Speaker 1: Welcome to Kind of Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about the financial habits that determine
Speaker 1: your future. Yeah, Joel, did you know that it takes
Speaker 1: over two months to solidify a behavior as an automatic
Speaker 1: habit that you really don't even have to think about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: habits take a while to form, right, So these aren't
Speaker 1: things that you can do overnight, make one change and
Speaker 1: think that you're good to go. Sixty days, that's how
Speaker 1: long I've heard it takes to kick a bad habits.
Speaker 1: So hopefully in this episode we can talk about forming
Speaker 1: some positive habits. Yeah, before we kick it off, man,
Speaker 1: let's talk about this Google Chrome extension called Time Well Spent.
Speaker 1: This was tweeted at us by David Clark, and he
Speaker 1: actually sent us some coffee and some beer way back
Speaker 1: in the day. He's been he's been listening for a while,
Speaker 1: a long time listener, first time tweeter. Which no, that's
Speaker 1: not even true, because he actually tweeted us when he
Speaker 1: made that spreadsheet for the cost of his vehicle that
Speaker 1: the total cost of ownership versus biking and finding other
Speaker 1: forms of transportation. And this is something else very cool
Speaker 1: that he found but yeah, it's called time well spent.
Speaker 1: And what this thing does is when you turn this
Speaker 1: extension on when you're shopping online, it turns all the
Speaker 1: dollar amounts into time, and so it turns it into
Speaker 1: the time that it would take you to work in
Speaker 1: order to actually earn that product. So do you just
Speaker 1: have to input your hourly wage and then it computes
Speaker 1: it for you. Yeah, you either enter in your hourly
Speaker 1: rates or your annual salary after tax, and yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: It automatically computes it for you. Super fascinating and I
Speaker 1: will say I was shocked at the effect that it
Speaker 1: had on me because I was messing around with it
Speaker 1: some and my reaction though to it wasn't oh man,
Speaker 1: this is gonna take so long to earn this. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: my reaction was thirty minutes for for this. I'm sort
Speaker 1: of a living paradox to to what I'm talking about here,
Speaker 1: but it's difficult for me to to manage my time.
Speaker 1: And I think this is an example of where I
Speaker 1: would see my time laid out in front of me,
Speaker 1: you know, next to our product, and think cool, I
Speaker 1: can work an hour for that, or I can work
Speaker 1: a full day for that. Yeah, I think for me
Speaker 1: and for most folks that would install this on their browser,
Speaker 1: I would think we would have the effect of curbing spending.
Speaker 1: And hopefully that is the case for most folks, right yeah,
Speaker 1: Because for for most of us, as we we see
Speaker 1: the dollar sign, we we are put we're putting it
Speaker 1: on plastic. We don't have to pay for it for
Speaker 1: thirty days, and hopefully folks that are listening to the
Speaker 1: show are paying their credit card balances in full at
Speaker 1: the end of every month. But still there's this kind
Speaker 1: of frictionless effect to making a purchase. And I think,
Speaker 1: for me, I'm gonna try this out. I'm gonna install it,
Speaker 1: so big thanks to David for sending us extension our way,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna install it, and I'm gonna see how
Speaker 1: it affects my spending, because I have a feeling that's
Speaker 1: seeing not just a dollar sign on the screen, but
Speaker 1: seeing the hours of my life that it's going to
Speaker 1: take to buy this product as opposed to just a
Speaker 1: straight dollar amount. I have a feeling that that's gonna
Speaker 1: actually make a difference in in curbing my spending. So
Speaker 1: it's a great idea and I think it's so clever,
Speaker 1: and I really do think it could help a lot
Speaker 1: of folks too. Yeah, super smart. I I really don't
Speaker 1: know what that says about me, Like maybe I think
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna live forever and I've got all the
Speaker 1: time in the world, but I don't. And I will
Speaker 1: say one of the what I would recommend you to do, though,
Speaker 1: is going to Amazon and look at your previous orders,
Speaker 1: because it will change all of those numbers as well,
Speaker 1: and then you can be like, was that worth It
Speaker 1: was that word exactly, But again in my case, I
Speaker 1: ordered some cables and some other stuff that I needed
Speaker 1: to do, and it was literally it was twelve minutes
Speaker 1: worth of time that it would have taken me to
Speaker 1: have earned that. And so my thoughts to myself, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: ten minutes, that's just a few emails to think that, Okay,
Speaker 1: while I'm sending their emailing, then I win this price.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh sweet. Something about attaching that time does
Speaker 1: something tangible for me makes it almost seem more worth it.
Speaker 1: But again, hopefully most folks are not like me, and
Speaker 1: I think for the vast majority of folks who install this,
Speaker 1: and again it was called time well spent that hopefully
Speaker 1: would allow them to curb their spending or at least
Speaker 1: give them pause. I hope this time well Spent extension
Speaker 1: would work for like cracking my mortgage or let's say,
Speaker 1: tracking someone's car payment too. It could really I think
Speaker 1: that would be actually really painful, right if I actually
Speaker 1: log into the bank or the credit union, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a bit more painful to think. Okay, wow,
Speaker 1: is it even worth me to to work that long
Speaker 1: just to have a place to live? Right right? Or
Speaker 1: it's this fancy new car, but it's taking up seven
Speaker 1: days of my month essentially that I have to dedicate
Speaker 1: to work in order to pay for it. That's a
Speaker 1: big shift in mindset. That just the three fifty dollar payment.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if it does that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look into this time well Spent extension. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get onto the beer that we're having on the show today.
