August 26, 2024 • 37 mins
🎙 Welcome Back to Season 4 of The Mindfully Rich Podcast! 🎙
New Series: "From Six Figures to Scraping By Rebuilding After Financial Distress"
This season, I'm kicking things off with a brand-new series that touches on the emotional and practical aspects of going from a high income to financial hardship, using savings to survive, and finding your way back to financial stability. Each episode will give you actionable tips and real-life advice on how to rebuild after financial setbacks.
Episode 2: "Surviving on Savings: Making It Last"
In today’s episode, we continue our journey through financial recovery. Now that we've recognized the fall from financial stability, it’s time to get strategic about surviving on what’s left. Even when the income stops, life doesn't. Bills keep coming, and responsibilities don’t just disappear. So, how do you stretch your savings? Here’s what we’ll cover:
🔑 Tip 1: Prioritize Essentials
- Start by identifying your non-negotiable expenses. What are the absolute essentials you can’t do without? Knowing this will help you cut back elsewhere without sacrificing your basic needs.
🔑 Tip 2: Negotiate with Creditors/Billers & Accessing Governmental Assistance
- It might feel daunting, but now’s the time to pick up the phone and talk to your creditors. Most companies are willing to work with you, whether it's lowering payments, deferring them, or finding other ways to help.
🔑 Tip 3: Seek Temporary Income
- Explore ways to bring in short-term cash flow. Whether it’s freelancing, gig work, or selling unused items, every little bit helps during tough times.
💬 Closing Thought:
Remember, tough times don't last, but tough people do. Surviving on savings is about being innovative, strategic, and unafraid to ask for help. It’s a temporary phase on the road to recovery—stay focused and keep moving forward!
📲 Connect with Me
If you're ready to take your finances to the next level in 2024, visit my website at www.iammindfullyrich.com to schedule a complimentary consultation. Let's rise together!
📢 Follow the Podcast
Instagram: @mindfully_rich_podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Mindfully
Rich Podcast, your weekly lookat life in finances with a twist
, where we talk about improvingyour overall relationship with
money and building betterfinancial habits.
On each episode, I'll discussreal life situations and give
y'all practical advice.
The point of this podcast is tohelp you stay in your financial
(00:22):
lane so you won't end up broke.
I'm the creator and host theGina Ritchie Richardson.
Now let's jump into today'sconversation.
What's up y'all?
What's up we back, and we backon time period.
Yes, if you're looking down, itis Monday.
You should be listening to this, unless you are listening on
(00:42):
another day.
Okay, don't mind the voice.
Okay, I told y'all, no matterwhat happened, I'm bringing a
podcast to y'all.
I've been singing yesterday, sothis is what we sound like.
I am drinking my water, beingvery mindful right now, but of
course y'all know always got tostart with gratitude.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
(01:03):
Since the podcast has come back,I guess we'll say for this
season four, y'all have beenlistening in droves and I truly
appreciate it.
I didn't been on my zoom, Ididn't been sharing it.
Your girl is excited.
Okay, let's just say that.
And so y'all just gonna have toput up with this raspiness
(01:25):
right now, because I didn't wantto put the podcast off.
I told y'all I'm comingregardless to whatever my voice
sound like, but I got my water,got my tea, got everything near
me, but just wanted to say thankyou, thank you, thank you to
all of the Rich Gang forlistening, for sharing, for
doing all of the things to makesure that this podcast is a
success.
(01:45):
And if you're new here, welcome.
We call ourselves the Rich Gang, of course, for obvious reasons
, and you are part of themarketing team, okay.
So if you're listening rightnow, I don't know what platform
you're listening on, but it isour culture here on the
Mindfully Rich Podcast to share.
We share this with our family,we share this with our circles.
(02:06):
We share this on social mediabecause one woman team over here
and I can't get this out toeverybody if y'all not the ones
who are sharing it amongsteverybody, because y'all are
everywhere.
I was looking at some of thestats and saying, okay, we got
some new listeners and right nowit's so interesting.
For the last episode, the topplaces listening was the US and
(02:30):
Germany.
I'm like who over in Germany?
What's up?
No, for real, I know I'm notthe one that's making that
happen.
Y'all had to be the one thatwas spreading this thing far and
wide that the podcast would bein Germany.
Okay, like when the podcastfirst started.
Like I know you can find itwhen you're on any of the
(02:52):
podcast streaming platforms.
When you're searching forpodcasts it may pop up.
But when I first started thepodcast, alaska was like one of
my best listened places and Iwas like, okay, who is over
there?
Why are people in See?
In my mind I'm thinking, okay,it's going to be Illinois
because I'm from Chicago, orit's going to be California
(03:14):
because I'm here in Sacramento.
So the people, they're going tobe listening in droves.
It was Alaska.
Alaska was listening, like,listening, listening, okay, but
y'all get the point.
Let's go on here to get to it.
Last week of a new series childand it's juicy.
Okay, because I realized, goingback through all of the
episodes, I wanted to see whaty'all have been listening to and
(03:37):
I've also been paying attentionto the economy, seeing what's
going on, and I wanted to talkabout something that was real
personal to me as well.
So I came up with this series.
It's the Rebuilding AfterFinancial Distress series.
So if you're falling from highincome six figures to scraping
by, and that's exactly what Italked about in the last episode
(04:00):
, where I talked about the fallthe initial fall from high
income to that scraping by.
What are those steps that youneed to do initially?
And so, if you didn't listen tothat episode, go ahead to that
one.
Okay, listen to the fall first,because today we're getting
into something completelydifferent but still associated
with the overall topic, justbecause I know that there's a
(04:22):
segment of listeners who arehigh income and I want to make
sure that I'm making contentthat can be relevant to you as
well.
This podcast has content that isrelevant all across the board.
It is literally for everybody.
That's the one thing I loveabout being a financial
practitioner the simplest thingcan still go and apply to
(04:43):
everybody.
We all high income six figures,whomever.
We all need to go back to thebasics at some time, and so
that's the reason why I love howdiverse the topic span is of
the 130 episodes that I've doneso far.
So if you missed last week'sepisode the fall let me tell you
(05:03):
, talking about the emotionaland financial impact of that
sudden drop in income You'regoing to want to go on here and
listen to it after this episode.
Ok, and don't forget, rememberwhat we're doing next.
We're sharing it with ourfriends and our circle.
Ok, we got it.
Now we're good.
So let's go ahead and move on tothe mindful money moment.
(05:24):
For those of y'all that are new, this is where we get into our
topic of the day, and today'sconversation is all about
surviving on savings, making itlast.
Now, for some of y'alllistening, this may be your
reality.
This was my reality.
Okay, in certain forms, it isstill a reality that I am living
(05:44):
with.
So I want to make sure that youare being mindful, that you are
taking the pauses that you needwhile you're listening to it,
because if this is hitting closeto home for you, this whole
episode is going to feel acertain type of way.
But please know, this episodeis to speak life.
This episode is to educate.
Just because, as a financialpractitioner, we talk so much
(06:05):
about saving, you get to thepoint where you save the money
and you don't expect, when it'stime, for you to actually use
the money, when it's time, whenit feels like it's before the
time, because we think savingsis going to be for that vacation
, for that thing that we'replanning for, but we got to
think back to emergency expense.
(06:26):
When you have a drop in income,that is now your emergency
expense account that you nowhave to use.
That's the reason why peopletalk about having that three to
six months of your expenses, ofyour income, whatever one fits
your financial situation best,because some people do a method
(06:47):
where they save three months oftheir income, or some people
will save three months of justtheir expenses.
It's all up to you, yourlifestyle and what fits you best
.
So we're about to go ahead anddive into this topic and I'll be
covering how you prioritizeyour expenses, your essential
expenses, negotiating with yourcreditors, signing up for
(07:08):
governmental programs if needed,and then discussing some
creative ideas for you to findways to generate short-term
income in the interim.
I know it sounds like we finnaget into a lot of stuff, right?
Okay, we are.
We're going to laugh now, crylater.
That's what I believe.
Okay, because this episode isgoing to touch on so many
(07:31):
different points and once again,I want to say this it may be
very vulnerable for a lot of youto listen to this, because I
know that you're listening tothis for a reason, and so let me
just say this off top I amhoping that I can speak life
into you.
