Speaker 1: Episode eighty three, Goal Setting for Financial Success. Welcome to
Speaker 1: 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 who Gonna Set them Goals. Welcome
Speaker 1: to another episode of the Frugal Friends podcast. My name
Speaker 1: is Jen, this is Jill, and today we're talking about goals.
Speaker 1: Set them, goals them, reaching them, make new ones, ye
Speaker 1: set them up, knock them down, build them back up
Speaker 1: again bowling and we have Brian Harrison from Savvy Financial
Speaker 1: with us to talk a little bit more about goal
Speaker 1: set thing. But first let's talk about our sponsors. Let's
Speaker 1: do it. Today's episode is also brought to you by
Speaker 1: vision Boards. Ever want to do something then forget you
Speaker 1: want to do it. That can throw your decisions all
Speaker 1: off kilter. Don't let that happen to you. Put your
Speaker 1: dreams on a vision board. From the magazines that brought
Speaker 1: you Decapage and collages comes vision boards. Cut out pictures
Speaker 1: of your dreams and glue them to paper so you
Speaker 1: don't forget what you're doing. All of this for vision boards,
Speaker 1: that picture of a beach will only make you feel
Speaker 1: depressed for a little while. Yes, there's something about this
Speaker 1: process that makes me think of Oprah. I don't know
Speaker 1: if she was the first one to talk about doing this.
Speaker 1: I just remember some dude who like made a million
Speaker 1: dollars talking about how he did this one time, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know about them vision boards. I
Speaker 1: think it's just what I look at in the cold
Speaker 1: darkness of winter, wishing I was on a beach. That's
Speaker 1: the wrong kind of vision board. When you're like looking
Speaker 1: at that beach and it's you're so depressed and you
Speaker 1: can't go anywhere because you're not spending any money, and like, well,
Speaker 1: that's that's a vision. It's not the kind of vision
Speaker 1: I need right now. But it's a vision. It's a vision,
Speaker 1: and it's on the look. It's on a board, and
Speaker 1: then it starts to fray because magazines weren't meant to
Speaker 1: last for an eternity, and it's taking you an eternity
Speaker 1: to get to the beach. So sad, now we've thoroughly
Speaker 1: depressed you. Let's talk about goal setting, some real goal
Speaker 1: setting that is based on fraying magazine pictures. Yes, so
Speaker 1: we could just sit here and talk about like why
Speaker 1: it's important to set goals and like to find smart goals.
Speaker 1: But we are not that basic, So we are going
Speaker 1: to get into the nitty gritty of goal setting, why
Speaker 1: you should do it, smart goals and all the things
Speaker 1: I said. We're basic, but like we're going to get
Speaker 1: into them deeper. So buckle up if you're in your
Speaker 1: car and get ready for a ride. Uh, you should
Speaker 1: just be buckled already. Yeah, But anyway, we're going to
Speaker 1: go through an article, and then on the second article
Speaker 1: you'll hear a third voice, which is Brian from Savvy,
Speaker 1: so we actually have a representative and because of his
Speaker 1: work there, he also has a really unique perspective on
Speaker 1: goal setting. So um, I'm excited to bring in his voice.
Speaker 1: But you'll just hear John and I on this first article.
Speaker 1: Brian went to M I T and we did it,
Speaker 1: so you'll have to bear with us for the first half.
Speaker 1: I guess well, Jen was on m I T. S campus,
Speaker 1: so she brings that I did walk through their once. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll hear her talk about that. So as far as
Speaker 1: goal setting goes, this first article comes from Personal Excellence
Speaker 1: and they talk about seven reasons why you should set
Speaker 1: a goal. So if you're still one of those people
Speaker 1: who's any road will get me there. I'm fine, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna kind of do my life and hope that
Speaker 1: by the time I'm sixty five my life is dope
Speaker 1: and a do dope things, but probably not going to
Speaker 1: be the gates if you're not actually setting goals. Here
Speaker 1: here's what here's what we're going to tell you. So
Speaker 1: Number one, it helps you to take control of your life.
Speaker 1: And absolutely I would agree we can often sleep walk
Speaker 1: through this thing. Just do the routine, do the things
Speaker 1: in your life that are most pressing and right in
Speaker 1: front of you, and lose sight of what do I
Speaker 1: want to do long term? What do I want to
Speaker 1: see life look like in five fifteen years from now,
Speaker 1: And so setting a goal can help you to gain
Speaker 1: some of that control and actually be taking steps towards
Speaker 1: achieving those things. And you're, as we talk about so often,
Speaker 1: you're wise of what you want to see in life.
Speaker 1: So if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have
Speaker 1: some kind of like quote unquote finding ential goal, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm sure you don't need any preaching about the
Speaker 1: importance of goal setting, but I think it's important to
Speaker 1: know that even if you have these vague financial goals
Speaker 1: like I want to be more frugal, I want to
Speaker 1: pay off debt, I want to do this, or that,
Speaker 1: there are specific ways to write goals and specific reasons
Speaker 1: and mindsets behind writing goals that will help you write
Speaker 1: better goals that will help you achieve bigger outcomes. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to just like preface all of this with
Speaker 1: that and saying that, like, yes, you you are already
Speaker 1: poised to take control of your life, but if you
Speaker 1: give us the next half hour of your time, I
Speaker 1: hope that we can help you optimize the place where
Speaker 1: you're already at with goal setting. So the second one
Speaker 1: is is that goals help you get maximum results. Like
Speaker 1: I just said, top performers and world class athletes, those
Speaker 1: are the people that set goals. They write them down
Speaker 1: and they set big goals, goals that I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever heard Jill the big hairy audacious goals,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know who said that, but somebody. I
Speaker 1: always hear that, like, make your big hairy audacious goals
Speaker 1: like the right crowds. Yeah, be like b h A goals.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that's from, but I hear it
Speaker 1: all the time, and so like making these goals seem
Speaker 1: just out of reach, so that even if you follow
Speaker 1: a little bit short, you're still away further than if
Speaker 1: you had just tried something that was in your comfort zone.
Speaker 1: Number three on this list, it creates a laser focus,
Speaker 1: and I would even would probably say to this it
Speaker 1: at least creates focus. Um. Then we talk about a
Speaker 1: little bit later of kind of the pros and cons
Speaker 1: of being so laser focused on a goal and how
Speaker 1: that can just typically be for a season if we
Speaker 1: want best results. But certainly it does create focus. While
Speaker 1: you might be heading in a general direction, a specific
Speaker 1: goal can help you know exactly what you want to
Speaker 1: spend your time and energy on and how to accomplish
Speaker 1: that thing. If you've written the goal well and it's
Speaker 1: not super vague, it can really help you actually take
Speaker 1: strides and potentially big strides towards that thing if you've
Speaker 1: given your time to set that very specific type of goal.
Speaker 1: Number four is it creates accountability. And this is often
Speaker 1: a scary one. This is the reason why people don't
Speaker 1: speak their goal into existence, they don't share it with people,
Speaker 1: and they inevitably let it just waver off and get
Speaker 1: forgotten about. It's because they don't want accountability, because if
Speaker 1: you fail, then you have said accountability. And yeah, so
Speaker 1: this is the accountability is to yourself, not to anyone else.
