Speaker 1: Episode three seventy six, how to stick with your big
Speaker 1: financial goals.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver life. Here your hosts
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: My name is Jen, my name is Jill.
Speaker 1: And it is January thirtieth when this episode airs, so
Speaker 1: a lot of us are feeling the post New Year's resolution,
Speaker 1: post a fresh start feeling were off, and so this
Speaker 1: is a great time to learn some strategies that help
Speaker 1: you stick with goals long term, longer than thirty days.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we are going to be getting into.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be as many tangible action tips
Speaker 1: as it will be mindset shifts, because that's really what
Speaker 1: you need when we are talking about sticking with goals
Speaker 1: throughout the year, not just for a couple weeks.
Speaker 3: You know, our brain is the biggest contributor to the
Speaker 3: decisions that we make and the actions that we have,
Speaker 3: So we can't just give tips and hacks because they
Speaker 3: only last as long as that behavior does. But the
Speaker 3: mind is a powerful one. So that's what we're going
Speaker 3: to give you. But first, this episode is brought to
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're really loving the nineties right now. I think
Speaker 1: when when they say nineties are having a comeback, I
Speaker 1: really hope that this is what they need the.
Speaker 3: Vil because nineties was where all the ludicrous stuff happened.
Speaker 3: Like when I go back and I look at the
Speaker 3: funny fitness fads, all of them were in the nineties,
Speaker 3: all of them treasure trove of memes. If we're view
Speaker 3: honest and never looked up body flex, that's a good one.
Speaker 3: You're gonna want to take that YouTube journey.
Speaker 1: Be careful.
Speaker 3: Woman who breathes in some chaotic ways. I remember my
Speaker 3: mom doing that. I remember she would do these crazy
Speaker 3: face exercises and breathe real funny good. I don't think
Speaker 3: it was backed by such she looks great. Yeh, she
Speaker 3: looks great.
Speaker 1: I know. That's probably why.
Speaker 3: So she was breathing weird through the nineties.
Speaker 1: Financial goals, we have a lot of episodes about them.
Speaker 1: We got like episode two eighty two regaining motivation when
Speaker 1: you don't feel like caring about money, uh, and then
Speaker 1: episode two twenty six safe Smarter, not Harder. So we
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the not just the mindset. Not
Speaker 1: we definitely were not like woo woo affirmation sort of
Speaker 1: that sort of like mindset. But we we love to
Speaker 1: look at the psychology behind the place that your mind
Speaker 1: plays in your money. So we do a lot of
Speaker 1: episodes like this, and this is actually going to be
Speaker 1: one of the chapters of our book that we are
Speaker 1: writing that will release next year, and so we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk it out with you guys. The book itself
Speaker 1: isn't about financial goals, but it is about values based spending.
Speaker 1: How do you spend in your values And a lot
Speaker 1: of people are going to want to learn that because
Speaker 1: you have financial goals, and so we wanted to. We
Speaker 1: thought it was the perfect time in the year to
Speaker 1: bring this up, and so we had a poll in
Speaker 1: the friend letter. So if you don't get the friend letter,
Speaker 1: that's another reason to get it, because we do a
Speaker 1: poll in every every email, and a lot of them
Speaker 1: will bring into our planning for the episode, and we've learned.
Speaker 1: We asked what are your biggest financial goals for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four and learn that forty percent of you want
Speaker 1: to pay off credit card and or personal loan debt,
Speaker 1: which is wild because I really thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be student loan debt, and that one only got
Speaker 1: little less than a quarter of the votes for debt,
Speaker 1: and then the next highest amount was saving as much
Speaker 1: for retirement. That's the about half as many of you
Speaker 1: want to do that. So we are going to focus
Speaker 1: a lot of maybe our content in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: with the focus of paying off debt, but then also
Speaker 1: with the mindset that a lot of this is high
Speaker 1: interest debt and that we want to pay off first.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of feedback from the poll saying
Speaker 1: that you feel like you want to do all of
Speaker 1: these goals. The choices were saving emergency fund, pay off
Speaker 1: student loans, credit card, save for retirement, or save for
Speaker 1: an upgrader renovation, and a lot of you want to
Speaker 1: do all of them, and we definitely say paying off
Speaker 1: the credit card and personal loan debt should be first
Speaker 1: priority besides saving emergency fund. You can kind of do
Speaker 1: those at the same time. But we know the goals compete,
Speaker 1: so if you have to pick one, pick the high interest.
Speaker 1: But we wanted to just go through a few of
Speaker 1: your like your feedback, your responses and kind of like
Speaker 1: encourage you and yeah, and kind of this isn't a
Speaker 1: new thing that we're trying. So Jill, did you have
Speaker 1: any that you wanted to point out?
Speaker 3: You know, just reading because you can vote in the
Speaker 3: polls and then you can also type a response and
Speaker 3: reading your responses feels like it has grown my heart
Speaker 3: three times the size that it already was. I know
Speaker 3: that you all are so great, but truly, just where
Speaker 3: you're at and some of your vulnerability in your responses
Speaker 3: to just this simple poll really was moving to me.
Speaker 3: So that's one of my takeaways. I don't want to
Speaker 3: read anyone in particular, but what stood out to me
Speaker 3: in the responses to the poll is so many people
Speaker 3: just hitting these barriers of you know, maybe wanting to
Speaker 3: do a renovation and then inflation costs and building materials
Speaker 3: are too much, so it has kind of halted progress
Speaker 3: on that renovation. Or you had some unexpected difficulties through
Speaker 3: a storm and now it's forced you into renovations. A
Speaker 3: lot of renovation stuff happening, but then barriers faced in
Speaker 3: the midst of it, and then needing to take out loan.
