in
debt.
Maybe they have a thousand,$2,000 in credit card debt
Nothing crazy.
How can they begin to get backon track with it?
Rob Finlay (25:21):
I think it comes down to looking at, once again,
you have to look at a budget,right?
I don't wanna belabor the.
Point, but you have to see whereelse It's Right?
you need to see where it'sgoing.
'cause if you don't see whereit's going, you have no idea how
to fix it, right?
it's like, you know, you're in asinking ship and you don't look
for the hole in the boat, right?
you've gotta figure out whereit's coming so you can at least
try to plug it up.
Then you look through it, andthen you prioritize where, where
(25:42):
are these, where's this moneycoming in and, and where is it
going out and what is necessaryand what's.
What's critical, what's sort ofa nice to have?
I think by separating that, youstart to look and say, geez, you
know what, yeah, I've beenreally good.
I've got that$2,000 worth ofdebt.
But you know what, I love sportsbetting and maybe, maybe it's.
(26:02):
Maybe we, we change that alittle bit or, oh geez, you know
what?
I go out Thursday, Friday,Saturday night with my friends
and we go crazy.
Right?
It's like, yeah, okay, wellmaybe you just go and do one or
two back to that.
Financial freedom doesn't meanyou don't go out, right?
Because it's important that yougo out.
You're not being a shut in andjust, you know, Scrooge with
your money.
You've gotta be able to go outand enjoy, right?
(26:23):
Otherwise.
Why work?
So you still do it, but justfocus on what's really
important.
Make a little bit of a sacrificein your spending.
And it's not just sacrifice,it's a reallocation, it's a
short term reallocation of yourmoney.
I'm not gonna go out this week.
I'm gonna take that$150 or$200 Iwas gonna spend, and I'm going
(26:43):
to put that into my credit carddebt.
there's, you know, after 10weeks, you'd be pretty good.
Skyler (26:50):
Yeah.
Take that little bit ofsacrifice.
And even if, budgeting can kindof beat this dead horse that
finances just beat on.
if you're scared of that budgetword and you don't want to jump
right into it, I recommendpeople to just start tracking
your expenses.
At the very least because you'regonna then be able to visualize,
If you start to track yourspending, you're gonna see, oh,
I'm spending$300 every week ortwo on going out to eat.
(27:11):
And then you tell your friendsthat you're doing that and
they're gonna say, holy cow, I'mspending that much too.
And then you're collectivelytogether gonna be able to say,
let's not do that, and you'renot gonna have to worry about
making enemies
Rob Finlay (27:22):
Right, or let's focus on it, right?
instead of doing it a coupletimes, let's do it once, or Hey,
let's do once going out andlet's do a barbecue at the
house, house.
It's like doing that kind ofstuff.
So it's not like being ashut-in, but you, you're
absolutely right.
I mean, when you start to trackyour expenses, and that's a
great point.
Tracking your expenses, you canstart to see where things go and
look, it's, look at all the appsyou have, right?
(27:42):
That maybe I didn't need thatapp.
And, you know, and, andsubscriptions.
I mean, you start seeing a lotof these things come out where
they're tracking subscriptionswriting this book and talking to
experts, I started to do itmyself.
I've got Hulu, Netflix, youknow, Amazon, this, that, I'm
like, I only, I have one set ofeyes.
But anyways, it, it is importantthough, to prioritize where
(28:05):
you're spending your money, butyou've gotta see it first.
Skyler (28:07):
Yeah, you have no idea how to budget or where to budget
if you don't know where yourmoney's actually going.
And one of the things as well tonote here is that all the people
you're listening to on financialpodcasts or media or books
aren't perfect.
I've let subscriptions renew onaccident that I meant to cancel.
I'm sure you've had littlemistakes that you've adjusted
and corrected along the path.
So if you are in that situationwhere things are maybe a little
(28:28):
bit of a struggle, it's okay.
You can adapt and adjust andovercome it.
Rob Finlay (28:32):
Oh, absolutely.
you're never too deep in right?
It's, there's always a plan andthat's very liberating to be
able to say, I've got a planright there.
it's horrible to be in a placewhere you think you have no out,
but you do.
you do.
And there there's a way you canslowly, you can talk to, you
know, there, there are creditcompanies.
If you're way behind and in badshape, call'em, talk to'em,
(28:53):
Yeah.
Maybe they can help you, maybethey can't, but at least you're
gonna make a plan to go and beout.
And then once you master yourbudget, you know what you can
spend.
Now it comes to the fun time,which is.
Now I can look to how do I makemoney, right?
First thing is controlling thebleed.
Now I know how to control mybleed.
Now let me increase the topline.
And by investing and knowing howto invest money is'cause I think
(29:15):
that was one of the criticalthings I've learned.
It's like you come outta schooland you don't know the
difference between a stock and abond and ET, F and A, you know,
and this and that.
You don't know what, why, whatis Robinhood versus Charles
Schwab, right?
And, there's a lot ofinformation out there but once
you get that part, now, thesky's the limit.
Now you can really make realwealth for yourself.
Skyler (29:37):
that's fantastic.
Even if you're in trouble rightnow, you can make adjustments,
adapt, get back on path and getthings moving in the right
direction.
So Rob, this has been afantastic interview.
I got two final questions here.
First, I wanna give you a momentto talk about your book.
Hey Dad.
But then the second question.
Will be.
What's one thing you wish youwould've known sooner about
money when it comes to becomingan adult?
But first, how can people findyou and learn more about your
(29:57):
book?
Rob Finlay (29:57):
Sure, sure.
So they can find me online.
It's rob finlay.com.
you can go to my website andthen, you know, the book is
called, Hey Dad, everything youshould have Learned but Didn't
about being an adult.
it's a fun book.
I have four young adults, and soa lot of the questions come from
that, Hey dad, how do I.
Fill in the blank.
(30:18):
And so I went out and Iinterviewed 30 experts in all
things from budgeting, findingapartments, buying a car.
I even interviewed a NASCAR racecar driver and his crew chief
about how to take care of yourcar once you have it to a Navy
seal, about emergencies andeverything in between.
But it's really meant to be afoundation for you as a young
(30:38):
adult to be able to have the,the sort of the main food
groups.
Of going through this situationwhere you are going from being a
dependent child to a independentyoung adult
Skyler (30:51):
That's fantastic.
What's one thing you wish youwould've known sooner when you
were a young adult about money?
Rob Finlay (30:57):
laying out my expenses.
Not getting into credit carddebt.
Really understanding how, howimpactful that is and how that
stress of money in my earlylife, I still remember it to
this day, how painful it was tohave a new child not be able to
pay for things, be broke, andnot knowing how to solve it.
(31:18):
And it was finally putting abudget in place and I wouldn't
wish that on anybody that, thatsort of, that.
Of, of debt and, and financeswhen it's easy to fix.
Skyler (31:29):
Yeah, I love that.
You just gotta get right on thatpath and then it'll keep pushing
along for you.
Doors will open up,opportunities will open, things
will become easier, so that'sfantastic.
What a place to leave it on.
Rob, thank you so much forjoining.
This has been a greatconversation.
Rob Finlay (31:41):
Great.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Skyler (31:53):
Thank you so much to Rob for coming on and imparting some
of that great wisdom on us andhelping us learn.
About some of the things that weweren't taught about in school,
but let's get into the moneytalking points here today to
round out this episode.
The first one is, how cantracking your expenses help you
get started?
Well, it can help you getstarted by finding natural
options to cut back on yourspending.
It's also gonna be a whole loteasier to convince your friends
(32:14):
that you don't need to bespending money with some data.
The data can help you overcomethe behavior that you've been
fighting so hard to figure outor get under control because
it's gonna help you understandmore naturally that you're maybe
overspending in that areabecause you're gonna be able to
give yourself an actual numberto what you're spending.
