Budget Summer Vacations Post-Pandemic

This week on "Create. Build. Manage." I talk with Kristen Hagopian, author of “Brilliant Frugal Living” and host of “The Kristen Hagopian Show,” about how to travel, vacation, and entertain yourself and your kids on a budget this summer as we face inflation costs post-pandemic, and how to set yourself up for financial success this fall.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to create, build, managethe entrepreneurs Toolbox. Here's your host,
Scott Miller. My guest tonight,our Tony Brinker. She is a founder
and CEO of One Community, USAand the chief of Police for the City
of Arlington, Texas, Chief AlJones. Welcome to the studio. Thank

(00:31):
you, Thank you so much forboth for being here. Tony, I
want to start with you. Iwant to talk about the mission of your
foundation and why we are here tonight. The mission of our foundation is to
build cities of opportunities for everyone.That involves our wonderful law enforcement and community

(00:52):
stakeholders. So bringing those two groupstogether is key critical to creating a better
world for Everyone's quite a lofty goal. And you were on our Daily show
earlier this month and we kind oftalked about that. Just real kind of
quick for people that are meeting youfor the first time. Why this passion
Because you could have done anything,You could be enjoying the beat somewhere,

(01:15):
enjoying a trip to Europe, andhere you are, rolling your sleeves up
and working. That's so true.Well, one this all started basically with
my late husband who started a restaurantchain as known as Brinker International, But
I saw the philanthropic effort that hemade on a daily basis and how that

(01:38):
transcended into his employees. So hemay be taking them down to be at
a food kitchen or whatever, buthe felt that that was the best way
to build a great culture within acorporation and then expanded at the same time
over and above that. I witnesseda march on the streets in New York

(01:59):
City in twenty fourteen late and thatis the first time that I ever heard
what do you want dead cops?When do you want them right now?
And so I made two back toback calls, one to our mayor and
one to our police chief and said, we need to be doing something differently.
We have a serious problem in thiscountry. So that's kind of the

(02:23):
birth of One Community USA. Andthen you have to build Away Crime program.
What's that about? The Build AwayCrime program is really patterned after what
law enforcement does now, but bringingour community stakeholders together and the youth to
work hand in glove with law enforcementacross the United States. Community based programs

(02:45):
that cause bridges of trust to bebuilt because sometimes we don't have them,
and that creates a unity and thenwhat happens is your business owners and your
citizens become key critical and helping supportthe great work of law enforcement, but
they become leaders in their community,and then that's paid forward into the community.

(03:07):
So everyone wins. Now, ChiefJones, I'm curious what your reaction
was when you picked up your phoneand there's Tony Brinker, or perhaps outside
of your office and there's Tony Brinker. What was your reaction when you first
met Tony and heard her passion andheard her heart. You know, I
think it was I was probably aboutfour months into the job, so I'm

(03:27):
still trying to learn the city ofArlington. But Tony came to the office,
who sat down, and she says, Chief, I have an idea.
I want you to take a partof this one Community USA. So
we talked about what it was about, and I instantly said, you know
what, I'm all in. It'ssomething that we need to do as a

(03:50):
city, we need to do asa policing profession. It's about really engaging
our community to the best that wepossibly can. And I think partner up
with one community is allowed us todo that. And I'm really fortunate enough
that she chose Arlington to come hereto bring the program. Now you've been
in law enforcement, says since nineteenninety five, is are correct? That

(04:12):
is correct. I started my lawenforcement career in Baltimore County. I worked
my way up to the second rankingperson in the agency. After twenty five
years, I haven't realized it wastime to find something else. And you
know, I was fortunate enough tocome to Arlington. They at this job.
That's great, that's great. Soyou've seen a lot in your career
as far as relationship between the communityand law enforcement. You certainly can speak

(04:39):
uniquely to what we've seen in theproblem that Tony was mentioned she saw in
New York. So speak to thatfrom your perspective. Is it something that's
getting better? Is it getting worse? Well, you know, let me
say this, it's been twenty fiveyears in law enforcement. You know,
we have been tasked to do alot of different things that we shouldn't been

(05:00):
doing, and a lot of itis animal control issues. Now we're into
the mental health profession. Now we'reinto all these different areas that I'm not
sure if we have the true expertiseto be there, but it's all put
on our shoulders and we do whatwe do as cops, and if they
say, hey, we need todo that, that's how we respond.

