February 17, 2026 • 16 mins
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If budgeting, saving, or paying off debt makes you feel awkward, overwhelmed, or just plain bad with money… this episode is for you.
In this episode, Brad shares a powerful story about teaching his son to drive, and why that experience perfectly explains what it feels like to start taking control of your finances.
Growth doesn’t feel good at first. It feels uncomfortable. It feels uncertain. It feels like you’re messing up.
But that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re learning.
If you’ve ever blown your budget, overspent, hesitated to look at your debt, or felt anxious about money conversations, you’re not broken. You’re just new.
It’s time to move Fear Forward.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brad Nelson (00:00):
Hey, so if you've ever felt that you're bad with
money because it feels hard,it's awkward, it's overwhelming,
this episode's gonna be for youbecause starting anything new,
as you probably know, it'suncomfortable.
Things like budgeting, payingoff debt, saving, even having
honest conversations aboutmoney.
Now, today I want to share justa personal story about my son
(00:21):
learning to drive.
And I know that might not makesense about how it works with
personal finances, but we'regonna talk about fear, we're
gonna talk about mistakes, we'regonna talk about discomfort,
and we're gonna feel like thosebeginning signs that you want to
start to quit, right?
These are signs that you'reactually growing.
Announcer (00:39):
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with
Brad Nelson.
Brad and his co-hostsexperience the anxiety of living
paycheck to paycheck beforelearning the fundamentals of
financial success.
They are now on a mission toempower regular people to pay
off their debt for good andenjoy happier, less stressful
lives.
Keep listening forinspirational interviews, tips,
(01:01):
tricks, and practical advice togain financial freedom.
Brad Nelson (01:07):
Welcome to today's show.
My name is Brad Nelson.
I'm the founder of Debt FreeDad.
I paid off about $45,000 ofdebt.
I've been debt-free now fornearly 13 years, and I've also
helped thousands of people overthe years, save and pay off tens
of millions of dollars with thework that we do here at Defree
Dad.
Now, guys, after listening tothis episode, if you're someone
who is ready to take things tothe next level, you're ready to
(01:29):
break free from living paycheckto paycheck, you want to reduce
financial stress, you want tobuild savings and finally pay
off your debt for good, butmaybe you're just not sure where
to get started.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources for
you here at Defree Dad.
We'll be sharing some detailsabout how you get some of those
later on in today's episode.
As I said, guys, I want toshare this story.
My son finally has got hislearner's permit.
(01:51):
And I say finally as a dadbecause he's been 16 now for a
few months and he's been workingon driver's ed, the online
version for well over sixmonths.
And I've had to get out hiscase a few times to kind of get
at it because I'm tired ofdriving them all over the place.
And it's time for him to growup a little bit, take some
responsibility, and obviouslyget his permit so we can get him
out driving on the road and sowe can get some practice,
(02:13):
obviously, before he gets on andtakes his test.
And I gotta tell you guys, thefirst time after he got his
learner's permit and he gotbehind the wheel, you guys
probably know if you rememberwhen you got your driver's
license, or your permit atleast, you know, you're nervous,
right?
And I would say honestly,nervous was putting it a little
(02:33):
lightly because I can just feellike he's just tense.
He's like, Oh my gosh, what amI gonna do?
I don't know how to do this.
You know, he was hesitantaround other cars, obviously on
the road.
Uh, he second guessed himselfconstantly about what he should
do next.
Should he make this turn?
Should I put my blinker on?
Uh, he did, in fact, blow acouple of stop signs.
(02:53):
I had to grab the wheel a fewtimes, and he overthought
everything.
And you can see it on his face.
That tight, focused, slightlypanicked look of someone
thinking, what if I mess thisup, or am I doing this right, or
what if I hit something?
And honestly, that's exactlywhat starting something new
(03:16):
feels like.
You see, driving, as many ofyou know, we all know, unless
you were a daredevil, I was not,but driving when at first, it's
scary, right?