This data can also help bringyou back to reality and help you
realize how much money you'respending, and then truly ask
(32:36):
yourself, is it worth it?
Which in that same vein ofconvincing your friends and
family that maybe you need tostop spending money in a certain
area.
You're gonna be able to have amore enjoyable time with your
friends and family becauseyou're going to be able to get
your spending under control, andyour friends and family will
thank you because they'reprobably also trying to not
spend so much money in certainareas.
So using your data.
Is going to help everybody whenit comes to getting their
(32:58):
spending under control.
And it's gonna become reallyeasy to make these decisions
just with some simple tracking.
And here's a story that I'veshared before, but let's talk
about eating out.
This is one of the majorexpenses for every single
American, and for me in highschool, it was a big deal.
I started tracking my expensesand realized this was a huge.
Line item for me and I told myfriends and we all realized that
(33:19):
we wanted to scale back becausewe were spending a lot, but we
also valued the time.
So really this allowed us topause and reconsider and say, do
we want to be spending the moneyin this area?
Yeah, let's go for it.
Let's enjoy spending moneyeating out.
We're not eating out thatexpensive.
Anything like that.
We weren't eating at fancyrestaurants, we were just
getting fast food.
Which side note may or may nothave been.
Good for us, but just in thefinancial realm, we were able to
(33:43):
pause and reconsider andunderstand that we did enjoy
that expense.
So what's something thattracking your expenses has
helped you realize you werespending too much on or right
after this episode, or evenright now, pause this episode.
Go plug in your expenses or yourcredit cards or whatever, into
some sort of tracking app likemy Budget Coach, which you can
sign up for in the show notes.
(34:03):
But then track your expenses andthen send me a text of which
expense category you realizednaturally that you were spending
too much money on.
You can find the link to text mein the top of the show notes,
but now that you've paused it orlooked at your expenses and
you're tracking, and now thatyou're starting to get some
categories under control, let'smove on to the second money
talking point, which is what'ssomething you wish you would've
been taught in school?
For me, it's taxes andinvesting.
(34:24):
I think that people are missingout on so much, and I remember
in my financial literacy class,we had this dumb assignment to
pick three or five stocks andtrack them each week in class.
It was a waste of time.
It did not teach us anything.
I don't remember a single thingfrom that exercise except the
fact that I chose.
Apple because I was a big Applefan boy in high school, but it
didn't teach us anything at allwhen it comes to investing.
(34:47):
We were just taught, well, ifyou look at the stock market, it
does numbers fancy, right?
But we weren't taught anythingabout how to actually invest,
let alone how to invest wellwith single stock picking like
we were doing, forget the singlestock picking.
We shouldn't have been doingthat anyways.
This class should have been agreat place to teach us about
indexed ETFs or other indexbased funds.
So that we could be a part ofthe whole market because the
(35:09):
single stock picking, if anyonedid follow what they learned in
that class, they would just begambling.
'cause we were not taught how toevaluate a stock or determine if
it was a good purchase or not.
We just chose stocks at random,which would set us up for
failure in the long run becauseit's just a gamble on the stock
market.
Now, of course, looking back, ifI would've just kept with those
stocks from the time I was inhigh school till now, they
would've made me good money.
(35:30):
But I had no way of knowing thator guessing on it is all it
really would've been.
So I really wish I would'velearned more about investing in
school because there's so muchopportunity for you young
listeners and those who arestill in school to get started
earlier and earlier.
The value of money when you'reyoung is incredible.
More particularly the value ofyour time as it relates to money
is even more incredible.
(35:51):
So learning earlier would begreat, and I wish it was taught
in school in more detail, indepth.
Of course, learning how to payour taxes and how those are paid
is something that everybodytalks about every single year.
But taxes are super complicated,and that's a completely
different side topic, which Iwon't dive into right now, about
why taxes have to be socomplicated.
But they are complicated.
And that's a good example of onetopic that comes up every single
(36:13):
year in terms of what'ssomething you wish you would've
learned in school, but what doyou wish you would've learned in
school?
Send me a text about it and I'llteach you about it in an
upcoming episode, and thenyou'll know about it.
So what do you wish you would'velearned in school?
You've been listening to thisepisode and some things came to
your mind.
Click that link in the top ofthe show notes.
Send me a text about that, and Iwill teach about it in a future
episode.
But thank you to everyone who'stexted me so far.
It's been really fun to engagewith listeners in this way.
(36:36):
And how it works is I receiveyour fan mail, it tells me the
last four of your phone number,and then I can relay those on
the podcast or put'em on thewebsite or things like that.
So make sure to be texting me.
It's really fun and exciting tosee those come in.
And if you want me to reply,leave your email or phone number
and I'd be happy.
To get back in touch with youand respond to your question
that way.
But just so you know, thosedon't provide me a way to
(36:56):
respond directly to each of you.
So if you are wanting aresponse, either keep listening
to the podcast and I'll talkabout'em on the show or gimme
some sort of email or contactinformation to reply to you
with.
But let's move on to the thirdmoney talking point.
How can you avoid the earlydangers of finance?
Well, the first thing here is toavoid credit card debt.
Try your absolute hardest tostay outta credit card debt.
(37:17):
And you may have heard me talkabout the myth.
Or just the lie of needing tocarry a credit card balance.
It is a flat out lie.
If you've ever been told thatyou need to carry a credit card
balance to improve your creditscore, you are misled, which is
unfortunate, but it's just not afact.
You don't need to carry it everysingle month.
I have never once paid anyamount of interest on a credit
card or carry it a balance overmultiple statements, and that is
(37:40):
the key thing.
No there, you don't have tocarry it over multiple
statements.
You can let it go for onestatement.
And then you pay off thestatement balance.
My credit score is doing great,and all of those credit cards
are still reporting their usagebecause that credit card balance
is reported to your credit scorewhen the credit card statement
is generated.
Now your goal is to pay off thatstatement balance before the due
(38:01):
date.
That is how you avoid interestwhile still having your credit
card balance help your creditscore.
So look at the statement balanceand pay that off by the due
date, and you'll be golden withcredit cards, no credit card
interest, and all the creditcard rewards.
Some of you may have beenlistening and just heard me talk
about avoiding credit card debtaltogether, but what have,
you've already found yourself inthe midst of this danger of
personal finance.
(38:21):
What do you do now?
Well, this is where you applythe first money talking point of
this episode.
You start tracking your expensesand income.
If your expenses are higher thanyour income, then you're never
gonna be able to get outtacredit card debt.
Simple as that.
It's just not possible.
You have to be realistic withyourself here.
You have to get your spendingback within your means and even
further below that.
'cause once you're back withinyour means and spending less
(38:43):
than you make now you're gonnahave some extra money to funnel
towards your credit card debtand work to get out of it.
Even if you come into some sortof large bonus at work or
overtime payments or things likethat.
If you're still regularlyspending beyond your income
every single month, you're nevergonna actually get outta credit
card debt.
No matter how much of a bonus orextra payment you throw towards
your credit card, eventuallyit's gonna creep back up because
(39:04):
you're always overspending yourincome.
So make sure to be carefulthere.
Make sure your spending is belowyour income period.
There's no exceptions there, orelse you will end up in credit
card debt.
Another thing to think abouthere, do not bother with 0%
balance transfer cards until youhave a true plan to get outta
credit card debt.
They're just another trap inorder to get you to move around
your debt to a new card and payinterest to them, unless you are
(39:26):
going to pay off the balancebefore the 0% expires.
Do not bother with it.
I have a 0% card that I'm usingright now and it's because
there's a plan in place for it.
We already have the money setaside ready to pay it off a
month before the interest startson the card so that money stays
put away and we never have toworry about any interest on the
card.
The auto pay to pay off, thewhole balance is already
scheduled in everything.