I'm hoping that I can motivateoff top.
I am hoping that I can speaklife into you.
I'm hoping that I can motivateyou and I'm hoping that I can
inspire you because I get itthere's a lot of financial
(07:53):
vulnerability around this topic.
There is a lot of doubt,there's a lot of worry, there's
a lot of anxiety that goes intobeing in a place where now
you're living off of yoursavings, and so I'm hoping that
I can make that a little bitmore comfortable and, once again
, I'm going to say this a lotthat I can speak life into you,
because this situation happensfor a number of reasons, and
(08:16):
today it don't matter how yougot here or why you're in this
situation.
All that matters is the now,where you sit, and how we
maintain in this situation andget out.
So I'm going to start off withsome stats, and so I don't know
if y'all have been payingattention to this economy.
Right, I think we're in arecession and I've been saying
this for a while, but I ain'tbeen here to tell y'all about it
(08:39):
, but there's been an increasein layoffs and company closures
and I did some stats as of 2024,they're showing I'm going to
have to read this one becausethis is the part where I don't
really know.
So I don't know if y'all sawall of the tech workers and so
thus far, there's been 132,000tech workers that have been laid
(09:00):
off between the companies Cisco, intel, microsoft and Apple and
, it said, leading the way inthe job cuts.
But that's not it.
So HR leaders across differentsectors, they are planning for
further layoffs due to theeconomic pressures right now.
Okay, so I don't know how thatmake y'all feel, but yeah, that
(09:21):
don't make me feel too good.
That's the reason why I'm likewe're going to be above the
curve and we're going to talkabout this topic right now, and
so there are a lot of companiesthat are closing, they're
restructuring, the layoffs, thereductions.
There's a lot going on, and Idon't know if that's something
that you face or that you knowof someone facing, but I know
(09:41):
many people who have been facingthat right now and have been
impacted Suddenly go in,suddenly no job and If you don't
have savings, that definitelyis something that's like okay,
wait what?
What are we talking about?
Because everybody doesn't getthat.
What is the plan called?
Y'all, I can't even think ofwhat the name of the plan is.
(10:03):
Alexa, what is it called whenyou get laid off and they give
you money for a certain time?
Severance, severance,separation, pay.
Look, if y'all don't have analexa, you need this.
(10:25):
Thank you, alexa.
Alexa, thank you y'all.
Severance okay, so get you analex.
That's number one.
But no, if you are goingthrough this type of situation
and you aren't offered any typeof severance pay, then you are
stuck in a position where you'reliving off of your savings, and
(10:47):
if you don't have savings,you're in a whole different
situation.
So we went over that stat.
Now I want to give y'all somestats of high income earners and
six figure earners livingpaycheck to paycheck, and so
this was, as of 2023, lendingClub.
They did a study and theyrevealed that 44% of Americans
earning over $100,000 annuallylive paycheck to paycheck.
(11:11):
I know a lot of people like howthey do that, when they got all
this money, depending on whereyou live, depending on the cost
of living.
Remember, we got lifestyleinflations.
Debt is rising.
It's a lot, okay, life is a lot.
I never knew that it was asmuch as it is, but it is Okay.
So those are two things and I'my'all.
(11:34):
I'm crying inside, but pleaseknow, okay, you got paycheck to
paycheck situations and then youhave those sudden situations
where there's an increase inlayoffs, reductions, and you
have company closures,restructures, what have you?
How do we make our savingsstretch if we're going through a
situation like that?
(11:55):
And so, first off, you're goingto have to adopt a frugal
mindset.
I know, I get it.
You probably thinking in yourhead I didn't get this far to
get to this place where I'mmaking all of this money, to now
being in a place where I haveto be frugal, where you once
were in a place where you feltlike you had it all, where you
can afford everything.
You had disposable income.
(12:17):
But when you're in a situationwhere you're now living off of
your savings, you got to befrugal.
You can't do that because youhave to make sure that you are
mindful and being veryintentional of every single
penny that you're using, becauseyou now need this to survive.
We're going to get back tothriving later, but you need
this to survive and you can'tdeplete your savings too quickly
(12:39):
.
So I want you to think of itlike this I don't know how much
you have in savings.
So I'm going to use an exampleright now.
So if currently you have$20,000 in savings and you're
going through this situationwhere you're now in a situation
of living off of your savings,so let's say you estimate that
you need about $4,500 per monthfor all of your essentials, for
(13:02):
you to survive, for you to stillmaintain while you're going
through this predicament.
So that's $20,000.
You need about $4,500 per monthand we are looking at this
situation as if you are onlyusing your savings to survive.
So that will only get you aboutfour and a half months before
you're going to need some typeof new income source.
(13:23):
So that's the reason why yougot to adopt this frugal mindset
, because you got to make everypenny last as long as it needs
to.
Okay, in this season, this ismindful season.
This is intentional season,intention being on our spending,
intention being on ourpurchases.
That we making no big purchasesright now.
(13:45):
No living life, no vacations,none of those other things going
on unless somebody else theyflying us out or they paying for
it.
Okay, we can't do it.
Okay, because we're in adifferent situation right now.
We're in a different season.
We now in a building season, Igot a whole episode about being
in a building season.
It's transitional and it's alsobuilding and while we in this
(14:06):
season we got to track, we needto track our spending to the T.
So that's going to be our firsttip.
Our first tip is you need tocreate a detailed budget.
That's the action that you needto put into this, just because
when you develop that detailedbudget and I know a lot of
people they don't like budgetsand I don't know what systems
(14:27):
you use, I don't know if youwrite your budget down.
I don't know if you use an app,an Excel worksheet, whatever it
is that you do, whatever helpsyou best, because we're all
different, but whatever it is,you need to make sure that you
are looking at all of thoseessential costs that are in your
life.
What are your expenses, what dothey look like, what's going
(14:49):
out?
You may need to pull yourstatement, your bank statement,
your credit card statement,wherever it is that you're
spending money, so that way youcan see what expenses do I have
going out?
Where am I spending my money?
I promise you, your bankstatement will make you a liar
every single time.
You will write every singlething down that you think that
(15:09):
you're spending money on, thenyour bank statement be like
uh-uh, don't forget, you bespending money here too.
Okay, so you're going to needto make sure that you are
looking at those statements Onceagain your bank statement and
your credit card statement soyou can see what your lifestyle
consists of, where you'respending your money, what are
you spending money on?
(15:29):
Because while we in this season,y'all we got downsides.
We got to simplify ourlifestyle, we got to simplify
our expenses.
So that means we got to cutcosts.
We got to eat the low costmeals.
Okay, let me tell you what yourgirl loves Thai food.
I am in a Thai food, likefrenzy, okay, like I love Thai
(15:51):
food.
Right now I can order it everysingle day.
It's this place called OrchardThai in Sacramento, and once I
found out that they was onDoorDash and I could just get it
every day.
But, child, the meal that I getis like maybe $31 a pop when I
order it on DoorDash and if I goget it, it's like $21.
So that $10, that make thedifference, okay, but it's still
(16:15):
expensive.
So if I'm ordering $21 for fivedays a week, because I
literally can eat it five days aweek just because it's that
fresh, it feels that good, itfeel like it's healthy Okay,
cause it's.
It's a lot of veggies in there.
But if I'm ordering that allweek, I'm already out of $100.
And I'm out of even more if I'mgetting it sent by DoorDash
(16:38):
every single day.
So when I'm talking abouteating more low-cost meals, that
means we got to stop all theDoorDashes, unless you are
equating it in there and it canbe reasonable to the budget that
you need to create.
But going from those high-dollarmeals I love crab.
I be at the Costco child, Iwill get some king crab in a
(16:58):
second, but in going throughthis season, no more king crab.
We got to make the mealsstretch spaghetti, tacos, roast,
you know the lower cost meals,the meals that you probably grew
up on.
When I was growing up child, Ididn't even know that the salmon
was a fish.
Okay, we was eating salmoncroquette out the can.
I had no idea because they weremaking those dollars stretch.
(17:23):
And that's exactly what you'regoing to need to do and a lot of
times.
How we can do that the quickestis going to be with our food,
because food is expensive.