You're in the control now ofsomething super powerful with a
car.
There's obviously a lot of riskif you mess up, you get hit
something or someone, right?
(03:36):
There's other people aroundyou.
Uh, you you almost feel uhexposed.
And when you're new, andespecially a teenager, it's the
first time you've ever felt thatway.
But the reality is, is the onlyway to get better is to keep
driving.
There's really no shortcut toany of it.
As you guys know, the only wayto overcome your fear and to get
(03:56):
better at it is to keep doingit.
There's no YouTube video thatreplaces that practice, there's
no pep talk that replaces theexperience of getting on the
road.
You have to sit in thatdiscomfort and own it.
You have to make those smallmistakes.
He had us run those stop signsso he could learn from that.
You have to feel thatawkwardness, you have to push
(04:17):
through all those nerves thatyou're feeling.
And guess what?
Now, he is still new, like he'sonly at his learner's
department now for about a week.
But just within a week, it'samazing the difference already
in him.
I mean, we've got him on theroad a lot already.
Now, again, he's not perfect.
He's still making mistakes, butI can tell he's way calmer.
He's got a lot more confidence,he's much more aware of what he
(04:39):
should and shouldn't be doingor where he should be looking
when making turns or making lanechanges.
Now, why is that?
Well, it's because he just didit and I made him do it, right?
He faced that fear.
And every time we made amistake, we would go over it,
right?
And because he stayed with it,now his confidence is growing.
Now, here's something else thatreally kind of stands out to me
(05:00):
in all of this, too.
I didn't just hand him the keysand say, good luck, Noah.
Obviously, that would be insaneand also very illegal, right?
He couldn't just go out anddrive by himself.
But I did get in the passengerseat.
Like if you're a parent, youknow exactly what I'm talking
about.
We get in the passenger seat,and before we even turn on the
car, what do we do?
We show them what everythingdoes, how everything works,
(05:23):
where the lights are, how themirrors work, how you use your
mirrors, what are the blindspots, what are some of the
lights that come on thedashboard, and what do you know,
warnings look like?
Where are the hazard lights?
We talked through differenttypes of situations before he
ever faced them.
I showed him where theemergency break was.
And then we started to go outand drive.
(05:44):
And as we drove together, Icoached him down every street as
we first got started, everyintersection that we pulled up
to, every situation that we cameupon.
Okay, Noah, you've got afour-way stop coming up.
All right.
Or no, now it's time to startslowing down.
You're coming up on a stopsign.
Hey, watch that car in the leftlane coming up on your left.
(06:05):
Don't let it scare you thathe's gonna pass you, and really
just encouraging him along theway.
And when he missed, made amistake, and admittedly it was
kind of hard.
I tried really hard not topanic, although there was one
instance where I did a littlebit because he's in full control
of this vehicle, as I am not.
But for the most part, I didn'tpanic.
I just pulled him over on theside of the street when he made
(06:26):
a mistake.
I corrected him, went through,hey, this is what you did, this
is what you can't do, and thisis what you should do in the
future.
I explained what happened, andthen just here's how you can
work to improve for the nexttime.
And when he did somethingright, I said it.
Hey, nice job.
That was a great turn.
You handled that very well.
You stopped without slamming onthe brakes.
Awesome job, right?
(06:47):
And so the reality is, is whywe do this as a parent and why
we take our kids out, you don'twant them to feel alone.
It's a big responsibility todrive a car, and that matters.
Because here's what I see andhow this relates with money.
So many people are trying tolearn how to drive financially.
And guess what?
They're doing it completelyalone or with some vague
(07:11):
guidance from some online videothey watched or some YouTube
video or some something a brokefriend or family member told
them to do.
They're doing it with no realcoach or someone who's done this
before, no real guidance, noone explaining what the
dashboard lights mean when itcomes to your personal finances,
no one, you know, reallysitting in the passenger seat
saying, hey, you want to watchout for this coming up here.
