Speaker 1: Episode from over Spender to Millionaire with Wally Miller. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your
Speaker 1: host Jen and Jill. Mm hmmmmmmmmm, yes, Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill,
Speaker 1: and today we are talking with our friend Wally Miller,
Speaker 1: who you guys are going to love so much relate to,
Speaker 1: and we're excited to share this kind of extended interview
Speaker 1: with her. That's so so great. She's got so much
Speaker 1: inspiration and just tangible tips, so we're really excited to
Speaker 1: share this with you. But first, our sponsors also brought
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Speaker 1: got your pumpkin spice, beverage or snack in hand. Let's
Speaker 1: hear from Wally Miller. She is a first millionaire, first
Speaker 1: generation millionaire, and her family. She is just this powerful
Speaker 1: Latina woman who is so nice and so fun and
Speaker 1: you're gonna love. We didn't really touch on her story
Speaker 1: about how she she bought a home in northern California,
Speaker 1: no less, and she got roommates and instead of you know,
Speaker 1: investing or or you know, doing quote unquote wise things
Speaker 1: with the money, she just she just blew through all
Speaker 1: the rent money. And this kind of was like a
Speaker 1: catalyst for some of her journey. But I think you're
Speaker 1: just going to relate so much to her and definitely
Speaker 1: wait till the end of the interview for some really
Speaker 1: actionable takeaways for being more intentional with your spending so
Speaker 1: you can overcome that overspending tendency and get on the
Speaker 1: track to becoming a millionaire. Let's do it. Wally, Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast. Hi, I am super excited
Speaker 1: to be here. It's so nice to speak with you
Speaker 1: guys this morning. Wally. You've got such a neat perspective
Speaker 1: and story, and I think our listeners are really going
Speaker 1: to resonate with what you've got to share here and
Speaker 1: just the inspiration I think that you bring to the table.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about your story. I know that overspending is
Speaker 1: a part of that, but let's just start from well,
Speaker 1: a bit of the beginning. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Speaker 1: Start from your birth. Yes, so I was born no
Speaker 1: um so um. Actually I was born and raised in
Speaker 1: New York City. I am a daughter of an immigrant.
Speaker 1: My dad immigrated here when he was like nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: and I we basically lived I would say we had it.
Speaker 1: We were part of the low income community, right. My mom,
Speaker 1: for the most part, was a stay at home mom,
Speaker 1: and my dad was the sole income turner. Now, I
Speaker 1: come from a big family. I am one of five
Speaker 1: and I am the oldest. But I will say it
Speaker 1: wasn't until probably I was in junior high school that
Speaker 1: I kind of realized that we were I would even
Speaker 1: say even older than that, that I realized that we
Speaker 1: were in the low income category. And the reason for
Speaker 1: that was that in the Bronx, it's the poorest borough
Speaker 1: in New York City, so everybody was like us. But
Speaker 1: even with that, there were a lot of things that
Speaker 1: I where we were different. So, for example, having two
Speaker 1: parents in the household was a huge privilege. It was
Speaker 1: very different from a lot of my friends. And even
Speaker 1: something as having as like two cars, right, like my
Speaker 1: mom drove the minivan, you know, like an old minivan,
Speaker 1: and my dad had like an older car. But like
Speaker 1: the fact that we lived in New York City, lived
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, I had two p and both of
Speaker 1: them had cars. That was like a very different thing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it wasn't until I would say, maybe I
Speaker 1: was in high school that I realized realized how different
Speaker 1: I was. What brought that awareness for you, So when
Speaker 1: I was a junior in high school, we actually moved
Speaker 1: down to Florida and it was yeah, home a hit,
Speaker 1: right exactly. We talked a little bit about this, but
Speaker 1: the struggles of having curly hair and living in Florida, right. Um,
Speaker 1: So we moved to Florida and it was like central Florida,
Speaker 1: about an hour south of Orlando. And it was at
Speaker 1: that point that I realized how different the world was, right. So,
Speaker 1: going to school in the Bronx, living in the Bronx,
Speaker 1: you know, we had a lot of it was super diversified, right.
Speaker 1: So there were a lot of Latinos, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of black people, there were a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: like everybody was like us versus. When I went to
Speaker 1: floor Porida and I was like the only you know,
Speaker 1: the only Hispanic, the only Latina in many of my classes,
Speaker 1: it was like very different. And also I realized, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there were some of my classmates who had
Speaker 1: cars and these were like masa miatas, you know, and
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, sixteen seventeen years old. So it
Speaker 1: was at that point where I had a huge culture shock.
Speaker 1: I lived in apartment my entire life, so realizing that
Speaker 1: people had homes with like picket fences and things like that,
Speaker 1: that was kind of where I realized, like, wow, the
Speaker 1: world is so much bigger than like than what I
Speaker 1: really thought of. Yeah, what would you say was your
Speaker 1: approach to money through those years like growing up how
Speaker 1: you've described and kind of thinking, well, everybody else lives
Speaker 1: this way and then realizing, oh, we might be a
Speaker 1: little bit different from other parts of the US or
Speaker 1: the world world. How did that influence your money perspective?
Speaker 1: We didn't really talk about like sit down half family
Speaker 1: conversations about money. But I don't think that that's that unique, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you really had conversations with their
Speaker 1: parents about money or like budget anything. But you know,
Speaker 1: right after the sex talk exactly, Joe has some weird
Speaker 1: compost with her parents, you know, as you know, so
Speaker 1: like conversations around money really didn't happen. So it was
Speaker 1: more rather than direct conversations, It was like this indirect thing, right,
Speaker 1: So like when the cable would get caught off, or
Speaker 1: even sometimes the light would get cut off for the morning,
Speaker 1: and you know Mom was on the phone trying to
Speaker 1: figure that out, or if um I knew not to
Speaker 1: ask for certain things. So like we got a brand
Speaker 1: new pair speakers at the start of the year. I'm
Speaker 1: from New York, so we say speakers of you might
Speaker 1: say tennis shoes, so we would get you know, so
Speaker 1: it was like, yeah, we would get some new clothes.
Speaker 1: Was at the start of the year, and that was
Speaker 1: kind of it, right, And I never really asked for much. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember, like one year I wanted a dictionary, you know,
Speaker 1: for Christmas. Like that was like my prize possession for many,
Speaker 1: many years. So it wasn't that we really had conversations
Speaker 1: about money, but I knew that there wasn't a lot
Speaker 1: of it, and so I just knew not to ask,
Speaker 1: and of course I did here when I did ask
Speaker 1: for certain things like we don't have money for that,
Speaker 1: or maybe next time, and next time really never came.
Speaker 1: So when I, you know, obviously left my parents home
Speaker 1: and um started branching out, it was really nice to
Speaker 1: begin earning money. Now. I remember, like some of my
Speaker 1: first jobs, I didn't even know what to do with money.