You can go get eight itemsright now from the store and
spend a hundred dollars.
You'd be like, okay, look, okay, what did I get?
Okay, so, cutting back in yourfood expense and you're going
(17:44):
out to get food expenses, youmay need to start getting the
generics y'all.
Okay, like, and I hate that.
Okay, let me tell you what I'ma Capricorn, I'm bougie.
I'll be like the generics.
Oh, my God, like.
I'm a person who cooks andfries with olive oil, and you
(18:05):
know how expensive olive oil is,because that's the blood of
Jesus.
Okay, that's the that's.
I only want to fry with thebest.
Okay, I only, I only want tofry with the oils that bless you
, okay.
So in this season, we back tovegetable oil.
Okay, at my house, everybodywould know that I would have.
Costco has these.
I don't want to say purified,but it's acaline waters.
(18:29):
They have these acaline watersthat are just bomb and I promise
that's probably the reason whyI sound like this Cause.
I ain't been drinking themlately because they so expensive
.
It's like a pack of 24 and Ithink it's like 1499.
I normally get those, but Iain't been able to just go get
them and have them Like.
I just would give them out.
They'd be in my trunk.
I would be handing them outLike I was handing them out,
(18:51):
like they didn't cost 1499.
You want to know what wedrinking Regular water right now
?
Okay, you got to cut back.
You can get the generic items.
You got to strategize those waysthat you can make your money
last, because it needs to lastlonger, especially if you're in
a situation where you're livingoff your savings and so cutting
back and cutting down on yourelectricity costs.
(19:14):
I told the kids, child, look,my last bill from SMUD, I think,
was like $280 because it's beenhot and I had to tell them look
, y'all got to be hot during theday.
If you're here during the day,you got to be hot.
That's just kind of where we at.
We ain't got $280 bills rightnow.
We ain't doing that.
Okay, shouldn't have $280 billsever, but we ain't got it right
(19:37):
now.
We got to cut back.
Y'all got to be hot during theday.
We'll run the AC at night.
Think about your electricitybills.
You got to look at all of theareas If you're using a gas
stove, all of the areas whereyou are spending money.
How can you simplify that arearight now?
Because this is just a season.
This is just a season and youneed to figure out those ways
(20:01):
that you're going to be reducingthose monthly expenses.
All right, so we're going to goahead and move on to tip two,
and that is going to benegotiating with your creditors,
with your billers.
And I had to throw this inthere because I only want three
tips, but this is kind of liketwo tips wrapped in one.
It's going to be applying forthose necessary governmental
(20:25):
assistance programs.
Okay, now, I know, especiallyfor people who are coming down
from making high income sixfigures, you probably like, I've
never been in a situation whereI've had to do this, or I've
been in this situation before.
I never thought that I would beback here.
But this is the thing, that'slife.
We can't control every singleelement.
(20:46):
I know we have a false sense ofcontrol that if I'm in this
good job, I'm going to keep thisgood job, the money going to
keep flowing.
Things happen.
We talked about that earlier inthe episode.
Now you're here.
What can we do while you'rehere?
So what does negotiating withyour creditors and your billers
what does that look like?
That means not dodging them.
(21:06):
That means getting on the phoneand talking to them.
That means that if you haveloans, if you have bills right
now, because your loans areassociated with your credit, we
got to keep your credit in orderwhile you're in this season.
So you're going to have to findthose ways where you can pay
less for your loans or you cannow start skipping payments for
(21:26):
those loans, and what a skippayment or a deferment on your
loan means is you don't pay theloan this month, you don't pay
it next month, but maybe you payit the month after that.
They may allow you to defer oneto three payments all at once
because you're going through afinancial hardship.
You need to tell them aboutthat.
You need to find out what doyou do for financial hardship.
(21:47):
You won't know until you ask.
A lot of people don't likecalling because we already upset
that we're in a situation, butthis is the thing.
Now we need help.
Now we need assistance.
We need to find out what is outthere and what's available to
us while we're going throughthis season.
How can we cut our monthlyexpenses?
And deferring a payment one tothree months.
(22:08):
That's something that will helpyou tremendously Because,
remember, we're trying to makeour savings last, and if we
don't have to pay a bill and ifwe can keep more money in our
savings to help us to lastlonger.
That's what we're trying to dowhile we're in this season.
So you're going to want to geton the phone, look at all of
your let's say creditors first.
Look at all of your let's saycreditors first.
Look at all of those bills thatare credit bills, like an auto
(22:28):
loan, a personal loan, studentloans, any other loans, credit
cards.
Those are going to be creditorsbills that are on your credit
report.
You're going to want to makesure that you contact them and
find out what are your financialhardship policies, processes,
what do you do, your procedures,what do you do for people?
In this instance, I'm lookingto defer a month or two months,
(22:51):
or how many months will y'alldefer?
What do y'all need from me sothat I'm able to do that?
Let them know I'm trying tostill pay this bill, but right
now I'm in a financial hardship.
Everybody goes through it.
Companies go through financialhardship, so there is something
that that company may have thatcan assist you.
You won't know until youcontact them.
Then you can also get with yourbillers.
(23:13):
You want to communicate withthem Billers meaning your
electric bill or whatever billsy'all pay.
Think of bills.
Okay, I just told y'all thedifference between bills and
creditors.
Okay, figure it out.
We're going to figure it out.
Okay, everybody's smart.
Okay, you want to get with yourbillers on how you can make
(23:35):
payment arrangements?
You may fall back a month.
But the thing with the billersversus the creditors if you fall
back a month on a bill that'snot on your credit report, you
can make payment arrangementsfor that, because that's not
going to be reporting.
If you're late, every 30 days,billers don't.
Billers aren't reporting toyour credit report.
And hear me good, because ifsomebody piece this the wrong
way and try to play me, don'tplay me.
Okay, bills Think of billsversus your creditors and your
(23:59):
credit bills.
We know what loans are, thethings that you have taken out,
things that need to be paidevery 30 days.
Your billers you have a littlebit more flexibility with those
arrangements and I'm spending somuch time on this because
you're going to get caught upinto what you think you heard me
say so I want to make sure thatI'm being very clear.
We are talking about paymentarrangements.
(24:20):
We're talking about deferments,deferring loans, and we're
talking about paymentarrangements that you can make
for bills to negotiate with yourcreditors, with your billers,
while you're experiencing thisseason, so that way you can try
to cut costs or delay costs foras long as you possibly can.
So you're going to have to sitdown, look at who you owe, who
(24:44):
are my billers, who are mycreditors, contact them.
You may can't do it all in onesitting session.
I get it.
It's a lot.
It's a lot.
It's irritating too, becauseit's like I should have it, but
right now we don't.
Okay, you should, I agree withyou, you should.
Nobody should be going throughsituations where they have to
(25:04):
delay payments, where they haveto make payment arrangements.
If it was up to me, if theworld was perfect, we would all
be in a situation where we cando everything that we need to do
, pay all our bills when we needto, when they're due.
But if you're in this situation, we got to do what we got to do
.
Okay, and doing what we got todo.
That also applies to applyingfor necessary governmental
(25:28):
assistance programs where youmay need it.
Yes, I'm talking about yourfood stamps.
I'm talking about thoseprograms that the electric
companies and the gas companies,that other companies may have
where they.
If you're in a specific incomebracket, depending on the amount
of people that are in yourhouse, you can get a reduced
(25:49):
bill of some sort Right now.
We got to take the handouts.
Okay, that's where we at.
We got to take the handouts ifwe qualify for them.
Where are those handouts at?
What are those resources inyour city?
Look that up.
Go to your city's website, thecity of where you live.
Look and see what are thoseresources.
Look and see what are thoseresources.
Look and see what are thosereduced plans.
(26:11):
I know the electric companiesand the gas companies have it,
and that tends to be a largerbill.
What are some other reductionsor some resources that you can
use that can assist you whileyou're in this time?
Everybody needs assistance atsome point, and I I struggle
with this.
I struggled with this, but Ialso understand.
(26:33):
While I'm in a let me stop fora second because I felt it.
I felt it, I too need to takethe pauses while you're in
survival mode, what are yougoing to do?
We're going to get to thriving.
We're going to get there, butright now, to get to thriving,
we're going to get there, butright now we need to survive.