Speaker 3: So I think what stands out to me is that
Speaker 3: this isn't I'm just blowing money on credit cards, you know, shopping,
Speaker 3: which that can be some people's circumstances, and that's okay,
Speaker 3: there's a journey there, but for so many there's this
Speaker 3: I kind of had to make this decision because of
Speaker 3: where I'm at currently to take on this debt. And
Speaker 3: I think my heart just like feels for you all,
Speaker 3: and I love the goal that you've set for yourself
Speaker 3: to pay off this high interest debt. And I think
Speaker 3: it's helpful even for me to feel I'm not alone either,
Speaker 3: like I have faced these circumstances like I really want
Speaker 3: to do this thing, but I don't have the money
Speaker 3: for it right now, or this is more than I
Speaker 3: thought it was gonna be. And yeah, y'all are just
Speaker 3: in some real spots with your money.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The only one that I want to call out
Speaker 1: is that one of our readers has some money in
Speaker 1: medical debt and has the cash to pay it off.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like torn because she, you know,
Speaker 1: she thinks that people think that she should use that
Speaker 1: to just pay it off and be debt free, but
Speaker 1: she has a chronic illness. And I just want to say, like,
Speaker 1: you're good girl, Like I would not tell you to
Speaker 1: use your cash reserves, especially with a chronic illness. Don't
Speaker 1: use your cash reserves to pay off a medical debt.
Speaker 1: This medical debt is probably interest free. You're already on
Speaker 1: a payment plan. Don't don't worry. You're doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of times where I think we've heard
Speaker 1: conflicting financial advice in the past, and we're doing what
Speaker 1: feels right for us and we're stressed. I know I
Speaker 1: had this when I was paying off debt. Everyone was
Speaker 1: like death, no ball, death, no ball, desk, noball, and
Speaker 1: then we chose to the debt avalanche, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I feel kind of guilty because everyone's telling me to
Speaker 1: do this, and I'm doing this, and in hindsight, it
Speaker 1: was insane because I was paying off debt. It didn't
Speaker 1: matter like I was doing something good for my finance.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter how I did it. I was moving
Speaker 1: in the right direction. And so if you are moving
Speaker 1: in the right direction, don't let conflicting financial advice confuse
Speaker 1: you or conflict you do what's right for you as
Speaker 1: you just stay in the right direction. And that's a
Speaker 1: lot of what we're going to be talking about today
Speaker 1: when we talk about mindset. So we have three kind
Speaker 1: of steps or tips that you should take with you.
Speaker 1: We're going to dive deeply into two of them, so
Speaker 1: just come in with hot. With the first one is,
Speaker 1: in order to stick to big financial goals, you have
Speaker 1: to fall in love with the process. And we've talked
Speaker 1: previously and in the book this is going to make
Speaker 1: more sense because you'll have just read it. But in
Speaker 1: previous episodes where we've been kind of flushing out these
Speaker 1: ideas kind of about mastering the skill of spending. You'll
Speaker 1: never be perfect at spending. You'll never spend one hundred
Speaker 1: percent on what you value and zero percent on what
Speaker 1: you don't, right, but spending is a skill that we
Speaker 1: do get better at. And instead of just viewing that
Speaker 1: process as it means to an end, just as a
Speaker 1: means to get to your financial goals, when you start
Speaker 1: to fall in love with the process, that's when you
Speaker 1: can take the skill and not just reach your next
Speaker 1: financial goal, but your next financial goal and the next
Speaker 1: one and the next one. Because you're never going to
Speaker 1: stop having financial goals. And so the first thing when
Speaker 1: we're looking at how do we stick to make financial
Speaker 1: goals long term is to fall in love with the process.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so many people ask us how how do you
Speaker 3: stick to frugality? And they'll ask it like it's the
Speaker 3: self imposed punishment, Like this is like really viewing the
Speaker 3: deprivation parts of it. What I have to say, No,
Speaker 3: to what it means I can't do or accomplish, and
Speaker 3: how does anyone possibly just stick with frugality? And I
Speaker 3: think we're we're recognizing in ourselves and in other people's
Speaker 3: stories that we're not frugal just for frugal's sake. None
Speaker 3: of us just love being frugal. Also, it depends on
Speaker 3: how you're defining frugality, but for partially what it gets us,
Speaker 3: and partially, like Gen's describing, falling in love with this
Speaker 3: process in a larger we're all encompassing way. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna I'm gonna look at one angle, gena look at another.
Speaker 3: But I think frugality can be something that when we
Speaker 3: put it into practice, we are reaching our financial goals faster,
Speaker 3: we're saving more, we maybe don't have to work as
Speaker 3: hard because we're not at a place where we're continuously
Speaker 3: outspending our earnings. We're kind of recognizing where contentment is,
Speaker 3: where enough is, and we can recognize that's what frugality
Speaker 3: affords us. But of course that's not necessarily enough for everybody,
Speaker 3: because those goals EBB and flow, they shift. You reach
Speaker 3: a goal, and then what there's this deeper mindset that
Speaker 3: does have to become more all encompassing of No, I
Speaker 3: truly love this lifestyle that I building. I truly love
Speaker 3: learning more about myself and how to spend on the
Speaker 3: things that I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I For me, the math isn't enough and even
Speaker 1: the big why isn't enough. And most people, I think
Speaker 1: experienced this is that we're always when you're creating a
Speaker 1: financial goal, you say, think of your why, why do
Speaker 1: I want to Because paying off debt in itself is
Speaker 1: not the goal the goal, it's just not enough the
Speaker 1: goal For me when we were paying off debt that
Speaker 1: I wanted to foster, that was the real goal. And
Speaker 1: paying off debt I knew would make it easier for
Speaker 1: me to choose to work or not to choose how
Speaker 1: I wanted to work, the flexibility I would have in
Speaker 1: my life in the future. That's why I paid off debt.
Speaker 1: I didn't pay off debt because I wanted to be
Speaker 1: debt free. I didn't want to be debt free. I
Speaker 1: didn't really care so I had that was not enough
Speaker 1: for me in order to want to spend better. And
Speaker 1: even that didn't make me want to change my spending.
Speaker 1: That made me want to pay off debt it is,
Speaker 1: so I just want to decide hustle more to pay
Speaker 1: off the debt. So it's a start, but it's also
Speaker 1: a process. And that's why we say process because you're
Speaker 1: going to be learning more about your capabilities, your unique
Speaker 1: season and what you're what you're capable of, and what
Speaker 1: you think your journey is going to look like is
Speaker 1: not probably what the journey is going to look like
Speaker 1: long term. So you have to be flexible and willing
Speaker 1: to pivot, and all of this is easier to do
Speaker 1: when you're focused more on the process instead of the
Speaker 1: end goal. Because we think about goals, we think the
Speaker 1: ends just by the means. And I hear this all
Speaker 1: the time, everywhere in every scenario. Surely you have heard this,
Speaker 1: and I'm adamant. The ends never justify the means. And
Speaker 1: the end is the end, right the end. After its end,
Speaker 1: it's over, you're dead. The means are all we have.