Speaker 1: I literally would walk around with like a paycheck in
Speaker 1: my wallet and like I didn't really have a concept
Speaker 1: of like how to spend it. But that didn't take
Speaker 1: very long for that shift to happen before I like realized, oh,
Speaker 1: I can buy things with money, and that was kind
Speaker 1: of where the problem started. Yeah, it can be like
Speaker 1: whiplash or the swinging of the pendulum to grow up
Speaker 1: have a certain relationship with money. Just not having it
Speaker 1: sometimes that that can make you okay with money just
Speaker 1: because you don't you don't have it to spend. But
Speaker 1: then when you do have it and you've not had
Speaker 1: conversations about money, Yeah, that can land somebody at the
Speaker 1: total opposite end of the spectrum. What was that like
Speaker 1: for you? How did that then lead to overspending? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I was very fortunate that when I was in
Speaker 1: my early twenties, I got into a profession in a
Speaker 1: career that I basically doubled my salary overnight, right so
Speaker 1: I was living, I moved back to New York City
Speaker 1: and I ended up getting a job offer across the
Speaker 1: country um to California, and I doubled my salary overnight,
Speaker 1: and so I knew, pay my bills right, pay the
Speaker 1: rent and light bills and all of this stuff, and
Speaker 1: I still had all of this extra money left over. Now,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I was good with money because I
Speaker 1: was sending some money aside. But even when I set
Speaker 1: some money aside. I still had money left over, and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do with it. So I
Speaker 1: was like, well, if you have money left over, and
Speaker 1: you've been responsible by saving some putting money aside, then
Speaker 1: you can spend the rest. And that was what happened.
Speaker 1: I just spent and spent and spent. I was living alone,
Speaker 1: it was just me and my dog, and I started
Speaker 1: to accumulate so many things like shoes and clothes that
Speaker 1: I had a two bedroom apartment. I was like storing clothes, shoes,
Speaker 1: handbags in that spare bedroom, and it was I have
Speaker 1: this realization. I don't know if what kicks it off.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a certain amount of money
Speaker 1: or an age or the work history. But I remember
Speaker 1: receiving a Social Security Administration like earnings record, and it
Speaker 1: lists like from me that very first job that I had,
Speaker 1: you know, working the summers and burger king all the
Speaker 1: way to my current job, and it listed all of
Speaker 1: the money I made, you know, so from like six
Speaker 1: hundred dollars to seven hundred dollars, so like thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: And when I added up the entire amount of money
Speaker 1: that I had made in my lifetime, and by this
Speaker 1: point I was in my maybe late twenties. I realized,
Speaker 1: you know, I added up all the money and I
Speaker 1: was like, what in the world happened? Like where is
Speaker 1: all of this money? And that was the realization that
Speaker 1: I have like I am not doing something right, Like
Speaker 1: something is wrong here because it doesn't feel like I've
Speaker 1: made that much money. What a what a document to
Speaker 1: receive in the mail from the Social Security Office. It
Speaker 1: is crazy And and for those who don't know, like
Speaker 1: to get yourself sal Security, they take they track how
Speaker 1: much you make every year based on your taxes, and
Speaker 1: they give you an average of your highest thirty or
Speaker 1: last thirty or something, and so occasionally you will get
Speaker 1: these documents just to keep track and it is like
Speaker 1: you never realize how much you're spending until you see,
Speaker 1: this is how much I've earned in the last five years.
Speaker 1: And what have I saved in the last five years?
Speaker 1: What if I like, what kind of wealth have I built? Right?
Speaker 1: What also is this whole thing? Like what have I
Speaker 1: Where did this money go? Because when I looked around,
Speaker 1: you know, I was driving like you know of five
Speaker 1: or six year old Kia, right, you know, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't like I was buying this these elaborate things. Even
Speaker 1: with my clothing and shoes options. It wasn't that I
Speaker 1: was spending you know, thousands of dollars on a pair
Speaker 1: of gene or a handbag. I was like shopping at
Speaker 1: Ross and Marshals and you know, North Shomac and Berlin
Speaker 1: stay Co Factory. So in my mind I was frugal, right,
Speaker 1: I was not spending a lot of I wasn't spending
Speaker 1: a lot of money on one item. But I was
Speaker 1: buying a bunch of cheap items and buying a lot
Speaker 1: of it. And so it was. And you know, to
Speaker 1: your point, Gen, you can actually, um, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if they mail these out anymore because I haven't
Speaker 1: received one in the mail in a while. But you
Speaker 1: can just go to the Social Security Administration website and
Speaker 1: sign up for a free account. And I recommend everybody
Speaker 1: do that. So if you've never done that, just go
Speaker 1: to s s A dot g o V and you
Speaker 1: can um get a free copy of your earnings reporter
Speaker 1: earnings record and just kind of do that exercise to
Speaker 1: see if there's any surprises there for you. It does
Speaker 1: cost a lot of money to live I know, I
Speaker 1: get so disappointed at the end of the year to realize, man,
Speaker 1: why does it just cost so much to just not
Speaker 1: want to survive and world? But you say something really amazing,
Speaker 1: Wally on your website and you're about you section, and
Speaker 1: I think even what you're describing now the difference realizing
Speaker 1: the difference between being quote unquote good with money versus
Speaker 1: knowing how to build wealth. And I think there's so
Speaker 1: many people who can resonate with that. It can't just
Speaker 1: be a measurement of well, I'm not going into debt
Speaker 1: or I'm buying things on sale. Sometimes even that makes
Speaker 1: us not actually that great with money. I hear this
Speaker 1: constantly from people, like I'm good with money, but they're
Speaker 1: not saving, they're not investing, they're not thinking about retirement,
Speaker 1: they're just not going into debt. That's what they mean
Speaker 1: by that. This is exactly right. So in my mind
Speaker 1: even some of the because I was always kind of
Speaker 1: like a personal finance nerd, you know, So I was
Speaker 1: one that I would like turn on PBS and listen
Speaker 1: to see Susie Orman's like retirements special shows. Now I
Speaker 1: didn't understand everything that was going on, but I didn't
Speaker 1: always resonate because there were a lot of people who
Speaker 1: were struggling with the debt and credit card debt and
Speaker 1: things like that. So in my mind, I didn't have
Speaker 1: credit card debt. I paid off my credit card at
Speaker 1: the end of the month. I was good, right, But
Speaker 1: I was missing that piece. I was missing the piece
Speaker 1: of building wealth and that term even like it was
Speaker 1: not part of my vocabulary. Wealth building wasn't a conversation
Speaker 1: or part of um you know, our family talks at all, ever,
Speaker 1: and so it wasn't until later and we can talk
Speaker 1: about like how I if you want, we can talk
Speaker 1: about like how I began to understand what building wealth
Speaker 1: was and how that was sort of the missing piece.
Speaker 1: But you know, to your point, like I was always frugal, right,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny to me now, like there's this
Speaker 1: whole movement over the last decade where minimalism is a
Speaker 1: great thing, where people like reuse you know, the butter
Speaker 1: jars or the butter containers and the mannagedar like you know,
Speaker 1: to any Puerto Rican household they knew opened up a
Speaker 1: butter container, there's not butter in there. There's like leftovers
Speaker 1: from yesterday, right, like right, exactly like we were, you know,
Speaker 1: sneaking in food to any of the theme parks, or
Speaker 1: we would go, you know, if we went to a
Speaker 1: theme park with the family, like we had a whole
Speaker 1: trunk full of food, and we would like leave the park,
Speaker 1: go to the parking lot, eat lunch, and then come back.