Speaker 1: Listener Cameron super Cool Dude donated a couple of beers
Speaker 1: from his recent trip to Vermont, Vermont. Yeah, that's good news. Well,
Speaker 1: Vermont is happy. It's like beer Mecca. Really Vermont kind
Speaker 1: of started at all. I think there's actually more micro
Speaker 1: breweries per capita in Vermont than in any other Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're They're super into their craft beer in Vermont. So
Speaker 1: this one is the best of the best. It is
Speaker 1: Vermont's finest, and Vermont has so many good beers, so
Speaker 1: this is a big champagne of beers something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody else took that slogan. Not quite. This beer is
Speaker 1: called Hetty Topper and it's by the Alchemist Brewery in Waterbury, Vermont.
Speaker 1: And this beer just has a cult following. It basically
Speaker 1: changed the way that people started to think about drinking.
Speaker 1: I p a. S. So really excited to drink this
Speaker 1: one with you today, buddy, and we'll let you know
Speaker 1: our thoughts on this beer at the end of the episode.
Speaker 1: Yes we will, all right, Matt, onto the subject at hand.
Speaker 1: We're talking about habits, the habits that you are able
Speaker 1: to develop now become ingrained, and the small things that
Speaker 1: we do day after day they shape who we are.
Speaker 1: Simple routines can be life changing for us because they
Speaker 1: help us to be able to do the actual things
Speaker 1: that we want to do without having to think about it.
Speaker 1: It really is amazing how just a small habit can
Speaker 1: change your morning, can get you into a routine can
Speaker 1: change your finances, can change your workout, life can change
Speaker 1: so many different things. Just developing a couple of important
Speaker 1: habits can make massive differences in the way things look
Speaker 1: for you down the road. And so we want to
Speaker 1: talk today about money habits, the ones that are important,
Speaker 1: and how you can go about developing them so they
Speaker 1: you can be better off financially without having to constantly
Speaker 1: think about it, just sending these things in motion, so
Speaker 1: they are a part of the way you live. Yeah, Joelan,
Speaker 1: what's so key, I think is is that you said
Speaker 1: setting it an emotion. It's not that we're trying to
Speaker 1: avoid thinking about these things altogether. We do want to
Speaker 1: think about them. We want to be intentional, but we
Speaker 1: want to think about them once and make a decision
Speaker 1: and kind of move on with life. These aren't decisions
Speaker 1: that we want to revisit daily or even monthly, right,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to have to make the decision
Speaker 1: of should I invest my money this month? Well, no,
Speaker 1: we've decided that we are going to do this, and
Speaker 1: there's not a judgment call. It's just a matter of
Speaker 1: executing the decision that you have already decided. So this year,
Speaker 1: both of our girls are in school, and so we
Speaker 1: had to kind of change our morning routine. Would it
Speaker 1: looked like? And if I had to decide every night
Speaker 1: what time I was going to wake up the next morning,
Speaker 1: I would waffle back and forth so much. I would
Speaker 1: have the hardest time. Some days I would do it well,
Speaker 1: other days I would do it really poorly. And I
Speaker 1: just decided on the time I was gonna wake up
Speaker 1: six o'clock every single morning. I'm basically ready for the
Speaker 1: day when the girls get up. And it's made such
Speaker 1: a big different it's for me. It wasn't easy. It
Speaker 1: didn't come naturally, but it was this habit that I
Speaker 1: kind of had to get into and develop in order
Speaker 1: to make my morning flow well. So, yeah, these habits
Speaker 1: have this ability to take that decision making out of
Speaker 1: the process. You make the decision kind of once you
Speaker 1: implement it, and then it's not something that has to
Speaker 1: be on your radar all the time, playing whack a mole,
Speaker 1: deciding whether or not you're gonna do it. It's something
Speaker 1: that you prioritize, it gets done, and then it gets
Speaker 1: off of your mental plate because that habit kicks in
Speaker 1: and it becomes more or less effortless. So question for you,
Speaker 1: do you get up still at six on the weekends? Nope, No,
Speaker 1: I do not, although I probably I think it would
Speaker 1: probably help if I submitted it on the weekends to
Speaker 1: make Mondays a little bit easier. We still tried to
Speaker 1: get up earlier than we normally would. Natural mats just
Speaker 1: wants to sleep in because I'm a night owl, and
Speaker 1: I would sleep in every single day and stay up
Speaker 1: late every single day. That's just how I am. But yeah, again,
Speaker 1: with the kids in school, let's we're the same way,
Speaker 1: trying to maintain some of that consistency. So what we
Speaker 1: want to introduce now are some main money habits. These
Speaker 1: are some financial habits that you will want to prioritize.
Speaker 1: Some of them you might already be kicking but at
Speaker 1: and others just may not yet be on your radar.
