Speaker 1: Episode one oh seven, Paying off Debt in your forties
Speaker 1: with Bobby Olsen. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where
Speaker 1: you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver with
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m m mmmmm.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and we are coming at you
Speaker 1: on the web, in your ears, in front of your eyes,
Speaker 1: and wherever you'll let us, yes, wherever you will let us.
Speaker 1: And we've got a very very requested episode for you
Speaker 1: today because some of y'all are sick of hearing us
Speaker 1: interview twenty year olds about how they paid off their debt.
Speaker 1: What Why wouldn't you want to hear wisdom from twenty
Speaker 1: year old? Why not? I don't under Everyone was requesting,
Speaker 1: maybe we get some people who are a little further
Speaker 1: along in age than you. So Bobby Olson, our friend
Speaker 1: from the Sensible Chat podcast, is here and she started
Speaker 1: when she was forty, which is not old. Which is
Speaker 1: not old, but it's not. One of these is a
Speaker 1: bigger number than the other, and that is we're giving
Speaker 1: you a variety. Yeah, what we got for you, Let's
Speaker 1: do it. We're not going to delay, but first ours
Speaker 1: an stors. This episode is also brought to you by
Speaker 1: the number thirty one. It's not just a multi level
Speaker 1: marketing company or the name of a carnival themed horror movie.
Speaker 1: It's the age I'm turning tomorrow and the age Jill
Speaker 1: will be turning in a few months. Hey, don't give
Speaker 1: that kind of sorry. Thirty one years, we've experienced Britney
Speaker 1: spears and justin Timberlake wearing matching Dunham outfits, highlight of
Speaker 1: my life, the door in the Titanic movie that was
Speaker 1: definitely big enough for two people, outrage of my life,
Speaker 1: and a global pandemic, which is just another Tuesday thirty one.
Speaker 1: Too old for TikTok, not old enough to watch the
Speaker 1: Hallmark Movie Channel. I don't know. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what to say. There's so many things I want to
Speaker 1: say and like nothing all at the same time. How
Speaker 1: did you pick those things? They're so obscure, but they're
Speaker 1: so amazing, because what else would you pick? Too old
Speaker 1: for TikTok, not old enough for Hallmark Movie Channel. Gosh,
Speaker 1: what is there for us even right? If we have
Speaker 1: If you're in your mid thirties, like tell me what
Speaker 1: there even is to look forward to, because I feel
Speaker 1: like my best days are behind me. They're definitely not.
Speaker 1: If you're equating best days to TikTok, you're on the
Speaker 1: wrong track. I don't know how like TikTok looks. I mean,
Speaker 1: all the kids love it. I know people in their
Speaker 1: thirties who love it. And well, we've got the Hallmark
Speaker 1: Movie Channel to look forward. That's where we're added. I'm
Speaker 1: actually looking forward to this interview and it makes me
Speaker 1: believe that my best days are ahead of me because
Speaker 1: Bobby Olsen is such a powerhouse. She's such a fun girl.
Speaker 1: I mean girls, she's a woman. Oh gosh, I'm still
Speaker 1: a girl. And I'm super excited to share this episode
Speaker 1: with you. Guys, even if you're not in your forties,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be super inspired by the step Path journey
Speaker 1: because it's so real and you're going to take home
Speaker 1: some real good tips. Let's do it. Let's do it, Bobby,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: stepping by. Oh thanks for having me you guys. I'm excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to having this conversation with you and
Speaker 1: hearing another story No, this is a listener favorite to
Speaker 1: hear about debt payoff stories and get motivated and inspired
Speaker 1: and hear about how you paid off your debt in
Speaker 1: the life stage that you're in. So we're excited to
Speaker 1: get into it. Yeah, so let's dive right in, Bobby.
Speaker 1: We want to talk about your debt payoff story, and
Speaker 1: here a little bit about what motivated you to start
Speaker 1: on that journey. Uh. Well, I was in a job
Speaker 1: that I was miserable in. I dreaded going every day,
Speaker 1: did not want to be there at all, and I
Speaker 1: was working so hard to try to change jobs, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't find anything that was comparable to what I
Speaker 1: was being paid. And we're in a one income family,
Speaker 1: so I gotta make that income. And since we were
Speaker 1: so far in debt, I couldn't afford to take a
Speaker 1: pay cut. Like I was sitting there going I would
Speaker 1: take a pay cut in a heartbeat, but because of
Speaker 1: all the debt, I couldn't do it. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I had come from a place where kind of all
Speaker 1: my life I had felt like this is just the
Speaker 1: way it is. You're always going to be poor. You
Speaker 1: can't do anything to change it, so just accept it.
Speaker 1: But at this point, I was like, I'm done. I
Speaker 1: can't take it anymore because I want out of this
Speaker 1: job so bad I'll do anything. So I that's what
Speaker 1: motivated me to want to find a change. But I
Speaker 1: didn't really know that it was possible. And um, I
Speaker 1: found a personal finance book and I started reading it
Speaker 1: actually just so that I could say I tried, but
Speaker 1: I'm a cynic and I didn't think it was gonna work,
Speaker 1: and I got lucky it worked and who changed my life?
Speaker 1: That's amazing, Just so I can check off this. So
Speaker 1: it sounds like you wanted to leave your job, but
Speaker 1: the debt was the barrier to leaving the job. Oh man,
Speaker 1: feeling stuck is the worst. Yeah. I felt like financial prison.