Speaker 1: So so when you fall in love with the process,
Speaker 1: that's your life, like, that's everything that you have. If
Speaker 1: you just fall in love with the end, you're gonna
Speaker 1: resent the process.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that another way, it's enjoying the journey,
Speaker 3: embracing the journey, because it can't just be about the destination.
Speaker 3: The destination is in some ways a blip on the radar,
Speaker 3: you know, the the hike that you go on and
Speaker 3: you reach the peak, and that's awesome. But if you
Speaker 3: don't learn to embrace the hike on the way there,
Speaker 3: then that's just a fleeting moment you'll probably know never
Speaker 3: go hiking again. Might be the reason that a lot
Speaker 3: of people don't go hiking. But I think that this
Speaker 3: relates to that other question that we get asked often too,
Speaker 3: not just how do you stick to frugality, but how
Speaker 3: do you keep that long term goal in mind and
Speaker 3: remember your why when making that instant gratification decision is
Speaker 3: just so much easier and more appealing. How do I
Speaker 3: turn down the thing in the moment and keep this
Speaker 3: why in the forefront at all times? And the reality
Speaker 3: is that it's not actually not possible, and probably one
Speaker 3: of the reasons that we all can feel so defeated
Speaker 3: in that process. I think first to both of those
Speaker 3: questions that we say, you can't just want it. You're
Speaker 3: going to have to love it. You're going to have
Speaker 3: to fall in love with the process, embrace the journey,
Speaker 3: you really do have to love your long term goal
Speaker 3: and your why enough that you want to say no
Speaker 3: to the instant gratification decision, not just that your will
Speaker 3: power was strong enough, Like if your heart doesn't flutter,
Speaker 3: you don't get flushed in the cheeks when you think
Speaker 3: about your goal, then it's not the right goal to pursue.
Speaker 3: That's why what you're describing jen that paying off debt
Speaker 3: is rarely the right goal for most people. I mean,
Speaker 3: certainly still pay off your debt, but paying off debt
Speaker 3: is a solution to a problem keeping you from the
Speaker 3: right goal. So this is where we're talking about mindset
Speaker 3: of identifying it can't just be payoff debt. That's going
Speaker 3: to feel really depleting, overwhelming, it's going to feel like
Speaker 3: deprivation most of the time. We've got to attach it
Speaker 3: to something bigger, and we have to learn to embrace
Speaker 3: the process, fall in love with the journey of discovery
Speaker 3: and finding ways that it's not feeling like I'm just
Speaker 3: saying no, but I'm saying yes. And that's a lot
Speaker 3: of mindset that we're talking about there.
Speaker 4: M h.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it comes down to this external and internal motivation.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the times In this we'll focus
Speaker 1: on external motivators. So those are like rewards. If you
Speaker 1: pay off a credit card, you take yourself out to dinner,
Speaker 1: if you get a raise, you go by yourself a
Speaker 1: new outfit. You know that you've got these these events
Speaker 1: and you are working towards them for some type of
Speaker 1: external motivation. You know, like if I spend nothing for
Speaker 1: six days, on the seventh day, I'm going to get
Speaker 1: to go out to dinner something like that. That's external motivation,
Speaker 1: external rewards. And then you have intrinsic motivation, internal motivation,
Speaker 1: and that's doing something for the joy of doing it.
Speaker 1: Nobody has to tell you to do it. You find
Speaker 1: joy and satisfaction for doing it. And that's part of
Speaker 1: like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We're looking for those higher needs,
Speaker 1: right the self esteem, the self actualization, that those are
Speaker 1: the things that are going to help us find those
Speaker 1: intrinsic motivators. But that's kind of what we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: External motivation only lasts for so long. After after like
Speaker 1: six months in your debt payoff journey, that seventh day
Speaker 1: dinner is not going to be motivating enough. You'll just
Speaker 1: go buy dinner now. You know it's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: You have to be while you're using external motivation, you
Speaker 1: have to be building up these intrinsic motivators, building up
Speaker 1: and finding the things that you love about the journey.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna love everything about the journey, right, You're
Speaker 1: not gonna love everything about the process. So it's about
Speaker 1: how do we do more. We're looking at all the things.
Speaker 1: We're taking inventory, what do I love, what do I
Speaker 1: don't love? How do I do more of the things
Speaker 1: that I love and feel less of the things that
Speaker 1: I don't love? And we talk a lot about eating
Speaker 1: at home because it saves money. I personally hate dishes,
Speaker 1: so I want to eat at home because it saves money.
Speaker 1: So how can I make eating at home more enjoyable? Well,
Speaker 1: I want to do less dishes and I want to
Speaker 1: do less cooking. So I create a meal plan that
Speaker 1: focuses on the things that I love. It brings me
Speaker 1: joy when I cook a meal at home because I
Speaker 1: know I've saved so much money and not eating out,
Speaker 1: and I haven't felt miserable in the process, you know,
Speaker 1: making these multipot dinners that look instagram worthy. So finding
Speaker 1: these these things that bring you joy. So that's like
Speaker 1: finding joy on the actual like saving money side, but
Speaker 1: there are other things like honestly, like making money brought
Speaker 1: me a lot of joy on my debt payoff journey.
Speaker 1: I just every time a dollar hit my bank account,
Speaker 1: like I loved it. I felt accomplishment was really one
Speaker 1: of my core values back then. So another way you
Speaker 1: can find these intrinsic motivators is knowing your core values.
Speaker 1: And so anytime I could find that like I felt
Speaker 1: so good. You know the Enneagraham, Meyer's Briggs. Those are
Speaker 1: also some things. If you know those things about yourself,
Speaker 1: then you can get closer to finding your intrinsic motivators.
Speaker 3: I think for me, feeling accomplishment along the way, and
Speaker 3: feeling senses of ingenuity and embracing simplicity and watching myself
Speaker 3: problem solve and become resourceful, especially in my debt payoff.
Speaker 3: But then beyond that, it was something that I embraced
Speaker 3: because I loved those things so much along the way.