Speaker 1: But I wholeheartedly believe in accountability partners and sharing it
Speaker 1: on your Facebook and like making it known to other people,
Speaker 1: like having that accountability like out in the universe that
Speaker 1: nobody is going to like chastise you if you don't
Speaker 1: meet your goal. But it just creates an environment in
Speaker 1: your mind that Okay, now I this really exists, Now
Speaker 1: I really have to do this, which is connected to
Speaker 1: number five, which it motivates you. That having a goal
Speaker 1: and if it's paired with some accountability, can be quite
Speaker 1: a motivating factor to actually do it. Once it's spoken
Speaker 1: out loud or written down or somewhere outside of your
Speaker 1: mind and set into motion, it can be a very
Speaker 1: motivating factor. I know this past year, on New Year's
Speaker 1: Day or New Year's Eve, Eric and I got together
Speaker 1: with some friends and we all sat around the table
Speaker 1: and talked about goals for the upcoming year, which was
Speaker 1: a new experience for me. I'm not typically one who
Speaker 1: would write down goals in the new year. M. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think I've thought it's cheesy, but now
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, but it actually is quite motivating. And
Speaker 1: I realized, once I speak this thing out, if I'm
Speaker 1: still friends with these people next year, they're gonna expect
Speaker 1: it from me. I'm going to expect it from myself.
Speaker 1: And it's a motivating thing, which then you have to
Speaker 1: be in some way realistic. But yeah, also set the
Speaker 1: bar a little bit higher for that ability to then
Speaker 1: achieve it, that it's something you have to work towards.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I I it has been so helpful to
Speaker 1: actually have something on the forefront of my mind to
Speaker 1: motivate me to take certain steps. And having those goals
Speaker 1: set helps me to say, you know what, I'm not
Speaker 1: just going to sit on social media tonight. I'm going
Speaker 1: to do this other thing instead, because that's actually going
Speaker 1: to get me towards this spoken an identified goal. Yes, definitely,
Speaker 1: And that leads into the next one, is be the
Speaker 1: best you can be. So goals help you achieve your
Speaker 1: highest potential. Without goals, you default to a routine of
Speaker 1: activities that keeps you feeling safe and comfy each day,
Speaker 1: and that's so true. I just think of Obviously, the
Speaker 1: biggest goal that we've ever achieved is our debt payoff,
Speaker 1: but there have since then that has primed me to
Speaker 1: make other goals, like obviously that's how I started writing,
Speaker 1: and that led me to a new career path, and
Speaker 1: and all these things all because of little goals that
Speaker 1: I've set, and other people take notice and invite me
Speaker 1: into new things or I'm pursuing new things because of
Speaker 1: these goals, and they have shown me like a potential
Speaker 1: in myself that I had absolute lutely no idea was possible.
Speaker 1: I just released my third book, What What? And if
Speaker 1: you had told me that that was something I was
Speaker 1: going to do three years ago, I would have laughed.
Speaker 1: And and if you told me the genre was going
Speaker 1: to be in, I would have also laughed. So it's
Speaker 1: really giving yourself permission to be this person that you
Speaker 1: don't know yet but is so yeah, but is it's scary,
Speaker 1: but is so much better than anything that you could
Speaker 1: have planned for yourself. M I love what you just
Speaker 1: said right there. I love the way your mind works. Lastly,
Speaker 1: similar to what you just said, Jen number seven, live
Speaker 1: your best life. So I joke about this sometimes, like
Speaker 1: you know, living your best life now, as if that's
Speaker 1: like a real thing. But goal setting can help us
Speaker 1: step into the best of who we are or the
Speaker 1: best that we can achieve. And I'm gonna go out
Speaker 1: on a limb here a little bit. I'm really going
Speaker 1: to hope I'm not stepping on toes. This is my experience.
Speaker 1: I took some time a couple of months ago to
Speaker 1: have a time of reflection and think through I answered
Speaker 1: some of these very specific questions. It was like, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you want to be or have accomplished in
Speaker 1: five years from now, and then what are the steps
Speaker 1: that are going to help you to get there? Along
Speaker 1: with other questions of you know, what is the last
Speaker 1: six months of your life looked like and are they
Speaker 1: aligned with the things that you say you value? And
Speaker 1: it was a really i think beneficial time for me
Speaker 1: to kind of work through those things. But one of
Speaker 1: the questions was who are some people that are older
Speaker 1: than you that you admire that you would want to
Speaker 1: be like? And again I'm saying this in all humility,
Speaker 1: I could not think of many people. I could think
Speaker 1: of a lot of friends that I admired, but I
Speaker 1: could not think of many people who are twenty thirty
Speaker 1: years older than me that I would want to aim at,
Speaker 1: being like, that's just in my circle. I did identify
Speaker 1: a few, don't get me wrong, but it was far
Speaker 1: less than I would have that I would like. And
Speaker 1: I got me thinking, why is that, Like, these people
Speaker 1: are twenty to thirty years older than me, Why am
Speaker 1: I not seeing this progression of of life and wisdom
Speaker 1: and experience that I would want to glean from. And
Speaker 1: it occurred to me, it's because this self reflection and
Speaker 1: goal setting process has not happened in their life, and
Speaker 1: that we are capable of being stagnant, of not growing,
Speaker 1: of achieving a certain level and staying there. That terrifies me.
Speaker 1: Like to imagine me at fifty five and I have
Speaker 1: not matured beyond where I'm at right now, that that
Speaker 1: does not sound like any any place I want to
Speaker 1: find myself. But I realized that I could find myself
Speaker 1: there if it is not my intention to grow and
Speaker 1: gain experiences, knowledge, skill set, And that takes intentionality. It
Speaker 1: takes goal setting, regardless of kind of what ideas we
Speaker 1: might have around this process or or how trite it
Speaker 1: might seem. If we're not aimed at anything, what's the
Speaker 1: saying any anything will get you there? Um, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't mean to like bring it down too heavy,
Speaker 1: but I I started to realize how important this kind
Speaker 1: of pausing, reflection, identifying values, setting goals, taking steps to
Speaker 1: achieve those goals, to actually grow as we get older,
Speaker 1: so that we don't find ourselves eighty years old and
Speaker 1: never having gained more knowledge and wisdom. My goodness, how sad? Word? Yes,
Speaker 1: good word, And I like I want to point out
Speaker 1: also is that you said like years older. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that there are people that look like they're their places
Speaker 1: we want to be, that are maybe just a few
Speaker 1: years older than us. But I think where we lose
Speaker 1: sight of goal setting is that we are our goals
Speaker 1: are too short term. There six months a year, two
Speaker 1: years out, and we don't spend enough time goal setting
Speaker 1: for five and ten years out. One of my favorite
Speaker 1: books is The Top Ten Distinctions between Millionaires in the
Speaker 1: middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith, and he talks about
Speaker 1: how millionaires are always doing long term goal setting. They're
Speaker 1: always thinking five ten years in the future, where the
Speaker 1: middle class is very focused on right now, and even
Speaker 1: our goals are focused on right now, like how fast
Speaker 1: can I get out of debt? How can I make
Speaker 1: my monthly bills? Like, how can I increase my spending
Speaker 1: for next month? But what we should really be spending
Speaker 1: investing more of our energy in is doing long term
Speaker 1: goal setting and then working backwards, so like reverse engineering
Speaker 1: our goals from the ten year point. And so I
Speaker 1: actually made a financial freedom planner. If you follow me
Speaker 1: on Instagram, you've definitely seen me talk about it once
Speaker 1: a year around this time, um, we're due to go
Speaker 1: through it. We talk about our one year, five year,
Speaker 1: ten year goals in different categories so family, financial education.