Speaker 1: You know. It was just miserable and I couldn't take
Speaker 1: it anymore. Yeah, yeah, working that job just because of
Speaker 1: the debt that you have. So it's our understanding that
Speaker 1: you started your debt payoff journey a little bit later
Speaker 1: in life. Can you tell us about that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was forty when I started, and we had had my husband,
Speaker 1: and I had had a business that failed, and so
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I'm forty years old. I've
Speaker 1: had this failed business. I'm in this job, but my
Speaker 1: career is not going anywhere. I hate where I'm at.
Speaker 1: I'm in debt, I don't have much put away for retirement.
Speaker 1: Where am I going? Like, I'm forty years old and
Speaker 1: I have nothing. I've been working since I was fourteen,
Speaker 1: and I have nothing but debt to show for it.
Speaker 1: This is ridiculous. You're not alone in that feeling. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of people who Yeah, it's it's a paycheck to
Speaker 1: paycheck kind of thing, or it's a US credit cards
Speaker 1: to kind of pay for the things that we want.
Speaker 1: Was that discouraging at all for you to be forty
Speaker 1: and feel as though, as you say, I've got nothing
Speaker 1: to show for this? Like, how how did that play
Speaker 1: into motivation for you? Well? It was discouraging to look
Speaker 1: at my life and see where I was and that
Speaker 1: I wasn't anywhere near where I wanted to be. But
Speaker 1: it was also motivating because I thought, Okay, I'm forty
Speaker 1: and I'm not anywhere near where I want to be.
Speaker 1: So if I want to do something, I better start now.
Speaker 1: I need to light a fire and do something because
Speaker 1: I don't want to waste the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: So it was actually a huge motivator for me to
Speaker 1: get started and keep going. Yeah, you can look back
Speaker 1: and think, oh, man, this is only how far I've
Speaker 1: come since fourteen, But you could also look forward and say,
Speaker 1: and this is not where I want to be when
Speaker 1: I'm seventy five. Yeah, that that that same thing can
Speaker 1: can work both sides of being discouraging but also super
Speaker 1: motivating to say, well, and I still have decades what
Speaker 1: I want to do with that. Yeah. You know it's
Speaker 1: interesting because I actually, now that you mentioned it, I
Speaker 1: hadn't really thought about this before, but I had been
Speaker 1: watching my mom and she you know, worked her whole
Speaker 1: life but doesn't have anything to show for it, and
Speaker 1: she's got a really rough retirement because she didn't save
Speaker 1: and she didn't do those things, and so that was
Speaker 1: part of it. Also, I'm looking at her and thinking
Speaker 1: I don't want to be there, Like, she has no
Speaker 1: options now and I still have time, but it's running out.
Speaker 1: So if I don't do something now, I'm going to
Speaker 1: end up without those options, and I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid for her, and I don't want to be
Speaker 1: afraid for myself. On top of it, for sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was the how much debt did you pay off?
Speaker 1: And what was it made up of? It was about
Speaker 1: sixty thou dollars and um it was made up of
Speaker 1: mostly credit card debt that had come from the business. UM.
Speaker 1: I was never a person to like go out in
Speaker 1: my clothes or fancy vacations I couldn't afford. But when
Speaker 1: it came to the business, I could justify any expense
Speaker 1: under the sun, you know, and we may and the
Speaker 1: typical mistake that you make in business you buy too many,
Speaker 1: too much equipment and all those kind of things. So
Speaker 1: we had a lot of debt from the business, and
Speaker 1: then we also had medical debt because my husband has
Speaker 1: some disabilities and so we had gone through some major
Speaker 1: surgeries as well. So between those two, that's that's what
Speaker 1: it was made up of. Yeah, the business debt, I
Speaker 1: think you're highlighting something so important. I think it's it
Speaker 1: is a big pitfall, and especially you've got this whole
Speaker 1: financial advice strain of it's a right off. It's a
Speaker 1: right off. It's actually better in your favor to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like that doesn't make it free, right off free,
Speaker 1: but we still it's it's a bit more acceptable debt.
Speaker 1: But as you're describing, the weight of it on you
Speaker 1: and the financial prison that that can put us in
Speaker 1: is the same. Whether it's credit card or medical, or
Speaker 1: college or business loans, you name it, the weight of
Speaker 1: it and and the impact on us is the same. Bobby,
Speaker 1: when you were paying off this debt, did you experience
Speaker 1: any like difficulties that were kind of unique to where
Speaker 1: you were in life. Well, the difficulties that I experienced
Speaker 1: just just being older. Basically. The first one is is
Speaker 1: that when I was in my twenties, I worked four
Speaker 1: jobs at once and it was no big deal. I
Speaker 1: actually you know, I had like an unspoken bet going
Speaker 1: with one of my coworkers for who could hold down
Speaker 1: the most jobs. And I'm not sure who wants but
Speaker 1: I had four at once, So how do you win that?
Speaker 1: Nobody wins in that because some days I didn't even
Speaker 1: know what freeway I was going on or where I was.