Speaker 3: What I was able to see in myself as a
Speaker 3: result of just kind of thinking more critically and leaning
Speaker 3: into the things that actually were valuable to me is
Speaker 3: what kind of kept me and keeps me on this
Speaker 3: journey of being a good steward of my resources. For me,
Speaker 3: that's my example of what the process and enjoying and
Speaker 3: falling in love with the processes and why I can
Speaker 3: say wholeheartedly frugality isn't deprivation for me, Values based spending
Speaker 3: isn't isn't saying no constantly. It's actually finding my better
Speaker 3: yes is and really leaning into that and choosing to
Speaker 3: focus my time, energy and attention on those things.
Speaker 1: Yes, I am finding my better yes all right. So
Speaker 1: our next point, so first is falling in love with
Speaker 1: the process. Next is embracing the ebbs and flows of life,
Speaker 1: of the journey, embracing the ebbs and flows, and so
Speaker 1: originally in this chapter we wanted to talk about taking
Speaker 1: quote unquote potty breaks on the journey. It's a road
Speaker 1: trip and you're allowed to take potty breaks. But I
Speaker 1: think and we still like believe that, right, you're allowed
Speaker 1: to take breaks on your journey. But if you shift
Speaker 1: your mindset slightly and just say, the entire thing is
Speaker 1: the journey. But sometimes there's going to be straight up
Speaker 1: into the right movement, and sometimes it's going to be
Speaker 1: a little backtracking that happens and so embracing the ebbs
Speaker 1: and flows of life is another essential mindset and practice
Speaker 1: to sticking to long term financial goals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to recognize that there's going to be a little
Speaker 3: bit of ups and downs. And we can see this
Speaker 3: just when we look at the graph of the last
Speaker 3: thirty years of the S and P five hundred index.
Speaker 3: And if you can't recall that instantly in your head,
Speaker 3: you can think of any really kind of any line graph.
Speaker 3: You can clearly see that it goes up and down
Speaker 3: and up and down and up and down, but ultimately
Speaker 3: it's going to trend up into the right. So any
Speaker 3: line graph you've ever seen, that's what the S and
Speaker 3: P five hundred index line graph looks like. And that
Speaker 3: even though we see these graphs all the time everywhere,
Speaker 3: for some reason, we can still expect that our trajectory
Speaker 3: is just going to be a straight line up into
Speaker 3: the right, and we can get really disappointed when things
Speaker 3: don't go our perfect way. And so I think to
Speaker 3: stick to a big financial goal, you have to embrace
Speaker 3: the journey, fall in love with the process, but also
Speaker 3: recognize that there's going to be these ebbs and flows
Speaker 3: and learning ways to embrace that too, not to see
Speaker 3: it as this massive setback, but a part of the
Speaker 3: process keeping in mind that if you're on a downturn,
Speaker 3: it's not going to stay that way, and if you're
Speaker 3: on an upswing, it might not remain that way either,
Speaker 3: but that we can continue to hold hope and recognize
Speaker 3: that we can continually experience growth in some facet and
Speaker 3: trend up into the right. Even if there are these
Speaker 3: times where it feels like I've fallen off the wagon.
Speaker 3: This isn't going my way. It doesn't mean that that's
Speaker 3: the entire picture of your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we saw so many of you in your feedback
Speaker 1: in the friend letter pulls saying like I was on
Speaker 1: my way to pay off debt and then I had
Speaker 1: this medical thing or this thing broke in my house,
Speaker 1: or a car broke, and now I had to use
Speaker 1: my emergency fund for that or put it on credit,
Speaker 1: and now I'm like resaving or changing my strategy. There
Speaker 1: are going like your financial goals are going to change too.
Speaker 1: It's they're not going to be static, Like you're going
Speaker 1: to be paying off your debt, then you're going to
Speaker 1: have a car breakdown and use your emergency fund and
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to transition back to saving an emergency
Speaker 1: fund again, and then we get back to the debt.
Speaker 1: So you have to expect that, expect that's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and be bummed about it, like it's not cool, it's
Speaker 1: not fun, But it's gonna happen, you know, And because
Speaker 1: you're prepared for it, because you already anticipated it, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be less of emergency, it's gonna be less of
Speaker 1: a crisis and just more of a bummer, Like I
Speaker 1: would much more prefer a bummer over a crisis.
Speaker 3: Yes, and life ebbs and flows even separate from our existence.
Speaker 3: I know we talked about this in Honoring our season
Speaker 3: and what does that mean and look like? And sometimes
Speaker 3: these ebbs and flows happen apart from our control, which
Speaker 3: is also all the more reason to accept it as
Speaker 3: a part of the journey and part of the process.
Speaker 3: And we don't need to view every ebb as a setback,
Speaker 3: a failure, an indication that you should quit or that
Speaker 3: you're not enough. We don't have to internalize these things
Speaker 3: in life that don't go our way. We can see
Speaker 3: them as a part of the process. As we were
Speaker 3: preparing for this episode, Jen It was reminding me of
Speaker 3: a very tangible, very real experience that I've been having
Speaker 3: lately of cleaning my house. I do like a very
Speaker 3: clean house. I want that to be a destination, but
Speaker 3: I have been bummed over the years to realize that
Speaker 3: it's never going to reach perfection. I have gotten to
Speaker 3: these points in life where Okay, yes, the laundry's done
Speaker 3: and the floors are mopped and the beds are made,
Speaker 3: and that all feels amazing, and I feel like I've
Speaker 3: almost reached the pinnacle. But even still that's not going
Speaker 3: to last. Come tomorrow, we're using it and we're walking
Speaker 3: around and there's more laundry that's not been created and
Speaker 3: more dirt. And even if I did reach what I
Speaker 3: think is nirvana, like the baseboards could still be cleaned,
Speaker 3: and the ceiling fans could be wiped on the tops,
Speaker 3: and the fan in the bathroom could be cleaned out.