(07:32):
You want to watch out for that.
That was a really gooddecision.
You handle that correctly,right?
They're essentially, and formost of us, the reality is we
white knuckle it through ourfinances.
And I did too at first.
When I got started getting outof debt, I hoped I didn't crash.
I hope I didn't make anymistakes.
They assume, and I assumed, wewere all just bad at it, though,
(07:55):
when those mistakes happened,right?
When those crashes occurred.
And the reality is, is youknow, all of us, my son wasn't
necessarily bad at driving.
He knew the mechanics of avehicle.
Like he's driven around golfcarts and go-karts.
He understands the brake andthe gas.
And he wasn't bad at thedriving part.
He was just new at driving.
And most people aren'tnecessarily just bad with money,
(08:18):
they're just new at beingintentional with it and really
deciding how they're going touse their finances rather than
their finances taking control,right?
And their emotions.
There's a big difference inthat.
The first time you think aboutmaking a real budget or looking
at your total amount of debtthat you owe, or as we mentioned
(08:38):
on this podcast many, manytimes, going back and looking at
the last three to six months ofyour expenses and really
looking at your spendinghonestly, or getting in the
habit, especially a new habit ofsaying no to something that you
really, really want.
It feels just like driving forthe first time, really
uncomfortable.
You hesitate, you second guess,you might blow that stop sign,
(09:02):
blow that budget, you overspend,right?
You forget to track something,and guess what?
You start to feel discouragedand defeated.
That doesn't mean that you'renot cut out for any of the stuff
that we're talking about onthis podcast and getting out of
debt and improving yourfinances.
It means you're justpracticing.
What changed for Noah in thefirst week of having his
(09:22):
learner's permit, it wasn't histalent.
All right, it wasn't talent asit was for all of us.
It's just repetition.
It's just getting back outthere and doing it again.
Day after day, short littledrives, little corrections,
small wins here.
And then slowly, that fear, italmost is like a dial, right?
It starts to get turned down.
(09:44):
And confidence didn't show upbecause he felt ready.
You're never going to feelready.
He was not ready to drive.
He even told me that.
He's like, I'm afraid to drive.
It's one of the reasons why heslacked so much on getting
driver's ed done.
He was fearful of it.
He didn't feel ready.
You're never going to feelready when it comes to your
finances either.
It's just never going to be aperfect day that's going to show
up and say, today is the day Ineed to start working on this
(10:06):
stuff.
Confidence grew because he wentout there the first time and
then he went out there a secondtime and he just kept on going.
And also because he had someguidance.
Getting help isn't a weakness.
It's actually a wisdom.
I mean, why would you want toreinvent the wheel?
Why wouldn't you want topiggyback on somebody else who's
already done all of this workand has already gone through all
(10:28):
the pitfalls and the pain ofgetting out of debt and telling
you, hey, these are the thingsto do and these are the things
not to do, right?
So just because you're gettinghelp, it doesn't mean that you
can't do it.
It means you don't have tofigure it out the hard way.
And when it comes to coachingand even this podcast and
getting around other like-mindedpeople who want to reach
(10:49):
financial goals that are similarto yours, it speeds up that
confidence and that progress,right?
Correction, it prevents biggermistakes and it honestly
prevents you from quitting inthe long run.
Because that encouragement thatyou're going to get, like I
gave my son while he's driving,what does that do?
It builds momentum.
Hey, I did well on this one.
I want to get back out there.
And that's exactly whathappened day after day.
(11:10):
I want to start driving.
I want to drive again.
I want to drive more.
We got him on the highway doing55, 60 miles an hour.
And as he's doing it, he'sgetting more and more confident.
And that accountability, itkeeps showing up.
That's true also, like I said,with your finances and with
learning to drive.
It's true when it comes towanting to get out of debt, when
it comes to budgeting.
(11:30):
And it's true with anything,honestly, that we talk about
that's worth learning about,right?