Speaker 1: You know, I got speech too much. But but you know,
Speaker 1: when you're in your twenties, you have the energy to
Speaker 1: do that, and unfortunately I did that, but I didn't
Speaker 1: save any of the money. So now fast forward to
Speaker 1: when I'm in my forties, I just don't have the
Speaker 1: energy to work four jobs anymore. And you know, if
Speaker 1: I had had that energy, then I could use that
Speaker 1: extra money to pay off debt um And so that
Speaker 1: was part of it that I wasn't as willing to
Speaker 1: take on more jobs that could create more income to
Speaker 1: do it faster. And also, you know, when you're older,
Speaker 1: you have more responsibilities. When you're in your twenties, maybe
Speaker 1: you're not married, you know, you don't have the thankfully
Speaker 1: I don't have kids. I mean not thankfully, but I
Speaker 1: don't have kids, so I don't have you know, those obligations,
Speaker 1: but you still have obligations when you're married. You have
Speaker 1: to take someone else into consideration with how you're spending
Speaker 1: your money. So from that standpoint, you know, it was
Speaker 1: it was a bit unique because there you don't have
Speaker 1: as much control solely over you know, how you're going
Speaker 1: to do it. You have to work with somebody else,
Speaker 1: and you were still single income like during this, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's its own difficulties. Yeah, yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: really hard, especially living in southern California. You know, things
Speaker 1: are Yeah, that makes things really really tight. But so
Speaker 1: we had to be really committed. But That's the flip side,
Speaker 1: is that being with somebody else, you you know, had
Speaker 1: somebody to keep you strong in those moments of weakness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're You're highlighting a really specific thing that
Speaker 1: I think older generations will experience in a debt payoff
Speaker 1: journey as far as just energy levels go, and capacity
Speaker 1: and even desire. You know, there's probably other things you
Speaker 1: want to do with your time. Then get twenty side hustles.
Speaker 1: And so with that said, what are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you did to pay down your debt? How
Speaker 1: did you approach it at that point? Well, I, Um,
Speaker 1: the first thing I did because, like I said, I
Speaker 1: I read Ellie Kay's book The Sixty Minute Money Workout,
Speaker 1: and she was talking about the debt snowball method, which
Speaker 1: was something I had never heard of, and I just
Speaker 1: latched onto that and ran from there. And the idea
Speaker 1: of that excited me so much that I just started
Speaker 1: reading about all these different things, all these different ways.
Speaker 1: So between the debt snowball and creating a budget and
Speaker 1: sticking to it the those were really the main things,
Speaker 1: um that got me out of debt. But that plan,
Speaker 1: you know, was made up of what do I spend
Speaker 1: on each thing, just being really intentional about how we
Speaker 1: were going to spend our money and um cutting out
Speaker 1: as many frivolities as we could without completely cutting our throats,
Speaker 1: because we found out real quick that that didn't completely work.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like a crash diet. You fall off
Speaker 1: the wagon and just go wait too far to the
Speaker 1: other side. It's similar to maintaining four jobs at once,
Speaker 1: so exactly, yeah, you can't maintain that forever. So yeah,
Speaker 1: So that was basically the two biggest things that I
Speaker 1: did was was budgeting and using the debt snowball method.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? Budgeting just seems like ever I have
Speaker 1: been saying I think since like for for the past
Speaker 1: ten episodes straight, just like if you haven't budgeted yet,
Speaker 1: you need to budget. You need to budget every episode.
Speaker 1: You need to budget. And it's so amazing to realize
Speaker 1: that is so much of it. We think, No, I'm
Speaker 1: doing fine, I don't spend a lot er that that's
Speaker 1: not the answer, that's not what it is. But yet
Speaker 1: you're saying that that's what it was. That was the
Speaker 1: big pivot point, is just what am I spending on? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because before I did that, I had no clue. I
Speaker 1: thought I knew, you know, most of us think we know,
Speaker 1: but it's such a different picture when you actually sit
Speaker 1: down to look at it. I've never heard from anybody,
Speaker 1: Yeah this is what I thought. You know, it's always
Speaker 1: a surprise, and a lot of times it's a good surprise.
Speaker 1: So people spend all this time not wanting to do
Speaker 1: it because they're stressed about it or whatever. But for me,
Speaker 1: it was so exciting to see, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: really is possible. Like right when I had that moment
Speaker 1: of hope, then it was like I was off to
Speaker 1: the races. That's really all I ever needed, you know,
Speaker 1: I just didn't know it. Yeah, that's an amazing point.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we think we're gonna look at our budget and
Speaker 1: we're gonna be so depressed. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: there's there's money that we might be able to find.
Speaker 1: You know, that's not everybody's circumstances, but it could go
Speaker 1: either direction where oh, actually I'm spending more in this
Speaker 1: area and I can absolutely cut her. There is more
Speaker 1: than I thought that there was, but it ends up
Speaker 1: just getting spent if I'm not paying attention to it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing. Um, this isn't on this isn't a
Speaker 1: question on our outline, but I really want to know,
Speaker 1: is there a moment like from your debt free journey
Speaker 1: that really sticks out to you as being like either
Speaker 1: like super positive or just like super sad. I have
Speaker 1: the I have a few of those on my debt
Speaker 1: free journey, So I was just wondering if you, like
Speaker 1: have a really memorable moment from yours. Well, the really
Speaker 1: memorable moment was, um, when we paid off the car
Speaker 1: and when we paid off our last credit card, because
Speaker 1: then it was like, oh we're free. Whoa. And I
Speaker 1: remember because I was going to do it from work.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna, you know, log onto my thing
Speaker 1: and pay it off, but I thought, no, I'm going
Speaker 1: to call Scott and see if he wants me to
Speaker 1: wait to be because it was such a huge moment
Speaker 1: for me. Was like I don't want to take that
Speaker 1: away from him, you know, And he was like, just
Speaker 1: pay it, I don't care. But for me, I would
Speaker 1: have been so angry if he done it without me
Speaker 1: because I wanted that moment. It was so special to me.
Speaker 1: And then there was a time that made me cry.