Speaker 3: Like recognizing that I'm actually never going to arrive, this
Speaker 3: bit of just maintaining is going to be a part
Speaker 3: of my life. And even before we mapped out this outline,
Speaker 3: I was starting to try to think through how can
Speaker 3: I shift my mindset on this? So I'm loving to
Speaker 3: see the overlap here, and it's helping to solidify this
Speaker 3: takeaway for me that I have to learn to enjoy
Speaker 3: the fact that this is going to be a regular
Speaker 3: part of my rhythm, and that I can enjoy this
Speaker 3: as part of something that I do. How can I
Speaker 3: embrace what it means to maintain in the way that
Speaker 3: I want to maintain my house, and so it's meant
Speaker 3: playing music or not caring so much, or letting it
Speaker 3: get messy and then inviting other people to help me
Speaker 3: with it if it really needs that. So I think
Speaker 3: we can see this a part of a lot of
Speaker 3: areas of life, that there are these ebbs and flows.
Speaker 3: We're never going to reach perfection. Having various financial goals
Speaker 3: will continue to be a part of our life. There
Speaker 3: isn't they're reaching the pinnacle. That's it's just over. Like
Speaker 3: you said, gently, we reach the end, and it's the end.
Speaker 3: We will forever and always have new goals, new things
Speaker 3: we're focusing on. There will be barriers and interruptions to
Speaker 3: that thing. But what can we incorporate into our thought
Speaker 3: life that is going to help us enjoy the process
Speaker 3: of it. Recognize that ebbs and flows are part of it.
Speaker 3: We can embrace the EBB so we can get back
Speaker 3: in to the flow and find joy in the midst
Speaker 3: of all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think one of your solutions might be to
Speaker 1: come over to my house, because this morning I had
Speaker 1: the same desperation. But it's because I couldn't see any
Speaker 1: of the surfaces in my house. They were all covered.
Speaker 1: The kids were sick this weekend and I was also sick,
Speaker 1: and I just couldn't see any of the surfaces. And
Speaker 1: I cleaned up a little. I actually was so overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I'm going to do
Speaker 1: my ten minute trick. This is a little tangent ten
Speaker 1: minute trick. I set a timer for ten minutes, and
Speaker 1: I just did everything I could in ten minutes and
Speaker 1: begetting everything cleaned in the kitchen except for the dishes,
Speaker 1: and then I went to work.
Speaker 3: And it did what you could with resources that you had.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean I I this concept of embracing
Speaker 1: the ebbs and flows transcends fine. Right When we have this,
Speaker 1: When we train ourselves in this mindset for finances, we
Speaker 1: take it everywhere and the same goes for we try
Speaker 1: to incorporate in most of our episodes. If you can
Speaker 1: use the skills you learn in spending and feel good
Speaker 1: about that, confident about that you can take those skills
Speaker 1: elsewhere like in cleaning. Uh So, yeah, stop stop viewing
Speaker 1: every event in life that doesn't go the way you
Speaker 1: think it should as something that reflects you personally or
Speaker 1: your capabilities, your abilities, your season's abilities, and just embrace it.
Speaker 1: So instead of internalizing, let's do two things. We're going
Speaker 1: to learn from the ebbs and celebrate the flows. So
Speaker 1: when we make goals, we often make them with the
Speaker 1: notion that we will remain the same person we are
Speaker 1: now but with x fill in the blank four goal
Speaker 1: with you know I am me now but with no debt.
Speaker 1: That leads to viewing the process of getting to the
Speaker 1: goal as a means to an end, like we said,
Speaker 1: is not healthy. And that's why many people fail to
Speaker 1: achieve big goals is because they are just they're looking
Speaker 1: at themselves now and then big goal and forgetting the process.
Speaker 1: You have a huge opportunity to grow from the things
Speaker 1: that challenge you along this process. When you reach a goal,
Speaker 1: assume you will not be the same person that you
Speaker 1: are when you started the goal. Just assume that, and
Speaker 1: when you assume that, you can view every EBB, every
Speaker 1: challenge as a way to learn to grow, figuring out
Speaker 1: what can I what can I take from this? So
Speaker 1: if it was something that I did or didn't do,
Speaker 1: if it was a challenge that stemmed for me, like
Speaker 1: what's the root cause of the decision that I made,
Speaker 1: and how can I make a different decision the next
Speaker 1: time this comes up? Right, if it was something that
Speaker 1: didn't stem from you, that it was environmental, how can
Speaker 1: I be prepared for something like this in the future.
Speaker 1: Was I over prepared? Was I under prepared? Asking yourself
Speaker 1: questions when challenges arise, so that you learn, you grow.
Speaker 1: So when you get to your next goal, your secondary
Speaker 1: goal should be to also be a wiser person. So
Speaker 1: the goal, I don't think the goal is to be celebrated.
Speaker 1: And this is something I learned a lot in running,
Speaker 1: like in when you do a half marathon, the half
Speaker 1: marathon is just your victory lap. The real challenge is
Speaker 1: all the training that it took to get to the
Speaker 1: half marathon and then just having fun in the race,
Speaker 1: because that's your victory lab and it's the same thing
Speaker 1: the goal. I don't think should be celebrated as much
Speaker 1: as once you reach the goal, to celebrate the whole journey,
Speaker 1: the whole process that you just went through. To remember
Speaker 1: all the challenges you overcame, all the times you made
Speaker 1: a decision that you didn't like, and then the next
Speaker 1: time you had that decision to make again, you made
Speaker 1: the one that you wanted to make. All of these things,
Speaker 1: so these are really important things to remember. And then
Speaker 1: next to celebrate the good times. Right, So you can't
Speaker 1: know what's up unless you've been down. Essentially, so when
Speaker 1: you're learning from these ebbs, then when you're in a
Speaker 1: good season, a season when there are no bummers, you
Speaker 1: can really celebrate that and really hit your stride and
Speaker 1: know that it's a stride.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know. Finally, I know. We wanted
Speaker 3: to say that there's three things, and we're not going
Speaker 3: to talk about this too much in depth because we
Speaker 3: really thought that those first two were vital. But I
Speaker 3: think being informed and knowing when outside forces have ulterior
Speaker 3: motives is that kind of third and final piece that
Speaker 3: we want to talk about. So your journey won't be perfect.
Speaker 3: You will not be perfect. There are always going to
Speaker 3: be outside forces also working against you. So you know
Speaker 3: a lot about spending psychology, but marketers and advertisers know
Speaker 3: just as much and they want to encourage you to
Speaker 3: spend your money. And so I think we want to
Speaker 3: say that it's not evil marketing advertising. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of good people, good businesses, getting good messages out there.