(39:47):
It's just waiting for that timeto happen.
The money's in a separateaccount earmarked for that
credit card, and that's it.
And it's because there's a plan.
That's why we can mess aroundwith 0% credit cards.
There are a lot of differentdangers to finance that you have
to be on the lookout for.
A few other ones are feelinglike you have to buy a house or
feeling like you have to buy anew car.
Those sort of things can be avery early and big trap with
(40:11):
your personal finances becauseyou may not need to buy a car,
so just be on the lookout.
Any sort of those, buy thenewest thing may be a trap.
I have a refurbished M1 ProMacBook that is doing phenomenal
for editing my podcast and anyother work that I needed to do,
but it's refurbished.
It wasn't brand new.
It was a great deal.
So be on the lookout for thosesort of things.
Anytime you're buying new,there's potential there to get
(40:33):
into some sort of financialtrap.
That's just something toconsider.
But if there is an early trapthat you would like to warn
people about or maybe you foundyourself in that you don't want
other people to find themselvesin, send me a text and I'll
mention it on the show in afuture episode and we can talk
about early financial traps.
That'd be a pretty fun episode.
But let's wrap this all up witha big thank you to Rob for
coming on this episode.
(40:53):
I know we talked about a lot inthis episode, but that's because
there's so much out there.
That we weren't taught about inschool.
I really hope that this canserve as an all-in-one kind of
episode so that you can share itwith your friends and have a
great money.
Talk about one of the topicsbecause we have all said, I wish
I was taught about this inschool, so now you have it, an
episode that covers a whole lotof those things.
One of the main things thatstood out to me is how much goes
(41:15):
into our personal financialsituations.
We may not need an expert or ahigh paid professional, but
having somebody in your cornerthat can be on your team is
incredibly helpful.
So shoot me a text and send meyour questions from this episode
and be sure if you wanna replydirectly, include an email or a
phone number in your textmessage.
I would love to talk about it.
Also, don't forget about theidea that I'm considering of
(41:35):
starting a Discord group for theMoney Buddies.
If you're interested in that,let me know and we can start
talking about money over there.
It'll be great to have a centralcommunity where we can all chat
about different questions andideas that we have and money
challenges we're going through.
But that does it for thisepisode.
I hope you learned a ton.
Remember to send me a text withthe brand new feature right at
the top of the show notesbecause it's a great way to get
(41:55):
in touch and ask me anyquestions that you might have
about this episode or your ownfinancial situation.
I.
Thank you all for listening totoday's episode.
The best way to stay up to dateand connected with All Things
Money Talk is to subscribe tothe podcast and sign up for my
email list.
Head over to Money talk.show andsubmit your name and email right
there on the homepage.
You can also use my contact pageon the website to send me any
(42:16):
questions.
If you're looking to get startedwith budgeting, I've partnered
with my budget coach, a platformthat connects your budget
directly to your financialcoach, and I'd love to work with
you over there.
And help you with yourbudgeting.
The link is in the show notes.
Remember, the best way to learnfrom today's episode is to go
and have a money talk abouttoday's topic with a fellow
money buddy.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode of Money Talk.
(42:36):
I'm your host, Skyler Fleming.
Have a great week.
Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money
Talk.
This week we're talking aboutwhat we didn't learn in school,
financial freedom and creditcards.
I'm your host, Skylar Fleming,and let's get talking.
(00:23):
Today we're going to be talkingabout adulting and how to handle
your finances.
When you're just gettingstarted, it can feel so daunting
because you aren't sure what todo, and we've all told ourselves
the age old saying, I wish Iwould've learned this in school.
And that's why it's so importantto talk about money so that we
can all learn about these thingsthat we were not taught about,
like taxes, budgeting,investing, credit cards, and all
(00:44):
the other things that we'regonna talk about on today's
show.
Today's Money Buddy wrote a bookexactly to help address that.
So we're gonna spend some timetoday talking about some of
those main things that are leftout of our education when it
comes to money, and dive intohow you can learn about them, as
well as the importance of havinga trusted resource when it comes
to money for Skyler's StoryTime.
Today I want to talk a littlebit about the changes that
(01:05):
happened last week on thepodcast.
I hope you like'em.
I hope you like the new website,the new show.
And one of the main things thatI like so much about the new
changes and the recent updateswe did to the show is your
ability to text me directly.
Thank you so much to everybodywho texted me last week and
entered that$10 giveaway that Imentioned on the rollout of all
the new changes.
(01:25):
On Money Talk.
Thank you so much to Scott fromOgden, Utah.
You are the winner of the$10gift card.
And make sure if you have anyquestions throughout the show,
head to the show notes and clicksend me a text message.
If you want a direct reply, makesure to include some way for me
to text you back.
Otherwise, I'd love to read'emon the show and talk about your
specific question.
So please make sure to text me.
I would love to interact withmore people in this way and who
(01:48):
knows, maybe we'll do anothergiveaway in the future.
But regardless, I'm happy togive away knowledge and help
answer your questions that youmight have.
So make sure to head over to theshow notes and send me a text.
But that does it for this littleshort snippet about texting from
last week's giveaway.
Let's get back into thisepisode.
And it's leading me to put alittle bit more investment into
this podcast.
I'm starting to spend a littlebit more money on it because I
(02:10):
really want to see it grow.
And for the story time today, Iwanna share some of the thoughts
that I've had around someprevious guests that have been
on, that have been encouragingme to.
To think outside of a budgetwhen it comes to things like
this, and think outside of thebox and think about investing in
myself because that's what I'mdoing by putting some more money
and time and effort into theshow while preparing for the CFP
exam.
So that's my story time today.
(02:32):
Real quick and short, honestly,just make sure you're investing
in yourself.
If there's something you knowthat you can do that may take a
little bit of money, whetherit's starting a podcast, a
YouTube channel, starting abusiness, starting a lawn care
business, those are just some ofthe things that come to my mind.
If it's gonna take a little bitof money, be okay with that.
But it's worth having theconversation of how much is this
gonna cost?
How can I prepare for thisfinancially?
(02:53):
So that's something to considerwith today's story time.
But let's get back into it withtoday's money Buddy, who is Rob
Finley?
I.
Rob Finley is a Wall StreetJournal, bestselling author,
seasoned entrepreneur, renownedspeaker, and father of four.
He is a successful entrepreneurand commercial real estate
investor.
When Rob is not in his day job,he's passionate about
agriculture, exploring newpractices and sustainable
(03:13):
methods to enhance environmentalstewardship and farming.
But he recently released a booktitled, Hey Dad, and that's what
brings him on today's podcast.
So we will get into his book andtalk about it a little bit more,
but.
Think of it as the premise of,Hey dad, how do I do this?
And we're gonna be talking aboutthat.
Hey dad, how do I manage myfinances?
Portion of it today?
But the money talking points forthis week are, how can tracking
(03:36):
your expenses help you getstarted?
Two, what's something you wishyou would've been taught in
school?
And three, how can you avoid theearly dangers of finance?
With those many talking pointsin mind, let's get talking with
Rob Finley and welcome him tothe show.
(04:00):
Welcome to the show.
Rob, thank you so much forjoining.
I'm excited to have you here forthis conversation.
Rob Finlay (04:05):
Oh, thanks for having me, Skyler.
It's great to be here.
Skyler (04:07):
This is gonna be a fun one.
I'm excited to talk about someof the ideas that maybe we feel
like we weren't taught inschool.
Some of those things thateveryone struggles with, they're
like, oh, I wish I'd have beentaught taxes, or everyone knows
those sort of things.
So I'm excited for thisconversation, Let's start off by
laying the groundwork with whatare some of the common things
that people feel like they don'tknow when it comes to adulting
(04:28):
with money?
Rob Finlay (04:30):
I think there's quite a few things.
one of the biggest things is.
Money and how it's used.