Speaker 1: It wasn't sad. I was happy, but I just started
Speaker 1: crying because we had a five thousand dollars in the
Speaker 1: middle of this, you know, trying to pay off all
Speaker 1: this debt. Then we had this five thousand dollar medical
Speaker 1: bill and it was like, come on already, you know,
Speaker 1: do I have to deal with anything else? And we
Speaker 1: had gone for financial aid, and we were waiting and waiting,
Speaker 1: and the communications kept getting crossed, and we were afraid
Speaker 1: we were going to end up in collections because they
Speaker 1: told us not to pay it until everything was clear.
Speaker 1: But it was such a mess. And finally we got
Speaker 1: word that the financial aid had come through and it
Speaker 1: was all covered and it was over, and I just
Speaker 1: fell to my knees and started crying, and I was
Speaker 1: just so thankful. That was a really amazing moment in
Speaker 1: our journey because I knew that that was at least
Speaker 1: part that was settled now and I didn't have to
Speaker 1: worry about it. Do you think you would have thought
Speaker 1: as hard for that financial aid if you hadn't been
Speaker 1: so aware of your finances and so committed to getting
Speaker 1: out of debt. No, not at all. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: even known that that was possible. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Like I was never taught any of
Speaker 1: these resources existed, you know. It was just like, there's
Speaker 1: nothing you can do about it, just deal with it.
Speaker 1: That that was what was nonverbally put in my head,
Speaker 1: you know, through as a kid, and that's what I
Speaker 1: believed through my adult life. And so that was the freedom.
Speaker 1: Was beyond budgeting and beyond being being able to control
Speaker 1: my own finances. There were just there were so many
Speaker 1: options no matter what came up. It was like, now
Speaker 1: I'm confident that I can take on any financial glitch
Speaker 1: that comes my way. I may not have the money
Speaker 1: in front of me, but I have the tools and
Speaker 1: resources and the way to think strategically about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: Oh I like that. What even this journey has built
Speaker 1: inside of you, even as even even if you can
Speaker 1: live with your debt, even as an exercise in understanding
Speaker 1: finances more and and creating habits that will last you
Speaker 1: for life, it's a good thing. Yeah, it's just so free. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you doing now, Bobby that maybe would not
Speaker 1: have been possible while you were living in debt. Well,
Speaker 1: the first thing is living intentionally instead of reactively. Because
Speaker 1: it used to always be like put out the fire,
Speaker 1: put out the fire, put out the fire. And you're
Speaker 1: always thinking, Okay, where's the next fire. But you're not going,
Speaker 1: all right, brace yourself for the next fire. Here's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. It's more like, where's the next fire?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? You know. And so now I'm like,
Speaker 1: bring it on, because I can plan for it. The
Speaker 1: money that I used to spend towards debt goes to,
Speaker 1: you know, just being able to save for the future,
Speaker 1: but also being able to save for a car repair,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean even a five dollar car repair
Speaker 1: used to just put me into complete turmoil. And now
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, I don't like to spend the money
Speaker 1: on my car like that, but at least I have it.
Speaker 1: It's not stressful anymore. So those kind of things I
Speaker 1: never could have done while being in debt. And the
Speaker 1: the other thing is just having the options. You know,
Speaker 1: there is the option to have more fun or think
Speaker 1: about more fun things than just how am I going
Speaker 1: to pay the bills? How am I going to pay
Speaker 1: the bills? You know. So yeah, just that living intentionally
Speaker 1: instead of reactively has been the biggest one for me, definitely.
Speaker 1: Mm hm. Another question that's not on our list. But
Speaker 1: I'm curious about were you and your husband both on
Speaker 1: the same page when when you kind of read your book, Like,
Speaker 1: to me, that's standing out as the pivotal moment of
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read this book. I don't expect anything, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check it off and say I tried. But
Speaker 1: then it switched mindset. Where was he at in that process?
Speaker 1: He was? It was funny because yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: I was the one who read the book. I was
Speaker 1: the one who was really dressed out about it. I mean,
Speaker 1: he felt sorry for me, but you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the same feeling for him. And so yeah, when I
Speaker 1: read the book, I kind of I just ran down
Speaker 1: the hall and I was so excited with this book.
Speaker 1: I ran down the hall. I spent like half the
Speaker 1: day on the computer crunching numbers, just trying to prove
Speaker 1: her wrong, like the sense that this was but because
Speaker 1: I was excited. But I'm like cynic, you know, so
Speaker 1: I don't want to believe in it. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: then I couldn't prove it wrong, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is so exciting, And so I brought it to
Speaker 1: him and his whole thing throughout the way has just
Speaker 1: kind of been you're a weirdo. I don't know why
Speaker 1: this excites you so much, but I'm totally behind you.
Speaker 1: So whatever you want clearly and your computer crunching exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he, I mean, he's so you know, he's been
Speaker 1: like this is great and you've done such a great
Speaker 1: job and everything. So he was totally on board, like
Speaker 1: supportive of it. And you know, I trust you with
Speaker 1: the money, so you just tell me what we need
Speaker 1: to do and that's fine. But yeah, it's it's just
Speaker 1: it always cracks him up, how how much. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm the last person that would have been obsessive or
Speaker 1: loving personal finance and budgeting like ten years ago, but
Speaker 1: now it's like I just love it and he just
Speaker 1: laughs at me. So I think that crazy that sometimes
Speaker 1: people will feel guilty for not starting earlier, but then alternatively,
Speaker 1: like sometimes it takes you to getting to this right
Speaker 1: season at the right time to actually fall in love
Speaker 1: with this sort of thing, not just get through it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so like important the places we are in our
Speaker 1: life that we're starting right when we're supposed to whatever
Speaker 1: we're doing. And I think I hope that that like
Speaker 1: lifts maybe some guilt from somebody that might be hearing this.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, and just like encourages a lot of people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the the guilt is, you know, the hardest
Speaker 1: part about that, and I encourage everybody to just you know,
Speaker 1: try to set that aside. I know it's hard, but
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you can either feel guilty about
Speaker 1: from whence you've come and focus on that and do nothing,
Speaker 1: or let it go and just start here. I mean,
Speaker 1: the time's gonna pass anyway, so you know, make better
Speaker 1: use of it, and you're gonna love yourself more for
Speaker 1: it later on. I mean, I actually was started in
Speaker 1: financial radio. Radio is my background, and I've been um
Speaker 1: I started in radio in twenty five years ago, and
Speaker 1: my first job was at a financial radio station, and
Speaker 1: so through all the years, I've gone back into that
Speaker 1: and most of my time has been spent there. And
Speaker 1: yet I hated all of this stuff and like ten
Speaker 1: years ago or eight years ago or whatever it's bed,
Speaker 1: I don't even know. And so I mean I was
Speaker 1: listening to it. It's not like it wasn't there, but
Speaker 1: I just turned it out because I thought it was
Speaker 1: only for the rich, you know, And so you know,
Speaker 1: even if you've heard this stuff but never glogged onto it.