Speaker 1: So we'll start with ten, we'll go to five, will
Speaker 1: go to one, and then we'll break down our next
Speaker 1: year and do month by month goals and so we
Speaker 1: work on this together and then it has like others
Speaker 1: like monthly budget and savings planners and all that, but
Speaker 1: at this point in our life, we're mainly using it
Speaker 1: for goal setting worksheets. If you want to get that,
Speaker 1: you can go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: Freedom Planner and use the code Frugal Friends nineteen and
Speaker 1: you can get fifty percent off for that financial Freedom Planner.
Speaker 1: But yes, so thinking longer term with your goals. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's challenging to me even and I will say there
Speaker 1: was a time in life where I thought it was
Speaker 1: silly to plan that far out. I had a friend
Speaker 1: who was planning vacations five to eight years out, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, you don't even know what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: in life. That's so far in the future. Plan a
Speaker 1: vacation for this summer. I just, I genuinely had something
Speaker 1: where I was just opposed to it. I'm like, you
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen in life, so why
Speaker 1: try to go that long term? But I start I've
Speaker 1: started to realize now as I've gotten older, that there
Speaker 1: is so much more time in life that if I
Speaker 1: don't have these more longer term goals, then I might
Speaker 1: be sorely disappointed when I get to already fifties sixty
Speaker 1: and I haven't actually really planned for what life is
Speaker 1: going to look like them. In those same set of
Speaker 1: questions that I had talked about, which I can link
Speaker 1: in the notes as well, I think it's a really
Speaker 1: phenomenal practice to do. Just my therapist mind loves it.
Speaker 1: But one of the questions was you know, what do
Speaker 1: you want to do in ten years? And I realized,
Speaker 1: holy moly, ten years. I've never thought about that, which
Speaker 1: is interesting to hear you say, like, oh, that's traditional
Speaker 1: middle class for you. Uh, But I realized that is
Speaker 1: all of my thirties in ten years from now, I
Speaker 1: will still only be forty Yes, hear me, loud and clear,
Speaker 1: forty as young people like, that's overwhelming to me, But
Speaker 1: that's ten years. I I usually think like, what can
Speaker 1: I do in two years? And everything I listed out
Speaker 1: was accomplishable if that's a word. In like five years,
Speaker 1: you know, it was learn a language, pick up you know,
Speaker 1: my instrument again, do some drawing. I'm like, I could
Speaker 1: do all this in five years. What in the world
Speaker 1: is ten years? How do I wrap my mind around that?
Speaker 1: But it's been such a good exercise for me to
Speaker 1: start to aim bigger. Yeah, I mean, and that's really
Speaker 1: what we're trying to get out, is to think bigger,
Speaker 1: just to think and plan bigger. And yeah, Travis and
Speaker 1: I go through the same planner every year, and we'll
Speaker 1: look at our planner that we did the year before,
Speaker 1: and our five and ten year goals are not always
Speaker 1: the same. And they don't have to be You don't
Speaker 1: have to be married to your goals, but you have
Speaker 1: to set them because reverse engineering your short term girls
Speaker 1: gold Girls goals out of your long term goals is
Speaker 1: more effective. Good stuff. Well, let's move into our next
Speaker 1: article and we're going to bring in Brian from Savvy
Speaker 1: for this next portion. We are so excited to have Brian,
Speaker 1: the head of consumer product at Savvy on the podcast
Speaker 1: today to share a little bit more about what they
Speaker 1: do over there at Savvy, but also to get your input,
Speaker 1: Brian on some of these articles that we're looking at
Speaker 1: about goals setting and here your input, particularly from the
Speaker 1: perspective that you bring and the product that you're talking
Speaker 1: about today. So we want to take a look at
Speaker 1: this article from It's called about Leaders and it's talking
Speaker 1: about the Harvard study on smart goals. And we started
Speaker 1: talking a little bit about it before we even hit record.
Speaker 1: But Brian, you were saying that you even had planned
Speaker 1: to talk about this and some of the myth around it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, what's your take on this. Well, I heard
Speaker 1: of the study about twenty years ago, and I think
Speaker 1: at the time someone said it was a Yale study.
Speaker 1: So then it morphed into a Harvard study, but then
Speaker 1: in the pawn it off to some other ivy league,
Speaker 1: just passing it back and forth between really smart people.
Speaker 1: But then to find out it was urban legend was heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: But then I think, like you, I realized, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, we know I'm me and there are other
Speaker 1: studies that back up the fact that if you have goals,
Speaker 1: you're better off than not having goals. And if you're
Speaker 1: if you write down those goals and take the steps
Speaker 1: that I know you're going to talk about in a
Speaker 1: little bit, then you're more likely to get where you
Speaker 1: need to get to too. So urban myth or not, Um,
Speaker 1: it's it certainly brings some actionable advice with it. So um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, I've known about the study for a
Speaker 1: long time. I've cited it, and then to see actually
Speaker 1: just before our interviewed that it was maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit of a legend. Um, heartbreaking, but but still some
Speaker 1: really important stuff. Before we define what smart goals is
Speaker 1: for anybody who is not aware, we will get there.
Speaker 1: I did like in this article how they outlined some
Speaker 1: of the major reasons that people don't set goals, and
Speaker 1: they list for the first one, being that they may
Speaker 1: not realize or recognize the value or impact of having
Speaker 1: a goal. Yeah, what did you think about this? Jen?
Speaker 1: To me, it's still, like I guess from where I sit,
Speaker 1: I'm still shocked when people don't have goals, but it's
Speaker 1: not as common as I assume so, and I guess
Speaker 1: that comes from a place where, like things, things don't
Speaker 1: come easily to me. So I've always had to like
Speaker 1: set goals to make sure I get anywhere, or I
Speaker 1: will just get nowhere. But yeah, I liked I liked
Speaker 1: being reminded of these reasons why people don't set goals. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, the first one is most people don't
Speaker 1: recognize the value. The second one is the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people had never had any training in goal setting.
Speaker 1: And then the third people fear failure and will avoid
Speaker 1: it at all costs. And then the fourth one is
Speaker 1: people fear that others will be critical of them if
Speaker 1: they don't achieve the goals. And I think, I think
Speaker 1: the peer pressure thing is definitely something that has made
Speaker 1: me nervous to share my goals. Like I've always made goals,
Speaker 1: but sometimes I won't share them because I'm like, what
Speaker 1: if I don't reach them, then I have to like
Speaker 1: have people ask about it and all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: so it definitely reminded me of this is definitely something
Speaker 1: that's still like rears its head even in my life.