Is I think a lot of times youngadults come out and they think
more about how much moneythey're gonna make, but in
reality it's about planning andsetting budgets.
And so I think one of the firstthings that I always recommend
to young adults is budget.
(04:51):
And a budget is so importantbecause it's a map of where
you're gonna go and without abudget, you have no idea and
you're just gonna spend money.
And I think if I look back at mylife, When I had a budget,
things were okay.
When I didn't have a budget,things went sideways very
quickly.
and I think a lot of peopleassume that budgets are
restricted, like a budget is abad thing.
(05:13):
A budget will help you feelliberated and really deliver
financial freedom.
Skyler (05:17):
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
I like the idea that it deliversfreedom because.
it certainly can restrictpeople.
maybe if you're coming at itfrom too aggressive of an angle
or you feel like the only thingyou can do is cut back your
spending, and that's all thepurpose of a budget is.
How do you think people get tothat point where a budget can be
more freeing and lead to thatfreedom?
Rob Finlay (05:36):
I think it comes down to a couple things.
One, living within your means,right?
And a budget will help you dothat.
I think where people get introuble is all of a sudden
you're an adult and you go andget your first apartment only to
realize like, oh wait a second,I have to pay for.
Rubb removal, or I have to paythis fee and this pet, or hey, I
just a, and adds an incredibleexpense to somebody's budget.
Skyler (05:59):
Yeah, we just got one, so I'm feeling that expense,
head on right now.
Rob Finlay (06:03):
There you go.
Right?
It's like, yeah.
I mean, nothing puts more in,you know, it's, it's a, it's
like a, you know, anotherconsumer in your, in your
household, one that hasunlimited budget.
but in reality we start to thinkabout the things where I I think
they can be liberating andthere's a lot of freedom in
understanding that if you'relooking at the expense and you
know it's gonna happen.
(06:23):
And you plan and you know yourbudget and where you can go into
it gives you the freedom so thatyou can make decisions quickly.
Can I afford this car?
Okay, I've done this budget andI've realized I can afford$500 a
month in a car payment.
Okay, well now let's go figureout, let's back into what kind
of car you can get.
So it's not like, you're doingit logically as opposed to being
(06:45):
very almost reactionary like,oh, I just bought a new I
thought it was gonna be$500.
Oh no, it's actually,$800 now.
I'm in trouble
Skyler (06:52):
How have you seen that ability to make quick decisions
because of a budget help you inyour life?
Rob Finlay (06:58):
Budget's about everything, right?
once again, I wanna focus on,people think, when I first went
with my own kids aboutbudgeting, they all thought, oh
no, this is bad.
I don't wanna do that.
But then all of a sudden theystart saying, well, this is
actually eye-opening.
And actually when you look atbudgets and you have things
like, Hey.
You you should put money for funstuff on your budget.
(07:18):
You should put stuff for savingson your budget.
that that you can enjoy on yourbudget.
it's not about delayinggratification.
It is all about knowing how muchgratification you can take at
this moment.
what helped me early on wasreally understanding
compounding.
The benefit of compoundingbecause when you start to say,
geez, if I just put a little bitof money away now, that's gonna
(07:41):
be a huge benefit going forward.
maybe I don't need that reallynice car now and but soon I will
be able to afford somethinggreat and, have some financial
freedom going forward.
Skyler (07:52):
Yeah.
I like that idea of just puttinga little bit away now, and
that's something that.
My wife and I are currentlydealing with we have these
student loans that we wanna payoff from her PA school, but we
also know that we're young andthis money has so much more time
to grow.
So that's a real battle.
How can people who are gettinginto their finances find that
battle within their budgetbetween saving or paying down
(08:12):
debt and investing?
Rob Finlay (08:14):
Yeah, I have this concept of good interest and bad
interest, right.
And I, And I, think, you know,obviously as, as you can start
to go into more financial stuff,you can look at it both ways.
I try to equate very simply forpeople who don't understand, I
wrote my book, Hey Dad, abouthelping young adults transition
from being, dependent.
(08:34):
On their parents to independentpeople.
And one of the things yourealize is Hey, you went to PA
school or you're a biology majorwe will talk about this later.
school isn't teaching us aboutinterest rates.
Right.
And, and things like that.
So the first experience youngadults could have to interest
rates.
Is when they start to look at itfor real and they're responsible
(08:56):
for it.
And so I take this approach ofgood interest versus bad
interest.
good interest is money thatpeople are paying you, right?
So I put money into a moneymarket, it pays me.
So that's good interest.
I take money and I pay my creditcard debt or my school loans,
that's bad.
(09:16):
And the way that I try toadvise.
Young adults is to, there's,there's a interest rate
associated with everything thatyou receive or pay.
So if I look at it and I say,okay, well my interest rate that
I'm receiving on my money marketis 3%, 4%, whatever it is, but I
pay 22% on my credit cards.
(09:40):
it makes more sense for me topay off my credit card debt than
it is for me to keep puttingmore money into my savings.
And so that's the, those are thekey concepts I want people to
look at.
Same thing with you, studentdebt.
Well, you have to look how muchare you earning on your savings
Skyler (10:01):
Yeah, it's about three and a half percent right now
versus 7% on the student loans.
Rob Finlay (10:05):
So, I mean, there you definitely want to have some
cushion, right?
I think one of the biggest fearsfor any young adult, and this is
the number one thing, have somerainy day savings have something
that you do not touch.
matter because ultimately youget your dog, and the dog gets
into, something and you have togo to the emergency room vet and
(10:25):
you're gonna have to pay forthat.
So always have some emergencyfunds.
But after that.
You should definitely be lookingat what is my cost of capital
versus, what am I borrowing atversus what am I receiving.
Skyler (10:40):
Yeah.
And you're gonna be hard pressedto find some sort of way that
credit card debt interest andcredit card debt makes sense to
keep, there is this trickybalance for my wife and I right
now, that these.
Student loans are there at aboutsix to 7%.
There are a couple differentloans, but could we earn more
than that over the long run inthe stock market?
Probably.
And so that's where it getsreally tricky, trying to debate
(11:01):
these returns that you don'thave an exact percentage for.
if I have that money marketaccount, if it for some reason
is earning 7% and our studentloans are at six, the math,
there's pretty simple that youcan earn more in one.
And if you.
Want to get into it and youwanna play the math game, there
is potential there to takeadvantage of those differences.
But that's what's tricky.
And I think what's hard,especially for young adults with
that incredibly long timehorizon, is that percentage that
(11:23):
you don't necessarily know orsee.
Do you have any advice forpeople on how they can still
consider investing money whenthey maybe don't see that exact
written out percentage?
Rob Finlay (11:32):
So I, it might be contrary to what many people
feel, but I would say don't.
Skyler (11:38):
Hmm.
Rob Finlay (11:38):
retail investors don't maximize and do not
achieve market results in thestock market.
they buy when it's high and sellwhen it's low, Unless you're
really astute and patient, yousaid that, and it's an operative
ward, a patient investor.
Sure if you put money in thestock market and you close your
eyes and you don't look at itagain, and you're well
diversified, you're in, fundsand index funds, whatever it is,
(12:01):
close your eyes and, over thathorizon, you're good.
if you're gonna watch that stockmarket every day and you're
gonna watch that stock and thinkthat you're gonna buy it at a
certain point, I don't know if Iwould do it.
So I think personally, here'sthe thing, no matter what.
You most likely will not getyour credit card debt interest
rate returned on
Skyler (12:22):
that one's not gonna happen.
You
Rob Finlay (12:23):
Right.
So, so for, so for anybody who'slistening, get rid of your
credit card debt.
Now, that's not to say don'thave credit cards.
Have credit cards.
Because one of the other thingsthat I talk about in my book
that's so important is creditscores.