Speaker 1: Like you said, there just comes a moment where it's
Speaker 1: the right time. And maybe all that stuff in the
Speaker 1: past was just meant to be there so that I
Speaker 1: could have it in my arsenal when I was ready
Speaker 1: to actually use it right exactly when you when you
Speaker 1: were able to implement the tools and it actually meant
Speaker 1: something and you're ready to not be cynical or critical
Speaker 1: about it. Not that forties old, My goodness, I could
Speaker 1: think not be old, like I have to say that,
Speaker 1: Like those words cannot come out of my mouth because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna pickle pretty soon. I'm officially closer
Speaker 1: to forty years old than I am to twenty years old,
Speaker 1: So that's the perfect age to start. I feel that
Speaker 1: it's great. Yeah, But I think it is true that
Speaker 1: that there are different life stages that we're all in,
Speaker 1: and I think our point is at any life stage
Speaker 1: younger than forty, older than forty, it's never too late
Speaker 1: to start. Certainly later in life that we do start,
Speaker 1: there's the possibility that we've built up and accumulated quite
Speaker 1: a few bad habits, maybe some good habits too, So
Speaker 1: you know the journey is absolutely going to look different,
Speaker 1: but age should not be an excuse to doing what
Speaker 1: we need to do to get our budgets in order
Speaker 1: our lives on track to be able to get at
Speaker 1: the life that we want for ourselves. For you, it
Speaker 1: was getting out of a job that you hated, and
Speaker 1: this is what it took, so fantastic well done. Also,
Speaker 1: we didn't even mention how many years did it take? You? Uh,
Speaker 1: it took me about five years total. Um. We started out,
Speaker 1: you know, doing certain things, learning along the way, other
Speaker 1: things coming into play. And excuse me when we when
Speaker 1: we finally got really gazelle intense, it was probably two
Speaker 1: and a half years and really paid off a big
Speaker 1: bulk of it in that, but the whole process took
Speaker 1: about five years. Thank you, Bobby, My goodness. That is
Speaker 1: real life. Like, that's an absolute real story. Sixty dollars
Speaker 1: five years on a single income in your forties, southern California,
Speaker 1: having in southern California. Thank you. And again, everybody's story
Speaker 1: is different, right. There are people who are like six
Speaker 1: figures in eighteen months. That's awesome for them, But like,
Speaker 1: let's also talk real, real life stories too, because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people starting in their forties, fifties, sixties,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people on single income. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people in less than six figure debt, and
Speaker 1: it still takes years. So yes, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: I hope people that are like in their fifties and
Speaker 1: late fifties are listening to this and hearing five years,
Speaker 1: which sounds like forever. But if you like, you understand
Speaker 1: if you could be debt free in five years, you
Speaker 1: will be debt free before you hit retirement age. And
Speaker 1: then you don't have to worry about that. You don't
Speaker 1: have to worry worry about how you're going to pay
Speaker 1: debt bills after you retire, and you can retire earlier.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's crazy, and it's just five years of
Speaker 1: your life and maybe even quicker if you get on
Speaker 1: it fast enough. We thought we were it was going
Speaker 1: to take us five years to pay off our debt,
Speaker 1: and you know, but we were in our late twenties.
Speaker 1: So I did get four jobs and shingles and singles.
Speaker 1: Let's let's remember, I also gave myself shingles stress. So
Speaker 1: I don't recommend that anymore. And uh, I think budgeting
Speaker 1: and cutting expenses is a far more sustainable route. And
Speaker 1: it's so it is doable even if you can't get
Speaker 1: extra jobs, even if you can't work four jobs, it's doable. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: I mean there's always a way, you just have to
Speaker 1: want it. And I mean for me it was always Yeah,
Speaker 1: five years you seemed like a long time, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, you're better in your life
Speaker 1: every single day. And for me, a lot of times,
Speaker 1: just getting through the day meant looking at my plan
Speaker 1: and having that light at the end of the tunnel,
Speaker 1: because I knew the date that I was gonna be
Speaker 1: debt free, and so that was huge to just be
Speaker 1: able to look at that when I didn't want to
Speaker 1: go to this stupid job again, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: to I wanted to go out and do this, or
Speaker 1: I wanted to go out and do that. But what's
Speaker 1: really more important, like how much you know, am I
Speaker 1: willing to put out of my pocket in order to
Speaker 1: have to stay at this job even longer? So it
Speaker 1: was that was really super motivating. Wow. Yeah, wow, thank you.