Speaker 1: Brian and your work, what have you seen some of
Speaker 1: the barriers are in goal setting? Well, I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Last week I was talking to one of our users.
Speaker 1: We work through employers, and I was at a benefits
Speaker 1: fair and she came up and she's like, Oh, I
Speaker 1: want to use this, but I'm so bad with money.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, you know that. It's a you
Speaker 1: know the first episode, admit you have a problem. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, so you know that. And you talk
Speaker 1: about the impact of goals, well, setting a goal can
Speaker 1: sometimes be a reality check to say, Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: I do have a lot of student debt and I
Speaker 1: haven't saved anything for retirement. But it's that class half
Speaker 1: of half empty positioning of well, a goal should be
Speaker 1: about what you want to get out of life, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't just have to extend to finances. If you
Speaker 1: want to get healthier, more in shape. Um, when you
Speaker 1: look at what a goal is, it's about okay, well,
Speaker 1: what do I really want, and then when I understand
Speaker 1: that why behind it, it's like, Okay, here's why I'm
Speaker 1: not doing take out for every meal at work, and
Speaker 1: here's why I'm taking some of my money and putting
Speaker 1: it into retirement plan or your alley, you know, going
Speaker 1: to the thrift the thrift store, or upping the coupon,
Speaker 1: finding the online deal. And so when it becomes about
Speaker 1: not I haven't I haven't done what I need to do.
Speaker 1: But it's like, okay, but if I change, I can
Speaker 1: get what I want out of life. And we tried
Speaker 1: to build our tool. It'savvy around getting what people want
Speaker 1: out of life, not the I have to eat my vegetables.
Speaker 1: This is so hard. It's like, no, this is about good,
Speaker 1: good stuff, but it's hard. It's a reality check sometimes
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, I think the thing for me has
Speaker 1: been if it just has seemed way too unattainable. If
Speaker 1: I know that in my mind, the steps I'll be
Speaker 1: able to take towards it are so minuscule that I
Speaker 1: don't even want a look at the goal because I
Speaker 1: don't want to be disappointed at what small steps I'd
Speaker 1: be taking, thinking that ignoring it is better and doing
Speaker 1: nothing is better. I don't understand, like feeling when you
Speaker 1: start to explain it, Yeah, it doesn't doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: It's like, yes, something is better than nothing, even baby
Speaker 1: steps towards this goal, but but making it an achievable goal,
Speaker 1: not aiming at setting up for failure, certainly not being
Speaker 1: afraid of it, but not making this lofty thing that
Speaker 1: is completely unattainable. Yeah. And I think that's the difference
Speaker 1: between goals and dreams, Like dreams may not be attainable
Speaker 1: right now, but goals should be. Yeah. Which that is
Speaker 1: kind of how they define smart goal, so smart being
Speaker 1: the acronym for a good goal to set, and so
Speaker 1: basically smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, real, a stick
Speaker 1: and timetable, so that when you're setting a goal, it's
Speaker 1: not just oh, I want to eat better, well, okay,
Speaker 1: but how are you going to do that? And what's
Speaker 1: going to measure whether or not you're eating better? How
Speaker 1: will you know that you've even achieved that goal? Or
Speaker 1: I want to save money, I want to get better
Speaker 1: at saving okay. But how so, this has been a
Speaker 1: really helpful tool for me to remember, Okay, if I
Speaker 1: want to set a goal, these are the foundational components
Speaker 1: that it should have to it. Even as a therapist,
Speaker 1: I use this whether or not not. Harvard says it
Speaker 1: actually is like a good thing to do. Um, I
Speaker 1: do think that these measurables for goals are super helpful. Yeah, Brian,
Speaker 1: what is your view on smart goals? I love smart
Speaker 1: goals and I'm from Boston, so I have to make
Speaker 1: sure to make sure they are is hard smart's so
Speaker 1: I agree with you in being in the advice profession,
Speaker 1: this is a great way to look at as a
Speaker 1: litmus test of what your goals are. It's interesting, though,
Speaker 1: One thing that some of the other research has shown
Speaker 1: is that one thing that maybe left out of smart
Speaker 1: is to make it actually a little bit challenging. So
Speaker 1: you talked about the baby steps, but it's this balance
Speaker 1: between something that is achievable, but it's gotta be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a challenge because I could say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm not going to eat chocolate for the
Speaker 1: next two hours, and it's like me to go. But
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, you know what, I'm going to yourselves.
Speaker 1: I've got this headset that's tethering me to my my laptops.
Speaker 1: I can't get to that Halloween. But it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, congratulations, you know that maybe that was the
Speaker 1: baby step, but then there has to be that next
Speaker 1: baby step. So absolutely, and because like you said, people
Speaker 1: can set goals that have they have nothing to measure,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, it's like, well, I wanted
Speaker 1: to get in shape, but what was the roadmap there?
Speaker 1: I wanted to be better about my money and pay
Speaker 1: off that debt? Well what does that look like? And
Speaker 1: it's not just wishable thinking that I'll get you there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of pairing this with what if
Speaker 1: questions of like you're saying, you could set very easy
Speaker 1: and attainable goals, but then is it is it really
Speaker 1: a goal at all? Or is it just you're living
Speaker 1: your life, but pairing it with some creativity and pushing
Speaker 1: yourself to say, what if I didn't eat chocolate for
Speaker 1: two months? Now we're talking. So that actually reminds me
Speaker 1: because I wrote about smart goals in my new book
Speaker 1: that just came out this month, and part of the
Speaker 1: thing that I thought was missing also from smart was
Speaker 1: emphasis on the challenge. And so I found another acronym
Speaker 1: to go with it, called ABC, And so the A
Speaker 1: is achievable slash aim high, and then the B is believable,
Speaker 1: so that it's actually believable, but you also believe in
Speaker 1: your elf and you're like self affirming, and then the
Speaker 1: C is committed. So I like to pair those two
Speaker 1: acronyms together, and I think that that offers like the
Speaker 1: challenge that's smart sometimes can be missing. Did you come
Speaker 1: up with this, Jen, No? No, no. I found it
Speaker 1: on the just take anyone else still by the book,
Speaker 1: by the book, whether it's your idea, right right. I
Speaker 1: put it in in paper or on kindle, and it's
Speaker 1: all packaged very nicely and you can buy it. That's
Speaker 1: what I like A frugal friends like ABC mug tow
Speaker 1: for you know, your A BCS. That would be very smarts. Okay,
Speaker 1: So another thing I liked about this article is that
Speaker 1: so okay, maybe we should. So we've gone over the smart,
Speaker 1: the acronym, what they all are, but I like right
Speaker 1: underneath it um it has an action plan, so says,
Speaker 1: do some goal setting in the following areas or categories
Speaker 1: that are important to you, and it lists all of
Speaker 1: these different categories that you can have smart goals in.
Speaker 1: So it's not just financial. It's really to become a
Speaker 1: well rounded person, you have to have well rounded goals.