Speaker 1: So it was like we did a lot of these
Speaker 1: frugal things. And so in my mind, I was frugal.
Speaker 1: I wasn't spending you know, two D on a pair
Speaker 1: of jeans. I didn't have credit card debt, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I was totally good with money without realizing that I
Speaker 1: was missing that wealth building piece. So what was that
Speaker 1: turning point that took you? Because I think that that
Speaker 1: is going to resonate with like a lot of our
Speaker 1: listeners because I know that it sounds like you're telling
Speaker 1: my story. Like I thought that I was frugal. I
Speaker 1: was buying generic brands. I was turning down like experiences
Speaker 1: that were too expensive, and I was you know, I
Speaker 1: was just buying my latches and they you know, all
Speaker 1: of this little stuff added up. But I didn't consider myself,
Speaker 1: I like never considered myself to be spending because I
Speaker 1: wasn't buying luxury things, So like, what was it for
Speaker 1: you that was the turning point that you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm I want to build wealth. I don't want to
Speaker 1: just be like not in debt. The first thing was
Speaker 1: sort of receiving a history of like my earnings and
Speaker 1: realizing how much money I had made in my lifetime
Speaker 1: and I didn't have a whole lot to show for it,
Speaker 1: And I wish that that would have been the moment
Speaker 1: that I decided to do something about it. That was
Speaker 1: definitely something that stuck with me. The second part was
Speaker 1: that I had a career that I loved, and I
Speaker 1: had a job that I loved until I didn't write.
Speaker 1: I had fantastic bosses, a great supervisor, and when management
Speaker 1: change because my boss left and I realized that I
Speaker 1: can't quit my job. I am essentially living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 1: Maybe I would be okay if one paycheck wasn't didn't
Speaker 1: come into, you know, in my direct deposit, but if
Speaker 1: I I was basically two paychecks away from like losing
Speaker 1: everything that I had worked so hard for. And it
Speaker 1: was at that moment that I realized that I had
Speaker 1: those handcuffs right, that I was really stuck that me
Speaker 1: being good with money was sort of it was a falsity, right,
Speaker 1: it didn't really exist. And at that point I went
Speaker 1: to the great Google you know gods, and started like,
Speaker 1: you know, researching and trying to figure out and it
Speaker 1: just so happens. You know, I feel like you just
Speaker 1: think about something and all of a sudden, the material
Speaker 1: that you're thinking about become you know, you see it everywhere.
Speaker 1: And I saw this article about this couple who had
Speaker 1: quit their jobs in order to travel the world, and
Speaker 1: that was something that I always enjoyed. I love to travel,
Speaker 1: and so I began to read this article about how
Speaker 1: they were able to do it, and that sort of
Speaker 1: opened up the flood gates and I went down like
Speaker 1: this rabbit hole of like, what are people doing? How
Speaker 1: is that possible? How could you you know, quit your
Speaker 1: jobs before the age of forty in order to, you know,
Speaker 1: in order to travel the world. And that was kind
Speaker 1: of where I, um my mind open to the piece
Speaker 1: that I was missing, which was that wealth building piece,
Speaker 1: that wealth building component, and how people were doing it
Speaker 1: was to do investing. It's so interesting to me that
Speaker 1: your wake up call was not tons of debt. That's
Speaker 1: and that's so that's a very common story as well,
Speaker 1: and it's great whatever the wake up call is that
Speaker 1: shifts behavior and mindset and perspective. But I think it's
Speaker 1: a really helpful thing to hear that sometimes our wake
Speaker 1: up call is just that there could be other more
Speaker 1: beneficial ways of living and handling finances. That it doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily need to be that we're in tons of debt
Speaker 1: and we need to make a massive shift. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just I'm not aimed at the right thing right now,
Speaker 1: and I could be get having better for myself. I
Speaker 1: could be making different choices at the same time. Wally,
Speaker 1: I so appreciate you sharing your background and story with us.
Speaker 1: I can't even try. I can't even say that I
Speaker 1: know fully what that experience was like for you, growing
Speaker 1: up in poverty in the Bronx, and yeah, all of
Speaker 1: the background that you have there, and so thank you
Speaker 1: for entrusting us with that. But I think that's so
Speaker 1: much a part of this too, for all of us
Speaker 1: to be recognizing the context and environment in which we
Speaker 1: grew up in and how that has shaped in form perspective.
Speaker 1: It sounds as though for you there were quite a
Speaker 1: few things that you needed to push through, even just
Speaker 1: for the people that you grew up around, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it can be more very years to building wealth or
Speaker 1: even just not getting into debt when no one else
Speaker 1: around you was doing that, or is there there's a
Speaker 1: certain type of perspective about money. So yeah, my goodness,
Speaker 1: what you have done for yourself is really incredible and
Speaker 1: I think really inspiring for a lot of people. And
Speaker 1: with all of that said, I'm curious for you. What
Speaker 1: have been some of the things that you've been able
Speaker 1: to do to become a more conscious consumer to go
Speaker 1: from Yeah, I'm spending frugally, but it's not on the
Speaker 1: things I actually want to be spending on. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: you know, it was a true gut check when I
Speaker 1: realized that I was like a paycheck away or two
Speaker 1: paychecks away from like losing everything. I didn't have the options,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to go back because the shopping
Speaker 1: came with feeling like I deserved what I didn't get
Speaker 1: as a kid. Right, So now I could have the
Speaker 1: options of wearing different colored you know, owning different colored
Speaker 1: jeans and shirts and dresses, and having options that I
Speaker 1: didn't really have as a kid, And so I wanted
Speaker 1: to like get that. And I think back to the
Speaker 1: movie Cluelest, right, remember when share like he has the
Speaker 1: rotating closet, and I was like, yes, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to go and like, you know, stand in
Speaker 1: my closet and like debate what outfit I'm going to
Speaker 1: wear and see make sure that I don't wear like
Speaker 1: the same outfit, like at least for two weeks out,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And it was and it
Speaker 1: sounds I think about it now because I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think that at that point I was thinking about
Speaker 1: all of that. When I sort of think about it
Speaker 1: retrospectively and I think about why did I accumulate so
Speaker 1: much stuff? It was really to be able to have
Speaker 1: the things that I didn't have growing up, and it
Speaker 1: made me feel good. It made me feel like it
Speaker 1: was proof that I had made it, that I had succeeded.