If you think about anything,your job, I mean, anything that
you've had in your life, youwere new at one time to it.
But for some reason, when itcomes to our finances, we have
this mindset of, you know, Ishould I should just know how to
do this.
Well, that's just not the case,sadly.
Right.
So here's the big takeaway.
(11:51):
Growth feels like anxiety atfirst.
Improvement feels like almostincompetence at first.
You almost feel stupid.
And I feel that way too.
It's like when I startsomething new, I just want to be
good at it already.
I don't want to go through thepain of learning how to do it.
But sadly, there's no other wayto do it.
You just have to go throughthat pain.
Progress feels like discomfort,right?
(12:13):
That doesn't mean that you're afailure or that you suck at it.
It just means that you'relearning and that you're just
new at it and you just need tokeep doing it.
You don't get confident rightaway at the start.
You get confident as you getthose small little wins, and
then confidence begins to growthe more action you begin to
take.
That's the order.
(12:33):
So if you're at the beginningof your financial journey, if it
feels overwhelming to you, ifit feels awkward, if you feel
like you're blowing the stopsigns like my son Noah did,
that's good.
Right.
And I even told him that.
I was like, dude, it's okay.
I'm glad you did that becausenow we can talk about why that
happened.
What are the things to makesure that you avoid that in the
(12:55):
future?
And then also talking about theconsequences of what happens if
you don't improve that skill,if you don't stop at that stop
sign.
Same thing that comes with yourfinances.
All right.
It's a good sign when you'reblowing those stop signs,
especially when you're firstgetting started.
It means that you're finally inthe driver's seat.
My encouragement for you todayon today's show is just to stay
(13:15):
with it.
Pick it up again tomorrow, openyour budget, track your
spending, have the conversationsabout finances with your
partner or your spouse, startmaking those small corrections
and just keep building on thoserepetitions of doing this stuff
every single day.
Because the only way is to facethat fear, is to fear forward,
(13:38):
right?
And consistency is what turnsfear into confidence.
And listen, like I said, youdon't have to do this alone.
That's exactly why Defree Dadexists.
That's why we build ourmembership site, Roots Personal
Finance.
Because inside Roots, you don'tget just a budgeting template
and we give you a thumbs up andyou're on your way and all by
yourself.
You get us, you get guidance,you get ongoing coaching, you
(14:02):
get a group, a large group ofpeople who are also working on
this very same thing, who aregoing through the same types of
struggles and they're feelingsome of that pain.
And a lot of them have alreadypushed through a lot of that,
and they're going to be there toencourage you as well.
The cool part is you also getcorrection when you need it.
Things aren't going well, yougot a great group of people to
lean on.
You get encouragement thatyou're doing it right, and you
(14:25):
get accountability, which is thekey to ongoing consistency so
you don't quit.
So if you're ready to build alittle bit more confidence with
your money and you wantsomething more than just say
this podcast, I invite you to,you know, jump on our Roots
Personal Finance wait list.
We don't have an openmembership.
We only open it several times ayear.
But if it's something thatyou're interested in, I highly
recommend you jump on the waitlist.
You can go over to our websiteat defreedad.com and click on
(14:47):
free resources and you'll see await list button there.
You can also click the link inthe comments of the show notes
of this podcast episode.
All right, guys, if you areready to break free from living
paycheck to paycheck, you wantto reduce financial stress, you
want to build savings, finallypay off your debt for good.
But again, you're just not surewhere to get started.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources to
(15:07):
help kind of kickstart you.
And you can get that withSimplify My Money.
Now, Simplify My Money is yourstep-by-step roadmap to better
financial control.
It's going to help you createand make better money decisions,
stress-free money decisionmaking.
And you're also going to gainthe tools and confidence to
tackle your financial goals headon.
You can sign up for this freenewsletter by clicking the link
(15:30):
at the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's show, and we will see
you guys on the next episode.
Thanks
for listening to the Debt FreeDad podcast.