Because as you mature yourhorizon, and I don't mean mature
physically or mentally, it'sjust like as your time horizon
(12:43):
as an adult continues yourpurchases.
We'll get bigger.
Right?
now you're looking to buy ahouse or a business or something
large.
if you were smart in thebeginning and understood how
credit scores work and theimportance of maintaining a
credit score, then you will havecredit cards and you'll use them
and and do it.
(13:04):
But you ultimately want a reallygood credit score when you go to
borrow large sums of money.
Skyler (13:10):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, this is fantastic.
we've covered a broad range ofthings already and we'll talk
about it.
We'll make sure to touch it atthe end.
your book, Hey, dad, is kind ofthat, Hey dad, what's this
solution?
What's this supposed to be?
I'm excited.
To hear more about the book, butwe're also covering a lot of
things, which I think is gonnabe great for everybody
listening, because there's gonnabe something that everyone
listening right now can say, oh,credit scores, I need to talk
(13:31):
about that more.
please reach out to us.
Or it's budgeting.
Maybe they say, oh, it feelsrestricting to me.
How can I get help?
Making it not feel restricting.
I love where we're going.
We're really covering.
A wide gamut today, and I thinkthat's great.
Let's talk a little bit aboutcredit cards, because this is
something I'm starting to getmore into.
I went a little too hard intocredit card hacking, at the
beginning and kind of burntmyself out on it.
(13:51):
But let's touch on how creditcards can be a useful tool.
are you a fan of credit cardrewards and such?
Rob Finlay (13:57):
I do, and some, I think if you do for travel and
things like that, there are somereally good opportunities for
people there.
quite frankly, I don't focus alot on that, because I think
there's better times.
Yes, You can always swap outcredit cards.
the most important thing withcredit cards is don't carry
balances.
I mean that to me is you you cansit there and yes, maybe it's a
(14:18):
habit, just like couponing is ahabit and a fun, uh, hobby for
people.
credit card hacking is anothergreat hobby.
ultimately, if somebody takesaway one thing from me talking
carrying credit card balances isbad.
Having a credit card is good.
Having it as a standby line ofcredit in case a real emergency
happens is good.
(14:38):
But using a credit card tocreate credit scores is what's
important.
Skyler (14:44):
And you don't have to pay interest to create a credit
score.
I think that's, that's a myth Ihave tried to bust is if you get
that statement to renew and thenyou pay off that statement
balance, there's no interestcharge and your credit score is
better off for it.
So it's kind of a myth thatthese banks and credit unions
sell that you call and you say,how can I.
Increase my credit.
They're like, well, get a creditcard, put your gas on it and
just pay the minimum payment.
(15:04):
It's like, you don't have to dothat.
They're just making free moneyoff of you.
Rob Finlay (15:07):
Right, right, right, If I was earning 22 or 28% on
you, I would tell you, to keepit.
I keep it in there.
too.
Let's just pay a little bit.
and I think that's for peoplewho aren't math majors or
finance majors, this is reallyimportant stuff, and that comes
back to.
an adult is a lot, right?
You're, I equate this to, ifyou've traveled in an airport
(15:29):
and they have these, walkwaysthat move, right?
sort of like an escalator, butthey're, walkways.
And I think our life as a youngadult is very much like you.
You get on at one part of theterminal and you go through all
the gates on this road.
You're going from first grade,second grade, third grade, so on
and so forth.
Ultimately.
You get off at your gate and nowyou have to figure out what
you're going to do.
(15:49):
a lot of things that happen thatare well beyond just, you know,
getting a job and where you'regonna live.
But ultimately it comes down tohaving the financial freedom and
the financial independence,which is why if you don't have
that background in it.
You really need to study.
You really need to allocate timeto understand the things that
(16:10):
make up your financial life.
All the stuff that your parentswere doing to support you.
You have to, and learn.
Skyler (16:17):
Yeah.
And it's important to learn itor at least try to learn it.
'cause if you just bury yourhead in the sand, you're gonna
end up in a worse off positionwith credit card debt and things
like that.
Rob Finlay (16:25):
Oh, yeah.
For taxes.
I mean, you can get in troublewith taxes not knowing you had a
side hustle don't pay yourtaxes, right?
Those are, Those are, realthings that happen.
Skyler (16:32):
Yeah.
And taxes was the next area Iwanted to touch on.
So thank you for this perfecttransition.
This is something that I thinkevery person ever has said.
Why was I never taught how to dothis?
why is it so important to makesure we know about this area?
Why isn't it taught, and thingslike that.
Rob Finlay (16:46):
Yeah, I think there's, a, tendency with a lot
of financial literacy.
Is to make it very confusing sothat you will go to experts.
And I think that is somethingwhere, financial stuff, I'm in
my, my day job is in capitalmarkets.
And, and, and so yes, it isvery, very.
(17:07):
Sophisticated and difficult tounderstand, but that's one
little part of it, right?
Understanding basic conceptslike taxes and uh, investing are
important and you should havethe basics.
But I do think that, that thereis a point where it is so cheap
and easy to get tax advice andyour taxes done, it makes sense
(17:30):
to use an expert because is alot to it, these tax codes.
So I, I go back to thisfinancial literacy.
I think we should, as youngadults and, and, and everybody
should understand the basics oftaxes, right?
What you need to do, exemptions,deductions, why you pay taxes,
why some things are morebeneficial than others.
(17:50):
But then really rely on theexperts to give you the real
specific guidance.
I do think, look, people go tograduate school just to
understand taxes.
Right.
So, So, these these are complexthings, so understand the
basics, you're in physicaltherapy, right?
Is that what you were saying
Skyler (18:05):
my wife is a physician assistant,
Rob Finlay (18:06):
Okay.
Oh, pa Okay, so, so a pa, right?
I know that if I have a fever,go take Tylenol.
But if it's anything more thanthat, I go to an expert.
And I think if we try to createfinancial literacy to understand
the basics, but knowing when togo to a professional is, is,
important.
Skyler (18:24):
Yeah, and same thing goes with money is there's these
different steps ofprofessionals, like maybe
there's a coach because you onlyneed to get past that basics of
budgeting and you need that nextstep on budgeting.
But then there's a CPA for maybelike you're starting that side
hustle and a business and thingslike that.
And you need the tax help orthere's financial planners that
are gonna help you with thewhole entire thing of retirement
planning and estate stuff Sothere's definitely the people
(18:45):
you can go to.
Why is it useful to have thesetrusted resources in our lives?
Rob Finlay (18:51):
Because I think there is some complexity into
it, right?
Having these, these expertsthough, can really help you get
to a much better foundation.
And they're not hard.
And I think that's the barrierwe should try to break down is
if you can go talk to somebodyat Fidelity Investments and they
have so many resources out therefor you to get.
(19:11):
Advice that you should takeadvantage.
Don't be afraid to ask peoplefor advice.
Don't be afraid to go to thesetrusted advisors because they
will help you incrementally growyourself and grow your
investments.
Help you grow your budgets ormaintain your budgets and really
get you into this financialfreedom.
I think I keep on using thisword financial freedom I think
(19:33):
if you look at the stress thatmost young people have, at least
me personally, when I wasgrowing up, it was all about
financial freedom.
Did I have enough money?
And it was so much stress, like,you know, most marriage and
relationship battles happen,with finances and stuff like
that.
So having a good understandingof your finances and a good
(19:55):
budget will help make your lifesmoother and easier.
Skyler (19:59):
Yeah, and I think so many young adults, or really
anybody now YouTube Universityis gonna be the first place they
go to learn about money, but.
You really gotta take that nextstep and ask someone directly as
well, because your questions,you're always gonna hear some
sort of financial advisor or adisclaimer at the end saying,
your situation is unique.
We didn't consider your specificthings.
And that's a cue to tell you,Hey, I need to ask somebody this
(20:21):
specific question.