(05:20):
But I can tell you just lookingat what's been happening across the country,
the relationship between police and communities orsome of them are fragmented. What I'm
going to say is it's not everycommunity. So you know, we probably
have about a five percent, maybeseven percent of our community who we don't

(05:42):
have a relationship with. And thisis what this is about. We have
to find ways to go into thosecommunities, break down those walls, build
those bridges. But what I'm goingto say is sometime we can't do it
by ourselves, and we need partnersto help us get into those community.
When you have partners working with you, it's so much easier to build a

(06:03):
relationship with communities that really don't trustthis as much. That makes sense.
And when you say five to sevenpercent, I appreciate you putting a number
to that. You know, we'vetalked about before. You know, working
in media, I'm going to speakto my profession. We tend to fan
the flames. We tend to talkabout the negative. We tend to be

(06:24):
a part of the problem, notpart of the solution. I could say
that, right, and so let'stalk about what the solution is. So
your vision, because you've done somepretty unique things, like you're you're not
just talking the talk, you're walkingthe walk. And I'm trying to picture
this and television doesn't do it justice. But you know, here we have

(06:46):
Tony Brinker, small partique lady goinginto some really rough neighborhoods and having some
tough conversations. Talk about that.Oh, and that is a true statement.
So I have been in more thanone conversation where I can hear gunshots
going off in the background. You'reused to that, but I can tell
you I was not but going intothe neighborhoods and actually seeing what people are

(07:12):
experiencing on a daily level. Thatalso is employees of companies they sometimes experience.
These things allowed me to put togetherprograms with quantitative and qualitative data points
tracked by universities, so that atthe end of a specific year or something,
I can take a report back tothe chief because how would you gauge

(07:35):
numerically that trust has been created?So I have to do this and I
have to tie it back to economicdevelopment and from a business company's perspective again,
I'm a businesswoman as well. Iwant to be able to expand my
business and hire more people. Iwant to do it from neighborhoods where maybe

(07:56):
they deserve an extra break. Sothat means that I'm I'd actually put in
my case or Breaker International's case,a restaurant in a neighborhood. But it
has to be safe. So inorder for it to be safe, we
need the good help from law enforcement. Law enforcement needs our help because they
can't police a community to safety becausethen it appears to be too heavy handed,

(08:20):
and a community citizens we may thinkwe can do everything, we can't.
We always look to the fellows inblue to handle the problems that we
don't know how to handle. Soif you bring the two groups together,
you can make a difference. Butwalking the walk and talking to talk took
me about two years to get areally good idea that the same problems in

(08:43):
Baltimore, even Baltimore County, arethe same in La same in Phoenix,
same in Chicago, same in NorthTexas. People want to feel safe and
they have to have that to beable to grasp the American dream. Both
sides need each other. So thisone community is the bridge to bring both

(09:05):
of them together. So we startthis initial healing process and this process where
people get their voices heard, theyhave some value, and then they get
involved and they can help reduce crimeby just feeling comfortable enough to call Chief
Jones or people on his staff andsay, we have an issue over here,

(09:26):
and I trust you now to tellyou that there's an issue, rather
than you coming in and be sayingno problem or nothing right, And you're
speaking to something that I think everyhuman wants. Everyone wants to live in
a place they feel safe, right, Chief Jones is not just It's not
just one group of people. Weall want to be No. I think

(09:48):
everybody wants safety. They want tofeel safe in your community. This is
one thing that I've learned since beingin the business for so long. People
won't play, they won't live,and they won't shop in the place they
don't feel safe. And we haveto make sure that we're providing that safety
for them. But what I'm goingto say is we can't do it alone.
Crime is not a policing issue.Crime is a community issue. And

(10:13):
if we can actually work together,and it has to be more than just
us and the community it has tobe the faith based leaders. It has
to be the school system, hasto be to hospitals, it has to
be business. They have that allto take part or have ownership business.
And we all have to sit atthis table to figure out what problem that
we're trying to solve, and wecan solve it together, especially if we

(10:33):
put the smart people in room,we can get it done. It's just
a matter of are they willing tosit at the table to get it done.
It's an interesting topic and we haveyou for the whole hour to talk
about this. We're going to diveinto it some specifics, some things that
are going on, and we're alsogoing to address how you and the business
community can get involved. You havea responsibility as well. Stick around.