Speaker 3: But for every ad that helps you spend on things
Speaker 3: you love, there are also like five to ten ads
Speaker 3: trying to convince you to love what it is that
Speaker 3: they're selling. And so we think that this is another
Speaker 3: key element in being able to stick to finance, not
Speaker 3: just financial goals, but learning to love and embrace the
Speaker 3: process is also thinking critically about the way that we're
Speaker 3: spending and leaning more and more into spending on the
Speaker 3: things that we value.
Speaker 1: Yeah, being informed is something that's going to be a
Speaker 1: lifelong journey, and we're here to help you stay informed.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: But the marketing tactics that people were using five years ago,
Speaker 1: ten years ago, they've evolved because people get wise and
Speaker 1: they stop, you know, being privy to pervasive advertising. And
Speaker 1: so some of the things, some of the new things
Speaker 1: that we saw come out in twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: this obviously will change over the years, But right now
Speaker 1: we're seeing like AI powered chatbots that like literally have
Speaker 1: we'll have real time conversations to answer questions and guide
Speaker 1: you to making a purchase on websites or social media,
Speaker 1: and they can even customize these conversations using data and analytics.
Speaker 1: You probably didn't realize you agreed to share with them.
Speaker 1: So that's one thing marketers know. You want to buy
Speaker 1: what you value, So now they're creating brands with impact
Speaker 1: that make you feel like your purchase is doing good.
Speaker 1: We saw a lot about in twenty twenty one people
Speaker 1: saying buy to help people buy things to help other people,
Speaker 1: and to an extent in that time that was a
Speaker 1: healthy thing, but people are still kind of using that.
Speaker 1: You buy shop small, right, we want to shop small,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to overspend in our attempt to
Speaker 1: help small businesses. Right. We want to save on the
Speaker 1: big things so that we have room in the budget
Speaker 1: to help out small businesses and not put ourselves in
Speaker 1: credit card debt. So be wary of like brands that
Speaker 1: really make you feel like spending money with them is
Speaker 1: doing good. If you want to do good, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of ways to do good and so and
Speaker 1: they're evolving. They know blatant advertising feels icky, like in
Speaker 1: social media paid ads with influencers, so they're actually transit
Speaker 1: like becoming storytellers, right, connecting you to the brand on
Speaker 1: an emotional level, sometimes before you even know what they sell.
Speaker 1: I was doing some reading and there are no from
Speaker 1: what I understand, there are no pictures of red Bull
Speaker 1: on Red Bull's Instagram. So it's all story based getting
Speaker 1: you to love the brand, and so you are attached
Speaker 1: to them on emotional level. So when you make an
Speaker 1: energy drink, you know, when you have the chance to
Speaker 1: make an energy drink purchase, they hope you will choose
Speaker 1: Ripe Bull. So and that's kind of I mean, it's
Speaker 1: definitely a transition from what they've done in the past.
Speaker 1: But a lot of other brands are doing this, and
Speaker 1: I think probably on a deeper level than just like
Speaker 1: energy drinks, but things that make you feel a certain way,
Speaker 1: and then when you buy their product, you hope you're
Speaker 1: you're buying that feeling. So that's why it's becoming increasingly
Speaker 1: important that you don't evate evaluate your goals and values
Speaker 1: just once, but you have to continue to reevaluate them
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. So as marketing evolves,
Speaker 1: so do you. And there are there are a ton
Speaker 1: of others. We have an episode on marketing techniques that
Speaker 1: is still super relevant. But these are just a few
Speaker 1: of the new ones that we saw come out in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three that have been that marketers and we
Speaker 1: read these. We read marketing articles that are written for marketers,
Speaker 1: and then we talk about them on this show, so
Speaker 1: you know what they're reading.
Speaker 3: I love I love that hot take. So to review
Speaker 3: the mindset pieces that we want to keep our sites
Speaker 3: on and be actively working towards growth and well being,
Speaker 3: is that falling in love with the process, learning ways
Speaker 3: that you can really embrace the journey. We are finding
Speaker 3: ways to embrace and recognize the ebbs and flows, and
Speaker 3: we're informing our brains and knowing when the outside forces
Speaker 3: are having an impact on us versus us allowing it
Speaker 3: to inform us on the values that we already know
Speaker 3: that we have. We think that these three things are
Speaker 3: going to be really powerful for longevity and really enjoying it,
Speaker 3: not just longevity in this tough, cumbersome thing that we're doing,
Speaker 3: but embracing a life that we really enjoy being in
Speaker 3: tune with our values and it not feeling like deprivation
Speaker 3: but the life that we've really curated and enjoy now.
Speaker 3: But you know what, there is a secret, hidden fourth
Speaker 3: thing here.
Speaker 1: Yes, that and if you take this with you, you
Speaker 1: do have a higher its Statistically, studies have shown with
Speaker 1: a sample size of two that this will really help
Speaker 1: you stick to your long term goals.
Speaker 3: It's the bill of the will of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, It's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name Williams.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your card died
Speaker 2: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 2: Best bill, butffalo bills, bill claim. This is the bill
Speaker 2: of the week.
Speaker 4: Hey for girl friends. My name is Akasha. I'm in
Speaker 4: Nova Scotia, Canada. Loved your stuff. I've listened for a
Speaker 4: long time. It's been fantastic. My be lovely week just
Speaker 4: happened to me this morning. So earlier this week I asked.
Speaker 4: I reached out to a company and asked for a
Speaker 4: discount on one of their pieces of software that I
Speaker 4: use a lot. And it came time to her anew
Speaker 4: and it's kind of pricey. And so I just reached
Speaker 4: out and asked if they have a discount program for
Speaker 4: small businesses, and they had a few pieces of criteria
Speaker 4: they needed me to meet, which I did, and they
Speaker 4: said I finally left or review on this platform, they
Speaker 4: would go ahead and give me a twenty percent discount.
Speaker 4: So I did. Got the twenty percent discount. Fantastic, And
Speaker 4: then today I got an email from that platform that
Speaker 4: hosts the reviews and they said that I could collect
Speaker 4: an Amazon gift card for fourteen dollars as a reward
Speaker 4: for leaving a review. So for one review, I got
Speaker 4: twenty percent off of the product that I wanted, and
Speaker 4: then I got fourteen dollars for Amazon for whatever I like.