Speaker 1: So it's family, career, education, attitude, physical service, advocation, Oh, hobbies, hobbies,
Speaker 1: that's a fancy word for hobbies, like really cultured. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but I liked having. And then they have like
Speaker 1: a little wheel that like at the center of all
Speaker 1: of these words is a little circle that says core values.
Speaker 1: And so like all of your smart goals for each
Speaker 1: of these categories should go through the lens of what
Speaker 1: your core values are. Everything leads back to the thing
Speaker 1: or the things that you value most. And that's a
Speaker 1: Sometimes we can get through life and we get to
Speaker 1: a place and we're like how did I get here?
Speaker 1: Like how did I get so far away from who
Speaker 1: I wanted to become? But if you're making goals through
Speaker 1: the lens of your core values, even if you're reaching goal,
Speaker 1: whether you're you know, reaching them or not reaching them,
Speaker 1: you're still going to be getting closer to the person
Speaker 1: that you want to be. I think that's a great
Speaker 1: point because especially with financial goals, no one thinks about
Speaker 1: I really want to get to a million dollars in
Speaker 1: my four oh one K just because it's about you know,
Speaker 1: I want to spend more time with my family, and
Speaker 1: I want to get to a point where I don't
Speaker 1: have to get in my car and sit in a
Speaker 1: commute for uh, you know, an hour to get to
Speaker 1: my job. And and yeah, when it's through the lens
Speaker 1: of the why behind the goal. And then the other
Speaker 1: piece which I think you were alluding to, is also
Speaker 1: to visualize, like what would it be like would it
Speaker 1: be like if I were to get there? And when
Speaker 1: we think about this is getting you on getting what
Speaker 1: you want out of life piece of goal setting. And
Speaker 1: then it's when you can picture and think like, right,
Speaker 1: that travel, that time with my family, the um, the
Speaker 1: vacation home that I wanted, all all the aspirational things
Speaker 1: were just the feeling of wow, you know what, that
Speaker 1: student loan is gone. It just it's all really positive
Speaker 1: and it becomes motivating. Yeah. And I think this is
Speaker 1: where you can look at whether or not it's congruent
Speaker 1: with your core values, because you could be setting a
Speaker 1: goal that's not even your goal. Right. We can sometimes
Speaker 1: even borrow this from other people of uh, I wanna
Speaker 1: financial independence, retire early? Well, is that actually your personal
Speaker 1: goal and doesn't align with your core values? Do you
Speaker 1: actually not want to work after age thirty? Does that
Speaker 1: align with your core values who you know yourself to be?
Speaker 1: And if not, then it's incongruent and you're gonna feel
Speaker 1: this kind of lopsided. I don't even know if I
Speaker 1: want to be working towards this or I'm not quite
Speaker 1: reaching this, but I don't even know if I want to.
Speaker 1: So making sure that it actually aligns with who you
Speaker 1: are as a person and your value system and all
Speaker 1: other aspects of life. Does this feed into Does it
Speaker 1: help me with my other goals of wanting to spend
Speaker 1: more time with family or become more physically fit, or
Speaker 1: learn a new language, or whatever kind of goals that
Speaker 1: you're setting for yourself. Do they all support each other?
Speaker 1: Because there? If not to, you're gonna be in like,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be incongruence. It's gonna be lopsided. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. Yeah, I know, we have a lot of
Speaker 1: we have a diverse listenership, and part of our audience
Speaker 1: are high like high achievers. And I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: overachievers because that's rude. Um, they're high achieve verse. So
Speaker 1: come at me. Yeah, but there, Um, I would you know,
Speaker 1: love to lump myself into this group. I would be
Speaker 1: honored to. But like when they get a singular goal,
Speaker 1: they will work diligently until that goal is met and
Speaker 1: and I can highly identify with that. Through our debt payoff,
Speaker 1: we sacrificed and we neglected a lot of other things.
Speaker 1: But after having some time to reflect and and look
Speaker 1: at goals and kind of look at this well rounded
Speaker 1: person that I want to be, I almost wish that
Speaker 1: I had taken more time to set goals in these
Speaker 1: other areas of my life during that time and not
Speaker 1: been so laser focused on this one goal. And I
Speaker 1: still would have reached it, because that's the person that
Speaker 1: I am, and I'm committed. But I neglected and I
Speaker 1: sacrificed things and times and events that I won't be
Speaker 1: able to get back, and so part of me regrets
Speaker 1: doing that. And so especially for like early retiree listeners
Speaker 1: and and people that are diligently paying off debt, like
Speaker 1: those are great financial goals and obviously I'm super onboard
Speaker 1: with them, um, but also you know, take time and
Speaker 1: like look at the other areas of your life, like
Speaker 1: who do you want to be what are your core
Speaker 1: values and what are the goals that you have to
Speaker 1: get there too. It's a great point because the every
Speaker 1: goal is going to affect other goals. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because this was the problem that that we tried to
Speaker 1: solve it Savvy because we built it to try to
Speaker 1: optimize someone's financial life. And that's hard because, as you
Speaker 1: talk about, when you pick a goal and if you're
Speaker 1: just laser focused on relentless, it's almost like you put
Speaker 1: the blinders on and like, if I'm all about paying
Speaker 1: off my debt, but I work somewhere that has a
Speaker 1: match on my four oh one K and I just
Speaker 1: am so focused on paying off that debt, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: do you realize your employer had free money on the
Speaker 1: table for is safe for retirement? And the flip side
Speaker 1: is true, well, well what if I just put all
Speaker 1: my money in retirement? Then I was like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: my car just broke down and I nothing in my
Speaker 1: checking account. So it's challenging, but you know, in certainly
Speaker 1: time to write, you pick the career where it's like
Speaker 1: I'm going to retire by forty and then it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, I'm miserable with what I'm doing. Maybe
Speaker 1: it wasn't the goals. The good thing about goals too
Speaker 1: is um, you can change them so they're not written
Speaker 1: written in pencil. Um. But yeah, sometimes that relentless focus
Speaker 1: can take away from the broader context of I need
Speaker 1: to look around to make sure that this, you know, overachievement.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Um, how achieving achievement in a bunch of
Speaker 1: your nerves just achievement? Will just call it achievement. That
Speaker 1: that isn't at the expense of of what really matters. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And that if you get knocked off the horse on
Speaker 1: this goal that you're aiming at, it's possible that if
Speaker 1: you have a few goals simultaneously, you're still maintaining in
Speaker 1: one of the other areas versus, oh, man, I'm knocked
Speaker 1: off the horse on my one and only goal, and
Speaker 1: that can be really demotivating. That's a word. And I
Speaker 1: will balance this with I love the book The One
Speaker 1: Thing by Gary Keller, and so I wholeheartedly. I love
Speaker 1: the idea of of focusing on one thing at a time,
Speaker 1: but not like four years at a time, so you
Speaker 1: can still practice one goal at a time sort of thinking.
Speaker 1: But having a few different goals going simultaneously. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that makes sense, but like you can have
Speaker 1: them there and say, like this month or week or day,
Speaker 1: I'm focusing on this schal and kind of go back
Speaker 1: and forth. That way. I like to have, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, two or three goals going at one time.