Speaker 1: While others still you might even think, yeah, like I
Speaker 1: should be doing that, but I haven't gotten around even
Speaker 1: starting those. And so here are some of the big
Speaker 1: sort of overarching financial habits to implement. Joel, you want
Speaker 1: to kick this off, Yeah, sure, man, Yeah. We We've
Speaker 1: got a lot of thoughts, by the way, on how
Speaker 1: to actually get a habit started. We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: that a little bit later in the episode, but first
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about some of those big financial habits.
Speaker 1: They you need to make front and center if you're
Speaker 1: just getting started. So the first one is really to
Speaker 1: pay yourself first. And most people end up saving with
Speaker 1: what's left over every month, and typically there's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot left over, so saving not only just doesn't
Speaker 1: get prioritized, it gets left out of the equation altogether.
Speaker 1: Paying yourself first is really this ultimate financial habit that
Speaker 1: everything else hangs on. And if you can prioritize paying
Speaker 1: yourself first, well you can start that emergency fund, you
Speaker 1: can prioritize actually contributing to your four O one K
Speaker 1: or I ra A, and you can also get rid
Speaker 1: of pesky debt that's lingering. But that's an intentional decision,
Speaker 1: that's a habit that needs to be formed, paying yourself first,
Speaker 1: making that kind of a hallmark of how you handle
Speaker 1: your finances. If you can reorder your priorities and develop
Speaker 1: the habit of paying yourself first, that's one of those
Speaker 1: major achievements that's going to serve you well for years
Speaker 1: and years to come. Yeah, certainly, man like that's one
Speaker 1: of the ones that's kind of at the top of
Speaker 1: the food chain, right, and I don't want to gloss
Speaker 1: over some of these other points that you mentioned right
Speaker 1: in and of itself, Starting that emergency fund is a
Speaker 1: great habit to have, right, because that allows you to
Speaker 1: have that financial margin to where it feels like you're
Speaker 1: not actually living paycheck to paycheck. And then when you
Speaker 1: have that extra money that you can contribute towards retirement,
Speaker 1: You've got to contribute to retirement because Social Security, guess what,
Speaker 1: it's not going to cut it by the time you
Speaker 1: get older. And then of course you're going to be
Speaker 1: able to achieve both of those things more efficiently if
Speaker 1: you don't have debt weighing you down. I think another
Speaker 1: way to think of sort of those things too, is
Speaker 1: like spending less than you actually make, because when you
Speaker 1: have money in the bank, that gives you options to
Speaker 1: do what it is that you want to do with
Speaker 1: your money, like whatever that happens to be, it gives
Speaker 1: you the ability to do that. And so, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: another sort of broad way to think about it. Spend
Speaker 1: less than you make. Yeah, another habit that's good to
Speaker 1: form when it comes to how you handle your money.
Speaker 1: One of the big ones is tracking your incoming and
Speaker 1: your outgoing money. If you don't know where your money
Speaker 1: is going, it's hard to course correct. By tracking and
Speaker 1: eventually getting into having a budget, you can spend your
Speaker 1: money more mindfully. You become in charge of your money
Speaker 1: as opposed to your money ruling the decisions you make.
Speaker 1: We've talked about some of the best methods for tracking
Speaker 1: and budgeting. We love mint, it's great for tracking. Whine
Speaker 1: App is this amazing budgeting app, and dollar Bird is
Speaker 1: another cool app that you can download to track your spending.
Speaker 1: If you've had trouble developing the habit of tracking, well,
Speaker 1: use one of those tools to help you out. But
Speaker 1: tracking where your money goes is one of those essential
Speaker 1: habits that you have to form. Yeah, so when you
Speaker 1: have these specific numbers that allows you to set specific goals, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you could still, for instance, save money without tracking your
Speaker 1: income and your expenses. But it's sort of this amorphous
Speaker 1: blob and that you're trying to kind of tackle the wall.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be difficult versus if you're using software, if
Speaker 1: you're even if you're writing out your expenses on a
Speaker 1: legal pad. Right, you still have hard numbers and you
Speaker 1: can literally take that legal pad and pin that to
Speaker 1: the wall and say, cool, we are this close to
Speaker 1: achieving our goal. Like we're this close to hitting that number.
Speaker 1: You're gonna really be able to whip your finances into
Speaker 1: shape if you are tracking and budgeting in. Another big
Speaker 1: overarching money habit that we think is important is to
Speaker 1: work on being content with what you have. We are
Speaker 1: a money podcast, and I think this isn't going to
Speaker 1: be something that you hear often, right, contentment, gratitude, these
Speaker 1: are things that you typically here. But taking the time
Speaker 1: to be thankful for the things you have, right, maybe
Speaker 1: your car or say you have a tiny apartment, but
Speaker 1: that can make you happy with what you have. Wanting
Speaker 1: less is really key and important to saving more. So
Speaker 1: we would really suggest making gratitude a habit that you
Speaker 1: try to cultivate daily. Yeah. I think there are so
Speaker 1: many ways that you can incorporate gratitude into your life,
Speaker 1: whether it's taking a few minutes in the morning to
Speaker 1: just realize to look around you and to be truly
Speaker 1: thankful for friends, family, health, health, yeah, space where you live,
Speaker 1: a car that gets you to and fro even if
Speaker 1: it's not ideal, even if it's a little beat up.