(10:54):
This is Create, Build and Manage. Welcome back to Create, Build and

(11:20):
Manage. Revisiting this hour with ChristianEgopian, who often tells a radio listeners
you can live at luxurious lifestyle withoutbreaking the bank. And that's some of
the things I want to talk aboutthis segment with you, Christian. So
I'm going to be calling into yourradio show and I'm going to kind of
rapid fire some questions for you justto kind of tap into your experience,

(11:41):
because let's first kind of address reallyyour sweet spot. You got the family
that's at home this summer. Twokids are out of the school, so
the food budget's going to be higherbecause they're not going to school. You
know, when they're home, theyeat, right, they eat all the
time. They just never eating.So what are some practical things that families

(12:03):
can do as they're in the JuneJuly August time frame to keep the kids
entertain but not break the bank.Yeah, that's the perfect question, and
that's what so many people are thinkingabout, right. I mean, we've
got it's exactly as you said.You know, we're ramping out of COVID,
so maybe we're able to visit alittle bit more with people, maybe

(12:26):
visiting the grandparents even more of whatwe have to remember at all times.
And this would be just my underlyingmessage with all decision making, I want
you to make decisions that your Septemberself will thank you for. You know,
we all have the buddies and thefriends who are just as frazzled as
the rest of us, just alittle you know, tight around the edges

(12:46):
with the budget, and they're talkingabout a trip to Europe. But they're
talking about a trip to the oppositecoast step they're on and everything else,
and you're kind of looking at themlike, Okay, well I'm not going
to be doing that. Well,guess what, in September, you'll be
glad that you didn't, and youmight just be having like this shoulder for
your friend to cry on when they'retalking about getting the bills coming in.
So always be the person in theroom that's thinking with the future in mind.

(13:07):
You don't need that kind of stressand anxiety of opening up a credit
card bill at god knows what interestrate by September and seeing what waits you.
So another thing is I need toreach back into the way back hat
right now a few decades. Butremember what it was like when you and
I had summer break. All youwanted to do as a kid was hang
out with maybe some snacks and somekool aid and the guys across the street.

(13:30):
And now you've got kids who canlog on on their iPads and chat
with friends and everything else. Theyhandled COVID so beautifully with this stuff.
And always keep in mind your kids, you know, sort of mentality on
this. When I was a kid, I didn't want to go to Europe.
I wanted to hang out with mybuddies and snack and maybe do a
little binge watching of who Knows what? Bratty bunch you name it as I
date myself here. When we're talkingabout keeping things fun for the kids,

(13:54):
think about having their friends over,think about having them go over to their
buddies. How I still have kidsthat are deep into the sleepover mode,
and a sleepover you can't put aprice tag on that. It's just too
much fun. You're away from mom. You can stay up to four am
watching God knows Why everything else.So that's a kind of thing to stay
in mine. Next up, ifwe're talking about traveling, there's a couple

(14:16):
of different trends that I was veryimpressed to see popping back up on the
radar. When I was putting theword out as I was prepping for today's
show with you, I was talkingabout you name a few cities and towns
that people really love when it comesto traveling but not overspending, like seeing
something new but not breaking the bag. We've got a ton of cities right
and left, some near you.And the next thing I'm hearing about and

(14:37):
This is pretty cool because this issomething new to me. But you know,
the whole Airbnb sort of genre oftraveling where you go from your house
and you rent out somebody else's houseor somebody else's condo or whatever wherever you
are across the world. Well,there's a kind of underlying not online Airbnb
in which there's a ton of variouscost tacked on there, but just an

(15:00):
underlying B and B where you're connectingwith friends and family. I live here
outside Philadelphia, you know that,And I'm not too far from Amish Country.
I'm only about forty five minutes awayfrom there. I've got friends and
family that are right there on theEast coast near the ocean. And suddenly
we're chatting about switching, just switchingour houses for a week sometime in July.

(15:22):
And I'm like, well, thatwould be kind of clever because we
get the beach house and they wouldget the house near the Amish Country,
and we could all kind of hangout. They know our house, we
know their house, so suddenly it'snot so out of the realm of possibilities.
And if you have friends or familywhere you'd love for them to come
and visit, you you'd love togo and visit them. It's becoming much
more of an accepted thought about,mind opening thing where you just go visiting

(15:43):
other people. It doesn't require planefare, and it doesn't require a bus
or a train or you're even gettingbehind the wheel of an overpriced gased car.
You can get somewhere very local,have the change of pace, not
overspend on travel, certainly not overspendon a hotel. And the more I
was hearing from people, I said, is this really a thing? I'm
asking out social media and people aresending me example after example, So it's