Speaker 1: That way, it's it's manageable, but not to all over
Speaker 1: the place. So if you haven't read the One Thing
Speaker 1: by Carrie Keller and j Pop soon, definitely read it,
Speaker 1: and then I think you will understand my gibberish a
Speaker 1: little more. Um, speaking of one thing, Jen, there's there's
Speaker 1: one thing I'm always about, and you don't need to
Speaker 1: diversify on this one. It's the the we that's right.
Speaker 1: It's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 1: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: That's built Buffalo Bill, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week, Brian. Every week we invite one of
Speaker 1: our listeners or our guests to give us their favorite
Speaker 1: bill for this week, and we would love to hear yours.
Speaker 1: So I narrowed it down to two. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you the one that I didn't pick, because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get in trouble for not picking. And I thought of
Speaker 1: my wedding and I was like, oh, the wedding was
Speaker 1: expensive and it was wonderful. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that is so much just pandering because my wife's amazing.
Speaker 1: But you ever listened, Um, I was gonna pick it,
Speaker 1: but I thought more more appropriately, UM. A few years ago,
Speaker 1: actually about five and a half years ago, I went
Speaker 1: back to grad school and I don't know how I
Speaker 1: fooled him, but I got into a program at M
Speaker 1: I T, which actually is how I met one of
Speaker 1: the co founders of Savvy. And I remember at the
Speaker 1: time thinking, am I gonna take this time to work
Speaker 1: and go to this crazy heart program? And then the
Speaker 1: bill for it was a hundred and forty one thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and I was like, oh, that is not frugal,
Speaker 1: but its school was a lot cheaper. But I met
Speaker 1: one of the founders of Savvy, and I had been
Speaker 1: in the financially ice business, and it was just amazing
Speaker 1: to see what they were doing. And I made wonderful
Speaker 1: friends lifelong connections. And despite the size of that bill,
Speaker 1: probably the largest bill other than buying a home, that
Speaker 1: I've ever encountered. UM, I wouldn't be on this podcast
Speaker 1: with you today. I wouldn't be part of Savvy helping
Speaker 1: to democratize financial advice. I wouldn't like appear to be
Speaker 1: smart because I get to hang out with all these
Speaker 1: people that I went to school with. Um. But it
Speaker 1: is just such a blessing to be around those folks
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. So yeah, I'm going to pander
Speaker 1: to my my folks at M I T and UM
Speaker 1: and say my favorite bill was that forty one thousand dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that is the first M I T bill we've
Speaker 1: ever gotten on the show, but one of my favorite. UM,
Speaker 1: it hurt. When did you graduate? Graduated? And I did?
Speaker 1: I did, well, you know I did. Actually refinance rates
Speaker 1: were so low, so I actually took my student low
Speaker 1: own debt from that and I put it into my house.
Speaker 1: And I'd like to pretend that it doesn't exist anymore,
Speaker 1: but it's just, you know, it's it's in this this
Speaker 1: roof over my head right now. Yeah, but it was
Speaker 1: an amazing experience. It was executive programs. So I kept
Speaker 1: working at the time, and all of us are trying
Speaker 1: to hold on families and jobs, and you talk about
Speaker 1: goal setting. I mean, you know, you'd be amazed what
Speaker 1: you can do when it's just okay, well I just
Speaker 1: have to make this work. Yeah. Yeah, I am learning
Speaker 1: that as a parent right now, a first time parent.
Speaker 1: I actually thought that same phrase today. I'm like, you
Speaker 1: just make it work. I'm not I'm not a mom.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they let me go home with
Speaker 1: this kid because it came out of your body. Jen, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how that happened. You make it, you take it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you buy it what, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you just you just do it. You make it through
Speaker 1: you don't. You know. I had a friend of mine
Speaker 1: who was like, up, we didn't break the kid today, Like,
Speaker 1: good job. You know, every day's victory as a parent. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's so good. Well, if you want to submit your
Speaker 1: bill of the week, if it's an M I T
Speaker 1: bill or any other kind of bill, visit us at
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and tell us
Speaker 1: what you got. We're only accepting Ivy League bills. We're
Speaker 1: talking about a Harvard Study. M I t are today everybody.
Speaker 1: I walked. I walked into m I t once um
Speaker 1: and then I walked through the court era and I
Speaker 1: walked right out. Jobs. See that's why you're so smart
Speaker 1: and successful, Jen, because I wanted to Yeah, well now
Speaker 1: it's time for you know it? My next favorite part
Speaker 1: good lightning wound. Well, So, Ran, we want to know
Speaker 1: more about Savvy. Why is the philosophy behind savvy financial?
Speaker 1: Like what makes it different from just googling your financial questions?
Speaker 1: You know, it might get you to a good place
Speaker 1: like your podcast, it might be to oh man, I've
Speaker 1: had some doozies with Google searches, deep dark, famous last words. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for asking. So Savvy was built really to democratize
Speaker 1: financial advice. And I started my career as a financial
Speaker 1: advisor and it's a wonderful role. You get to help
Speaker 1: people with their money and help them make smart decisions.
Speaker 1: But what's happened over the years is that you need
Speaker 1: more and more in assets to work with an advisor.
Speaker 1: And so Savvy was built to just say, can we
Speaker 1: bring this to the masses. And what Savvy does that's
Speaker 1: that's different. You mentioned the importance of being really specific
Speaker 1: and actionable. So the advice that Savvy gives we get
Speaker 1: down literally to the dollar to say you should open
Speaker 1: this account with this much and move this from here
Speaker 1: to here. And the cool part is we don't ask
Speaker 1: you for your money. We're not. You know, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of robo advisors out there, and and there
Speaker 1: are some great tools in the marketplace, but robo advisors
Speaker 1: are designed to hey, like, we're gonna give you all
Speaker 1: these cool tools and then please invest with us. And
Speaker 1: so we savery we say we're actually a fiduciary, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna give you advice and it's going to be unbiased.
Speaker 1: And you know, similar to what we talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: It maybe you know, what should I pay off my
Speaker 1: credit card or should I fund my four ohn K?
Speaker 1: So we look at it and try to find the
Speaker 1: optimal outcome. So it might be all in on one
Speaker 1: or or a combination of the other. But what we
Speaker 1: do with the tool does we help you to organize
Speaker 1: your financial life, because that's the really important first step.
Speaker 1: So we're kind of like tools such as MINT. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can say that, you know, but
Speaker 1: but we help you organize where all your stuff is
Speaker 1: and you can link your accounts and then we help
Speaker 1: you understand where your money goes, sort of like a
Speaker 1: budgeting exercise, but we're not latte counters. Just a general
Speaker 1: idea of where your money goes and insights about it.
Speaker 1: And then it's where the goals come in. So you
Speaker 1: can pick goals like retirement or buying a home, buying
Speaker 1: a car, how much life insurance do I need? UM?
Speaker 1: How do I send my kids to college? How do
Speaker 1: I pay off my student loan debt? We just rolled
Speaker 1: out an optimization around how to attack specifically student loan debt,
Speaker 1: and then we come back with advice to say, here's
Speaker 1: what you need to do. And hey, you're really on
Speaker 1: track or you know what you're you're getting there, but
Speaker 1: here's what you can you to get back on track.