Connect with us on Facebook,TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
Just search Debt Free Dad.
If you found value in today'sepisode, please leave us a
(15:53):
rating and review.
We so appreciate it.
For resources, show notes, andlinks mentioned in today's show,
visit debtfreedad.com.
Catch you next week.
Hey, so if you've ever felt that you're bad with
money because it feels hard,it's awkward, it's overwhelming,
this episode's gonna be for youbecause starting anything new,
as you probably know, it'suncomfortable.
Things like budgeting, payingoff debt, saving, even having
honest conversations aboutmoney.
Now, today I want to share justa personal story about my son
(00:21):
learning to drive.
And I know that might not makesense about how it works with
personal finances, but we'regonna talk about fear, we're
gonna talk about mistakes, we'regonna talk about discomfort,
and we're gonna feel like thosebeginning signs that you want to
start to quit, right?
These are signs that you'reactually growing.
Announcer (00:39):
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with
Brad Nelson.
Brad and his co-hostsexperience the anxiety of living
paycheck to paycheck beforelearning the fundamentals of
financial success.
They are now on a mission toempower regular people to pay
off their debt for good andenjoy happier, less stressful
lives.
Keep listening forinspirational interviews, tips,
(01:01):
tricks, and practical advice togain financial freedom.
Brad Nelson (01:07):
Welcome to today's show.
My name is Brad Nelson.
I'm the founder of Debt FreeDad.
I paid off about $45,000 ofdebt.
I've been debt-free now fornearly 13 years, and I've also
helped thousands of people overthe years, save and pay off tens
of millions of dollars with thework that we do here at Defree
Dad.
Now, guys, after listening tothis episode, if you're someone
who is ready to take things tothe next level, you're ready to
(01:29):
break free from living paycheckto paycheck, you want to reduce
financial stress, you want tobuild savings and finally pay
off your debt for good, butmaybe you're just not sure where
to get started.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources for
you here at Defree Dad.
We'll be sharing some detailsabout how you get some of those
later on in today's episode.
As I said, guys, I want toshare this story.
My son finally has got hislearner's permit.
(01:51):
And I say finally as a dadbecause he's been 16 now for a
few months and he's been workingon driver's ed, the online
version for well over sixmonths.
And I've had to get out hiscase a few times to kind of get
at it because I'm tired ofdriving them all over the place.
And it's time for him to growup a little bit, take some
responsibility, and obviouslyget his permit so we can get him
out driving on the road and sowe can get some practice,
(02:13):
obviously, before he gets on andtakes his test.
And I gotta tell you guys, thefirst time after he got his
learner's permit and he gotbehind the wheel, you guys
probably know if you rememberwhen you got your driver's
license, or your permit atleast, you know, you're nervous,
right?
And I would say honestly,nervous was putting it a little
(02:33):
lightly because I can just feellike he's just tense.
He's like, Oh my gosh, what amI gonna do?
I don't know how to do this.
You know, he was hesitantaround other cars, obviously on
the road.
Uh, he second guessed himselfconstantly about what he should
do next.
Should he make this turn?
Should I put my blinker on?
Uh, he did, in fact, blow acouple of stop signs.
(02:53):
I had to grab the wheel a fewtimes, and he overthought
everything.
And you can see it on his face.
That tight, focused, slightlypanicked look of someone
thinking, what if I mess thisup, or am I doing this right, or
what if I hit something?
And honestly, that's exactlywhat starting something new
(03:16):
feels like.
You see, driving, as many ofyou know, we all know, unless
you were a daredevil, I was not,but driving when at first, it's
scary, right?
You're in the control now ofsomething super powerful with a
car.
There's obviously a lot of riskif you mess up, you get hit
something or someone, right?
(03:36):
There's other people aroundyou.
Uh, you you almost feel uhexposed.
And when you're new, andespecially a teenager, it's the
first time you've ever felt thatway.
But the reality is, is the onlyway to get better is to keep
driving.