(16:07):
pretty nats up. I'm not sureif it's something that's kind of crossed your
desk or something you've ever tried yourself, but if you yourself are thinking about
taking that ten minutes off the summer, it's something that it seems to be
gaining some traction out there. CastThere was a romantic comedy movie that came
out a few years ago that kindof did that, And I was trying
to think of the name of itas you were telling me that sort what's
that called the Holiday? The Holiday? Yeah, the Holiday? They made

(16:30):
a look brilliant and who knows ifyou're single you may be like the holiday
end up with romantic. We're notendorsing that anyway. Now. I think
that's interesting. I think you knowsome of the things that you know when
you're saying that as a kid,that's that's brilliant, because I do think
kids today it's different attention span,and I understand that I find in my

(16:52):
family, and I'm just curious ifthis is a case for you as well,
Kristen, is if I have aschedule, it's like it goes so
much smoother, even when we takea vacation. It's just maybe this is
the way my family's wired. ButI remember when the kids are younger and
we, you know, we didn'thave much to go on vacation. We
would say, hey, Friday nightsis family game night. You know,

(17:17):
Saturday, we're going to rent amovie and pop popcorn. And my kids
look forward to it because they knewit was coming, they knew what to
expect. Do you think that's thecase as well. I think you haven't
nailed it, and you touched onanother really important point because you've got families
out there that, for understandable reasons, are just putting a lot of travel

(17:37):
on hold. It's just not goingto be a big travel summer. They
put the pen to paper. Theydid exactly what you described. And when
you talk about planning things, planningthings down on paper, here's what we're
doing, Here's what we'd like todo. Here's what it's going to cost.
Oh, you know what, that'snot going to work. Where to
cross it off. Now we're goingto substitute something else. It's so important
that not only that you do that, but number too that you let your

(18:00):
kids see that. That's something thatI've witnessed all the time as a kid.
You think every kid is witnessing that, and they're not. You are
giving your kids a huge leg upwhen they become adults and they're talking about
you know, they'll have the inevitablegreat times in an economy, and then
they'll have the inevitable downturns in aneconomy, and you are arming them with
exactly what they need to come throughit, just unscathed. Yeah, it

(18:23):
can be a little they could bea little anxiety inducing. It can be
a little stressful, but you can'tbuild that muscle without stretching it, and
people are going to get stressed.You're doing everything perfectly and when we're talking
about well, god, yeah,the summer blockbuster movies. I lived at
the movies when I was a kid. That was just the end all be
all. We loved it when Iwas a kid. Again, I'm dating

(18:44):
myself, but we had a tonof like the dollar movie theaters. You'd
go at like two o'clock in theafternoon whatever. I saw a top gun
as a senior way back when,and now my daughter's about to be a
senior. So you know they're againstcircle of life there, Simba. But
when it comes to the movie vise, I encourage everybody to have some fantastic
movie nights right there at your house. And you think to yourself, Oh,

(19:06):
does that sound kind of odd?You know, I'm going to go
to the library. I'm going torent out the big blockbuster hit that was
just in the movie theater two weeksago, and you get it for free
at the library. You pop upa ton of popcorn, Your house smells
like a movie theater. You haveyour friends over. Oh do you think
the like that? Do you thinkthey won't like it? Here's some inside
or information. People of all ageswill love that, because number one,

(19:27):
they don't like to talk about money. But they all like to save money.
And if you're going to invite yourkids, friends over, your friends
over hang out, We're not goingto go out to an expensive, over
priced dinner. We're not going togo out to an expensive, overpriced far,
We're not going to go out toan expensive, overpriced movie theater.
We deserve all of those luxuries.But let's do it at home with the

(19:48):
movies. Pop a ton of popcorn, put some hot dogs on, maybe
throw a pizza in the oven.And you're doing it, you know,
instead of one hundred and fifty dollarnight out, you're doing it at home
for five bucks instead. Can't belove it? I love it great hip.
By the way, a lot ofpeople don't realize you can get movies
for free at your local public library. And we have more tips for you
coming up this hour. You arewatching Create, Build, and Manage on

(20:08):
this TV. We're back right afterthis. Well, if you are like

(20:33):
most Americans, you've noticed that yourbudget's not going as far as it used
to. Things cost a little bitmore at the grocery store, costs a
little bit more at the gas pump. But you need a break, you
need a vacation, and we've beenvisiting with Chris Nugopian and last segment,
we will kind of give you somepractical things to do if you're going to
stay home, but you said it, we kind of want to get out