Speaker 1: And it was again a false vel, like it was
Speaker 1: not It was not a true reflection of like what
Speaker 1: success means, like the amounts of stuff that you own
Speaker 1: is in a real reflection of success. But I think
Speaker 1: in this society sometimes that's what we're led to believe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm convinced that most people's cars are that for them,
Speaker 1: Like people will drive brand new cars and as like
Speaker 1: a like anti minivan, anti like used car. Because it
Speaker 1: was easier for our parents to get used cars, like
Speaker 1: cars were cheaper, so we always had old cars. And
Speaker 1: I guess all my friends did too, And now all
Speaker 1: those friends, they all have very nice cars. And so
Speaker 1: there's like there's a rental property that we live next
Speaker 1: door to, like these two efficiencies and there are no
Speaker 1: joke to Mercedes Benz parked outside. Yeah, yeah, if it's
Speaker 1: like little one not efficiencies, but like one one like
Speaker 1: garage apartment, and so yeah, I really do see, like
Speaker 1: and I felt this like and I I was like
Speaker 1: I was an only child, so like I don't feel
Speaker 1: like I was under privilege, but there were things that
Speaker 1: just like selfishly, I'm like, well I couldn't have this
Speaker 1: growing up, so now I get to treat myself to
Speaker 1: it now. So I think it's just inherent and so
Speaker 1: much more when you actually like I didn't get to
Speaker 1: or didn't have available those things growing up. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it is one of the you know, I
Speaker 1: also think back on you know, wanting to make up
Speaker 1: for the things that I didn't have also as a proof,
Speaker 1: you know, proof that I had succeeded. But it was
Speaker 1: also a lot of like shopping mindlessly. I wasn't very intentional.
Speaker 1: I remember I would, you know, be on my way
Speaker 1: to the supermarket and all of a sudden, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me just hop into Ross, let me hop into
Speaker 1: you know, some store. Let me go to the mall
Speaker 1: just to see if I could find something. And it
Speaker 1: was not intentional. I wasn't trying to buy a specific
Speaker 1: outfit for a specific thing. And again, because I was
Speaker 1: shopping at some of these stores, like these discount stores,
Speaker 1: I thought it was being good. I wasn't buying the
Speaker 1: most expensive things. So I was being very mindless about
Speaker 1: my spending. And and it's not about not spending, it's
Speaker 1: about being intentional. And I think that that was the
Speaker 1: huge shift that I made when I began to really
Speaker 1: understand how people were able to build wealth. When I
Speaker 1: saw like people were, you know, investing in saving a hundred,
Speaker 1: two hundred, three hundred, four hundred dollars a month and
Speaker 1: then now you know, thousands of dollars a month, I'm like,
Speaker 1: how in the world are they doing that? Well, I
Speaker 1: was spending hundreds of dollars at you know, Burling Did
Speaker 1: and Ros and Marshals and all these different stores, right,
Speaker 1: and um, I will say, like, cutting expenses was very
Speaker 1: hard for me. I failed at no spend challenges, and
Speaker 1: I know you all do these quite often, but to
Speaker 1: this day, I had never completed a no spend challenge.
Speaker 1: Now I will say today I don't need to do
Speaker 1: a no spend challenge because I only spend with intention
Speaker 1: and I have no regrets about if I'm going to
Speaker 1: spend money on something, I'm like, you know, I've thought
Speaker 1: about it. I have a forty eight hour rule. I
Speaker 1: have things in my Amazon card that I've had for months,
Speaker 1: if not years, but I'm like, okay, maybe one day,
Speaker 1: but not today. You know, Oh that's so good, just
Speaker 1: being patient with it and thinking more intentionally about it. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: So much of what you're describing here is the whole person,
Speaker 1: the emotions and relationships and finances all converging. This reconciling
Speaker 1: that you had to go through of why am I
Speaker 1: spending this way? To realize because of clueless like that
Speaker 1: that image. I mean, I'm sure there's a whole lot
Speaker 1: more there for ye, but yeah, to realize I don't
Speaker 1: think that we can make massive shifts without understanding where
Speaker 1: have we come from and where do we want to go.
Speaker 1: It can't just be out where do I want to go?
Speaker 1: Because our background is going to keep impacting us unless
Speaker 1: we look at it. And yeah, it sounds like that's
Speaker 1: a massive part of how you're finding yourself where you're
Speaker 1: at today. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I really had to
Speaker 1: sort of think about because I always kept kind of
Speaker 1: a budget. And while basically my budget was a list
Speaker 1: of my bills, right, and then when I began to
Speaker 1: look at how much money I was supposed to have
Speaker 1: left over, I never had that leftover, right, because I
Speaker 1: would find ways to spend it. And so it was,
Speaker 1: you know, this is why I failed that those no
Speaker 1: spend challenges. And I remember, like the first time that
Speaker 1: I was trying to do it for a week, I would,
Speaker 1: you know, all of a sudden, you know, go to
Speaker 1: the vending machine at work, you know, end up going
Speaker 1: to you know, buying lunch even though I had packed
Speaker 1: my or you know, it was just like things like
Speaker 1: that and realize, like, wow, there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: a lot of spending that I'm doing that has no purpose,
Speaker 1: no reason and I'm not even thinking about it, And
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I kind of thought about it. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like if you're ever trying to get on
Speaker 1: a on a on a physical health journey, right, and
Speaker 1: they asked you to, you know, like keep a journal
Speaker 1: of you know, what you're consuming. It was the same
Speaker 1: thing it was on my fiscal journey, keeping sort of
Speaker 1: track on what I was consuming. And I realized it
Speaker 1: was a lot harder than than I had thought. And
Speaker 1: so for me it was number one. I had to
Speaker 1: really become intentional with what I was spending, how I
Speaker 1: was spending it, and really think about, you know, um,
Speaker 1: my trip to Target to buy you know, some like
Speaker 1: cleaning supplies. Why do I have like six items from
Speaker 1: you know, a different part. And I would justify it
Speaker 1: and saying, oh, well these were from the dollar bin, right,
Speaker 1: And it was still like, well, this is not you know,
Speaker 1: this is money that you could be putting elsewhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you waste a hundred percent of the money you buy
Speaker 1: on things you don't need. So I love that intentionality,
Speaker 1: Like peace, I think that that's the overall arching and
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, like journaling or so a lot of
Speaker 1: people say just tracking your transactions manually every day, Like
Speaker 1: that's a way that you can be intentional. I like
Speaker 1: the idea of journaling your transactions. I've just been getting
Speaker 1: into this idea to not just say Okay, I spent
Speaker 1: this all day, but thinking about okay, uh, where was
Speaker 1: I what was I doing before? So kind of like
Speaker 1: looking at the key the habit cues, like trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what triggered the spend and so you can
Speaker 1: look back later on it and figure out if you
Speaker 1: see a pattern, what the source, like, what the reason
Speaker 1: of the spending is. So I'm really getting into like
Speaker 1: transaction journaling. Is there anything else you used to be
Speaker 1: more intentional about your purchases? Yeah, I mean knowing your
Speaker 1: emotional triggers. Right. For me, it was boredom sometimes sometimes
Speaker 1: it was just like out of boredom, I would like
Speaker 1: serve the you know Internet. Um. There were things like
Speaker 1: you know, unsubscribing or even just like I started a
Speaker 1: whole new email address because trying to unsubscribe from all
Speaker 1: of the stores and newsletters and promopheeds that I had.
Speaker 1: It was like all of a sudden, I would be
Speaker 1: trigger to now need something or want something that I
Speaker 1: didn't even need, so being more intentional about every thing
Speaker 1: that I spent and also understanding the power of compound interest,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't enough for me, I don't think, and
Speaker 1: maybe for some people it is. But saving money just
Speaker 1: for the sake of money is saving money. It wasn't
Speaker 1: that motivating, right. I think we all need know that
Speaker 1: we need to put some money aside for the future.