How are we going to get there?
And the immediate thing that weneed to get there is cutting
(26:54):
costs.
The immediate thing we need isassistance where we can get it.
So, with that being said, wegot to apply and get any type of
assistances that we can applyand get that we qualify for.
And we also need to make surewe are negotiating with our
creditors, with our billers, sothat we can delay payments or
(27:17):
defer payments for as long as wecan.
All right, let's take a pause.
How are we feeling?
We feeling okay.
Okay, I just want to make surebecause, remember, we are
talking about the tips to helpyou while you are living off of
your savings.
We already here, it don'tmatter why, it don't matter why
(27:41):
we just trying to survive duringthis time.
Okay, I want to make sure thatthat is being very clear and I
hope that this is speaking lifeinto you and giving you some
type of instruction manual sothat way you can use this.
Okay, y'all ready to jump intoour last tip?
Okay, okay, I'm ready for ourlast tip too.
Okay, cause I know this hasbeen.
I'm looking at the episode.
I'm like, ooh, I've beentalking a long time, but that's
(28:02):
okay.
This episode probably shouldhave been like a part one and
part two.
I'm going to figure out if Ineed to do that.
All right, it's cool, let's goahead and get into tip number
three.
Tip number three is going to beus finding ways to generate
shorts and alternative incomestreams.
Okay, I want everybody thinkingon the positive for this.
(28:24):
Okay, because I got to tell youthis is so funny.
My alternative income streamhas always been to my friends If
times get hard, I'm getting onthe pole.
You better mind your business.
If you see me, I am making itwork.
Okay, I am bringing money intomy household.
Don't judge me, okay, no lie.
(28:47):
Okay, that's always been myalternative income stream if
times got hard.
But on a real tip for real,looking for temporary or
part-time work, freelancingopportunities, some gig work I
don't know what it is that youdo.
How can you freelance duringthis time?
How can you sell your expertise?
What is that thing that you cando to bring in some additional
(29:10):
money?
What are those ways?
What are those creative ways?
Just because we live in such acreative space, people are
making money off of the craziestthings.
When I say crazy, it is crazy.
There are people who pay justto cuddle with people now, okay,
people who come to your houseto hug you Y'all.
Look, I'm not telling y'all todo any of those things.
(29:30):
I'm just telling you thatpeople are out here making money
for literally everything.
What can be that creative wayfor you?
And no judgment shoo, whateveryou gotta do.
Okay, I'm not telling anybody todo nothing.
I wanna make sure that I'mbeing very clear.
Disclaimer I am not tellinganybody to do anything, because
y'all probably hear alternativeincome streams.
(29:51):
What's he talking about?
I am talking about whatever itis that you decide with your
adult mind to do to help youwith bringing in some extra
money.
I can't even talk about thisone because it feels like I'm
I'm suggesting something elseand I'm really not.
I promise Ways that you cansupplement your savings.
(30:15):
Is what I'm trying to talkabout.
Okay, I guess I needed tolighten this up at some point.
Right?
Additional ways y'all.
I'm trying to stop laughing,because this is for real.
This is for real.
Okay, let's get real.
Additional ways that you canextend your savings is going to
be bringing in some type ofextra money.
What does that look like foryou If that's becoming a
(30:38):
consultant?
Because, look, check this out.
If you were earning high income,chances are you're an expert in
something.
You were doing something reallywell that they was paying you
all this money.
How can you sell that skill?
What are your professionalskills?
What can you be doing?
How can you consult?
How can you do freelance?
How can you do projects?
I've done that.
Like when I first lost myincome, I was freelancing, I was
(31:03):
consulting.
I was doing all of those thingsbecause, look, your girl got
skills and I know y'all gotskills too, because you're
listening to the Mindfully Richpodcast.
Sell those skills.
How much you going to charge, Idon't know?
Go to the chat GPT to help youfigure out some prices, because
I get it.
We in a situation where we needsome money, but don't sell
(31:23):
yourself short.
That is one thing we are notgoing to do.
Y'all are not going to do that.
You may need to look up andresearch how much that service
is going for so that way you canknow where to price yourself.
Okay, so you want to look?
I don't know what that space isthat you are going to consider
or be in to make some moneyduring this time to supplement
(31:46):
your savings.
But think about what are thosealternative streams of income.
And while we're talking aboutthat alternative streams of
income, of course, long-term,long-term, you're going to get
there, but we're thinking aboutright now okay, right now.
And long-term, if we can do it.
I'll be honest with you.
When I was in this situation,long-term always felt very hard
to do because I'm thinking ofthe now, that savings would just
(32:09):
be looking at me and be likeall right, girl, this is where
we at what you doing.
So it's like I was alwaystrying to find ways right then
and now, what is the now?
Because I don't know what thelong term is going to look like,
and so that's going to take mewith my disclaimer.
Y'all know your girl is a wholefinancial guide over here and I
am accepting clients forSeptember and October.
(32:30):
Y'all can check me out.
Check out my website.
I am mindfullyrichcom.
Just because you may need toconsult with someone to help you
with developing a plan, helpingyou with managing your savings
effectively, you may needsomeone during this period of
time to help you come up withwhat that strategy is going to
look like, to help you withstandsaying, to be your
(32:52):
accountability partner duringthis time, making sure that you
are balancing your essentialexpenses during this time, and
your girl can do that for you,okay.
So if you want a freeconsultation and I normally
don't like to call them free Ifyou would like a complimentary
consultation that's what we'regoing to call complimentary
consultation Check out mywebsite, iammindfullyrichcom.
(33:12):
Get in touch with me there.
I have somewhere where you cansign up.
You can book your appointment.
It is very easy.
I can assist you.
We can see if I can assist you,okay, Because your girl look, I
do it all, all right, and I'vebeen guiding people for the last
18 years.
Your girl, your girl been inthis business.
I understand, but even I, I too, go through these things, but I
(33:35):
, too, know those directions togo and I, too, have my
accountability that I put intomyself to be not only what I am
talking about with everyone, butto be that in my own life, and
so I can assist because I'vebeen there, I've done that, I've
learned it, I've been in thesesituations many of times, I've
went through so many differentlife changes, and so if you need
(33:56):
someone to help you withguiding you through this time,
check me out.
I am mindfullyrichcom.
You can make a consultationappointment with me right now on
my website.
Set it up for whatever time anddate is best for you, okay, and
so, once again, I did thisepisode because I wanted to
(34:17):
inspire some hope in you andchild.
This episode is long, it is long, but I hope that I have
encouraged you and helped youwith changing your mindset
during this particular time.
Help you with being mindful ofyour finances so you can be very
intentional while you are goingthrough this time, and so I
want to give you some closingthoughts.
(34:39):
I understand how living offyour savings it isn't something
that you can do for long term,and so there is going to be a
right approach, but everybody'sright approach is going to be a
right approach, but everybody'sright approach is going to be
different for their financialsituation.
So I want to let you know thatstay positive.
Stay positive as you can stayduring this time, because
(35:01):
long-term is going to come.
Long-term is going to beapplying out.
It's going to be figuring outwhere you go next, and I know
right now it may not feel likeyou're going to get anywhere.
You may not know where you wantto go or where you should end
up.
I've been telling a lot ofpeople right now, use ChatGPT,
update your resume.
(35:22):
Update your resume according tothe job that you're applying
for, so that way you can putyour best foot forward, and also
letting ChatGPT look throughyour resume and tell you what
are the jobs that you should beapplying for, because maybe you
haven't thought of some of thejobs that are out there that
your skill set could go for.
There's going to be a lot ofdifferent things that you can do
(35:44):
during this time Get on TikTok,listen to some of those career
coaches for the free, okay.
There's going to be lots ofdifferent ways that you can
position yourself, to putyourself back out there in the
market, so that you can get backto where you were or surpass
that.
But this is the thing.
Let me speak life into youright now.
You're going to get back.
You're going to do it.
(36:05):
It's going to take some quietmoments.
It's going to take somerestructuring of your finances.
It's going to take a lot ofmindfulness and intention during
this season.
But listen to me clear you cando this.
You are.
I'm about to go holy, y'all.
I'm about to go holy.
I don't know no other way to doit.
I don't know no other, no wayto do it.