I encourage this a lot because alot of people listen to the big
YouTube shows or big podcastsbut there's so many other people
out there too that you can askthese questions to.
Rob Finlay (20:29):
I interviewed 30 experts in all fields from
financial advice to budgetingto, investment parameters,
banking, you name it.
And I think that was theirthing.
That was, they're approachable,right?
And, and in fact, a lot ofpeople who take a lot of pride
in their, in their job and theirprofession.
Want people to ask them and, andwant their advice.
(20:51):
'cause the, the alternative, andyou talked about social media.
One of the biggest fears, andthis was, this was a, a, a theme
that was every single person Ispoke to in my interview, on my
book, especially aroundfinances, taxes, credit, all
said the same thing.
They all had this one theme,which is.
Make sure if you get advice, youknow the advice you're getting
(21:14):
is from a credible source.
Because I think in this day andage, yes, YouTube is great, but
making sure that you understandwho is that person giving you
advice on YouTube and what istheir purpose for giving you
advice.
what are their credentials,right?
I can go on, right, or they can,right?
I, I go on, I go on Instagramand there's a guy there that
(21:35):
tells me I can make a milliondollars overnight.
Okay, well if you're making amillion dollars overnight, why
are you on Instagram telling mehow to make a a million dollars
overnight?
It's, it's that kind of stuff.
And if you look and peel thelayer of the onion back, you
realize this person's not reallyhas anything.
So making sure you get youradvice from credible people who
(21:59):
have experience, who understandthe technical requirements of
doing this, and once again, likeyou talk about taxes, like you
wanna get into trouble, right?
really ruin your life early,don't pay your bills, don't pay
your taxes, right?
You really wanna ruin yourselffor life, do those two things.
And making sure that you dothese things right and you're
(22:20):
paying your bills and you payingyour taxes is critical to
survival.
Skyler (22:24):
Yeah.
And paying your taxes isdefinitely up there.
the IRS is like any othercreditor except they have guns
and can take all your stuff.
they can just come and do whatthey need to do because they're
the IRS.
So if you're not gonna paysomebody, make sure it's not the
IRS.
Rob Finlay (22:37):
Right.
and quite frankly, you should bepaying everybody, right?
I mean, being in debt is a toughthing, right?
and debt is good and, valuableto you going forward.
But at that same token, Youcan't get over levered too much
debt, but you do need to payyour bills and your creditors
because if you don't pay it now,it grabs on and it stays with
(22:58):
you.
And, and learning about creditand understanding that these,
you know, Hey, I missed thatpayment, or, oops, I missed it
without trying to solve it.
Will not help you.
These things stay with you andwill be detrimental to your
ongoing borrowing and financialfreedom.
Skyler (23:12):
Yeah.
What does financial freedom meanto you?
So maybe you are, taking thesetopics and ideas that you're
learning about and applying'emto your life, I'm sure.
What does that freedom pointmean to you?
Rob Finlay (23:23):
Freedom means that you don't worry about it, right?
It's not that you're not worriedabout money and stuff like that,
but it just means I have enoughfinancial freedom to know that I
know what my money's coming in.
Where it's going and I haveenough in savings that if I have
an oh crap moment, I can coverit.
I have enough money that I'minvesting that will grow.
(23:44):
So I'm living within my means.
that doesn't mean I don't go onvacations.
That doesn't mean I don't go outto dinner and have fun.
Doesn't mean I don't haveNetflix and apple tv.
I live within, I know my topline revenue and I know my
expenses.
that's what financial freedommeans to me.
It's not about having unlimitedmoney.
in.
I'm not, I'm not Jeff Bezos whodoesn't have to worry.
(24:06):
I'm not that person.
So I have to think about.
Am I living within my means?
And within that means am Ienjoying and I'm not worried
about it.
The old me, when I first startedout, became a young adult and I
had a, a child at a very earlyage.
I had no financial freedombecause I had no budget.
I had no idea what kind of moneyI had, where I was spending my,
(24:28):
I had no idea.
I had no idea and I relied on mycredit cards to support my
lifestyle and, and I was a very,very bad situation.
So financial freedom is justbeing able to enjoy being
financially free.
Skyler (24:43):
And there you go.
I love that.
one of the things I love to tellpeople is you can worry about
your money just a little bit andmake sure to put some dedicated
focus into it.
Or if you don't do that, you'regonna worry about it all the
time, not be able to sleep.
It's always gonna have that bigburden on you, so you have to
commit at least some time tofocus on your money.
Think about it, because whetherwe like it or not, money touches
every aspect, every avenue ofour lives, and we're gonna have
(25:07):
to consider it at some point.
Let's say that young adult isjust getting started.
Maybe they had a bit of a rockyroad, but they're not buried in
debt.
Maybe they have a thousand,$2,000 in credit card debt
Nothing crazy.
How can they begin to get backon track with it?
Rob Finlay (25:21):
I think it comes down to looking at, once again,
you have to look at a budget,right?
I don't wanna belabor the.
Point, but you have to see whereelse It's Right?
you need to see where it'sgoing.
'cause if you don't see whereit's going, you have no idea how
to fix it, right?
it's like, you know, you're in asinking ship and you don't look
for the hole in the boat, right?
you've gotta figure out whereit's coming so you can at least
try to plug it up.
Then you look through it, andthen you prioritize where, where
(25:42):
are these, where's this moneycoming in and, and where is it
going out and what is necessaryand what's.
What's critical, what's sort ofa nice to have?
I think by separating that, youstart to look and say, geez, you
know what, yeah, I've beenreally good.
I've got that$2,000 worth ofdebt.
But you know what, I love sportsbetting and maybe, maybe it's.
(26:02):
Maybe we, we change that alittle bit or, oh geez, you know
what?
I go out Thursday, Friday,Saturday night with my friends
and we go crazy.
Right?
It's like, yeah, okay, wellmaybe you just go and do one or
two back to that.
Financial freedom doesn't meanyou don't go out, right?
Because it's important that yougo out.
You're not being a shut in andjust, you know, Scrooge with
your money.
You've gotta be able to go outand enjoy, right?
(26:23):
Otherwise.
Why work?
So you still do it, but justfocus on what's really
important.
Make a little bit of a sacrificein your spending.
And it's not just sacrifice,it's a reallocation, it's a
short term reallocation of yourmoney.
I'm not gonna go out this week.
I'm gonna take that$150 or$200 Iwas gonna spend, and I'm going
(26:43):
to put that into my credit carddebt.
there's, you know, after 10weeks, you'd be pretty good.
Skyler (26:50):
Yeah.
Take that little bit ofsacrifice.
And even if, budgeting can kindof beat this dead horse that
finances just beat on.
if you're scared of that budgetword and you don't want to jump
right into it, I recommendpeople to just start tracking
your expenses.
At the very least because you'regonna then be able to visualize,
If you start to track yourspending, you're gonna see, oh,
I'm spending$300 every week ortwo on going out to eat.
(27:11):
And then you tell your friendsthat you're doing that and
they're gonna say, holy cow, I'mspending that much too.
And then you're collectivelytogether gonna be able to say,
let's not do that, and you'renot gonna have to worry about
making enemies
Rob Finlay (27:22):
Right, or let's focus on it, right?
instead of doing it a coupletimes, let's do it once, or Hey,
let's do once going out andlet's do a barbecue at the
house, house.
It's like doing that kind ofstuff.
So it's not like being ashut-in, but you, you're
absolutely right.
I mean, when you start to trackyour expenses, and that's a
great point.
Tracking your expenses, you canstart to see where things go and
look, it's, look at all the appsyou have, right?
(27:42):
That maybe I didn't need thatapp.
And, you know, and, andsubscriptions.
I mean, you start seeing a lotof these things come out where
they're tracking subscriptionswriting this book and talking to
experts, I started to do itmyself.