(20:56):
there, We want to do things. I know what my family's doing for
vacation this year and kind of howwe plan for it and budget for it.
So let's talk about some practical things. First of all, we probably
should have been budgeting for this vacationbefore June. You start of June.
Let's just be fair there. Butwhat are some practical things for people that
are wanting to take a vacation thatyou would offer. You already mentioned about

(21:18):
swapping the houses and things of thatway, But what if we want to
take a nicer vacation, what advicewould you offer? Yep, and you
nailed it. First of all,you sound again when every time you're talking
about your planning. I'm so impressedbecause you talk about the very valid smart
thing to do where if you canstart saving ahead, great, very few

(21:40):
families I know get that done.We all know it's the best thing with
regards to college or saving for acar, or saving for a vacation.
Heck, yeah, if you've gotyour act together, go ahead and do
that. You put away twenty bucksa week starting you know, this month
or this week or whatever. Thistime next year, you effortlessly have a
thousand dollars as your head start.The only problem this year seems to be
that people are really kind of gettingbroadsided with food prices that they couldn't really

(22:04):
prep poor, and gas prices dogon it. That still keep seemed to
be doing that upward climb. Ifyou can get that twenty bucks a week
into an account. Twenty bucks aweek is pretty painless for a large majority
of Americans, So that's a greatstart. Now, you're absolutely right.
We all want to take a littletrip. There's nothing like getting in the
car, you know, getting thewind in your hair, seeing some fresh

(22:26):
sights, that kind of thing withregards to you want to cut your suit
to fit the cloth. If you'vegot a budget that isn't you know you
can't go first class to Hawaii?And who can get yourself in the right
mindset to again? Think back towhen you were a kid and what you
loved. You loved being out withyour family, you loved seeing some new
stuff. You love being able tohit McDonald's, maybe a little more than

(22:47):
you would during the usual school year. You love just being with your family,
You loved seeing your folks, justbeing able to chillax a little bit.
These are all the things. Theseare all the check boxes that today's
kids and today's adults want to hitas well. So by all means take
the trip rather than fly somewhere.And it's not just the cost of the
gas. Tell me if you're hearingany of this stuff too, I'm hearing
about people having just dreadful weights inairports these days, no matter what.

(23:12):
It could be a military run airportin years past, but there's still a
ton of hiccups. Now. I'ma Philadelphia girl, so you know we're
born to be aware of the airportdelays. But even Philadelphia is taking it
up a new step. It's nottheir fault. There's a lot of moving
parts to it. Maybe you foregothe airport and you go somewhere within driving

(23:33):
distance. Not only will that saveyou huge travel costs, but you can
oftentimes find some great places, thesmaller places outside the big cities, with
much better deals on hotels. You'vegot you know, you think about how
households are doing their darnedist to buildtheir revenues and to slash their costs.
Small hotels are the same way.If you find these small inns that are

(23:55):
well received, that get decent reviews, go to them and try to negotiate
a better Chances are excellent they'll behappy to work with you. So rather
than traveling to the big, hugehubs you know, whether it's Los Angeles,
New York, here on the Eastcoast, even Philadelphia, think about
going to the area's just outside theusual beltway around here in Chester County,

(24:17):
we love going. Rather than goingeast into Philadelphia, we'll head a little
west into maybe Reading Pennsylvania, wherethe architecture is amazing. The local minor
league baseball teams are doing just alittle better than our Phillies. I hate
to say it out loud, thecost of the hotels are less. You've
got the amazing mom and pop restaurantsthat are a fraction of what you're going
to pay Inside the city of Philadelphia. That's the kind of thing where you

(24:40):
can check every one of those boxes. Fun meals out, fun sporting events,
wonderful high quality hotels, no airfare, and a lot less money spent
on gas and sure enough you arethat person in September rip and open the
credit card bills and saying, oh, thank god, we didn't do X,
Y and Z. Instead we justdid a B and C and now
we're for a better off for it. I tell you I don't want to

(25:02):
get too much credit because because oneof the things we've done for a long
time is we look full transparency here, right, Rather than sending amount aside,
we usually take more out in taxeson our revenue and we get that
income tax check back and that's alwaysour vacation budget. And it's like,
you know, we you know,listen, I'm not a financial planner,

(25:23):
and there's probably a million financial plannerson our network there would tell me I'm
doing it all wrong. But that'swhat we do. And so the other
thing just kind of throw it outthere and get your thoughts on it,
and you could tell me, youknow, this is horrible. But we
love to go on these cruises.Now in Texas, I can drive down
to Galveston and be down there infour hours. I don't have this no