There's really no shortcut toany of it.
As you guys know, the only wayto overcome your fear and to get
(03:56):
better at it is to keep doingit.
There's no YouTube video thatreplaces that practice, there's
no pep talk that replaces theexperience of getting on the
road.
You have to sit in thatdiscomfort and own it.
You have to make those smallmistakes.
He had us run those stop signsso he could learn from that.
You have to feel thatawkwardness, you have to push
(04:17):
through all those nerves thatyou're feeling.
And guess what?
Now, he is still new, like he'sonly at his learner's
department now for about a week.
But just within a week, it'samazing the difference already
in him.
I mean, we've got him on theroad a lot already.
Now, again, he's not perfect.
He's still making mistakes, butI can tell he's way calmer.
He's got a lot more confidence,he's much more aware of what he
(04:39):
should and shouldn't be doingor where he should be looking
when making turns or making lanechanges.
Now, why is that?
Well, it's because he just didit and I made him do it, right?
He faced that fear.
And every time we made amistake, we would go over it,
right?
And because he stayed with it,now his confidence is growing.
Now, here's something else thatreally kind of stands out to me
(05:00):
in all of this, too.
I didn't just hand him the keysand say, good luck, Noah.
Obviously, that would be insaneand also very illegal, right?
He couldn't just go out anddrive by himself.
But I did get in the passengerseat.
Like if you're a parent, youknow exactly what I'm talking
about.
We get in the passenger seat,and before we even turn on the
car, what do we do?
We show them what everythingdoes, how everything works,
(05:23):
where the lights are, how themirrors work, how you use your
mirrors, what are the blindspots, what are some of the
lights that come on thedashboard, and what do you know,
warnings look like?
Where are the hazard lights?
We talked through differenttypes of situations before he
ever faced them.
I showed him where theemergency break was.
And then we started to go outand drive.
(05:44):
And as we drove together, Icoached him down every street as
we first got started, everyintersection that we pulled up
to, every situation that we cameupon.
Okay, Noah, you've got afour-way stop coming up.
All right.
Or no, now it's time to startslowing down.
You're coming up on a stopsign.
Hey, watch that car in the leftlane coming up on your left.
(06:05):
Don't let it scare you thathe's gonna pass you, and really
just encouraging him along theway.
And when he missed, made amistake, and admittedly it was
kind of hard.
I tried really hard not topanic, although there was one
instance where I did a littlebit because he's in full control
of this vehicle, as I am not.
But for the most part, I didn'tpanic.
I just pulled him over on theside of the street when he made
(06:26):
a mistake.
I corrected him, went through,hey, this is what you did, this
is what you can't do, and thisis what you should do in the
future.
I explained what happened, andthen just here's how you can
work to improve for the nexttime.
And when he did somethingright, I said it.
Hey, nice job.
That was a great turn.
You handled that very well.
You stopped without slamming onthe brakes.
Awesome job, right?
(06:47):
And so the reality is, is whywe do this as a parent and why
we take our kids out, you don'twant them to feel alone.
It's a big responsibility todrive a car, and that matters.
Because here's what I see andhow this relates with money.
So many people are trying tolearn how to drive financially.
And guess what?
They're doing it completelyalone or with some vague
(07:11):
guidance from some online videothey watched or some YouTube
video or some something a brokefriend or family member told
them to do.
They're doing it with no realcoach or someone who's done this
before, no real guidance, noone explaining what the
dashboard lights mean when itcomes to your personal finances,
no one, you know, reallysitting in the passenger seat
saying, hey, you want to watchout for this coming up here.
(07:32):
You want to watch out for that.
That was a really gooddecision.
You handle that correctly,right?
They're essentially, and formost of us, the reality is we
white knuckle it through ourfinances.
And I did too at first.
When I got started getting outof debt, I hoped I didn't crash.
I hope I didn't make anymistakes.