Speaker 1: Speaking of motivating things. Something that motivates me, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the the that's right, it's toime for the best minute
Speaker 1: of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and
Speaker 1: his name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 1: maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That's bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 1: This is the bill of the week, Bobby. Every week
Speaker 1: we invite our listeners or our guests on to share
Speaker 1: their favorite bill with us. And I would just like
Speaker 1: to know, do you have a bill for us today?
Speaker 1: I do. My favorite bill is actually one I don't
Speaker 1: have to pay who at least not for another year.
Speaker 1: It's my auto insurance bill. And it used to be
Speaker 1: so tough for me. I was paying it monthly, you know,
Speaker 1: because I couldn't afford to pay it all at once.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of money up front. And now
Speaker 1: I'm able to put that money. When the bill comes,
Speaker 1: I just pay off the whole thing, so I don't
Speaker 1: get the bill for an entire year. And it's so
Speaker 1: free because that, you see, such a heart bill for
Speaker 1: me to pay. So and do you get a disc
Speaker 1: out for paying it on? Yeh three weeks a discount. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's a win win. Yeah, it's three percent, but
Speaker 1: I'll take it. You have ten dollars, I'm gonna take it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it from you. Yeah, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: with ten dollars, probably buy a burrito, have a sandwich,
Speaker 1: bo soever. Yeah, I don't care. Well you can do
Speaker 1: with ten bucks these days. It's not even gonna be
Speaker 1: a really great hamburger. It's just gonna be like a
Speaker 1: combo meal from Wendy's. Right. But I probably could buy
Speaker 1: a shirt, but I'll choose the food. Yeah, definitely, Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, Bobby. If you have a bill that you
Speaker 1: want to send to us, then hit up Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: Podcast dot com slash bill. We are always looking to
Speaker 1: discover new bills, whether they are tangible, intangible, living, or
Speaker 1: on paper. Well said, And now it's time for Lightening Round.
Speaker 1: One day. We are going to get lightning backgrounds because
Speaker 1: we're recording in zoom right now, which is how we
Speaker 1: are doing this now that Jillian has left me, which
Speaker 1: is how all the world is communicating right now. Yes,
Speaker 1: but we I'm gonna find lightning for our Lightning Round
Speaker 1: segments so that we can have you're giving it away.
Speaker 1: I want people to know what they can expect, like
Speaker 1: giving it away, big thing, big things. If you haven't
Speaker 1: seen the Bill of the Week song, the YouTube version,
Speaker 1: you haven't lived, Yeah, go on YouTube. I hadn't described button.
Speaker 1: While you're at it, all right, I had not lived.
Speaker 1: We digress. Yes, In this lightning round, we are going
Speaker 1: to talk about our favorite budgeting apps and or budgeting methods,
Speaker 1: because budgeting is so important, especially when you can't get
Speaker 1: a million side hustles. You have to be super major
Speaker 1: on top of your budget, major on top of it.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't heard us talk about it enough already,
Speaker 1: here's some more motivation for you. Here's some apps, here's
Speaker 1: some methods, here's some ideas, and then go budget all right, Bobby,
Speaker 1: you're our guest of honor, you can go first. I
Speaker 1: love Wine App. Hands down. Wine app is my favorite
Speaker 1: budgeting app of all time. Oh my gosh. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: It's what gave me the passion for budgeting. It's what
Speaker 1: taught me a whole different mindset. I love everything about
Speaker 1: wine now that I totally recommend it. What do you
Speaker 1: like about it? It's you need a budget for people
Speaker 1: who don't know it's that's the acronym that like wine
Speaker 1: ab fan girls call it right budget for sure. And
Speaker 1: the thing that I love about it is, first of all,
Speaker 1: it's zero based, so I really, I mean, that's what
Speaker 1: I teach as a zero based budgeting system. But I
Speaker 1: love it because it came along at a time in
Speaker 1: my life where I had been using Dave Ramsey's cash
Speaker 1: envelope method, which worked well except for the fact that
Speaker 1: I kept forgetting to take my envelopes with me, you know,
Speaker 1: to the store or whatever, and so then what do
Speaker 1: you do? So I wanted a digital cash envelope system,
Speaker 1: so I started going online and I found wine app
Speaker 1: and it was perfect for that. So it just gives
Speaker 1: you such an easy way to categorize all the money
Speaker 1: that's in your account today. And it's a whole different
Speaker 1: method of budgeting or mindset about budgeting, because it's not
Speaker 1: you know, the money that's coming up, that's your spending plan,
Speaker 1: that's how you plan to spend it, But what's actually
Speaker 1: in your bank account today is what you're budgeting in
Speaker 1: reality exactly. And that's what's so powerful about it. So
Speaker 1: do you go on that on that app daily? We
Speaker 1: what I used to, Yeah, I used to go like
Speaker 1: it feels like it was hourly. At one point I'm
Speaker 1: on there probably a couple of times a week, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I love playing with it and everything, but I'm on
Speaker 1: there at least once a week. And actually, yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say it's daily because we use it. I use
Speaker 1: the app when I'm out, Like if I go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store, once I get in the car, I
Speaker 1: just you know, enter my transaction right there, so I
Speaker 1: never have a pile of receipts that I have to
Speaker 1: spend an hour entering into you know, into wine app.
Speaker 1: That's smart to do. Track your transactions as soon as
Speaker 1: you make them. Just take the five seconds that it
Speaker 1: takes to do that, exactly, because that's one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things. People don't want to sit there and enter
Speaker 1: all their stuff and it takes an hour to you know, um,
Speaker 1: reconcile your bank account basically. But yeah, if you do
Speaker 1: it every time you go shopping, and it takes, like
Speaker 1: you said, less than a minute, and then you're done
Speaker 1: and it's always up to date, and then you always
Speaker 1: know exactly how much money you have every time you
Speaker 1: go to spend. Yeah. Nice, We've talked about that before.