Speaker 1: There are all these things that we have and we
Speaker 1: forget to be thankful, and that thankfulness can severely curb
Speaker 1: our desire to spend and be a major influence on
Speaker 1: what we're able to save. And the next step that
Speaker 1: I think even enhances this ability to be content with
Speaker 1: what you have is is to give away a portion
Speaker 1: of what you make. It sounds like the opposite of
Speaker 1: saving money, Joel, but it is this and we've talked
Speaker 1: about this before, Matt quite a while back on the show,
Speaker 1: but there is this thing that happens as you begin
Speaker 1: to not only give of your time and get but
Speaker 1: also to give of your money that gives you kind
Speaker 1: of a healthy detachment from your money. It makes it
Speaker 1: easier to be content with less. It makes it easier
Speaker 1: not to focus on the things that you want or
Speaker 1: the things that you don't have, but to actually truly
Speaker 1: be content with the things that you have as you
Speaker 1: see your money go to work in beautiful ways in
Speaker 1: the community around you, in on profits that are serving others.
Speaker 1: In my mind, that is one of the biggest habits
Speaker 1: that we can cultivate to basically just help us to
Speaker 1: have a healthier view of money overall. Man. You know,
Speaker 1: anytime we talk about this, I can't help but to
Speaker 1: think of Gollum right from the Probbit Lord of the Rings, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: or Schniegel right, like, we don't want to be the
Speaker 1: person who is so obsessed and infatuated with our treasure.
Speaker 1: Are precious our our money to where it dictates our
Speaker 1: life and it controls who we are, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: allow us to be generous, and so where that becomes
Speaker 1: the focus of our life. On the surface, that seems
Speaker 1: like a podcast that Gollum would love, right, But I
Speaker 1: think it's important for us to step back and reframe
Speaker 1: every now and then and to remind ourselves to hold
Speaker 1: onto our possessions loosely with with open hands, because there's
Speaker 1: no guarantee that will continue, that we will be able
Speaker 1: to maintain that wealth or that money. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Gollum's a listener. I hope he is, But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the cool thing about working on being content
Speaker 1: with what you have, developing that as a habit in
Speaker 1: your life. It's something that anyone can do. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you are living paycheck to paycheck, and we
Speaker 1: talked about that in episode seventy three. But but basically,
Speaker 1: the idea of being content with what you have and
Speaker 1: giving away at least a tiny portion of what you have, well,
Speaker 1: that can even just mean your time, and that can
Speaker 1: put you on a trajectory to doing more and more
Speaker 1: over time as you get your finances in a healthier place.
Speaker 1: So it's not that you have to have a massed
Speaker 1: a certain amount in order for this to be a
Speaker 1: reality in your life. You can prioritize these things as
Speaker 1: a habit, paying yourself first, tracking your spending, and working
Speaker 1: on being content with what you have now, no matter
Speaker 1: where you are on the financial spectrum. So I find
Speaker 1: that to be encouraging. Yeah, that's so great. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk more. We're gonna talk how to specifically create lasting,
Speaker 1: life changing habits. But first let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, we're back, and we just talked about
Speaker 1: some of those major overarching financial habits that need to
Speaker 1: be implemented to kind of get the ball rolling. And
Speaker 1: now let's talk about kind of connecting some of the
Speaker 1: knowledge that we already have and how we implement and
Speaker 1: some of those things in our lives. Yeah, and not
Speaker 1: just implementing it into our lives, but doing that regularly, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what makes that habit is when we're able to
Speaker 1: do that just day after day after day. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: And so one of the first things that you might
Speaker 1: be thinking, well, you might have some bad habits that
Speaker 1: you need to get rid of, and I think sitting
Speaker 1: down taking the time to recognize some of the bad
Speaker 1: habits the way some of your major money issues flare
Speaker 1: up in your life because of some of the habits
Speaker 1: you've formed along the way. Maybe if you've had a
Speaker 1: bad day, you soothe that over by going on a
Speaker 1: shopping spree. I'm not sure what that looks like in
Speaker 1: your life, but seeing and identifying is that first step
Speaker 1: to changing. And so one of the things that we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier was to track your spending. That is one
Speaker 1: of the easiest ways to recognize some of those bad
Speaker 1: habits that you've incurred in your life. And once you're
Speaker 1: able to see those like in black and white on paper,
Speaker 1: then it makes it so much easier to actually start
Speaker 1: to change those bad habits that have become ingrained. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said earlier, man, you can't course correct unless
Speaker 1: you can actually see where you currently are. And that's
Speaker 1: why I love budgets and tracking you're spending so much,
Speaker 1: is that you can so clearly see, like it really
Speaker 1: is black and white. You can see the difference between
Speaker 1: a good month and a bad month, or when you've
Speaker 1: gone over budget and entertainment. That's why I love tracking
Speaker 1: so much. But there are also things that we have
Speaker 1: in our lives that are a little more difficult to identify.