They assume, and I assumed, wewere all just bad at it, though,
(07:55):
when those mistakes happened,right?
When those crashes occurred.
And the reality is, is youknow, all of us, my son wasn't
necessarily bad at driving.
He knew the mechanics of avehicle.
Like he's driven around golfcarts and go-karts.
He understands the brake andthe gas.
And he wasn't bad at thedriving part.
He was just new at driving.
And most people aren'tnecessarily just bad with money,
(08:18):
they're just new at beingintentional with it and really
deciding how they're going touse their finances rather than
their finances taking control,right?
And their emotions.
There's a big difference inthat.
The first time you think aboutmaking a real budget or looking
at your total amount of debtthat you owe, or as we mentioned
(08:38):
on this podcast many, manytimes, going back and looking at
the last three to six months ofyour expenses and really
looking at your spendinghonestly, or getting in the
habit, especially a new habit ofsaying no to something that you
really, really want.
It feels just like driving forthe first time, really
uncomfortable.
You hesitate, you second guess,you might blow that stop sign,
(09:02):
blow that budget, you overspend,right?
You forget to track something,and guess what?
You start to feel discouragedand defeated.
That doesn't mean that you'renot cut out for any of the stuff
that we're talking about onthis podcast and getting out of
debt and improving yourfinances.
It means you're justpracticing.
What changed for Noah in thefirst week of having his
(09:22):
learner's permit, it wasn't histalent.
All right, it wasn't talent asit was for all of us.
It's just repetition.
It's just getting back outthere and doing it again.
Day after day, short littledrives, little corrections,
small wins here.
And then slowly, that fear, italmost is like a dial, right?
It starts to get turned down.
(09:44):
And confidence didn't show upbecause he felt ready.
You're never going to feelready.
He was not ready to drive.
He even told me that.
He's like, I'm afraid to drive.
It's one of the reasons why heslacked so much on getting
driver's ed done.
He was fearful of it.
He didn't feel ready.
You're never going to feelready when it comes to your
finances either.
It's just never going to be aperfect day that's going to show
up and say, today is the day Ineed to start working on this
(10:06):
stuff.
Confidence grew because he wentout there the first time and
then he went out there a secondtime and he just kept on going.
And also because he had someguidance.
Getting help isn't a weakness.
It's actually a wisdom.
I mean, why would you want toreinvent the wheel?
Why wouldn't you want topiggyback on somebody else who's
already done all of this workand has already gone through all
(10:28):
the pitfalls and the pain ofgetting out of debt and telling
you, hey, these are the thingsto do and these are the things
not to do, right?
So just because you're gettinghelp, it doesn't mean that you
can't do it.
It means you don't have tofigure it out the hard way.
And when it comes to coachingand even this podcast and
getting around other like-mindedpeople who want to reach
(10:49):
financial goals that are similarto yours, it speeds up that
confidence and that progress,right?
Correction, it prevents biggermistakes and it honestly
prevents you from quitting inthe long run.
Because that encouragement thatyou're going to get, like I
gave my son while he's driving,what does that do?
It builds momentum.
Hey, I did well on this one.
I want to get back out there.
And that's exactly whathappened day after day.
(11:10):
I want to start driving.
I want to drive again.
I want to drive more.
We got him on the highway doing55, 60 miles an hour.
And as he's doing it, he'sgetting more and more confident.
And that accountability, itkeeps showing up.
That's true also, like I said,with your finances and with
learning to drive.
It's true when it comes towanting to get out of debt, when
it comes to budgeting.
(11:30):
And it's true with anything,honestly, that we talk about
that's worth learning about,right?
If you think about anything,your job, I mean, anything that
you've had in your life, youwere new at one time to it.
But for some reason, when itcomes to our finances, we have
this mindset of, you know, Ishould I should just know how to
do this.
Well, that's just not the case,sadly.
Right.
So here's the big takeaway.
(11:51):
Growth feels like anxiety atfirst.
Improvement feels like almostincompetence at first.