Speaker 1: Like the obsession that can start setting with you on
Speaker 1: this journey it's like I gotta I gotta check it,
Speaker 1: I gotta look at it, like restrained myself from how
Speaker 1: many times I want to look at the account. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not even like a financial nerd. It turns the
Speaker 1: into one, though, so bewhares I know. And that's why
Speaker 1: I started actually being um a budget coaches because I
Speaker 1: actually went on Facebook and said, I am obsessed with
Speaker 1: wine Ab and I can't stop using it, but there's
Speaker 1: nothing else for me to do and it Please let
Speaker 1: me play with your numbers. It's amazing. That's how it started.
Speaker 1: I get that feeling. I'm like, there's nothing else to do,
Speaker 1: but I want to keep doing. I want to keep
Speaker 1: like inputting stuff. And I know people that love budgets
Speaker 1: so much they do that. I personally have a love
Speaker 1: hate relationship with budgets. It's like closer on the side
Speaker 1: of hate. And so people will ask me, hey, can
Speaker 1: you like do some budget coaching with me? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't do that. I'm barely doing for myself. I
Speaker 1: can barely coach myself. That's funny. Oh well, I love
Speaker 1: how much you love Wineab. You need a budget A
Speaker 1: lot of people do, so yeah, it has a cult following,
Speaker 1: when when we say it has a cult following, like
Speaker 1: that is not a joke. It's not a joke. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's bitter sweet for me because I have
Speaker 1: applied to work with them four times and I keep
Speaker 1: getting denied. And I know part of it it's because
Speaker 1: there's so many people that want to work for what
Speaker 1: so true. Well here you're spreading their message. Well, good job, Jill,
Speaker 1: what about you. I'm not nearly as high tech guys. Um,
Speaker 1: it's Google Spreadsheets all the way for me. Like I
Speaker 1: was going to look up like what's a good budgeting app?
Speaker 1: And I'll just like tell the podcast about it. But
Speaker 1: I'm being authentic with you all. I use Google Spreadsheets.
Speaker 1: It's where I'm at. I'm old school. I love it.
Speaker 1: I like, like I said, I enjoy the press of
Speaker 1: like in putting my budget and being so connected with
Speaker 1: the numbers. And I do my budget on on my
Speaker 1: pay weeks. So every two weeks is when I take
Speaker 1: a look. I budget my bills to my pay periods,
Speaker 1: I input it into the spreadsheet, do some different calculations
Speaker 1: with um and I will say I crunched the numbers.
Speaker 1: Grunge grunge I make a sound when I knew it.
Speaker 1: I started that way because both my husband and I
Speaker 1: are independent contractors, so we don't and even still we are.
Speaker 1: Thankfully we get paid every two weeks, which that's new
Speaker 1: for us. Usually it was just like whatever somebody felt
Speaker 1: like paying us for building them a house. Anyhow, that's
Speaker 1: another story. Right now we do. We get paid every
Speaker 1: two weeks, but it's not the same every two weeks.
Speaker 1: So for me, I've had to be extra involved with
Speaker 1: my budget, with our finances to kind of know exactly
Speaker 1: where we're at. So that's been the best method for
Speaker 1: me with just how we get paid, the amount of
Speaker 1: money that we make every two weeks every month, just
Speaker 1: to be super on top of it. So I am.
Speaker 1: I do use a computer, but it's spread cheat not no, yes,
Speaker 1: real life. Yeah, I mean I do my accounting in
Speaker 1: a Google sheet. I have an accounting software, and I
Speaker 1: still choose to do it on a spreadsheet because it's
Speaker 1: easier to see everything. Yeah. Yeah, it's my system, I know,
Speaker 1: because I do it best and everybody needs to do
Speaker 1: my system, right, That's that's really important though, whatever works
Speaker 1: best for you, you know, mm hmm, Yeah, what about you, Jen.
Speaker 1: I like the every Dollar app, so I do enjoy
Speaker 1: zero based budgets. I think that they are great, so
Speaker 1: that Every Dollar app I've found is the easiest free
Speaker 1: app to bake a zero based budget. And I am
Speaker 1: all for manual tracking of transactions. I wish that I
Speaker 1: could do automatic tracking because I hate tracking it manually.
Speaker 1: But it's the manual transaction that keeps me accountable for
Speaker 1: my spending, and so that I mean it's in this
Speaker 1: one of the lists. One of the items on the
Speaker 1: list of why I like, love, slash hate budgeting, I
Speaker 1: don't enjoy it, but I do it, and I'm not
Speaker 1: I actually I'm horrible at sticking to a budget, and
Speaker 1: so it's I use every dollar, uh, and I don't
Speaker 1: always stay current on it. But we've built this like
Speaker 1: a lifestyle of frugality so that we don't spend a
Speaker 1: lot of money. We don't do a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and what we do is free, and so we don't
Speaker 1: generally break our budget. But unless it's going out to eat,
Speaker 1: sometimes we will end that. But when like I make
Speaker 1: my budget, I'll make it in every dollar and then
Speaker 1: I'll spend those few hours reconciling it like you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to do and uh yeah, but I don't have
Speaker 1: any major financial goals I'm trying to reach right now,
Speaker 1: so that doesn't motivate me to budget as strictly, So
Speaker 1: that's kind of and we have more money than we
Speaker 1: need coming in right now, so that's kind of like
Speaker 1: where I'm at. So but every dollar, I love every dollar.