Speaker 1: And these are things that you're not going to see
Speaker 1: on your monthly budget or in your spending. What I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of here are maybe just attitudes that folks might
Speaker 1: have towards let's just say investing, Like if you have
Speaker 1: sort of a mistrust or a fear towards investing, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of in the back of your mind, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's how you view money in general, and that's
Speaker 1: how you view the stock market because maybe you had
Speaker 1: a bad experience at some point, or you know somebody
Speaker 1: that did well. A bad habit that might form out
Speaker 1: of that is you're afraid to invest in the stock market,
Speaker 1: and that's probably a really bad habit for you to have.
Speaker 1: We need to be invested in the stock market, we
Speaker 1: need to be exposing ourselves to the ups and downs
Speaker 1: of the market now while we're building our wealth for
Speaker 1: the long term. Yeah. Man, it makes me think about
Speaker 1: our interview that we did with her Meat Sadie and
Speaker 1: he talked about these money scripts that have been ingrained
Speaker 1: in our heads, sometimes from from youth, sometimes experiences with
Speaker 1: with parents, things that were said at the dinner table.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the experience of a friend who lost it
Speaker 1: all in some sort of crazy venture starting a business,
Speaker 1: and and then you assume entrepreneurship equals bad, or someone
Speaker 1: that you know who invested in a single stock lost
Speaker 1: at all, investing therefore equals bad. And those experiences that
Speaker 1: we've had in the past haven't direct influence on how
Speaker 1: we handle our money now, Yeah, they shape us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so we have to develop habits. And part of
Speaker 1: that course correction involves a little bit of knowledge and
Speaker 1: a little bit of understanding the right way to go
Speaker 1: about some of those things. Right, investing in a single
Speaker 1: stock is typically bad, and investing in something like uh
Speaker 1: total stock market index fund is a much better way
Speaker 1: to go. But yes, recognizing those bad habits, those money scripts,
Speaker 1: will have massive effects on your ability to actually develop
Speaker 1: meaningful habits that will help you in your money life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again to do that, it just takes time. Right,
Speaker 1: tracking your spending like, that's easy, you can do that
Speaker 1: quickly and you see the numbers on paper. But some
Speaker 1: of these more maybe deeper seated beliefs and those instances,
Speaker 1: it might just take some time, some self reflection. And
Speaker 1: I know it's hard for us these days to afford
Speaker 1: ourselves some time to sit and be seemingly unproductive, but
Speaker 1: that's just so important and that really might be what
Speaker 1: it takes. Yes, So another way to create lasting, life
Speaker 1: changing habits is to start easy. Biting off more than
Speaker 1: you can chew is definitely a recipe for failure or
Speaker 1: sliding back into old, unhelpful habits that you've had. For instance,
Speaker 1: let's say you have a problem with impulse purchases. So
Speaker 1: start easy with a twenty four hour rule and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, if I put this in my card,
Speaker 1: I have to wait twenty four hours before I can
Speaker 1: actually follow through and make the purchase. That's kind of
Speaker 1: an easy method, a twenty four hour method, but work
Speaker 1: towards instituting a seventy two hour rule before you make
Speaker 1: your purchase. That is an even bigger hurdle to climb,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit harder to do. So anyway that
Speaker 1: you can start easy in developing a habit, go small
Speaker 1: in the beginning. It's going to make it much more
Speaker 1: likely that that habit is going to stick, and you
Speaker 1: can kind of intensify that habit further on down the line.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be all or nothing, yeah, Jule.
Speaker 1: Another example I'm thinking of is we talk all the
Speaker 1: time of how important it is to save for retirement.
Speaker 1: The problem is, though, is that it's a little more
Speaker 1: complicated to save towards retirement, to open that i ra A,
Speaker 1: to enroll in your work sponsored four ohn k. It's
Speaker 1: a little more complicated to do those things than it
Speaker 1: is to just put a little bit of money aside
Speaker 1: in a savings account. So again, start small. Just start
Speaker 1: chipping away a little bit of money off of your
Speaker 1: paycheck every single pay period, and before you know it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a couple thousand dollars that you are
Speaker 1: going to want to invest. Because you have seen the
Speaker 1: aggregation of these small games. You've seen all these small
Speaker 1: winds pile up into something big, and that's the kind
Speaker 1: of encouragement. I know that I need that really hammers
Speaker 1: home and solidify as a habit. And yeah, man, and
Speaker 1: there are so many great apps out there. We've talked
Speaker 1: about Acorns before on the show. That's a perfect example, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Bank of America has something similar called Keep
Speaker 1: the Change. There are all sorts of different apps out
Speaker 1: there that can help you with this. If you need
Speaker 1: a little help and you find it hard to get
Speaker 1: the motivation, just signing up for Acorns and making something
Speaker 1: like that happen is a fantastic way to start small
Speaker 1: and make it easy for yourself, So Joel, another way
Speaker 1: that we can still to defy these habits and make
Speaker 1: them lifelong habits is to try to adapt a behavior
Speaker 1: to your own way of seeing the world. Maybe you
Speaker 1: can identify a goal and there can be a number
Speaker 1: of different ways to achieve that goal. Right, we want
Speaker 1: you to be creative. It could be that you've never
Speaker 1: seen it done in a thoughtful way. Just because it
Speaker 1: looks one way for others, right, that doesn't mean it
Speaker 1: has to look that way for you. I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: the interview we had with Andy Hill and how the
Speaker 1: way he was able to get his wife on board
Speaker 1: was that instead of having these budget meetings, what they
Speaker 1: would have and what they continue to have now our
Speaker 1: budget parties, And I'm pretty sure he said they would
Speaker 1: crack open a bottle of wine. They sit down there.