Speaker 1: So we have a free tool that anybody can can
Speaker 1: use that gives you an idea. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: most of what saving doing if you really love us.
Speaker 1: We have a paid version too for ten dollars a
Speaker 1: month that's not not too too bad to I less
Speaker 1: than a financial advisors. True there and some people too.
Speaker 1: We realize that UM in our tool can certainly help you.
Speaker 1: We had We talked to one of our users who
Speaker 1: was really really sophisticated and had a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but he was early to do it yourself planner, and
Speaker 1: he we gave him advice. He's like, I didn't know
Speaker 1: that I could do this thing, called it back to
Speaker 1: a roth Ira contribution. You know, I never knew I
Speaker 1: could do that. I don't. I thought I didn't. I
Speaker 1: made too much money to do a roth Ira And
Speaker 1: now I found out how to do it. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like we built that in there, and we build in
Speaker 1: the tax code and all this other sophistications that Yeah.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, I worked with all these crazy smart
Speaker 1: people who can really do math, and so it's it's
Speaker 1: a very powerful tool and like anybody can you said, yeah,
Speaker 1: so there are some really cool features on it, Like
Speaker 1: I spent the past few weeks playing around with it.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about that. They have such
Speaker 1: cool names to the decision optimizer and the stress test Simulator,
Speaker 1: like those I think, don't you guys have like a
Speaker 1: frugalizer or something. I'm not mistaken, Like I want to
Speaker 1: get emails from you I use the frugalizer. Isn't that
Speaker 1: I just you just like isers, right, I mean, is
Speaker 1: that came up with That's true, That's that's all Jen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like good lighting around and she likes frugalizers and
Speaker 1: you're an awesome team. So way to go. So savvy
Speaker 1: is based. The math is really an optimization model. And
Speaker 1: so what we do is we create optimal outcomes or
Speaker 1: we recommend optimal optimal outcomes for your financial life. So
Speaker 1: the team that built this, that's been been together for
Speaker 1: a while, um, they actually started on in problems like
Speaker 1: airline yield management and how to make school buses run
Speaker 1: on time. And what they did is took the complexity
Speaker 1: of how do I balance all this out of someone's
Speaker 1: financial life and put it into a robust optimization model
Speaker 1: and came out with one of a few ideal outcomes,
Speaker 1: which could be here's how much you save into here,
Speaker 1: here's how much you work toward college and balancing all
Speaker 1: of that because I may have a goal that's you know,
Speaker 1: I would really like to send my kids to college,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to retire the stage, but the word
Speaker 1: to get there because all these things balance out, but
Speaker 1: I also need to buy a car and hope, by
Speaker 1: the way, like ress and I just give up, right,
Speaker 1: So that optimization model helps to take all that complexity
Speaker 1: and come back with something that makes sense. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: even if you could figure it on on your own,
Speaker 1: it can Yeah, it can be exactly overwhelming like that.
Speaker 1: But if you can have something that says, hey, this
Speaker 1: is how it is, it's okay that it's this way.
Speaker 1: It's not you know, ideal, but this is the way
Speaker 1: it has to be, and you're like, okay, I'm not failing.
Speaker 1: I can still get it done. Yeah. Are there any
Speaker 1: circumstances where Savvy and its resources might not be right
Speaker 1: for somebody? It's a great question. You know. One of
Speaker 1: the things that we don't have yet is a human
Speaker 1: element to it, and we're you know, hopefully going to
Speaker 1: roll that out next year where we could have some
Speaker 1: human coaching in there. Um, there are people who there's
Speaker 1: a self service element to what we do. You have
Speaker 1: to go in and link your accounts up and then
Speaker 1: you have to answer certain questions on an online portal.
Speaker 1: And some people who aren't necessarily tech savvy. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sort of intended that if you're not really good,
Speaker 1: I just want to talk to someone and have them
Speaker 1: tell me what to do and just like throw all
Speaker 1: my statements in front of them, like, well, maybe you
Speaker 1: are better served by a human financial advisor, so um
Speaker 1: right at a higher price point a higher price like
Speaker 1: word one. It's like okay, well so so sometimes we will,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly, anytime one of our users needs help
Speaker 1: getting through the tool, but a lot of times like
Speaker 1: I really just want to talk to someone, like well
Speaker 1: all the advices here on the screen, just you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would say that the person who's probably
Speaker 1: not a great fit for us, at least today is
Speaker 1: someone who just really needs someone to do it for
Speaker 1: them and really needs to meet with someone or have
Speaker 1: that human element. We try to build that into the tool,
Speaker 1: but it's still an online advice tool. It's still digital.
Speaker 1: It's not funnest the person. Maybe I don't know. We try,
Speaker 1: but maybe someone needs a person. It's they might be
Speaker 1: better served with a human advisor if they have money
Speaker 1: and if they qualify. But most of us like saving
Speaker 1: money more than people, so I think we're fine. Yes see,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get your advice from a tool
Speaker 1: like Savvy, and then I have more money to hang
Speaker 1: out with fun people, right, yeah, and not talk about
Speaker 1: money exactly, just spend it on cool stuff. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we mentioned it earlier, Um, but can you remind people
Speaker 1: where they can go to learn more and use savvy? Sure,
Speaker 1: I'd love to. So it's savvy with an I f
Speaker 1: I dot com s a v v I f I
Speaker 1: dot com and check out the website. It talks about
Speaker 1: our story, talks about how it all works. In the
Speaker 1: upper right hand corner, you can click on sign up
Speaker 1: and like I said, we have a free plan. So
Speaker 1: if it sounds like, yeah, this thing sound good, try
Speaker 1: it out, start putting your stuff in, and you know,
Speaker 1: hop on chat if you need help. I might be
Speaker 1: the person who chats with you because you know, we're
Speaker 1: we're a fast growing but we're still a company, right.
Speaker 1: We talked to someone last week and they thought, like,
Speaker 1: you guys have ordered employees, and like, yeah, that sounds
Speaker 1: cool on our way. But we just rolled and we're
Speaker 1: a fairly new tool. We we roll out with our
Speaker 1: first employer partner last year and we've just rolled out
Speaker 1: our direct to consumer platform this past May. So and
Speaker 1: we'd love the feedback too. I'd say, if you sign
Speaker 1: up and then I like, you know, you guys can
Speaker 1: totally do this better. Just drop us a line. It's
Speaker 1: some of our best feedback, positive or negative, comes from
Speaker 1: our user base, so we can make this thing better
Speaker 1: and help people to make more smart money decisions. That's awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for coming on Brian, and uh, thanks
Speaker 1: for being part of the show. We have found Savvy
Speaker 1: to be like a really cool tool and something we
Speaker 1: think that our listeners really benefit from. Truly, like we've
Speaker 1: said for the past few weeks, like the free version
Speaker 1: has all the cool features that you would pay for.