Speaker 1: It's such a great user interface, so lovely nice Bobby.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on and chatting with
Speaker 1: us and sharing with us your real debt payoff story.
Speaker 1: I know it's going to inspire so many people and
Speaker 1: normalize and validate where so many people are at. So
Speaker 1: thank you for for doing that. If people want more
Speaker 1: from you, where can they find you? They can go
Speaker 1: to sensible chat dot com. And everybody spells it wrong
Speaker 1: because for some reason, my husband came up with the name,
Speaker 1: and he always comes up with creative names that are
Speaker 1: like hard to find because they're just spelled weird. I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is about, you see it makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's since like dollars and cents since able, so think
Speaker 1: of it that way since able, So it's sensible chat
Speaker 1: dot com. That's a great name. Honestly, it's good. Kudos
Speaker 1: to your husband, thank you. Yeah, I kind of like it.
Speaker 1: I think I'll keep him around for a while. Ah.
Speaker 1: So good. I didn't take us so long. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's a good when we were ready. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did it when we were ready. That's so true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should never feel guilt over what you haven't done before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now don't do and what you can control now. Yeah
Speaker 1: that confused better? Now that's what you said was better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So thanks for listening. So glad to have these debt
Speaker 1: payoff stories. We'll bring more at you, um. But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, we also want to thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: We want to thank you for your kind reviews on
Speaker 1: iTunes and Stitcher. Those of you who are kind, thank you.
Speaker 1: This one we want to give an example of of
Speaker 1: kindness because sometimes we get confused. To get me so confusing,
Speaker 1: like what's kind and what's here? You go? Two thousand
Speaker 1: twenty has shown us that in spades. Yes. So this
Speaker 1: one comes from Sydney Jam three. It's titled Adult Thing.
Speaker 1: It happens to be five stars. That's one way to
Speaker 1: be kind. It says this podcast helped me tackle my
Speaker 1: transition into getting my first place with my fiance and
Speaker 1: on track for buying our first home at twenty two.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. I appreciate their humor and how they
Speaker 1: give advice that is so doable. They make me feel
Speaker 1: like I have a super cool older sisters. And every
Speaker 1: time my fiance calls from deployment, I tell him about
Speaker 1: all the cool tricks I learned so we can save
Speaker 1: more money. He can't wait to listen when he gets home.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my heart is literally warm right now, even
Speaker 1: though it's forty degrees outside. Thank you. I particularly love
Speaker 1: it when people describe us as their older sisters. It's
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. Yeah, it's your favorite. It also
Speaker 1: reminds me that I'm getting older. Hallmark Channel, you're not
Speaker 1: even thirty one yet, neither are you? I mean not yet. Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow it will be good. I'll have my private birthday
Speaker 1: party and having a private birthday party. Guys, it's just
Speaker 1: at home, like nobody's invited, but if you wanted to come,
Speaker 1: you couldn't. It's private. It makes it sound like really hot,
Speaker 1: like high and in bougie, but really it is. It's
Speaker 1: just what you have a baby so I mean also,
Speaker 1: I anticipate will still be in like semi quarantine. That's true, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like that's not it. Even if we weren't in
Speaker 1: semi quarantine, still just private. It's just private. We also
Speaker 1: want to thank our friends who share these episodes on
Speaker 1: social media, because where else are you going to share it?
Speaker 1: Right now? You can't go anywhere, So go ahead and
Speaker 1: share this episode on Instagram or Facebook, tag us at
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast, and in June, we'll do a drawing
Speaker 1: for ten dollar Amazon gift cards. We're going to give
Speaker 1: one away for every five tags and reviews we get,
Speaker 1: so definitely keep leaving us reviews on iTunes and Stitcher
Speaker 1: because that is another way to enter into this drawing.
Speaker 1: Send us a screenshot of your review to Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: Podcast at gmail dot com. Also tag us on social
Speaker 1: All these ways are ways to enter into our ten
Speaker 1: dollar Amazon gift card drawing. Yes, so until next week
Speaker 1: when I will be a little older and a little wiser,
Speaker 1: a little wiser, not a lot, just a little, a little,
Speaker 1: a little more funny, little maybe. Frugal Friends is produced,
Speaker 1: edited and mixed by Eric Serria. Um I'm expecting you
Speaker 1: to be funnier. That's a lot of pressure. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: what are your hopes for thirty one? I would like
Speaker 1: to be a more involved mother. Well, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's what somebody says, who has like five kids and
Speaker 1: they're all involved in sports. You've got You've got a
Speaker 1: one year old? What does that mean? Well, I feel
Speaker 1: like the first year was just keeping him alive and
Speaker 1: how he's like an actual small child that I can
Speaker 1: do stuff with and he knows who I am and like,
Speaker 1: so now it's worth being involved. Is that bad? No? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's no. That's a great aspiration. What how are you
Speaker 1: going to be involved? What are you gonna do? I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take him places, Okay, so that he can learn
Speaker 1: stuff and have fun experiences. Like in his first year
Speaker 1: he didn't care about anything, but now he cares about
Speaker 1: stuff like making him Mouse. Were into the Making Mouse Clubhouse.
Speaker 1: But granted, that's the only show we can watch with
Speaker 1: him and like not blow our brains out, So it's
Speaker 1: the only one we know him. But he has good
Speaker 1: taste because he likes it too good. Yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: only one that keeps his attention and I appreciate that. Nice.
Speaker 1: I'm realizing I did not hit the record button. Your
Speaker 1: audio for me too,