Okay, God will never put moreon you than you can bear.
(36:26):
This season is building you.
This season is building us forthe better.
We are going to thrive afterthis season.
We are going to be in a betterposition after this season.
Okay, do y'all hear me?
I want to make sure that y'allhear that very clearly.
So, no matter what you're goingthrough right now, you are
building.
Right now.
You are building a muscle thatyou have never built and you are
(36:48):
strong.
You are building right now.
You are building a muscle thatyou have never built and you are
strong, and you are going toget through this, and I claim
that in Jesus name for everybody.
Okay, now, this episode didn'tbeen really long.
Y'all already know what to do.
Share, share, share.
You want to book an appointmentwith me?
I am booking for September andOctober.
Check out my website,iammindfullyrichcom.
(37:13):
Also, schedule thosecomplimentary consultations with
your girl.
What am I missing, dang?
I can't think of what I'mmissing.
All right, y'all, it's longuntil next time when I hit y'all
with another one.
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Mindfully
Rich Podcast, your weekly lookat life in finances with a twist
, where we talk about improvingyour overall relationship with
money and building betterfinancial habits.
On each episode, I'll discussreal life situations and give
y'all practical advice.
The point of this podcast is tohelp you stay in your financial
(00:22):
lane so you won't end up broke.
I'm the creator and host theGina Ritchie Richardson.
Now let's jump into today'sconversation.
What's up y'all?
What's up we back, and we backon time period.
Yes, if you're looking down, itis Monday.
You should be listening to this, unless you are listening on
(00:42):
another day.
Okay, don't mind the voice.
Okay, I told y'all, no matterwhat happened, I'm bringing a
podcast to y'all.
I've been singing yesterday, sothis is what we sound like.
I am drinking my water, beingvery mindful right now, but of
course y'all know always got tostart with gratitude.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
(01:03):
Since the podcast has come back,I guess we'll say for this
season four, y'all have beenlistening in droves and I truly
appreciate it.
I didn't been on my zoom, Ididn't been sharing it.
Your girl is excited.
Okay, let's just say that.
And so y'all just gonna have toput up with this raspiness
(01:25):
right now, because I didn't wantto put the podcast off.
I told y'all I'm comingregardless to whatever my voice
sound like, but I got my water,got my tea, got everything near
me, but just wanted to say thankyou, thank you, thank you to
all of the Rich Gang forlistening, for sharing, for
doing all of the things to makesure that this podcast is a
success.
(01:45):
And if you're new here, welcome.
We call ourselves the Rich Gang, of course, for obvious reasons
, and you are part of themarketing team, okay.
So if you're listening rightnow, I don't know what platform
you're listening on, but it isour culture here on the
Mindfully Rich Podcast to share.
We share this with our family,we share this with our circles.
(02:06):
We share this on social mediabecause one woman team over here
and I can't get this out toeverybody if y'all not the ones
who are sharing it amongsteverybody, because y'all are
everywhere.
I was looking at some of thestats and saying, okay, we got
some new listeners and right nowit's so interesting.
For the last episode, the topplaces listening was the US and
(02:30):
Germany.
I'm like who over in Germany?
What's up?
No, for real, I know I'm notthe one that's making that
happen.
Y'all had to be the one thatwas spreading this thing far and
wide that the podcast would bein Germany.
Okay, like when the podcastfirst started.
Like I know you can find itwhen you're on any of the
(02:52):
podcast streaming platforms.
When you're searching forpodcasts it may pop up.
But when I first started thepodcast, alaska was like one of
my best listened places and Iwas like, okay, who is over
there?
Why are people in See?
In my mind I'm thinking, okay,it's going to be Illinois
because I'm from Chicago, orit's going to be California
(03:14):
because I'm here in Sacramento.
So the people, they're going tobe listening in droves.
It was Alaska.
Alaska was listening, like,listening, listening, okay, but
y'all get the point.
Let's go on here to get to it.
Last week of a new series childand it's juicy.
Okay, because I realized, goingback through all of the
episodes, I wanted to see whaty'all have been listening to and
(03:37):
I've also been paying attentionto the economy, seeing what's
going on, and I wanted to talkabout something that was real
personal to me as well.
So I came up with this series.
It's the Rebuilding AfterFinancial Distress series.
So if you're falling from highincome six figures to scraping
by, and that's exactly what Italked about in the last episode
(04:00):
, where I talked about the fallthe initial fall from high
income to that scraping by.
What are those steps that youneed to do initially?
And so, if you didn't listen tothat episode, go ahead to that
one.
Okay, listen to the fall first,because today we're getting
into something completelydifferent but still associated
with the overall topic, justbecause I know that there's a
(04:22):
segment of listeners who arehigh income and I want to make
sure that I'm making contentthat can be relevant to you as
well.
This podcast has content that isrelevant all across the board.
It is literally for everybody.
That's the one thing I loveabout being a financial
practitioner the simplest thingcan still go and apply to
(04:43):
everybody.
We all high income six figures,whomever.
We all need to go back to thebasics at some time, and so
that's the reason why I love howdiverse the topic span is of
the 130 episodes that I've doneso far.
So if you missed last week'sepisode the fall let me tell you
(05:03):
, talking about the emotionaland financial impact of that
sudden drop in income You'regoing to want to go on here and
listen to it after this episode.
Ok, and don't forget, rememberwhat we're doing next.
We're sharing it with ourfriends and our circle.
Ok, we got it.
Now we're good.
So let's go ahead and move on tothe mindful money moment.
(05:24):
For those of y'all that are new, this is where we get into our
topic of the day, and today'sconversation is all about
surviving on savings, making itlast.
Now, for some of y'alllistening, this may be your
reality.
This was my reality.
Okay, in certain forms, it isstill a reality that I am living
(05:44):
with.
So I want to make sure that youare being mindful, that you are
taking the pauses that you needwhile you're listening to it,
because if this is hitting closeto home for you, this whole
episode is going to feel acertain type of way.
But please know, this episodeis to speak life.
This episode is to educate.
Just because, as a financialpractitioner, we talk so much
(06:05):
about saving, you get to thepoint where you save the money
and you don't expect, when it'stime, for you to actually use
the money, when it's time, whenit feels like it's before the
time, because we think savingsis going to be for that vacation
, for that thing that we'replanning for, but we got to
think back to emergency expense.
(06:26):
When you have a drop in income,that is now your emergency
expense account that you nowhave to use.
That's the reason why peopletalk about having that three to
six months of your expenses, ofyour income, whatever one fits
your financial situation best,because some people do a method
(06:47):
where they save three months oftheir income, or some people
will save three months of justtheir expenses.
It's all up to you, yourlifestyle and what fits you best
.
So we're about to go ahead anddive into this topic and I'll be
covering how you prioritizeyour expenses, your essential
expenses, negotiating with yourcreditors, signing up for
(07:08):
governmental programs if needed,and then discussing some
creative ideas for you to findways to generate short-term
income in the interim.
I know it sounds like we finnaget into a lot of stuff, right?
Okay, we are.
We're going to laugh now, crylater.
That's what I believe.
Okay, because this episode isgoing to touch on so many
(07:31):
different points and once again,I want to say this it may be
very vulnerable for a lot of youto listen to this, because I
know that you're listening tothis for a reason, and so let me
just say this off top I amhoping that I can speak life
into you.
I'm hoping that I can motivateoff top.
I am hoping that I can speaklife into you.
I'm hoping that I can motivateyou and I'm hoping that I can
inspire you because I get itthere's a lot of financial
(07:53):
vulnerability around this topic.
There is a lot of doubt,there's a lot of worry, there's
a lot of anxiety that goes intobeing in a place where now
you're living off of yoursavings, and so I'm hoping that
I can make that a little bitmore comfortable and, once again
, I'm going to say this a lotthat I can speak life into you,
because this situation happensfor a number of reasons, and
(08:16):
today it don't matter how yougot here or why you're in this
situation.
All that matters is the now,where you sit, and how we
maintain in this situation andget out.
So I'm going to start off withsome stats, and so I don't know
if y'all have been payingattention to this economy.