I've got Hulu, Netflix, youknow, Amazon, this, that, I'm
like, I only, I have one set ofeyes.
But anyways, it, it is importantthough, to prioritize where
(28:05):
you're spending your money, butyou've gotta see it first.
Skyler (28:07):
Yeah, you have no idea how to budget or where to budget
if you don't know where yourmoney's actually going.
And one of the things as well tonote here is that all the people
you're listening to on financialpodcasts or media or books
aren't perfect.
I've let subscriptions renew onaccident that I meant to cancel.
I'm sure you've had littlemistakes that you've adjusted
and corrected along the path.
So if you are in that situationwhere things are maybe a little
(28:28):
bit of a struggle, it's okay.
You can adapt and adjust andovercome it.
Rob Finlay (28:32):
Oh, absolutely.
you're never too deep in right?
It's, there's always a plan andthat's very liberating to be
able to say, I've got a planright there.
it's horrible to be in a placewhere you think you have no out,
but you do.
you do.
And there there's a way you canslowly, you can talk to, you
know, there, there are creditcompanies.
If you're way behind and in badshape, call'em, talk to'em,
(28:53):
Yeah.
Maybe they can help you, maybethey can't, but at least you're
gonna make a plan to go and beout.
And then once you master yourbudget, you know what you can
spend.
Now it comes to the fun time,which is.
Now I can look to how do I makemoney, right?
First thing is controlling thebleed.
Now I know how to control mybleed.
Now let me increase the topline.
And by investing and knowing howto invest money is'cause I think
(29:15):
that was one of the criticalthings I've learned.
It's like you come outta schooland you don't know the
difference between a stock and abond and ET, F and A, you know,
and this and that.
You don't know what, why, whatis Robinhood versus Charles
Schwab, right?
And, there's a lot ofinformation out there but once
you get that part, now, thesky's the limit.
Now you can really make realwealth for yourself.
Skyler (29:37):
that's fantastic.
Even if you're in trouble rightnow, you can make adjustments,
adapt, get back on path and getthings moving in the right
direction.
So Rob, this has been afantastic interview.
I got two final questions here.
First, I wanna give you a momentto talk about your book.
Hey Dad.
But then the second question.
Will be.
What's one thing you wish youwould've known sooner about
money when it comes to becomingan adult?
But first, how can people findyou and learn more about your
(29:57):
book?
Rob Finlay (29:57):
Sure, sure.
So they can find me online.
It's rob finlay.com.
you can go to my website andthen, you know, the book is
called, Hey Dad, everything youshould have Learned but Didn't
about being an adult.
it's a fun book.
I have four young adults, and soa lot of the questions come from
that, Hey dad, how do I.
Fill in the blank.
(30:18):
And so I went out and Iinterviewed 30 experts in all
things from budgeting, findingapartments, buying a car.
I even interviewed a NASCAR racecar driver and his crew chief
about how to take care of yourcar once you have it to a Navy
seal, about emergencies andeverything in between.
But it's really meant to be afoundation for you as a young
(30:38):
adult to be able to have the,the sort of the main food
groups.
Of going through this situationwhere you are going from being a
dependent child to a independentyoung adult
Skyler (30:51):
That's fantastic.
What's one thing you wish youwould've known sooner when you
were a young adult about money?
Rob Finlay (30:57):
laying out my expenses.
Not getting into credit carddebt.
Really understanding how, howimpactful that is and how that
stress of money in my earlylife, I still remember it to
this day, how painful it was tohave a new child not be able to
pay for things, be broke, andnot knowing how to solve it.
(31:18):
And it was finally putting abudget in place and I wouldn't
wish that on anybody that, thatsort of, that.
Of, of debt and, and financeswhen it's easy to fix.
Skyler (31:29):
Yeah, I love that.
You just gotta get right on thatpath and then it'll keep pushing
along for you.
Doors will open up,opportunities will open, things
will become easier, so that'sfantastic.
What a place to leave it on.
Rob, thank you so much forjoining.
This has been a greatconversation.
Rob Finlay (31:41):
Great.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Skyler (31:53):
Thank you so much to Rob for coming on and imparting some
of that great wisdom on us andhelping us learn.
About some of the things that weweren't taught about in school,
but let's get into the moneytalking points here today to
round out this episode.
The first one is, how cantracking your expenses help you
get started?
Well, it can help you getstarted by finding natural
options to cut back on yourspending.
It's also gonna be a whole loteasier to convince your friends
(32:14):
that you don't need to bespending money with some data.
The data can help you overcomethe behavior that you've been
fighting so hard to figure outor get under control because
it's gonna help you understandmore naturally that you're maybe
overspending in that areabecause you're gonna be able to
give yourself an actual numberto what you're spending.
This data can also help bringyou back to reality and help you
realize how much money you'respending, and then truly ask
(32:36):
yourself, is it worth it?
Which in that same vein ofconvincing your friends and
family that maybe you need tostop spending money in a certain
area.
You're gonna be able to have amore enjoyable time with your
friends and family becauseyou're going to be able to get
your spending under control, andyour friends and family will
thank you because they'reprobably also trying to not
spend so much money in certainareas.
So using your data.
Is going to help everybody whenit comes to getting their
(32:58):
spending under control.
And it's gonna become reallyeasy to make these decisions
just with some simple tracking.
And here's a story that I'veshared before, but let's talk
about eating out.
This is one of the majorexpenses for every single
American, and for me in highschool, it was a big deal.
I started tracking my expensesand realized this was a huge.
Line item for me and I told myfriends and we all realized that
(33:19):
we wanted to scale back becausewe were spending a lot, but we
also valued the time.
So really this allowed us topause and reconsider and say, do
we want to be spending the moneyin this area?
Yeah, let's go for it.
Let's enjoy spending moneyeating out.
We're not eating out thatexpensive.
Anything like that.
We weren't eating at fancyrestaurants, we were just
getting fast food.
Which side note may or may nothave been.
Good for us, but just in thefinancial realm, we were able to
(33:43):
pause and reconsider andunderstand that we did enjoy
that expense.
So what's something thattracking your expenses has
helped you realize you werespending too much on or right
after this episode, or evenright now, pause this episode.
Go plug in your expenses or yourcredit cards or whatever, into
some sort of tracking app likemy Budget Coach, which you can
sign up for in the show notes.
(34:03):
But then track your expenses andthen send me a text of which
expense category you realizednaturally that you were spending
too much money on.
You can find the link to text mein the top of the show notes,
but now that you've paused it orlooked at your expenses and
you're tracking, and now thatyou're starting to get some
categories under control, let'smove on to the second money
talking point, which is what'ssomething you wish you would've
been taught in school?
For me, it's taxes andinvesting.
(34:24):
I think that people are missingout on so much, and I remember
in my financial literacy class,we had this dumb assignment to
pick three or five stocks andtrack them each week in class.
It was a waste of time.
It did not teach us anything.
I don't remember a single thingfrom that exercise except the
fact that I chose.
Apple because I was a big Applefan boy in high school, but it
didn't teach us anything at allwhen it comes to investing.
(34:47):
We were just taught, well, ifyou look at the stock market, it
does numbers fancy, right?
But we weren't taught anythingabout how to actually invest,
let alone how to invest wellwith single stock picking like
we were doing, forget the singlestock picking.
We shouldn't have been doingthat anyways.
This class should have been agreat place to teach us about
indexed ETFs or other indexbased funds.
So that we could be a part ofthe whole market because the
(35:09):
single stock picking, if anyonedid follow what they learned in
that class, they would just begambling.
'cause we were not taught how toevaluate a stock or determine if
it was a good purchase or not.
We just chose stocks at random,which would set us up for
failure in the long run becauseit's just a gamble on the stock
market.
Now, of course, looking back, ifI would've just kept with those
stocks from the time I was inhigh school till now, they
would've made me good money.