Speaker 1: But it was understanding like, if I spent this twenty
Speaker 1: dollars today, if I, for example, invested it, if I
Speaker 1: invested these twenty dollars, what would that look like in
Speaker 1: a year or ten years from now? And I feel
Speaker 1: like that was where I really started shifting. So my
Speaker 1: you know, I mentioned that I would look at my
Speaker 1: budget and I'm supposed to have, you know, a few
Speaker 1: hundred dollars left over, you know, I would have like
Speaker 1: my my budget would say that I was supposed to
Speaker 1: have like two hundred fifty dollars left over every month,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have that. And when I became intentional
Speaker 1: about where I was spending money, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: can I put maybe not two hundred fifty dollars, but
Speaker 1: can I reclaim a hundred dollars? And what would putting
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars away in a savings account and or
Speaker 1: and or investing what would that look like? And again
Speaker 1: I did those that you know, those calculations um of like, okay,
Speaker 1: if I invested this in you know, just by putting
Speaker 1: money away more money aside, even in my like four
Speaker 1: one k, right, so that I didn't even have to
Speaker 1: think about it. What would it look like a year
Speaker 1: or ten or twenty years from now? That was what
Speaker 1: made the difference. And I would do this and I
Speaker 1: still do this to this day every time I go
Speaker 1: to purchase an item, because I don't think it's there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with wanting something, even if you don't like
Speaker 1: necessarily need it, right like you might want a new jacket.
Speaker 1: But I think understanding the true cost of it that
Speaker 1: is where the key thing came from. It If you
Speaker 1: understand like what you might be giving up and that
Speaker 1: might be worth it to you and so buy it
Speaker 1: without guilt. But the problem is that if you purchase
Speaker 1: something without really understanding what it's really costing you, that's
Speaker 1: where it's important. And also equating the amount of hours
Speaker 1: I would have to work in order to purchase that
Speaker 1: thing also was really helpful for me. That great. Now
Speaker 1: the fun part, how did you end up becoming the
Speaker 1: first millionaire in your family? Yeah? So, um, I always
Speaker 1: get like weirded out by this question, but it's usually yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll keep calling you a millionaire so that you
Speaker 1: can accept it, so that you can take that identity
Speaker 1: and confidence. Yeah. But but this also talks to like
Speaker 1: that whole like mindset work, right, because our relationship with money.
Speaker 1: When we talk about money mindset, it's only like your behaviors,
Speaker 1: your reaction, your feelings towards money, and even that is
Speaker 1: still something that I have to work towards. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I mentioned that at a you know, in my twenties,
Speaker 1: I was making a really good salary and I started
Speaker 1: making six figures around my late twenties, and so I
Speaker 1: did have money, um that I could really begin to
Speaker 1: throw at my savings account and also investing. And so
Speaker 1: I know that that comes from a very privileged place too,
Speaker 1: because not a lot of people have that. But I think,
Speaker 1: I hope that I've been able to relate that it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you're making forty thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: or you know, a hundred thousand dollars a year, because
Speaker 1: it was pretty clear that I was making a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and spending a hundred thousand dollars right. I
Speaker 1: wasn't going into debt, but I was spending every penny
Speaker 1: that I own and being able to put money aside.
Speaker 1: And so it was sort of a journey of about
Speaker 1: a year or so where I really it took me
Speaker 1: about a year to really get a handle of my
Speaker 1: shopping right because I was a complete impulsive shopper um,
Speaker 1: so it took me about a year to really hone
Speaker 1: that in um or rain that in. Once I was
Speaker 1: able to do that, I realized that now I had
Speaker 1: several hundred dollars and then a couple about a thousand
Speaker 1: dollars left over that I could really throw into some
Speaker 1: of my wealth building. And I started number one by
Speaker 1: doing something that isn't even all that sexy but it works,
Speaker 1: which is really maxing out my four oh one K
Speaker 1: through my employer. And I worked for a government agency,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have a four one K, but I
Speaker 1: had something similar called a TSP or a thrift savings plan.
Speaker 1: And so again I didn't do it all at once.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it all at once, because I had
Speaker 1: to rein in the spending. But what I did is
Speaker 1: several times in the year, I would just increase that
Speaker 1: until it kind of hurt a little bit, and until
Speaker 1: I was able to meet that that maximum contribution. Then
Speaker 1: I opened something called the roth Ira. And the limit
Speaker 1: to the roth Ira is six thousand dollars. So these
Speaker 1: were very slow steps that I took. Now I ended
Speaker 1: up getting married, and so now we had two incomes.
Speaker 1: Now I am the main breadwinner of my family, so
Speaker 1: he's not a six figure earner. But because we had
Speaker 1: reined in what are spending was, we really were able
Speaker 1: to maximize that extra inflow of cash to be able
Speaker 1: to reach our financial goals. And the same thing, we
Speaker 1: couldn't max out his four one K right away until
Speaker 1: you know, we we just kept making decisions and obviously
Speaker 1: there's raises and promotions and bonuses anything like that, until
Speaker 1: we were able to start maxing out all of the
Speaker 1: retirement plans that we could. So all of our four
Speaker 1: o one case, both of our four one kids, both
Speaker 1: of our rath I raise and it took me from
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen to twenty one to reach that million dollar point.
Speaker 1: And that sounds like it happened really fast, and it did,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that really has to do with
Speaker 1: the health of the market that we're in, but also
Speaker 1: being really consistent. We weren't day trading, we didn't have
Speaker 1: like all these like mean stocks. We were doing the
Speaker 1: very lazy thing. And so I just want to really
Speaker 1: encourage people. I don't know what's going to happen in
Speaker 1: the next five or ten years, but if you are
Speaker 1: just slow, steady and dedicated to making those small choices,
Speaker 1: if you can increase your income and if you can
Speaker 1: reduce your expenses, and the difference between both of those
Speaker 1: things really is the key to wealth building. And this
Speaker 1: is all while living in some of the most expensive
Speaker 1: cities in the country. So it's not like you're making
Speaker 1: all this living in Florida, like you were making closer
Speaker 1: to an average income for where you were living. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hear this all of the time, where people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: where I live in the high cost of living area.
Speaker 1: Like we lived in California, in northern California, so it
Speaker 1: was expensive to live there, and then we moved to
Speaker 1: New York and we made some really conscious decisions about
Speaker 1: where we lived right um, it was important to us
Speaker 1: not to you know, like have ramen, noodles and rice
Speaker 1: and beans, and we don't. We live are a very
Speaker 1: full life. But we have decided what that full life means.