Right, I think we're in arecession and I've been saying
this for a while, but I ain'tbeen here to tell y'all about it
(08:39):
, but there's been an increasein layoffs and company closures
and I did some stats as of 2024,they're showing I'm going to
have to read this one becausethis is the part where I don't
really know.
So I don't know if y'all sawall of the tech workers and so
thus far, there's been 132,000tech workers that have been laid
(09:00):
off between the companies Cisco, intel, microsoft and Apple and
, it said, leading the way inthe job cuts.
But that's not it.
So HR leaders across differentsectors, they are planning for
further layoffs due to theeconomic pressures right now.
Okay, so I don't know how thatmake y'all feel, but yeah, that
(09:21):
don't make me feel too good.
That's the reason why I'm likewe're going to be above the
curve and we're going to talkabout this topic right now, and
so there are a lot of companiesthat are closing, they're
restructuring, the layoffs, thereductions.
There's a lot going on, and Idon't know if that's something
that you face or that you knowof someone facing, but I know
(09:41):
many people who have been facingthat right now and have been
impacted Suddenly go in,suddenly no job and If you don't
have savings, that definitelyis something that's like okay,
wait what?
What are we talking about?
Because everybody doesn't getthat.
What is the plan called?
Y'all, I can't even think ofwhat the name of the plan is.
(10:03):
Alexa, what is it called whenyou get laid off and they give
you money for a certain time?
Severance, severance,separation, pay.
Look, if y'all don't have analexa, you need this.
(10:25):
Thank you, alexa.
Alexa, thank you y'all.
Severance okay, so get you analex.
That's number one.
But no, if you are goingthrough this type of situation
and you aren't offered any typeof severance pay, then you are
stuck in a position where you'reliving off of your savings, and
(10:47):
if you don't have savings,you're in a whole different
situation.
So we went over that stat.
Now I want to give y'all somestats of high income earners and
six figure earners livingpaycheck to paycheck, and so
this was, as of 2023, lendingClub.
They did a study and theyrevealed that 44% of Americans
earning over $100,000 annuallylive paycheck to paycheck.
(11:11):
I know a lot of people like howthey do that, when they got all
this money, depending on whereyou live, depending on the cost
of living.
Remember, we got lifestyleinflations.
Debt is rising.
It's a lot, okay, life is a lot.
I never knew that it was asmuch as it is, but it is Okay.
So those are two things and I'my'all.
(11:34):
I'm crying inside, but pleaseknow, okay, you got paycheck to
paycheck situations and then youhave those sudden situations
where there's an increase inlayoffs, reductions, and you
have company closures,restructures, what have you?
How do we make our savingsstretch if we're going through a
situation like that?
(11:55):
And so, first off, you're goingto have to adopt a frugal
mindset.
I know, I get it.
You probably thinking in yourhead I didn't get this far to
get to this place where I'mmaking all of this money, to now
being in a place where I haveto be frugal, where you once
were in a place where you feltlike you had it all, where you
can afford everything.
You had disposable income.
(12:17):
But when you're in a situationwhere you're now living off of
your savings, you got to befrugal.
You can't do that because youhave to make sure that you are
mindful and being veryintentional of every single
penny that you're using, becauseyou now need this to survive.
We're going to get back tothriving later, but you need
this to survive and you can'tdeplete your savings too quickly
(12:39):
.
So I want you to think of itlike this I don't know how much
you have in savings.
So I'm going to use an exampleright now.
So if currently you have$20,000 in savings and you're
going through this situationwhere you're now in a situation
of living off of your savings,so let's say you estimate that
you need about $4,500 per monthfor all of your essentials, for
(13:02):
you to survive, for you to stillmaintain while you're going
through this predicament.
So that's $20,000.
You need about $4,500 per monthand we are looking at this
situation as if you are onlyusing your savings to survive.
So that will only get you aboutfour and a half months before
you're going to need some typeof new income source.
(13:23):
So that's the reason why yougot to adopt this frugal mindset
, because you got to make everypenny last as long as it needs
to.
Okay, in this season, this ismindful season.
This is intentional season,intention being on our spending,
intention being on ourpurchases.
That we making no big purchasesright now.
(13:45):
No living life, no vacations,none of those other things going
on unless somebody else theyflying us out or they paying for
it.
Okay, we can't do it.
Okay, because we're in adifferent situation right now.
We're in a different season.
We now in a building season, Igot a whole episode about being
in a building season.
It's transitional and it's alsobuilding and while we in this
(14:06):
season we got to track, we needto track our spending to the T.
So that's going to be our firsttip.
Our first tip is you need tocreate a detailed budget.
That's the action that you needto put into this, just because
when you develop that detailedbudget and I know a lot of
people they don't like budgetsand I don't know what systems
(14:27):
you use, I don't know if youwrite your budget down.
I don't know if you use an app,an Excel worksheet, whatever it
is that you do, whatever helpsyou best, because we're all
different, but whatever it is,you need to make sure that you
are looking at all of thoseessential costs that are in your
life.
What are your expenses, what dothey look like, what's going
(14:49):
out?
You may need to pull yourstatement, your bank statement,
your credit card statement,wherever it is that you're
spending money, so that way youcan see what expenses do I have
going out?
Where am I spending my money?
I promise you, your bankstatement will make you a liar
every single time.
You will write every singlething down that you think that
(15:09):
you're spending money on, thenyour bank statement be like
uh-uh, don't forget, you bespending money here too.
Okay, so you're going to needto make sure that you are
looking at those statements Onceagain your bank statement and
your credit card statement soyou can see what your lifestyle
consists of, where you'respending your money, what are
you spending money on?
(15:29):
Because while we in this season,y'all we got downsides.
We got to simplify ourlifestyle, we got to simplify
our expenses.
So that means we got to cutcosts.
We got to eat the low costmeals.
Okay, let me tell you what yourgirl loves Thai food.
I am in a Thai food, likefrenzy, okay, like I love Thai
(15:51):
food.
Right now I can order it everysingle day.
It's this place called OrchardThai in Sacramento, and once I
found out that they was onDoorDash and I could just get it
every day.
But, child, the meal that I getis like maybe $31 a pop when I
order it on DoorDash and if I goget it, it's like $21.
So that $10, that make thedifference, okay, but it's still
(16:15):
expensive.
So if I'm ordering $21 for fivedays a week, because I
literally can eat it five days aweek just because it's that
fresh, it feels that good, itfeel like it's healthy Okay,
cause it's.
It's a lot of veggies in there.
But if I'm ordering that allweek, I'm already out of $100.
And I'm out of even more if I'mgetting it sent by DoorDash
(16:38):
every single day.
So when I'm talking abouteating more low-cost meals, that
means we got to stop all theDoorDashes, unless you are
equating it in there and it canbe reasonable to the budget that
you need to create.
But going from those high-dollarmeals I love crab.
I be at the Costco child, Iwill get some king crab in a
(16:58):
second, but in going throughthis season, no more king crab.
We got to make the mealsstretch spaghetti, tacos, roast,
you know the lower cost meals,the meals that you probably grew
up on.
When I was growing up child, Ididn't even know that the salmon
was a fish.
Okay, we was eating salmoncroquette out the can.
I had no idea because they weremaking those dollars stretch.
(17:23):
And that's exactly what you'regoing to need to do and a lot of
times.
How we can do that the quickestis going to be with our food,
because food is expensive.
You can go get eight itemsright now from the store and
spend a hundred dollars.
You'd be like, okay, look, okay, what did I get?
Okay, so, cutting back in yourfood expense and you're going
(17:44):
out to get food expenses, youmay need to start getting the
generics y'all.
Okay, like, and I hate that.
Okay, let me tell you what I'ma Capricorn, I'm bougie.
I'll be like the generics.
Oh, my God, like.
I'm a person who cooks andfries with olive oil, and you
(18:05):
know how expensive olive oil is,because that's the blood of
Jesus.
Okay, that's the that's.
I only want to fry with thebest.
Okay, I only, I only want tofry with the oils that bless you
, okay.
So in this season, we back tovegetable oil.
Okay, at my house, everybodywould know that I would have.
Costco has these.
I don't want to say purified,but it's acaline waters.
(18:29):
They have these acaline watersthat are just bomb and I promise
that's probably the reason whyI sound like this Cause.
I ain't been drinking themlately because they so expensive
.