(35:30):
But I had no way of knowing thator guessing on it is all it
really would've been.
So I really wish I would'velearned more about investing in
school because there's so muchopportunity for you young
listeners and those who arestill in school to get started
earlier and earlier.
The value of money when you'reyoung is incredible.
More particularly the value ofyour time as it relates to money
is even more incredible.
(35:51):
So learning earlier would begreat, and I wish it was taught
in school in more detail, indepth.
Of course, learning how to payour taxes and how those are paid
is something that everybodytalks about every single year.
But taxes are super complicated,and that's a completely
different side topic, which Iwon't dive into right now, about
why taxes have to be socomplicated.
But they are complicated.
And that's a good example of onetopic that comes up every single
(36:13):
year in terms of what'ssomething you wish you would've
learned in school, but what doyou wish you would've learned in
school?
Send me a text about it and I'llteach you about it in an
upcoming episode, and thenyou'll know about it.
So what do you wish you would'velearned in school?
You've been listening to thisepisode and some things came to
your mind.
Click that link in the top ofthe show notes.
Send me a text about that, and Iwill teach about it in a future
episode.
But thank you to everyone who'stexted me so far.
It's been really fun to engagewith listeners in this way.
(36:36):
And how it works is I receiveyour fan mail, it tells me the
last four of your phone number,and then I can relay those on
the podcast or put'em on thewebsite or things like that.
So make sure to be texting me.
It's really fun and exciting tosee those come in.
And if you want me to reply,leave your email or phone number
and I'd be happy.
To get back in touch with youand respond to your question
that way.
But just so you know, thosedon't provide me a way to
(36:56):
respond directly to each of you.
So if you are wanting aresponse, either keep listening
to the podcast and I'll talkabout'em on the show or gimme
some sort of email or contactinformation to reply to you
with.
But let's move on to the thirdmoney talking point.
How can you avoid the earlydangers of finance?
Well, the first thing here is toavoid credit card debt.
Try your absolute hardest tostay outta credit card debt.
(37:17):
And you may have heard me talkabout the myth.
Or just the lie of needing tocarry a credit card balance.
It is a flat out lie.
If you've ever been told thatyou need to carry a credit card
balance to improve your creditscore, you are misled, which is
unfortunate, but it's just not afact.
You don't need to carry it everysingle month.
I have never once paid anyamount of interest on a credit
card or carry it a balance overmultiple statements, and that is
(37:40):
the key thing.
No there, you don't have tocarry it over multiple
statements.
You can let it go for onestatement.
And then you pay off thestatement balance.
My credit score is doing great,and all of those credit cards
are still reporting their usagebecause that credit card balance
is reported to your credit scorewhen the credit card statement
is generated.
Now your goal is to pay off thatstatement balance before the due
(38:01):
date.
That is how you avoid interestwhile still having your credit
card balance help your creditscore.
So look at the statement balanceand pay that off by the due
date, and you'll be golden withcredit cards, no credit card
interest, and all the creditcard rewards.
Some of you may have beenlistening and just heard me talk
about avoiding credit card debtaltogether, but what have,
you've already found yourself inthe midst of this danger of
personal finance.
(38:21):
What do you do now?
Well, this is where you applythe first money talking point of
this episode.
You start tracking your expensesand income.
If your expenses are higher thanyour income, then you're never
gonna be able to get outtacredit card debt.
Simple as that.
It's just not possible.
You have to be realistic withyourself here.
You have to get your spendingback within your means and even
further below that.
'cause once you're back withinyour means and spending less
(38:43):
than you make now you're gonnahave some extra money to funnel
towards your credit card debtand work to get out of it.
Even if you come into some sortof large bonus at work or
overtime payments or things likethat.
If you're still regularlyspending beyond your income
every single month, you're nevergonna actually get outta credit
card debt.
No matter how much of a bonus orextra payment you throw towards
your credit card, eventuallyit's gonna creep back up because
(39:04):
you're always overspending yourincome.
So make sure to be carefulthere.
Make sure your spending is belowyour income period.
There's no exceptions there, orelse you will end up in credit
card debt.
Another thing to think abouthere, do not bother with 0%
balance transfer cards until youhave a true plan to get outta
credit card debt.
They're just another trap inorder to get you to move around
your debt to a new card and payinterest to them, unless you are
(39:26):
going to pay off the balancebefore the 0% expires.
Do not bother with it.
I have a 0% card that I'm usingright now and it's because
there's a plan in place for it.
We already have the money setaside ready to pay it off a
month before the interest startson the card so that money stays
put away and we never have toworry about any interest on the
card.
The auto pay to pay off, thewhole balance is already
scheduled in everything.
(39:47):
It's just waiting for that timeto happen.
The money's in a separateaccount earmarked for that
credit card, and that's it.
And it's because there's a plan.
That's why we can mess aroundwith 0% credit cards.
There are a lot of differentdangers to finance that you have
to be on the lookout for.
A few other ones are feelinglike you have to buy a house or
feeling like you have to buy anew car.
Those sort of things can be avery early and big trap with
(40:11):
your personal finances becauseyou may not need to buy a car,
so just be on the lookout.
Any sort of those, buy thenewest thing may be a trap.
I have a refurbished M1 ProMacBook that is doing phenomenal
for editing my podcast and anyother work that I needed to do,
but it's refurbished.
It wasn't brand new.
It was a great deal.
So be on the lookout for thosesort of things.
Anytime you're buying new,there's potential there to get
(40:33):
into some sort of financialtrap.
That's just something toconsider.
But if there is an early trapthat you would like to warn
people about or maybe you foundyourself in that you don't want
other people to find themselvesin, send me a text and I'll
mention it on the show in afuture episode and we can talk
about early financial traps.
That'd be a pretty fun episode.
But let's wrap this all up witha big thank you to Rob for
coming on this episode.
(40:53):
I know we talked about a lot inthis episode, but that's because
there's so much out there.
That we weren't taught about inschool.
I really hope that this canserve as an all-in-one kind of
episode so that you can share itwith your friends and have a
great money.
Talk about one of the topicsbecause we have all said, I wish
I was taught about this inschool, so now you have it, an
episode that covers a whole lotof those things.
One of the main things thatstood out to me is how much goes
(41:15):
into our personal financialsituations.
We may not need an expert or ahigh paid professional, but
having somebody in your cornerthat can be on your team is
incredibly helpful.
So shoot me a text and send meyour questions from this episode
and be sure if you wanna replydirectly, include an email or a
phone number in your textmessage.
I would love to talk about it.
Also, don't forget about theidea that I'm considering of
(41:35):
starting a Discord group for theMoney Buddies.
If you're interested in that,let me know and we can start
talking about money over there.
It'll be great to have a centralcommunity where we can all chat
about different questions andideas that we have and money
challenges we're going through.
But that does it for thisepisode.
I hope you learned a ton.
Remember to send me a text withthe brand new feature right at
the top of the show notesbecause it's a great way to get
(41:55):
in touch and ask me anyquestions that you might have
about this episode or your ownfinancial situation.
I.
Thank you all for listening totoday's episode.
The best way to stay up to dateand connected with All Things
Money Talk is to subscribe tothe podcast and sign up for my
email list.
Head over to Money talk.show andsubmit your name and email right
there on the homepage.
You can also use my contact pageon the website to send me any
(42:16):
questions.
If you're looking to get startedwith budgeting, I've partnered
with my budget coach, a platformthat connects your budget
directly to your financialcoach, and I'd love to work with
you over there.
And help you with yourbudgeting.
The link is in the show notes.
Remember, the best way to learnfrom today's episode is to go
and have a money talk abouttoday's topic with a fellow
money buddy.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's episode of Money Talk.
(42:36):
I'm your host, Skyler Fleming.
Have a great week.
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