Speaker 1: That full life doesn't mean having a BMW and Mercedes
Speaker 1: Benz right, that full life doesn't mean you know, never
Speaker 1: cooking and and you know, only eating takeout or going
Speaker 1: now to eat like this is what is most important
Speaker 1: to us. And and here's a really good example. My husband,
Speaker 1: it's really important to him, like food experiences are really
Speaker 1: important to him. I don't really care about those as much,
Speaker 1: but it was really important to him. And what we
Speaker 1: realized was, Okay, rather than spending a little bit of
Speaker 1: money on takeout and going out, we have a food
Speaker 1: budget and we can decide how we want to spend
Speaker 1: We have a dining out budget and we can decide
Speaker 1: how we want to spend it. We can go to
Speaker 1: Olive Garden and cheesecake Factory or something like that. Or
Speaker 1: we can choose a really nice restaurant once, right, or
Speaker 1: twice in a month instead of going to Alive Garden
Speaker 1: three times a month. Right. So, and sometimes we do
Speaker 1: choose that that's fine too, But it's about that and
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with the h you're saying. Alive garden isn't
Speaker 1: really nice and you're there your family. Okay, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be nice. Hey, you wear your That's why
Speaker 1: you can wear your sweat. I I love the unlimited
Speaker 1: salad and food. Fill up talad and bread sticks, take
Speaker 1: that meal home, make it last all week. But yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: But it was also like again being very intentional, like
Speaker 1: if we wanted to do that, right, no problem, we
Speaker 1: could do that. But because it was really important to
Speaker 1: my husband to like try new restaurants and try new things,
Speaker 1: and like dining out here in this in the city,
Speaker 1: it's really expensive, it was like, okay, instead of going
Speaker 1: to like or even like Uber Eats or Seamless, instead
Speaker 1: of like doing those type of using our money for
Speaker 1: that type of dining out, like, let's focus, let's pick
Speaker 1: an experience that we can go to and it might
Speaker 1: just be once or twice. But guess what, we ended
Speaker 1: up valuing it a bunch more because we could only
Speaker 1: do it once or twice a month, and now we
Speaker 1: could we could add more if we wanted to. But
Speaker 1: it's just fine, you know, like for us, it just
Speaker 1: makes us content and we appreciate it. Sure, what you're
Speaker 1: describing is both good for the now and the future. Right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think we can have sights on that millionaire thing,
Speaker 1: but it's like to what end or just focusing on
Speaker 1: retirement or just focusing on living a good life now.
Speaker 1: But I think what your your approach is beautiful in
Speaker 1: that it both is aligning with values and a full
Speaker 1: life now and taking care of yourself for the future,
Speaker 1: because who knows what capacities and abilities are going to
Speaker 1: look like fifteen, twenty, thirty years down the road. It's
Speaker 1: a fun thing to say millionaire, I've become a millionaire,
Speaker 1: but it also sounds like there's so much rich wisdom
Speaker 1: that has come to you through this and just a
Speaker 1: really enjoyable full life now again and in the future. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it makes you know. I'm sure some of
Speaker 1: your your listeners might be familiar with like the fire
Speaker 1: move men, financial independence, retire early, right, And there's some
Speaker 1: people who want to like scrimp and save every single
Speaker 1: penny and just like you know, live bare minimum for
Speaker 1: the rest of their journey until they can be financially independent.
Speaker 1: And that was never a journey that I wanted to
Speaker 1: do like I wanted to be. It's a very few people,
Speaker 1: is that right? For if anybody? Yeah? Exactly? And for me,
Speaker 1: I wanted my husband valued, you know, tiny experiences, and
Speaker 1: I really valued traveling, and so I wanted to be
Speaker 1: able to continue to travel um while also building wealth.
Speaker 1: And I think that when you again align you're spending
Speaker 1: with the things that you value most, you can have
Speaker 1: those rich lives. You can have a really rich life.
Speaker 1: So being able to understand what is it that you
Speaker 1: value most, be intentional about spending in those areas, then
Speaker 1: everything else is okay, right, but just be honest and
Speaker 1: realistic about what is it that you're really spending on.
Speaker 1: Speaking of a rich intentionality, man intentional about booty life.
Speaker 1: Giving the filla of the week. That's right, it's time
Speaker 1: for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
Speaker 1: baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're
Speaker 1: happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills,
Speaker 1: Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hey, now,
Speaker 1: whoa wally? Every week we invite a guest or listener
Speaker 1: to share with us their bill of the week and
Speaker 1: so we would love to hear what yours is. Okay,
Speaker 1: So just this week I received a UM two renewal
Speaker 1: notices for home insurance. Now, if you are a homeowner,
Speaker 1: you understand that you need homeowners insurance, but you should
Speaker 1: only have one policy. And what happened was that last year,
Speaker 1: after doing a little bit of comparison shopping, I canceled
Speaker 1: one of my homeowners insurance and got a new company
Speaker 1: and established homeowners insurance with that company. But realized that
Speaker 1: when I got the two renewal notices that that original
Speaker 1: homeowners insurance policy had never canceled. Not only that, but
Speaker 1: they never uh they charged me for it. So I
Speaker 1: paid or through my escraw right, so through my mortgage company,
Speaker 1: I paid for two homeowners insurance. So I had to
Speaker 1: uh give both of them a call to figure out
Speaker 1: like what was happening? Like what happened and called my
Speaker 1: mortgage company to understand what happen been And with a
Speaker 1: simple call I called the old homeowners insurance was able
Speaker 1: to UM cancel that policy and they were able to
Speaker 1: post date the cancelation and I will now be receiving
Speaker 1: a refund. So I feel like the moral of the story,
Speaker 1: it's just to kind of keep track and again make
Speaker 1: sure that you know where that money is going, because
Speaker 1: I paid to homeowners insurance policies without realizing it, and
Speaker 1: so that was sort of the bill that I had.
Speaker 1: And and I guess the second lesson is to yes,
Speaker 1: even if you are happy and content with your homeowners
Speaker 1: insurance policy, it's okay to comparison shop. Even with the
Speaker 1: renewal notice. I looked at what both um not only
Speaker 1: what the amount was, but also what was the coverage,
Speaker 1: and it seems still to this day, it seems like
Speaker 1: the one, the new policy that I had was offering
Speaker 1: me the same amount of coverage for the same price
Speaker 1: that the old one was for less bridge. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that is my bill for this week. Amazing so recent too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it takes again speaking of intentionality, just paying attention,
Speaker 1: opening your mail and doing the hard thing of making
Speaker 1: the phone calls and making these things right and saving
Speaker 1: money along the way. And then shopping. Yeah, there's so
Speaker 1: much wrapped up in their shopping for those insurances because
Speaker 1: those are the those are like the you know, hundred
Speaker 1: dollar decisions versus the you know, five ten dollar decisions
Speaker 1: that we make to save money on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: When you're being intentional about your higher expenses, you can
Speaker 1: save more more easily. So that's great. Thank you so much. Wally. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And Jill, to your point, it wasn't that had I
Speaker 1: opened my mail and understood when I was reading, Like
Speaker 1: when even when I think about when I was doing
Speaker 1: my taxes, you know you have to like list the
Speaker 1: amount of any that you spent on insurance. They sent
Speaker 1: me the information of how much money I spent on insurance,
Speaker 1: but I didn't pay attention to like, hey, that looks
Speaker 1: like double than what it should be. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: super thankful and grateful that I was able to get
Speaker 1: a refund, get it taken care of, but like not
Speaker 1: only opening the mail, but like really understanding what you're
Speaker 1: looking at reading the mail, opening reading asking questions exactly.