(25:45):
extra hotel. I can wake upthat morning, drive get right on the
boat. But my wife always tellsme I want to go somewhere that I
don't have to cook and I don'thave to clean, and it's like all
the entertainment is right there on theboat. It's like a hotel out on
the water, and it's you know, all expenses paid, and that always
gets our attention. So we usuallyprepay it ahead of time so that when

(26:07):
we get on vacation, like hesaid, there's no credit card debt,
and it's all paid for and we'regetting on the boat and I'm relaxed and
I'm eating better food than you know. Now, we won't talk about how
much weight I gain when I getback from that cruise. That's a whole
other topic. But but that's somethingthat we enjoy. So again for us,
we always like set aside, likeyou know, and not the full

(26:29):
amount and full disclosure. We usuallyjust a portion of it and then and
then we'll do, you know somethingwith the other part. Anyway, we
let Uncle Sam help us plan ourvacations. Well, that is brilliant.
If everybody planned their finances like you, the world would be in a far
better place. Let me tell youa little story about two fabulous cruisers that
I know I've made no bones ofthe fact that I was raised by two

(26:51):
brilliant, hardworking, incredibly frugal parentsand we half of my great vacation ideas.
Oh, Chris is so clever.I pulled them straight from my own
child. My parents did that becausethey had very little to spend on the
family vacations and we still had agreat time. Well, fast forward a
few decades of these two my parentssaid, is hard working, saving a
lot, investing well for one k? Just you know, lather rinse,

(27:15):
repeat, Well, now I'm theproud owner of two parents who cannot stop
cruising everywhere. Me and my twoyounger sisters are like, who are you
like? What is this? Mymom's in these evening gowns she gets from
Goodwill. They're sending pictures of theselike elaborate Filet Mignon dinners on board.
I'm like, what I mean,you can't finish a set? And Joey,
who are these people? So?Yes, indeed, not only is
cruising a phenomenal thing to do,but Scott, you bring up an internet,

(27:38):
You bring up an excellent point.They were hit so hard by COVID
that they would long and they wouldabsolutely love to have a ship filled with
people exactly like you, hard working, kind, wonderful travelers, polite,
fantastic. These aren't the hard partyingcrowds you hear about once in a while.
You clote a bunch of Scott Millerand companies get them on board,

(27:59):
and cruising industry is sit back inthe black. Definitely go on to cruises.
That's why we work so hard.Yeah, that's why we like to
save a little bit of money.Set down the road, you two can
be that retired couple that's you know, unrecognizable by your grown children down the
road. We all hope for thatone day. Well, and I'll tell
you it is the time to geta cruise because they're just getting started and

(28:22):
they're offering phenomenal deals that you'll neverget a normal season. And then there's
little tips there if I can youknow, having a family, and this
is what we usually do, youknow, pre COVID. We haven't done
this since twenty nineteen, so we'rea little anxious to see how it's going
to be. Just full disclosure.But you know, don't buy the all
you can drink soft drink package.It's not worth it. What we discovered

(28:47):
is get this Kristen. The cruiselines let you bring on board. If
soft drinks is your thing, they'lllet you bring on one twelve pack per
person on board, okay, Andso it's I'm looking at him like,
why would I spend ninety dollars perperson for all you can drink soft drinks?
And by the way, we didthat one year, So we made

(29:08):
that mistake. When you go upto the bar and you got your little
tag for your free drink, thebartender wants the people buying the alcoholic beverages,
so you have to wait a goodyou know, ten minutes before they'll
fill your coke. Look, youdon't need more than one coke a day.
It's only a five day cruise anyway. There's a lot of little tips
within that as well, that youcan still have fun and the excursions.

(29:30):
Don't spend money of the excursions.Just enjoy the beach and the buffet.
Can you tell them ready for myvacation? Very very true. It's so
true. Now if you talk tome about any kind of little tag I
need for coffee consumption, these arethe fine print details and I need to
about before I step on board.But no, it sounds like you guys

(29:51):
are doing it perfectly. And cruisingis here to stain. I just thank
God that they survived all of COVID. May they prosper from this point forward.
They do allow the you have theregular coffee, If you want the
fancy coffee you got, you gottapay for that. My problem, and
I don't know what it's gonna belike this now post COVID. But but
pre COVID was a soft ice creammachine. I don't know what it was
every time I passed by it.Yes, I think I do want ice