Speaker 4: That was a pretty good day. Thank you guys so
Speaker 4: much for everything you do.
Speaker 1: Take care. Oh yes, we love that. You don't know
Speaker 1: if you don't ask, that's I need to get good
Speaker 1: through my head. That is honestly a lesson. I am
Speaker 1: still learning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Akisha, that is a good day. I've had this
Speaker 3: happen as well. The opportunity to leave a review and
Speaker 3: get a gift card in return. Oh what a beautiful,
Speaker 3: What a beautiful turn of events that can happen there
Speaker 3: in those purchases. So thrilled to hear of this. Thanks
Speaker 3: for sharing your bill with us. If you all listening
Speaker 3: a bill, if it's about leaving reviews and getting discounts
Speaker 3: and gift cards in return, if it's about a bill
Speaker 3: you don't mind paying. If your name is Bill and
Speaker 3: you're just out here living your life in the world,
Speaker 3: we want to hear from you. Frugal Friends podcast dot
Speaker 3: com slash Bill, leave us your bill, and now it's
Speaker 3: time for aundo.
Speaker 1: All right, twenty twenty four, what's your big financial goal?
Speaker 1: And I love how this is flipped for us.
Speaker 3: Did we say we're just our goals were for twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three? I have to go back.
Speaker 1: I think we've just talked. We've just talked about them
Speaker 1: like to each other. But usually my goal is your
Speaker 1: goal and your goal is my goal. But twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four it's chaotic. What is ready, Jen Mine? Mine is
Speaker 1: a house renovation. So we have had money saved, we
Speaker 1: are we are almost two years a year and a half,
Speaker 1: over a year and a half into this home renovation
Speaker 1: and we are definitely going to finish it this year.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll hit the two year mark,
Speaker 1: like the like the I don't know every month we
Speaker 1: changed the goal, but we will finish it this year
Speaker 1: because we're we're pretty close. We just have the one
Speaker 1: big thing that we've put off to the end is
Speaker 1: getting a header install and removing part of a load
Speaker 1: bearing wall that honestly had Finding somebody to do that
Speaker 1: has been the hardest thing. And I will never take
Speaker 1: on a renovation again where I where I have to
Speaker 1: hire out help. I just will never do that again
Speaker 1: because it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard fine people.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I will feel a lot less anxiety
Speaker 1: once the money we have set aside in our bank
Speaker 1: account has been spent on the home renovation because right
Speaker 1: now I don't want to spend it because I'm not
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure what the rest of the renovation
Speaker 1: will cost. Like it's not something I can perfectly, but
Speaker 1: that is not something I can budget for. I can
Speaker 1: have a goal in mind, but so, I mean, I
Speaker 1: definitely have a limit, at a top limit, because my
Speaker 1: money is not infinite. But yeah, I want it to
Speaker 1: be over.
Speaker 3: It'll happen, But yeah, being in the thick of it
Speaker 3: can feel so overwhelming. Whenever we even did renovations for
Speaker 3: other people. Of course we did our own, but Eric
Speaker 3: and I had our own renovations come business, small business
Speaker 3: at one point, and before we started any person's project,
Speaker 3: I always warned them, you're you like me, now, you
Speaker 3: like what I have to say to you. You're gonna
Speaker 3: keep liking me, probably for another few weeks. But the
Speaker 3: second we hit the middle, you're gonna feel real done,
Speaker 3: You're really good. You're gonna hate all of this right
Speaker 3: right smack dab in the middle, and then you're gonna
Speaker 3: think that you're almost there, and you're not, and you're
Speaker 3: still in the middle. And it's not until like the very,
Speaker 3: very very final end that things will look up again.
Speaker 3: But we're gonna have a solid middle point where everything
Speaker 3: feels really awful. And as much as I reminded other
Speaker 3: people about it, i'd remind myself it's still just stunk
Speaker 3: every single time that middle bit, that radical middle between
Speaker 3: the beginning and the end, and neither one feels like
Speaker 3: it's in sight. The beginning was so far away and
Speaker 3: the end is so far away.
Speaker 1: I know. That's one of the reasons I couldn't see
Speaker 1: any of my surfaces this morning, is because we keep
Speaker 1: removing surfaces in the renovation, like in the renovation, and
Speaker 1: eventually we will put more in, but not yet.
Speaker 3: So uh yeah, yeah, you're in the middle. Get comfy,
Speaker 3: find your way to embrace it. So for me, I
Speaker 3: wrote earn more, but I think Jen, as you and
Speaker 3: I have chatted, that is true. But I think that
Speaker 3: this conversation is even helping me to realize that I'm
Speaker 3: I'm in an EBB right now. I think I'm coming
Speaker 3: out of a flow. I anticipate a flow in the future.
Speaker 3: I hope to ultimately trend up into the right. But
Speaker 3: I do think I'm in an EBB, and I'm okay
Speaker 3: with it. I have actively kind of chosen this EBB.
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily something that has happened to me. Thankfully,
Speaker 3: I think because of you, our community, these conversations, it
Speaker 3: doesn't feel like deprivation. I think I'm learning ways to
Speaker 3: embrace it. But I'm not in this point of everything
Speaker 3: feels attainable to me. I'm just grasping everything my heart desires.
Speaker 3: I'm definitely in a place where I have to be
Speaker 3: a little bit more mindful about my decisions, especially around
Speaker 3: my finances. There's some things that we're doing again, not deprivation,
Speaker 3: finding ways to experience joy in the midst of it,
Speaker 3: but having made a decision to make less right now
Speaker 3: for this season because of freedom and flexibility that it's
Speaker 3: affording me. It also means we can't go out as much.
Speaker 3: We need to be a little bit more prudent about things. Again.
Speaker 3: I don't feel sad or deprived in it, but I'm
Speaker 3: in an eb I'm hoping to earn more, but it's
Speaker 3: not that earning more. Isn't this like total at the forefront?