Speaker 1: Two it's not just one of those like gimmicky free trials. Now,
Speaker 1: we we wanted to make the free version of Savvy
Speaker 1: good and then you know that you like, wow, I
Speaker 1: really like this, Okay, but I'm you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like I signed up for this and gave all my
Speaker 1: info and now it just this thing stinks. Now, we've
Speaker 1: had a really positive response with the tool, and and
Speaker 1: I know you've we've been able to sponsor and you've
Speaker 1: been able to mention the tool on some previous podcasts,
Speaker 1: so we really appreciate that partnership as well to get
Speaker 1: people on the platform. Yeah, definitely thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the show. Brian. Thank you great. I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: we have had Savvy as a sponsor for the show.
Speaker 1: I think they are doing a really great thing for
Speaker 1: frugal people. And uh, we have really benefited from that
Speaker 1: partnership and in his wisdom, especially as we start to
Speaker 1: think more big term, long term once we're out of debt,
Speaker 1: what comes next and how can we get the resources
Speaker 1: of the wealthy at a frugal cost or Yeah, for
Speaker 1: those that are wanting to approach it in a more
Speaker 1: frugal way. So I'm glad that it exists with today's technology. Yes,
Speaker 1: and if you want even more engagement on these things
Speaker 1: of goal setting and long term thinking and just frugality,
Speaker 1: we're doing this book club thing in this month. We're
Speaker 1: while we're wrapping up, but we're still reading. I will
Speaker 1: teach you to be rich by remat Sati for book
Speaker 1: club this month. Yes, if you want your middle class
Speaker 1: mindset challenge, re Meat will do it. I highly recommend
Speaker 1: you read this book. If you want a free copy
Speaker 1: because all your other frugal friends got it from the library,
Speaker 1: don't you worry. You can get one by leaving us
Speaker 1: a review at iTunes or Stitcher. Screenshot the review and
Speaker 1: send it to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com
Speaker 1: and we will select one random winner from every five
Speaker 1: reviews we get at the end of each month. And
Speaker 1: that is that's coming up, so you still got time
Speaker 1: to get re meets book and if you want an
Speaker 1: example of a review, because we all need examples in
Speaker 1: life to know exactly what we're talking about. This view
Speaker 1: comes from Rachel, and she says great show, five stars.
Speaker 1: She happened to give us five stars. Just started listening
Speaker 1: to your podcast and have been binge listening for the
Speaker 1: past couple of days. I love how relatable you both are.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm chatting with my girlfriends at a
Speaker 1: bar about the most important things in life while not
Speaker 1: taking ourselves too seriously. Keep up the great work bringing
Speaker 1: wisdom to women in a fun and relatable way. Love
Speaker 1: money Hacking Mama, Thanks so much, Rachel, love connecting. I
Speaker 1: actually did just connect with money Hacking Mama on um Insta,
Speaker 1: so she has a blog, so even feel free to
Speaker 1: check that out. Thanks for the support. We love to
Speaker 1: support each other. Yes, and uh, we will keep coming
Speaker 1: at you, not from a bar, but from wishing we
Speaker 1: were at the bar, but definitely talking to you like
Speaker 1: your girlfriends. Every week, every Friday, we will be here
Speaker 1: and until next Friday. I have a good frugal week. Bye,
Speaker 1: reach those goals, get them. Herugal Friends is produced, edited
Speaker 1: and mixed by Eric Syria. Um, what goals do you
Speaker 1: have now that you've accomplished this whole? This is perfect,
Speaker 1: This is the right thing to do right now. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is right, This is okay. So um book is launched,
Speaker 1: holidays are coming. So in January, I want to lead
Speaker 1: a a private challenge group UM with people from my
Speaker 1: email list, our listeners, whoever. UM. But I want this
Speaker 1: group to be for people that are having a hard
Speaker 1: time doing you know, spend challenge, having a hard time
Speaker 1: cutting their expenses all this stuff. A challenge group where
Speaker 1: we can really invest in each other. And uh so nice.
Speaker 1: How many people would be a part of that as
Speaker 1: many people as will pay me money. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't want it to just be like a thing where
Speaker 1: I like just send out rant like you know, pre
Speaker 1: assigned emails, Like I want to be in people's lives,
Speaker 1: in it with them, And that obviously takes time away
Speaker 1: from my family and my work to do that, and
Speaker 1: so it's been then Yeah, well, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: it depends on how you look at that, coming from
Speaker 1: a maybe the potential consumer side of things. You know,
Speaker 1: people pay for therapists to help them reach goals all
Speaker 1: the time. This is gonna be much cheaper than that's
Speaker 1: so expensive. If you pay out a pocket for therapy,
Speaker 1: you are paying eight five to a hundred per fifty
Speaker 1: minute session. I know, I'm a therapist, So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean to kind of get that kind of very tangible
Speaker 1: help from yourself and others in the group, which when
Speaker 1: it comes to reach ingles, group environments are very helpful
Speaker 1: for that hearing and seeing how other people are accomplishing it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that does hold value to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're well good. Um so. But so I've never done
Speaker 1: anything like this before. It's always been very intimidating. I've
Speaker 1: seen other people do it, um, but I've never I've
Speaker 1: never felt worth paying for um. So, you are valuable,
Speaker 1: you are beautiful. This is something that I am, Um,
Speaker 1: I'm putting out there. It's going to be in January
Speaker 1: and yeah, we're gonna we're gonna figure this thing out together.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna be like wallet therapy. Yeah, Yeah, that's gonna. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's we're gonna we're gonna get more frugal together in
Speaker 1: it's going to be real good. How about you, Jill, oh, Jen,
Speaker 1: You're so much better at this than me. I do.
Speaker 1: I am learning this process. I would say right now,
Speaker 1: I have not the smart goals. I have kind of
Speaker 1: the the lofty ideas of things I want to accomplish
Speaker 1: and need to get down to what are the steps
Speaker 1: I need to take to do that. So as I
Speaker 1: think about my ten year kind of what what do
Speaker 1: I want to have accomplished, it is a lot of
Speaker 1: I do want to learn a language, but not not
Speaker 1: a language. I want to become proficient in Spanish. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I do have an app that I am working through.
Speaker 1: I have a friend who will help me at times,
Speaker 1: but I need to be more diligent with it. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hoping to be able to identify how I
Speaker 1: can do that in the new year, like kind of
Speaker 1: what things I need to be putting in place for that. Um,
Speaker 1: come down to Florida. Are there a lot of Spanish
Speaker 1: speaking people? Oh? Yeah, Allah, you can go to daycare
Speaker 1: and talk to miss Isabel. Yeah, yeah, that's a real thing.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of my my one priority long
Speaker 1: but like a bigger, more lofty, but need to really
Speaker 1: take strides in it this year. And of course paying
Speaker 1: down debt, I mean paying off debt. I hope to
Speaker 1: have that done by March. So that's probably taking up
Speaker 1: a bit of my focus right now. So that's great. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we'll revisit our goals. Boy, we actually haven't recorded. I know,
Speaker 1: I know. It's yeah, we'll revisit these and see how
Speaker 1: we did. We'll know. Yeah, we'll know by March how
Speaker 1: both of us did with both of our media goals. Perfect.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I see you then,