(30:14):
cream. You know, I justhad a big mail, But I think
I want I want ice cream.We got to about a minute left,
and what I want to transition intois some other things that we can kind
of carry this over. The nextsegment is the fall's coming. He mentioned
September, he got school coming inplace. You have you know what?
I checked the calendar. I don'tknow if you know this Christian, but

(30:37):
but I checked the calendar. Didyou know that Christmas falls on December twenty
fifth of every single year? Didyou know that? Yes? I do,
Yes, I do that. Andthat seems to me when we get
a huge amount of our a hugeamount of our mail, tends to be
just that month beforehand, where everybodyseemed genuinely surprised, Oh my god,
we've got another Christmas ahead of us. Yes, So we're going to talk
about how think there's some things youcould be doing now this summer that's going

(31:00):
to set you up for tremendous successin the fall, regardless of what happens
with inflation. We're going to talkabout that coming up next. The website
again is Brilliant Frugal Living dot com. Brilliant Frugal Living dot com. This
is where you can go and findout what radio station is carrying. Christ
Agopian show are connected with the podcaststick Around. This is this TV and

(31:23):
you're watching Create, Build and Manage. There are things you can be doing

(31:48):
this summer that'll set you up fora better financial situation in the fall.
And we're visiting with Christian Agopian.She is a syndicated talk show host called
an Author. Her show is aChristian Hagopian Show and her expertise is really
helping you think through and plan yourfinancial situation today so that you have more

(32:12):
margin tomorrow. And let's talk aboutthe fall. We mentioned Kristen. We've
got school that's coming up, sothere's going to be school for those who
still have kids at home. Mykids are almost I got one in college
and one going in high school.But you have school supplies, you have
you know they want some new outfitsor need new outfits. I'm surprised.

(32:34):
My fourteen year old is already tallerthan her mom and continues to grow taller.
So you got clothes you have toyou have to contend with. And
then you're gonna have any fall tripscoming up, Thanksgiving and then Christmas around
the corner, and then pretty soonthere's gonna be a lot of us,
a lot of friends that you knowdepressed. Really, the depression credit card
comes right in February, So whatcan we do today that's going to set

(32:58):
us up for success as fall.Third thing, well, the first thing
you did was you outlined it soperfectly, because what you just described is
the fact that we always have anopportunity to spend some money coming up.
There's just always going to be eventscoming up, whether it's going back to
school, back to college, youneed a car out of nowhere, there's
vacations coming up, and the onething you need to do is take the

(33:21):
quiet moment to yourself and realize thatknowledge is power. Take a look at
the headlines. They can be alittle cringe worthy, but you know what,
they're stuffed with information, and yousee what the gas prices are doing.
I don't see any news headlines thatwould suggest they're coming down anytime soon.
In fact, don't kill the messenger. It seems to me like they
could go up just a bit plannedfor it. Be the one in your

(33:42):
family tree, in your circle offriends that actually has planned and budgeted for
it, and let them know thatYou and I talked about twenty dollars a
week for vacations. Always fun.What if you peeled off ten bucks a
week for extra gas. Suddenly outof nowhere, you've got an extra forty
bucks a month, eighty bucks everytwo months, and suddenly you've got to
yourself a gift card with that onit. That's a gas tank or half

(34:04):
a gas tag, depending on wherethe prices are going. You talk about
Christmas coming up, you talk aboutthe holidays coming up. Plan now so
that and feel how you're feeling rightnow. You're feeling a little edgy,
You're feeling a little anxious, alittle uncertain. Because we like to be
in lockstep with reality, we liketo know exactly what's coming down the pike,
and even in the best economic times, that's not going to be happening.

(34:25):
So what you have to do isyou have to train yourself. And
I'm doing the same thing for myselfall the time. Learn how to roll
with the punches, almost take itwith an amusing grain of salt. We
found out yesterday you and I arepretaping, but we're sitting here talking about
today's headlines or gas prices just wentup another five cents, And I've got
friends of mine who are genuinely shockedevery time because they're thinking it has to

(34:46):
come down, it can't go backup. Maybe you're the one that quietly
says, you know what, Ithink we're going to hit five bucks a
gallon by July, and just beaware of it and budget and save a
little bit. Accordingly, we talkedabout planning for the olidays. It is
going to be here on December twentyfifth, What does that mean. It
means we've got six months. You'renot sitting there the third week of December

(35:07):
just a little green face because you'vegot no cash and you want to pull
off a nice holiday. Maybe thisis the one where you kind of step
it up a bit, and you'reputting one hundred bucks a month into a
bank account just for Christmas. It'suntouchable. It goes straight out of your
paycheck. Maybe you can pay Palto yourself if you're feeling disciplined enough.
I connect with people coast to coastwho are so creative with how they get