Speaker 1: Oh well, if you all listening, want to submit your
Speaker 1: bill of the week, whether it's a recent bill, if
Speaker 1: it just happened, you saved money, you negotiated, you realized
Speaker 1: that somebody else did something wrong. Visit Frugiral Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, slash bill leave us here a bill, we
Speaker 1: want to hear it. And now it's time for nightening.
Speaker 1: So today's lightning round is going to be pewing off
Speaker 1: our most recent impulse purchases. That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: That sounded horrible when I said it out loud. I
Speaker 1: know this now in hindsight, I think that a word.
Speaker 1: Making it a word is gross. Okay, Anyways, we are
Speaker 1: going to be sharing. I was just trying to mix
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah. Yeah, we're in the work all right,
Speaker 1: we're almost a twosodes, still trying things out. So sharing
Speaker 1: our most recent impulse purchases because the intentionality, the journey
Speaker 1: to intentionality with your purchases never ends, there's no Okay.
Speaker 1: Now I am a conscious consumer and I never have
Speaker 1: to think about this again. Jen loves getting vulnerable. I
Speaker 1: do transparent in the lightning ground, showing people that we're
Speaker 1: not perfect, especially but we still fail. So um yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. And Wally as our guest, Um, we'd like
Speaker 1: to put you in the direction of the lightning first, Yeah,
Speaker 1: show us you're imperfect first. Oh yeah, seriously. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I recently got a puppy. Um he is nineteen weeks old,
Speaker 1: and so all of my impulse purchases surround things for
Speaker 1: him because I know so I'm always uh, you know,
Speaker 1: now go down the pet aisle or you know, shopping
Speaker 1: the pets section or any que items that um, I
Speaker 1: think he would love. And you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, he just wants to like chew on
Speaker 1: a plastic bottle rather than the toys that I have.
Speaker 1: It's like Jenson, they have toys, but he just ends
Speaker 1: up playing with a stick. He also just ends up
Speaker 1: chewing on plastic bottles. So it's the same, really same.
Speaker 1: Why do we bother? Oh, that's a good one. That
Speaker 1: is that is a big one. All of our pet
Speaker 1: owners in the group will constantly say that do you
Speaker 1: have pet insurance on your puppy? Yes, So it's a
Speaker 1: big one that I've heard is a really great worth
Speaker 1: of the money expense. So I would say that you
Speaker 1: definitely need to. I don't think that it's it's fantastic
Speaker 1: for everyone. Now, I had a lab mix. He was
Speaker 1: a lab he was a mutt, and so when I
Speaker 1: m add up all the expenses that I had to
Speaker 1: pay for like vet bills, vaccinines, and then like his
Speaker 1: end of life care, him not being insured ended up
Speaker 1: working out because he rarely needed to go to the doctor.
Speaker 1: Until really his end of life. U the dog that
Speaker 1: I have now, um, he's a French bulldog and they
Speaker 1: tend to have more you know, sort of health issues,
Speaker 1: and so I can't you know, I was thinking about, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen, and ensuring him
Speaker 1: now as a puppy versus you know, waiting until the
Speaker 1: issue happens, and then now he's not insurable what if
Speaker 1: it is issue? So but health health insurance is insanely expensive. Um,
Speaker 1: we were looking at prices that were, you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars or more a month to get
Speaker 1: him insured. Yeah, it was really really pricey and we
Speaker 1: ended up. Um, right now is open enrollment season for
Speaker 1: so many people who are at their W two jobs,
Speaker 1: and my through my employer, they have a health insurance
Speaker 1: kind of discount pet insurance policy. And so I did
Speaker 1: some comparison shopping about trying to get pet insurance on
Speaker 1: my own versus getting it through my job and what
Speaker 1: that would look like. And I think it was just
Speaker 1: on Saturday or Sunday we finalized the paperwork to get
Speaker 1: him insured and yeah, we're saving so much money by that,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the least expensive insurance policy that
Speaker 1: we found was like eight hundred and fifty dollars on
Speaker 1: our own and through my job it's like six. That
Speaker 1: is the this, this right now is the first time
Speaker 1: I have heard about being able to get pet insurance
Speaker 1: through the same same I don't have a pet, so
Speaker 1: that's probably partially why I had no idea that was
Speaker 1: the thing employers were doing. And what great timing. So
Speaker 1: if you have a pet that you want to get insured,
Speaker 1: check try that out. Check it out such great. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I had to. So I emailed my human resource
Speaker 1: department and they were like, I don't know, call the
Speaker 1: the insurance for water. Yeah, So but I did. I
Speaker 1: emailed and I said, hey, um, and this is actually
Speaker 1: not just towards pet insurance, but what discounts are available
Speaker 1: to the employees of ex company. And they gave me
Speaker 1: a whole list of like, you know, you can't get
Speaker 1: discounts for theme parks, museums, home insurance, pet insurance, um,
Speaker 1: what was a short term disability insurance? So these were
Speaker 1: a bunch of perks that we have as employers of
Speaker 1: the company. So definitely look into that. Yeah, we're getting
Speaker 1: our money's work here. Holly on this lightning round, right,
Speaker 1: talking about failures turned into talking about success. So that's
Speaker 1: why that's why we start with vulnerability and we end
Speaker 1: with pet insurance. Jill, good job, Jen, you really planned
Speaker 1: that one. Well you are welcome, Jill your next Okay,
Speaker 1: Well this may not make you too happy, Jen, because yeah,
Speaker 1: well you want ulnerability. You want to know. I'm not perfect,
Speaker 1: and I'm not perfect. And when it comes to spend,
Speaker 1: I am I hardly do it. Like when I do spend,
Speaker 1: it is very planned. But here you go. I did
Speaker 1: go to the grocery store last night with a list,
Speaker 1: which I'm getting better at. I made a meal plan.
Speaker 1: I have all of my meals planned out for the
Speaker 1: next seven eight days, have a list to go with it.
Speaker 1: And really was like, if it's not on the list
Speaker 1: before we go to the grocery store, we're not buying it.
Speaker 1: This is what I verbally said to my husband Eric
Speaker 1: when he comes, Oh yeah, no, I don't take Travis
Speaker 1: to a grocery store. Extra stuff gets put in. Actually,
Speaker 1: and this was a problem too. We went separate directions.
Speaker 1: He had a shopping cart and I had a shopping cart,
Speaker 1: and we have a shared list, so we can. It's
Speaker 1: like a Google list and we can check it off
Speaker 1: and then like real time, it like takes things off
Speaker 1: the list. We actually love it. It's like a fun
Speaker 1: thing for us. But two cards you are you are
Speaker 1: too small, so then he's showing up with all this
Speaker 1: stuff in his cart. Anyhow, my impulse what was not
Speaker 1: on the list was Olives. I really like olives. Didn't
Speaker 1: put it on the list, but I did put it
Speaker 1: in the cart and bought it impulsively. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's awesome an my impulse. It's funny because I looked
Speaker 1: back at I literally right out my transactions every two weeks,
Speaker 1: so the regular thing that I do so is actually
Speaker 1: able to go back and look like what did I
Speaker 1: impulsively by? And I do it in different categories food, miscellaneous,
Speaker 1: gas in parking, other than like my bills. Those are
Speaker 1: like more of the discretionary spending. And I'm like, I
Speaker 1: have not spent any money on anything other than food
Speaker 1: in the last month. So yeah, if it is impulsive,
Speaker 1: it's going to be on food, yes, And I'll I
Speaker 1: love that it's olives. It makes me. It always reminds
Speaker 1: me that episode we did last year where we're like
Speaker 1: if you had, you know, a bunch of if you
Speaker 1: were a millionaire and you could spend money on anything, like,
Speaker 1: what would you buy? And my answer was the Aldi
Speaker 1: Wine Advent Calendar. And I was shamed for that answer.