It's like a pack of 24 and Ithink it's like 1499.
I normally get those, but Iain't been able to just go get
them and have them Like.
I just would give them out.
They'd be in my trunk.
I would be handing them outLike I was handing them out,
(18:51):
like they didn't cost 1499.
You want to know what wedrinking Regular water right now
?
Okay, you got to cut back.
You can get the generic items.
You got to strategize those waysthat you can make your money
last, because it needs to lastlonger, especially if you're in
a situation where you're livingoff your savings and so cutting
back and cutting down on yourelectricity costs.
(19:14):
I told the kids, child, look,my last bill from SMUD, I think,
was like $280 because it's beenhot and I had to tell them look
, y'all got to be hot during theday.
If you're here during the day,you got to be hot.
That's just kind of where we at.
We ain't got $280 bills rightnow.
We ain't doing that.
Okay, shouldn't have $280 billsever, but we ain't got it right
(19:37):
now.
We got to cut back.
Y'all got to be hot during theday.
We'll run the AC at night.
Think about your electricitybills.
You got to look at all of theareas If you're using a gas
stove, all of the areas whereyou are spending money.
How can you simplify that arearight now?
Because this is just a season.
This is just a season and youneed to figure out those ways
(20:01):
that you're going to be reducingthose monthly expenses.
All right, so we're going to goahead and move on to tip two,
and that is going to benegotiating with your creditors,
with your billers.
And I had to throw this inthere because I only want three
tips, but this is kind of liketwo tips wrapped in one.
It's going to be applying forthose necessary governmental
(20:25):
assistance programs.
Okay, now, I know, especiallyfor people who are coming down
from making high income sixfigures, you probably like, I've
never been in a situation whereI've had to do this, or I've
been in this situation before.
I never thought that I would beback here.
But this is the thing, that'slife.
We can't control every singleelement.
(20:46):
I know we have a false sense ofcontrol that if I'm in this
good job, I'm going to keep thisgood job, the money going to
keep flowing.
Things happen.
We talked about that earlier inthe episode.
Now you're here.
What can we do while you'rehere?
So what does negotiating withyour creditors and your billers
what does that look like?
That means not dodging them.
(21:06):
That means getting on the phoneand talking to them.
That means that if you haveloans, if you have bills right
now, because your loans areassociated with your credit, we
got to keep your credit in orderwhile you're in this season.
So you're going to have to findthose ways where you can pay
less for your loans or you cannow start skipping payments for
(21:26):
those loans, and what a skippayment or a deferment on your
loan means is you don't pay theloan this month, you don't pay
it next month, but maybe you payit the month after that.
They may allow you to defer oneto three payments all at once
because you're going through afinancial hardship.
You need to tell them aboutthat.
You need to find out what doyou do for financial hardship.
(21:47):
You won't know until you ask.
A lot of people don't likecalling because we already upset
that we're in a situation, butthis is the thing.
Now we need help.
Now we need assistance.
We need to find out what is outthere and what's available to
us while we're going throughthis season.
How can we cut our monthlyexpenses?
And deferring a payment one tothree months.
(22:08):
That's something that will helpyou tremendously Because,
remember, we're trying to makeour savings last, and if we
don't have to pay a bill and ifwe can keep more money in our
savings to help us to lastlonger.
That's what we're trying to dowhile we're in this season.
So you're going to want to geton the phone, look at all of
your let's say creditors first.
Look at all of your let's saycreditors first.
Look at all of those bills thatare credit bills, like an auto
(22:28):
loan, a personal loan, studentloans, any other loans, credit
cards.
Those are going to be creditorsbills that are on your credit
report.
You're going to want to makesure that you contact them and
find out what are your financialhardship policies, processes,
what do you do, your procedures,what do you do for people?
In this instance, I'm lookingto defer a month or two months,
(22:51):
or how many months will y'alldefer?
What do y'all need from me sothat I'm able to do that?
Let them know I'm trying tostill pay this bill, but right
now I'm in a financial hardship.
Everybody goes through it.
Companies go through financialhardship, so there is something
that that company may have thatcan assist you.
You won't know until youcontact them.
Then you can also get with yourbillers.
(23:13):
You want to communicate withthem Billers meaning your
electric bill or whatever billsy'all pay.
Think of bills.
Okay, I just told y'all thedifference between bills and
creditors.
Okay, figure it out.
We're going to figure it out.
Okay, everybody's smart.
Okay, you want to get with yourbillers on how you can make
(23:35):
payment arrangements?
You may fall back a month.
But the thing with the billersversus the creditors if you fall
back a month on a bill that'snot on your credit report, you
can make payment arrangementsfor that, because that's not
going to be reporting.
If you're late, every 30 days,billers don't.
Billers aren't reporting toyour credit report.
And hear me good, because ifsomebody piece this the wrong
way and try to play me, don'tplay me.
Okay, bills Think of billsversus your creditors and your
(23:59):
credit bills.
We know what loans are, thethings that you have taken out,
things that need to be paidevery 30 days.
Your billers you have a littlebit more flexibility with those
arrangements and I'm spending somuch time on this because
you're going to get caught upinto what you think you heard me
say so I want to make sure thatI'm being very clear.
We are talking about paymentarrangements.
(24:20):
We're talking about deferments,deferring loans, and we're
talking about paymentarrangements that you can make
for bills to negotiate with yourcreditors, with your billers,
while you're experiencing thisseason, so that way you can try
to cut costs or delay costs foras long as you possibly can.
So you're going to have to sitdown, look at who you owe, who
(24:44):
are my billers, who are mycreditors, contact them.
You may can't do it all in onesitting session.
I get it.
It's a lot.
It's a lot.
It's irritating too, becauseit's like I should have it, but
right now we don't.
Okay, you should, I agree withyou, you should.
Nobody should be going throughsituations where they have to
(25:04):
delay payments, where they haveto make payment arrangements.
If it was up to me, if theworld was perfect, we would all
be in a situation where we cando everything that we need to do
, pay all our bills when we needto, when they're due.
But if you're in this situation, we got to do what we got to do
.
Okay, and doing what we got todo.
That also applies to applyingfor necessary governmental
(25:28):
assistance programs where youmay need it.
Yes, I'm talking about yourfood stamps.
I'm talking about thoseprograms that the electric
companies and the gas companies,that other companies may have
where they.
If you're in a specific incomebracket, depending on the amount
of people that are in yourhouse, you can get a reduced
(25:49):
bill of some sort Right now.
We got to take the handouts.
Okay, that's where we at.
We got to take the handouts ifwe qualify for them.
Where are those handouts at?
What are those resources inyour city?
Look that up.
Go to your city's website, thecity of where you live.
Look and see what are thoseresources.
Look and see what are thoseresources.
Look and see what are thosereduced plans.
(26:11):
I know the electric companiesand the gas companies have it,
and that tends to be a largerbill.
What are some other reductionsor some resources that you can
use that can assist you whileyou're in this time?
Everybody needs assistance atsome point, and I I struggle
with this.
I struggled with this, but Ialso understand.
(26:33):
While I'm in a let me stop fora second because I felt it.
I felt it, I too need to takethe pauses while you're in
survival mode, what are yougoing to do?
We're going to get to thriving.
We're going to get there, butright now, to get to thriving,
we're going to get there, butright now we need to survive.
How are we going to get there?
And the immediate thing that weneed to get there is cutting
(26:54):
costs.
The immediate thing we need isassistance where we can get it.
So, with that being said, wegot to apply and get any type of
assistances that we can applyand get that we qualify for.
And we also need to make surewe are negotiating with our
creditors, with our billers, sothat we can delay payments or
(27:17):
defer payments for as long as wecan.
All right, let's take a pause.
How are we feeling?
We feeling okay.
Okay, I just want to make surebecause, remember, we are
talking about the tips to helpyou while you are living off of
your savings.
We already here, it don'tmatter why, it don't matter why
(27:41):
we just trying to survive duringthis time.
Okay, I want to make sure thatthat is being very clear and I
hope that this is speaking lifeinto you and giving you some
type of instruction manual sothat way you can use this.
Okay, y'all ready to jump intoour last tip?
Okay, okay, I'm ready for ourlast tip too.
Okay, cause I know this hasbeen.