Speaker 1: You know, it's fun. It's not like this. It's not drudgery,
Speaker 1: it's not monotonous. It's a lot of fun for them.
Speaker 1: And so because of that, that allowed for those meetings
Speaker 1: to become fun, and also it changed how they viewed budgets. Basically,
Speaker 1: what you're doing is reframing, and you're essentially spinning it
Speaker 1: a little bit too, to make it more fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you can get rid of the negative connotations associated
Speaker 1: with how you view money, how you view budgeting, in
Speaker 1: the ingrained habits that you have that are correlated to
Speaker 1: my me, then you have such a better chance of
Speaker 1: adapting your behavior to make a change that's gonna last
Speaker 1: and it's gonna make a real impact on your financial future.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so many of us have this idea that
Speaker 1: budgets have to be terrible, and a conversation about money
Speaker 1: with our spouse has to be a fight or has
Speaker 1: to be hard, And I think something like the way
Speaker 1: Andy handles it with his wife. The way they approach
Speaker 1: it together, it's a game changer. It's just gonna be
Speaker 1: easier to get together, to actually have that conversation, and
Speaker 1: you're bound to make more progress because you're having fun
Speaker 1: while you're doing it. Do you think that's also why
Speaker 1: we have beer when we have re quod Our episodes?
Speaker 1: Dull oh? Most definitely. It's more fun to talk about
Speaker 1: money when you're having a beer, right, Yeah, Well, I
Speaker 1: mean except for with us. I mean beer and money
Speaker 1: are both fun. So for us, it's like this upward
Speaker 1: spiral of goodness. Yeah, man. And for me, just another
Speaker 1: example of the way I've been able to adapt a
Speaker 1: behavior to to fit my lifestyle is biking to work. Right,
Speaker 1: I don't have the desire to go to the gym
Speaker 1: and workout like it's just honestly, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And so if I don't bike to work, I'm essentially
Speaker 1: not going to get any exercise that week. So biking
Speaker 1: to work. And another thing that I'm trying to implement
Speaker 1: now into my rides is stopping at this point in
Speaker 1: the park where there's a pull up bar, doing a
Speaker 1: few pull ups, hopping back on my bike and keeping
Speaker 1: on riding into work. Look at you, right, I know.
Speaker 1: So it's these kind of things that my boy Joe
Speaker 1: is getting swollen. Yeah, it's gonna be a while, but
Speaker 1: it is just habit, right that I'm trying to develop.
Speaker 1: And it's just one of those things that is so
Speaker 1: much easier if I adapted in the way that's actually
Speaker 1: going to work for me, as opposed to trying to
Speaker 1: fit a square peg in a round hole and doing
Speaker 1: what everyone else says works for them. I have to
Speaker 1: kind of figure out the way that it works for
Speaker 1: me because that's the only way it's actually gonna get done.
Speaker 1: I love that, man. I think that's great, And I
Speaker 1: know that's true for you because I know that you've
Speaker 1: mentioned seeing those dudes before doing pull ups on the
Speaker 1: way to work, and so obviously it's something that resonated
Speaker 1: with you. Right, Like you're riding your bike, you see
Speaker 1: them working out, and it's not that they're doing it
Speaker 1: in public to show off, but like they're utilizing the
Speaker 1: equipment that's there in the park. It's it's equipment that
Speaker 1: the city has installed. It's a part of our landscape.
Speaker 1: It's on the way to work. This is something that
Speaker 1: you want to do, like all these things are lining
Speaker 1: up and makes so much sense to hop off the
Speaker 1: bike do some pull ups versus signing up for a
Speaker 1: gym membership, which you wouldn't take advantage of evidence that
Speaker 1: you'd just be wasting your money. I think that's great. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: So another thing that we would suggest to make meaningful
Speaker 1: habits is to focus on the schedule, not the deadline.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is that the end
Speaker 1: goal can sometimes be really daunting, and instead we want
Speaker 1: you to break those down into bite size steps. Speaking
Speaker 1: of bite size Matt talk, let's talk about meal planning.
Speaker 1: So if you know that you need to be eating
Speaker 1: more meals at home because dining out is crushing your budget,
Speaker 1: You're spending way too much money every month because you
Speaker 1: last minute decide there's nothing in the fridge. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I didn't think it had I didn't plan a meal.
Speaker 1: I I can't cook tonight, and because of that, you
Speaker 1: got to eat well. Meal planning is a game changer.
Speaker 1: It basically gives you the ability to create just a
Speaker 1: couple of steps that are going to help you form
Speaker 1: a habit of being able to eat meals at home.