Speaker 1: And for me, it was like an outdoor water feature.
Speaker 1: It was like, collectively, our guest was like three hundred
Speaker 1: dollars and he wanted like this expensive Harley day. That's
Speaker 1: what you do if you were a millionaire. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it makes sense. Hot seat vulnerability, hot seat
Speaker 1: um mine tends to be on food as well. I
Speaker 1: would say I went to Aldi and I got I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can see it, a candle. The
Speaker 1: blue one has always been there, but I got this,
Speaker 1: uh pumpkin candle. I lined it up really good two days.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this podcast, check this episode out
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Because while the space just now was perfect,
Speaker 1: like we're talking about impulse purchases and we've got olives
Speaker 1: and a candle. But he goodness, that's how you pit
Speaker 1: a little way. I was like, forgive me for my
Speaker 1: expressive face. I needed to make that. I forgot we
Speaker 1: were recording here so good, it's so good. I didn't
Speaker 1: even see it because I was looking at that, I
Speaker 1: was making sure my finger was pointing to the candy. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know what, that is an impulsive purchase. You
Speaker 1: didn't need another candle. You never planned to buy candles.
Speaker 1: And I used to imput candle. I look, it's right
Speaker 1: next to another candle. Look there with each other, and look,
Speaker 1: there's a candle here, like I didn't buy that one.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to get you a candle for Christmas.
Speaker 1: So many kids you you have gotten me a candle before, Jill.
Speaker 1: And it's in my room. Yeah, And so that was
Speaker 1: my five dollar impulse bend. And it is fall scented,
Speaker 1: so I feel a responsibility to just light the whole
Speaker 1: thing on fire by the time winter like not winter.
Speaker 1: Winter is subjective here, but like before, it's unacceptable to
Speaker 1: smell pumpkin. But yeah, so I went to light it
Speaker 1: before we started recording. M I forgot it does smell good.
Speaker 1: I came into your house the other day and I
Speaker 1: thought you had made something with syrup. Just smells like
Speaker 1: syrup to me. Yeah, it's delous, like oh breakfast. You're like,
Speaker 1: no candle. Well, thank you for humoring us, Wally. We
Speaker 1: so enjoyed having you on the show. Please tell our
Speaker 1: listeners where they can get more from you. Yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you Jen and Jill for inviting me. This has been fantastic. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can be found at financially Thriving dot com. You
Speaker 1: can find all my social media handles. I'm most active
Speaker 1: on clubhouse and Instagram. But yeah, I'm at financially Thriving awesome.
Speaker 1: Yes you are. I love your Instagram so definitely go
Speaker 1: follow Wally financially Thriving on Instagram. So thank you and
Speaker 1: uh we will talk to again later. By another good
Speaker 1: one for the bucks, Jen. I have so many personal
Speaker 1: takeaways from this one. And yeah, we know what we
Speaker 1: say all the time. We essentially do this podcast just
Speaker 1: for us, but I do. I love the idea of
Speaker 1: looking at the compound interest on things, like thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: I could buy this thing and have this thing, or
Speaker 1: I could have the compound interest that investing this money
Speaker 1: will give me and then I can buy more things.
Speaker 1: The reminder of intentionality and values based spending thing. I
Speaker 1: think that that message is never going to get old.
Speaker 1: It's cool to hear how others are going about that.
Speaker 1: Because one approach is not all approaches. So it's really
Speaker 1: neat to hear her story and how she's going about that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely check out more from Wally on her
Speaker 1: website and follow her on Instagram. Good stuff there. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much everyone for listening. We want to thank you
Speaker 1: for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, like this one.
Speaker 1: It comes from ah He a low Wall head. It
Speaker 1: happens to be five stars new listen are and loving it.
Speaker 1: I very recently started listening, and so far, the best
Speaker 1: thing I've learned about was the Frugal Friends Summit. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad I signed up because not only do I
Speaker 1: get to discover new people to be inspired by, but
Speaker 1: watching Jen and Jill and interacting online has increased my
Speaker 1: enjoyment of listening to their podcast. Highly recommend this podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh really cool. Yes, the summit was amazing. We plan
Speaker 1: to do this now again. We're hoping it's an annual thing.
Speaker 1: But I love that this review mentioned watching us and
Speaker 1: how that might help to engage with it even more.
Speaker 1: And just as a reminder, we also put out our
Speaker 1: interviews on YouTube, so if you are a visual person
Speaker 1: and that helps you feel free to check out these
Speaker 1: interviews on YouTube like this one with Wally and other
Speaker 1: interviews that we've done and then look forward to the summit.
Speaker 1: You know, stay tuned for that. Stay tuned. We also
Speaker 1: want to thank our friends who share these episodes on
Speaker 1: social media, So when you share the latest episode and
Speaker 1: tag us on Instagram, we are going to add you
Speaker 1: to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews
Speaker 1: we get every month, we're giving away one of our
Speaker 1: challenge binders or planners, and this month it is the
Speaker 1: values based Budget Binder. So that is exciting. So keep
Speaker 1: leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher and send the
Speaker 1: screenshot of that review to Focal Friends podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. That's our email. That's how you enter to
Speaker 1: win that drawing for the values based Budget Binder, and
Speaker 1: don't forget to tag us on social See you guys
Speaker 1: next week by Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian.
Speaker 1: Impulse spends Jen. How do you feel about those olives?
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about They're really good? We got
Speaker 1: home from our shared shopping experience and it was like
Speaker 1: nine thirty and I definitely dove right into those holives
Speaker 1: as you should. Not. All INPUS purchases are bad. Their
Speaker 1: impulse purchases are not inherently bad. Yeah. I love a
Speaker 1: little spontaneity, but a little not the spontaneity where it
Speaker 1: gets overwhelming and you're like, I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: doing with my life because nothing is planned and nothing
Speaker 1: has direction. Well, there's wiggle room too, And I think
Speaker 1: it helped because I did go with a list. I
Speaker 1: find that I am much more overwhelmed when I just
Speaker 1: find myself at the store. I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: going to be doing that week with food. I don't
Speaker 1: actually remember what's in my fridge and pantry. I'm just
Speaker 1: willy nilly trying to do stuff. Willy nilly, I don't
Speaker 1: that's such a weird phrase, But there you go, and
Speaker 1: throwing stuff in my cart. It's better than pewing. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go. Well willy nilly is actually something people say. Pewing.
Speaker 1: It's not I know, it's what happens at church. I
Speaker 1: peel to me and I said, I said in the peel,
Speaker 1: and I don't know. Man, we tried. Kay bye,