I'm looking at the episode.
I'm like, ooh, I've beentalking a long time, but that's
(28:02):
okay.
This episode probably shouldhave been like a part one and
part two.
I'm going to figure out if Ineed to do that.
All right, it's cool, let's goahead and get into tip number
three.
Tip number three is going to beus finding ways to generate
shorts and alternative incomestreams.
Okay, I want everybody thinkingon the positive for this.
(28:24):
Okay, because I got to tell youthis is so funny.
My alternative income streamhas always been to my friends If
times get hard, I'm getting onthe pole.
You better mind your business.
If you see me, I am making itwork.
Okay, I am bringing money intomy household.
Don't judge me, okay, no lie.
(28:47):
Okay, that's always been myalternative income stream if
times got hard.
But on a real tip for real,looking for temporary or
part-time work, freelancingopportunities, some gig work I
don't know what it is that youdo.
How can you freelance duringthis time?
How can you sell your expertise?
What is that thing that you cando to bring in some additional
(29:10):
money?
What are those ways?
What are those creative ways?
Just because we live in such acreative space, people are
making money off of the craziestthings.
When I say crazy, it is crazy.
There are people who pay justto cuddle with people now, okay,
people who come to your houseto hug you Y'all.
Look, I'm not telling y'all todo any of those things.
(29:30):
I'm just telling you thatpeople are out here making money
for literally everything.
What can be that creative wayfor you?
And no judgment shoo, whateveryou gotta do.
Okay, I'm not telling anybody todo nothing.
I wanna make sure that I'mbeing very clear.
Disclaimer I am not tellinganybody to do anything, because
y'all probably hear alternativeincome streams.
(29:51):
What's he talking about?
I am talking about whatever itis that you decide with your
adult mind to do to help youwith bringing in some extra
money.
I can't even talk about thisone because it feels like I'm
I'm suggesting something elseand I'm really not.
I promise Ways that you cansupplement your savings.
(30:15):
Is what I'm trying to talkabout.
Okay, I guess I needed tolighten this up at some point.
Right?
Additional ways y'all.
I'm trying to stop laughing,because this is for real.
This is for real.
Okay, let's get real.
Additional ways that you canextend your savings is going to
be bringing in some type ofextra money.
What does that look like foryou If that's becoming a
(30:38):
consultant?
Because, look, check this out.
If you were earning high income,chances are you're an expert in
something.
You were doing something reallywell that they was paying you
all this money.
How can you sell that skill?
What are your professionalskills?
What can you be doing?
How can you consult?
How can you do freelance?
How can you do projects?
I've done that.
Like when I first lost myincome, I was freelancing, I was
(31:03):
consulting.
I was doing all of those thingsbecause, look, your girl got
skills and I know y'all gotskills too, because you're
listening to the Mindfully Richpodcast.
Sell those skills.
How much you going to charge, Idon't know?
Go to the chat GPT to help youfigure out some prices, because
I get it.
We in a situation where we needsome money, but don't sell
(31:23):
yourself short.
That is one thing we are notgoing to do.
Y'all are not going to do that.
You may need to look up andresearch how much that service
is going for so that way you canknow where to price yourself.
Okay, so you want to look?
I don't know what that space isthat you are going to consider
or be in to make some moneyduring this time to supplement
(31:46):
your savings.
But think about what are thosealternative streams of income.
And while we're talking aboutthat alternative streams of
income, of course, long-term,long-term, you're going to get
there, but we're thinking aboutright now okay, right now.
And long-term, if we can do it.
I'll be honest with you.
When I was in this situation,long-term always felt very hard
to do because I'm thinking ofthe now, that savings would just
(32:09):
be looking at me and be likeall right, girl, this is where
we at what you doing.
So it's like I was alwaystrying to find ways right then
and now, what is the now?
Because I don't know what thelong term is going to look like,
and so that's going to take mewith my disclaimer.
Y'all know your girl is a wholefinancial guide over here and I
am accepting clients forSeptember and October.
(32:30):
Y'all can check me out.
Check out my website.
I am mindfullyrichcom.
Just because you may need toconsult with someone to help you
with developing a plan, helpingyou with managing your savings
effectively, you may needsomeone during this period of
time to help you come up withwhat that strategy is going to
look like, to help you withstandsaying, to be your
(32:52):
accountability partner duringthis time, making sure that you
are balancing your essentialexpenses during this time, and
your girl can do that for you,okay.
So if you want a freeconsultation and I normally
don't like to call them free Ifyou would like a complimentary
consultation that's what we'regoing to call complimentary
consultation Check out mywebsite, iammindfullyrichcom.
(33:12):
Get in touch with me there.
I have somewhere where you cansign up.
You can book your appointment.
It is very easy.
I can assist you.
We can see if I can assist you,okay, Because your girl look, I
do it all, all right, and I'vebeen guiding people for the last
18 years.
Your girl, your girl been inthis business.
I understand, but even I, I too, go through these things, but I
(33:35):
, too, know those directions togo and I, too, have my
accountability that I put intomyself to be not only what I am
talking about with everyone, butto be that in my own life, and
so I can assist because I'vebeen there, I've done that, I've
learned it, I've been in thesesituations many of times, I've
went through so many differentlife changes, and so if you need
(33:56):
someone to help you withguiding you through this time,
check me out.
I am mindfullyrichcom.
You can make a consultationappointment with me right now on
my website.
Set it up for whatever time anddate is best for you, okay, and
so, once again, I did thisepisode because I wanted to
(34:17):
inspire some hope in you andchild.
This episode is long, it is long, but I hope that I have
encouraged you and helped youwith changing your mindset
during this particular time.
Help you with being mindful ofyour finances so you can be very
intentional while you are goingthrough this time, and so I
want to give you some closingthoughts.
(34:39):
I understand how living offyour savings it isn't something
that you can do for long term,and so there is going to be a
right approach, but everybody'sright approach is going to be a
right approach, but everybody'sright approach is going to be
different for their financialsituation.
So I want to let you know thatstay positive.
Stay positive as you can stayduring this time, because
(35:01):
long-term is going to come.
Long-term is going to beapplying out.
It's going to be figuring outwhere you go next, and I know
right now it may not feel likeyou're going to get anywhere.
You may not know where you wantto go or where you should end
up.
I've been telling a lot ofpeople right now, use ChatGPT,
update your resume.
(35:22):
Update your resume according tothe job that you're applying
for, so that way you can putyour best foot forward, and also
letting ChatGPT look throughyour resume and tell you what
are the jobs that you should beapplying for, because maybe you
haven't thought of some of thejobs that are out there that
your skill set could go for.
There's going to be a lot ofdifferent things that you can do
(35:44):
during this time Get on TikTok,listen to some of those career
coaches for the free, okay.
There's going to be lots ofdifferent ways that you can
position yourself, to putyourself back out there in the
market, so that you can get backto where you were or surpass
that.
But this is the thing.
Let me speak life into youright now.
You're going to get back.
You're going to do it.
(36:05):
It's going to take some quietmoments.
It's going to take somerestructuring of your finances.
It's going to take a lot ofmindfulness and intention during
this season.
But listen to me clear you cando this.
You are.
I'm about to go holy, y'all.
I'm about to go holy.
I don't know no other way to doit.
I don't know no other, no wayto do it.
Okay, God will never put moreon you than you can bear.
(36:26):
This season is building you.
This season is building us forthe better.
We are going to thrive afterthis season.
We are going to be in a betterposition after this season.
Okay, do y'all hear me?
I want to make sure that y'allhear that very clearly.
So, no matter what you're goingthrough right now, you are
building.
Right now.
You are building a muscle thatyou have never built and you are
(36:48):
strong.
You are building right now.
You are building a muscle thatyou have never built and you are
strong, and you are going toget through this, and I claim
that in Jesus name for everybody.
Okay, now, this episode didn'tbeen really long.
Y'all already know what to do.
Share, share, share.
You want to book an appointmentwith me?
I am booking for September andOctober.
Check out my website,iammindfullyrichcom.
(37:13):
Also, schedule thosecomplimentary consultations with
your girl.
What am I missing, dang?
I can't think of what I'mmissing.
All right, y'all, it's longuntil next time when I hit y'all
with another one.
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