Speaker 1: So let's say you sit down on Saturday morning to
Speaker 1: map out what you want to eat for the rest
Speaker 1: of the week, and then you do some grocery shopping
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon. You could even make a few of your
Speaker 1: meals for that week on Sunday in order to have
Speaker 1: them ready for the first few days of the week.
Speaker 1: Eat leftovers on Thursday, and make Friday you're going out
Speaker 1: to eat night. Like we just mentioned, adapt this behavior
Speaker 1: to the way that best fits you. But thinking your
Speaker 1: head working on a schedule can allow you to implement
Speaker 1: a habit like this that's going to save you money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: meal planning for the week that sounds like something I
Speaker 1: do not want to do. It's it sounds like a
Speaker 1: task that almost seems insurmountable, But breaking those up into small,
Speaker 1: doable tasks is key to success. But something else to
Speaker 1: consider is what's your plan if you end up failing?
Speaker 1: Right and so, in this example, when you inevitably forgets
Speaker 1: to plan a meal and you end up going out
Speaker 1: to eat, what are you gonna do? Like? What are
Speaker 1: you gonna do next? We think it's important that you
Speaker 1: make in a mantra to make sure to not do
Speaker 1: it twice. You mess up once, but don't be yourself
Speaker 1: up about it. We're human. We make mistakes. I think
Speaker 1: what's important here is that we avoid the trap of perfectionism,
Speaker 1: because oftentimes when we make one mistake, we think, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, that's it, it's over the s throw in
Speaker 1: the towel. I'm not gonna do it anymore, dude. For me,
Speaker 1: this is a serious problem that I have because I
Speaker 1: tend to be very binary, like things are either black
Speaker 1: and white, and so for me, it's hard to identify
Speaker 1: things in the middle, like that kind of gray, murky area.
Speaker 1: And so because that, it's easier for me just to
Speaker 1: say no, I'm either doing this or I'm not doing it,
Speaker 1: yes or no. But guess what, if you're actually trying
Speaker 1: to move forward towards a positive habit, you have to
Speaker 1: get past those small little screw ups and keep moving forward. Yeah, Man,
Speaker 1: if you miss a day of working out or you
Speaker 1: screw up on your diet, it's so easy to go
Speaker 1: down this slippery slope of saying whatever, Man, Okay, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm not doing that anymore. Had a little bit
Speaker 1: ice cream. I guess I'm gonna eat the whole cart exactly.
Speaker 1: That's such an easy that's how I think. It's like,
Speaker 1: no joke, Well, that's such an easy thing for us
Speaker 1: to do as humans. I think all of us, right,
Speaker 1: you me, any of us, even I feel like we're
Speaker 1: completely different in this. I see the whole world in
Speaker 1: shades of gray. I'm not very black and white. But still,
Speaker 1: at the same time, if I were to mess up
Speaker 1: at something that I'm trying to do, it's really easy
Speaker 1: for me to go down a path of saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, Okay, I guess I'm just giving in. And
Speaker 1: I think it's an inherently human trait. And so we
Speaker 1: have to be able to a forgive ourselves and be
Speaker 1: get back on the horse. So we have to kind
Speaker 1: of have a plan for what we do when we fail.
Speaker 1: And if you can devise a method for getting yourself
Speaker 1: back on the horse, Let's say, if you did go
Speaker 1: out to eat let's say three times that week and
Speaker 1: he totally screwed up on meal planning, if you have
Speaker 1: a reset button that you can hit that helps you
Speaker 1: that following Saturday to actually make sure that the next
Speaker 1: week is different. That's crucial in establishing habits and making
Speaker 1: sure that you kind of hit that sixty day length
Speaker 1: of time that we're shooting for in order to make
Speaker 1: sure that that habit sticks for the long term. All right, Joel,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about some more ways that you can
Speaker 1: make good financial habits that will help determine a healthy
Speaker 1: financial future, including one that involves your best buddy. Oh,
Speaker 1: I know, best buddy right across from me. Uh, let's
Speaker 1: stick around, all right, Matt, Well back, we're talking about
Speaker 1: financial habits. And we mentioned early on that habits becoming
Speaker 1: grain the small things we do day after day, they
Speaker 1: shape who we are, They shape who we become. And
Speaker 1: so sometimes creating a good habit might mean breaking a
Speaker 1: bad one. And I can't say the words breaking in
Speaker 1: bad in the same sentence. You're gonna do this without
Speaker 1: referencing my favorite television show of all time, probably That
Speaker 1: and Arrested Development top two. And apparently Netflix is making
Speaker 1: a new movie, a Breaking Bad movie, which I'm a
Speaker 1: little worried about. I gotta be honest, because those five
Speaker 1: seasons of Breaking Bad, we're kind of under perfection, and
Speaker 1: I know there's a chance that they might ruin it.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that doesn't happen. But the problem there, though,
Speaker 1: is didn't you just recently cancel Netflix, So you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to sign up for that new customer sign up
Speaker 1: bonus where you get to not pay for six months, right,
Speaker 1: just because you're a new member. But I don't think
Speaker 1: Netflix has a six month free trial, but hey, you
Speaker 1: can give it a shot. If they did, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 1: Just put a new email addressing there. They won't know
Speaker 1: the difference. I think it's like seven I think it's
Speaker 1: like seven days. But okay, seven days whatever, seven days,
Speaker 1: six months, it's all the same to me. I'll remember
Speaker 1: I don't understand time, all right. So the key to
Speaker 1: breaking bad habits is replacement. Let's take, for example, on
Speaker 1: line spending that that might be a bad habit for you.