(35:27):
this done. But the first timeyou come up on back to school shopping
and you've got money waiting for youin the bank just for that, there's
no hardship. You're hooked the minutethat you go with a Christmas or a
honeco or a Thanksgiving. I knowpeople who do these huge get everybody together
for Thanksgiving, and it costs someserious bucks and they have put either you

(35:50):
name it, maybe one hundred dollarsa month, twenty five bucks a week.
Pretty much everybody can do that.By the time Thanksgiving comes up or
Christmas comes up, you've got athousand dollars cold hardsh it pretty you know,
painless thousand dollars cold hard cash.We can't say that very often,
and it's they're waiting for you.And the first time you hear people saying
the first time I did that.It seemed a little tough. But the

(36:12):
feeling of that money in your hand, where you didn't have to scround for
you didn't have to ask anybody elsefor it. You are waiting for a
bonus that might not come and youhad it in hand. It is.
You're absolutely hooked on that feeling.Once you do it one time, you'll
never go back. So be theperson in the room that can say,
oh, you know what, Yeah, I heard, but you know my
kids braces, it's taken care of. You know you mentioned your kids are

(36:32):
still growing. I can hear myfourteen year old son growing at this point.
It's remarkable. Everybody's gonna have acar that dies. We love our
cars, and I'm very sorry inadvance for your loss. We're all going
to have a car that has problems. Put some money away for that.
But Chris, you're just named tenthings I got to put away money in
account for. It doesn't have tobe big amounts of money. You know,
Christmas is coming. You know whatyou spent last Christmas? Break it

(36:57):
down, save it, be thegrown up in the room and get it
done. And you are going tolove the way it feels. The same
thing goes for cars, the samething goes for some big event coming up.
Maybe you have your parents fiftieth anniversarycoming up. There is always an
event, exactly as you say.And the first time you take that move
and you start saving some money weekto week, you will be hooked on

(37:17):
the feeling of well being, nonanxiety, non worry, big zero on
the credit card bill when it comesin and just I mean, you will
lift out of the chair with lightnesson this. And I can't emphasize it
enough. It sounds like it's undoable, especially in the face of gas prices,
every price, It is doable.And what I want for all of
your fans, Scott, is thatfeeling of peace and calm and control over

(37:45):
their finances, because with all theheadlines out there, they love to scream
in our faces that we're non incontrol of our surroundings, when in fact
the opposite is true. You havefar more control over your surroundings than you'd
think. And when you have financialcontrol over the upcoming holiday, the upcoming
back to school, over your upcomingwonderful, well deserved vacation, and you
come home to not only a morerelaxed family, but zero dex that is

(38:08):
something that I can't even describe onyour show. It's something you have to
feel in your own skin, andit's it's a peace of mind that I
want every one of your fans toknow this upcoming so this upcoming summer season
and all the holiday seasons to come, so true, so true. And
I know my wife used to umbecause she likes to buy a gift for
every niece and nephew, which ishey, great more you know, more

(38:30):
power to her that she's that way, but she does it. She starts
doing in the summer. As shethinks about it, she'll get him a
little gift. Really set it aside. But now we have the whole Amazon
problem, which is a whole nothertopic. You know, It's like it's
like Christmas shows up at the frontdoor every other day, Kristen. You
know, it's like, oh,everyone gets excited, we gather around,

(38:52):
we open it up. It's like, oh, all it was is like,
you know, the the supplies weordered for the pool. You know,
I think that excited. So hey, we got a minute left.
If someone wants to reach out toyou and kind of carry this conversation,
what's the best way they can getin touch with you absolutely. You can
find me on bis talk radio site. You can find me at brilliant at

(39:14):
Frugal Living dot com or just googleKristen Egopian and it will find me.
Feel free to send me a text, to send me an email. BIS
talk has got the best listeners aroundand I love hearing from all of them.
If you've got a great idea,if you've got a question, if
you've got a rant, whatever you'vegot, we've got the answer back for
you. We'd love to hear fromyou. You need to tune in.
You need to follow the podcast aswell, because, let me tell you,

(39:37):
you got some heavy hitters on yourshow. You interview some interesting people
for sure, and so we appreciateyour time this hour and hopefully people walk
away with just one or two practicaltips that can help them. So thank
you so much. The pleasure ismine. Thanks again for the opportunity absolutely,
and thank you for tuning in.This has been Creet Bill and manage