Speaker 3: For me, it's a little bit more of I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm in maintenance mode. I want to maintain the
Speaker 3: things that I've already done, and if I want, if
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm wanting something, finding creative ways to
Speaker 3: get that. I think one small example of this is
Speaker 3: Instagram did get me. The other day, I saw this
Speaker 3: reel of a woman who's a cook. She makes these
Speaker 3: recipes that are really inspiring to me. I love the
Speaker 3: food that she makes, and she's trying to sell this
Speaker 3: apron that's adorable. It looks like a dress over top
Speaker 3: of her clothes, and I don't have an apron. I've
Speaker 3: never thought that I needed an apron but like, that's
Speaker 3: a beautiful apron, and I actually got excited. I mean
Speaker 3: I clicked on the link or like ninety five dollars
Speaker 3: for this apron, but I actually got excited to think
Speaker 3: I could sew that, Like I have a skill of sewing.
Speaker 3: I've got fat Who knows if I'm actually going to
Speaker 3: do it, but it was inspiring to me even to
Speaker 3: see that growth that we've just been talking about. That
Speaker 3: it's not deprivation for me to say I'm not going
Speaker 3: to get that apron right now. It's ninety five dollars.
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. If I wanted it, I can figure out
Speaker 3: a way to make it myself with the things that
Speaker 3: I already have on hand. So I think right now
Speaker 3: my financial goal quote unquote is continuing to like embrace
Speaker 3: this season and enjoy the freedom and flexibility that my
Speaker 3: choices have allowed and kind of just maintain as I
Speaker 3: also have this aim of earning more. That was a mouthful,
Speaker 3: but there we are. If any of you are finding
Speaker 3: yourself in an EBB, I hope this is encouraging to you.
Speaker 1: Yes, and please buy our book when it comes out,
Speaker 1: because that's why we've taken a bay. We are writing.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I need space to write that book.
Speaker 1: Yes, So, thank you so much for listening. We love
Speaker 1: reading your kind reviews. We especially love this one from
Speaker 1: daniel She says Jen and Jill human equivalence of sunshine emoji.
Speaker 1: I have binge to the Frugal Friends podcast for the
Speaker 1: last few months and absolutely adore Jen and Jill. They're thoughtful, engaging,
Speaker 1: and have fabulous practical content. I love to listen to
Speaker 1: the podcast whenever I have a spare moment, and when
Speaker 1: I'm listening, I feel like I'm spending time with friends,
Speaker 1: good friends who are authentic and support me to be
Speaker 1: a good steward of my resources. I can't recommend this
Speaker 1: podcast enough, and I'm always delighted when I discover new
Speaker 1: episodes are available. Love your incredible work, ladies.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that beautiful review, Danielle. Wow. If you
Speaker 3: are listening and you also enjoy this show, please do
Speaker 3: take a minute to leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3: It helps us find other community members. Like that poll
Speaker 3: that we referenced at the beginning of this these are
Speaker 3: the type of people who are a part of our community,
Speaker 3: sharing their real life experiences and journeys. So leave a rating,
Speaker 3: get the friend letterfrugalfriendspodcast dot com. Respond to our We're
Speaker 3: going to talk about your answers on the show and
Speaker 3: hopefully give even more relevant feedback for you all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, see you next time. Grugal Friends is produced by
Speaker 1: Eric sirianni oh Man, Jill. So. My birthdays in May.
Speaker 1: But last year I signed up for a car wash
Speaker 1: newsletter that gives you a free car wash on your
Speaker 1: birthday and I wanted it immediately, so I said my
Speaker 1: birthday was in December. And so this year I've gotten
Speaker 1: another text. Stop it. I got another text that I
Speaker 1: have a free car wash this month and I really
Speaker 1: need it. I can't wait till May. But it's expiring
Speaker 1: on Friday. They just sent me a text and so
Speaker 1: on no on Saturday, so Friday, I might Kai does
Speaker 1: not like going through the car wash for some reason.
Speaker 1: I loved the car wash as a kid. He's not
Speaker 1: a big fan. But he's four. I guess he's got time,
Speaker 1: so I might have to go by myself.
Speaker 3: But scary, I mean, it is funny. It's a funny
Speaker 3: thing to lie about to me. But I guess you're
Speaker 3: still only gonna get one a year, So okay, like,
Speaker 3: you're not cheating the system by getting more just funny.
Speaker 1: Right, But I can. I can join different car wash
Speaker 1: newsletters and say my birthday is in different times of
Speaker 1: the year, and I guess, so I'm getting free car
Speaker 1: washes throughout the year. My gosh, that's why this chip
Speaker 1: is in the after show.
Speaker 3: This is not a hack that we're necessarily encouraging for
Speaker 3: other people. I'm a little afraid of the car wash,
Speaker 3: probably not for the same reasons as your four year old,
Speaker 3: but the last two times that I've gone, you know
Speaker 3: you got to put your car in neutral. Well, it
Speaker 3: started to make my car go backwards in the thing,
Speaker 3: and I almost ran into the person behind me because
Speaker 3: for some reason I can't totally remember, like my brakes
Speaker 3: wouldn't work, or I couldn't just like accelerate that it
Speaker 3: wasn't allowing me to do that. And fast forward to
Speaker 3: I come home and tell Eric about this. He used
Speaker 3: to work at a car wash in one of his
Speaker 3: like fifty thousand jobs he's had in his life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that that happens. It's something with whatever the mechanism is
Speaker 3: that locks your car in place while you're in neutral.
Speaker 3: He's like, we would have accidents happen all the time
Speaker 3: in the car wash. None of them were like, you know,
Speaker 3: anything that you even needed to call an insurance company
Speaker 3: for because you're literally going like one mile an hour.
Speaker 3: But he's like, yeah, that it just it can glitch
Speaker 3: that happens. I'm like, I did not love that experience.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do that again. And then it happened
Speaker 3: when Eric was driving, we were both in the car together.
Speaker 3: He kind of knew what to do to not run
Speaker 3: into the person behind him. I still don't remember what
Speaker 3: the trick was, probably just flooring it out of there.
Speaker 3: But that's why I'm afraid of it. So I'm with you, Kai,
Speaker 3: car washes are unpredictable and not worth lying about.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry we have differing opinions. I'm still gonna go
Speaker 1: to the car wash, Like, how do you get your
Speaker 1: car clean? Like, do you do it by?
Speaker 4: We did?
Speaker 3: No, we do go to the car wash. It's just
Speaker 3: now a character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right,