You almost feel stupid.
And I feel that way too.
It's like when I startsomething new, I just want to be
good at it already.
I don't want to go through thepain of learning how to do it.
But sadly, there's no other wayto do it.
You just have to go throughthat pain.
Progress feels like discomfort,right?
(12:13):
That doesn't mean that you're afailure or that you suck at it.
It just means that you'relearning and that you're just
new at it and you just need tokeep doing it.
You don't get confident rightaway at the start.
You get confident as you getthose small little wins, and
then confidence begins to growthe more action you begin to
take.
That's the order.
(12:33):
So if you're at the beginningof your financial journey, if it
feels overwhelming to you, ifit feels awkward, if you feel
like you're blowing the stopsigns like my son Noah did,
that's good.
Right.
And I even told him that.
I was like, dude, it's okay.
I'm glad you did that becausenow we can talk about why that
happened.
What are the things to makesure that you avoid that in the
(12:55):
future?
And then also talking about theconsequences of what happens if
you don't improve that skill,if you don't stop at that stop
sign.
Same thing that comes with yourfinances.
All right.
It's a good sign when you'reblowing those stop signs,
especially when you're firstgetting started.
It means that you're finally inthe driver's seat.
My encouragement for you todayon today's show is just to stay
(13:15):
with it.
Pick it up again tomorrow, openyour budget, track your
spending, have the conversationsabout finances with your
partner or your spouse, startmaking those small corrections
and just keep building on thoserepetitions of doing this stuff
every single day.
Because the only way is to facethat fear, is to fear forward,
(13:38):
right?
And consistency is what turnsfear into confidence.
And listen, like I said, youdon't have to do this alone.
That's exactly why Defree Dadexists.
That's why we build ourmembership site, Roots Personal
Finance.
Because inside Roots, you don'tget just a budgeting template
and we give you a thumbs up andyou're on your way and all by
yourself.
You get us, you get guidance,you get ongoing coaching, you
(14:02):
get a group, a large group ofpeople who are also working on
this very same thing, who aregoing through the same types of
struggles and they're feelingsome of that pain.
And a lot of them have alreadypushed through a lot of that,
and they're going to be there toencourage you as well.
The cool part is you also getcorrection when you need it.
Things aren't going well, yougot a great group of people to
lean on.
You get encouragement thatyou're doing it right, and you
(14:25):
get accountability, which is thekey to ongoing consistency so
you don't quit.
So if you're ready to build alittle bit more confidence with
your money and you wantsomething more than just say
this podcast, I invite you to,you know, jump on our Roots
Personal Finance wait list.
We don't have an openmembership.
We only open it several times ayear.
But if it's something thatyou're interested in, I highly
recommend you jump on the waitlist.
You can go over to our websiteat defreedad.com and click on
(14:47):
free resources and you'll see await list button there.
You can also click the link inthe comments of the show notes
of this podcast episode.
All right, guys, if you areready to break free from living
paycheck to paycheck, you wantto reduce financial stress, you
want to build savings, finallypay off your debt for good.
But again, you're just not surewhere to get started.
Well, we've created someincredible free resources to
(15:07):
help kind of kickstart you.
And you can get that withSimplify My Money.
Now, Simplify My Money is yourstep-by-step roadmap to better
financial control.
It's going to help you createand make better money decisions,
stress-free money decisionmaking.
And you're also going to gainthe tools and confidence to
tackle your financial goals headon.
You can sign up for this freenewsletter by clicking the link
(15:30):
at the top of the show notes.
Thanks for joining us ontoday's show, and we will see
you guys on the next episode.
Thanks
for listening to the Debt FreeDad podcast.
Connect with us on Facebook,TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
Just search Debt Free Dad.
If you found value in today'sepisode, please leave us a
(15:53):
rating and review.
We so appreciate it.
For resources, show notes, andlinks mentioned in today's show,
visit debtfreedad.com.
Catch you next week.
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