Speaker 1: Often there's a queue and a craving associated with that habit,
Speaker 1: and you get a rush by purchasing something online. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have a tendency to browse the internet for deals
Speaker 1: when you've had a bad day, and so instead of
Speaker 1: hopping on the internet and buying some things to compensate
Speaker 1: for having a tough day, we'll maybe replace it with
Speaker 1: a text to an old friend or colleague that you've
Speaker 1: meant to keep in touch with, instead of doing something
Speaker 1: negative and that also affects your finances in a bad way.
Speaker 1: What you're doing is you're replacing that with something positive,
Speaker 1: with a conversation, with relationship building. So much of getting
Speaker 1: rid of bad habits is replacement. It's taking out the bad,
Speaker 1: replacing it with something good. And then the next time
Speaker 1: that q hits, the next time you have a bad day,
Speaker 1: you instantaneously, based on habit, decide to text or call
Speaker 1: someone that you care about instead of the negative reaction
Speaker 1: that you previously pursued. And the added bonus of that too,
Speaker 1: is it kind of pulls you out of yourself, right,
Speaker 1: Like instead of just you being focused on your own
Speaker 1: stuff and your own things and your own money, you're
Speaker 1: doing something positive that's kind of outward facing. And I
Speaker 1: love that. I mean, in an obvious non financial example
Speaker 1: to you, man, is I'm thinking of like smoking, right,
Speaker 1: anyone that's trying to quit smoking, it's hard to actually
Speaker 1: quit cold turkey. Isn't that why a lot of times
Speaker 1: previous smokers like they chew a lot of gum, Because
Speaker 1: like you need sort of like that oral fixation, something
Speaker 1: there to replace that habit, something there that you can
Speaker 1: kind of revert to anytime you sort of feel that urge,
Speaker 1: it's more natural and easier just to slot in that
Speaker 1: new habit. Yeah. Trying to kick that habit cold turkey
Speaker 1: and not offering any sort of replacement for yourself, well,
Speaker 1: it just makes kicking the bad habit so much harder. Man.
Speaker 1: In one of the best ways to solidify positive financial
Speaker 1: habits is to consider joining up with a friend, right,
Speaker 1: join forces were stronger together, you mean specifically, buddy, because
Speaker 1: we we hold each other accountable. Right, I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: a non financial example is working out. You hear of
Speaker 1: the benefits of cross fit, and not just cross fit,
Speaker 1: but any type of working out. Any time you're able
Speaker 1: to do a behavior like that with a friend, with
Speaker 1: somebody that's gonna hold you accountable, with someone you have
Speaker 1: to answer to, there's a much better chance of you succeeding.
Speaker 1: While initially that might start out as sort of this
Speaker 1: external pressure, over time, once those habits form, it becomes internalized,
Speaker 1: and that accountability just becomes icing on top. At that point,
Speaker 1: it's just a bonus. Yeah, Man, our friendship we've been
Speaker 1: able to to spare each other on as we discuss
Speaker 1: different money topics. Right, And doing something with a friend
Speaker 1: can just make swallowing that pill so much easier. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, let's say monthly money meetings. If you have
Speaker 1: a partner, looking at the previous month's income and planning
Speaker 1: the next month's expenses together in a monthly money meeting
Speaker 1: is so helpful. It's such a good habit to develop together,
Speaker 1: not just the monthly monotony of making it happen, but
Speaker 1: but dreaming big and beginning to talk about money with
Speaker 1: your partner is crucial to dreaming big about the goals
Speaker 1: that you have and then setting about achieving those goals.
Speaker 1: And if the two of you have the same focus,
Speaker 1: if you are set in the same direction, the chances
Speaker 1: of you achieving the goal that you've set out towards together, man,
Speaker 1: there's just such a greater chance of it happening. That's
Speaker 1: true in like a marriage or a long term partnership.
Speaker 1: And it can also be true if you're attempting your
Speaker 1: own goal but you have someone else there to to
Speaker 1: back you up who is also shooting for the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing. And if sharing with a friend makes
Speaker 1: you maybe a little bit uncomfortable, well just know that
Speaker 1: you're not alone. They are probably pretty nervous too, but
Speaker 1: challenging yourself to have more meaningful conversations can lead to
Speaker 1: a deeper friendship in addition to having those strong financial habits.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that we've all seen that with the various
Speaker 1: types of relationships we have. Anytime we're able to dive deeper, right,
Speaker 1: and we're we're not just staying on the surface. It
Speaker 1: just leads to a better outcome in general. All Right, Matt,
Speaker 1: I want to know what is the financial habit that
Speaker 1: you've implemented in your life that has made the most difference. Man,
Speaker 1: You know, I feel that I should say that teaming
Speaker 1: up with a buddy, right, I feel like you're setting
Speaker 1: me up here. You don't have to say that. You
Speaker 1: don't have to say that pressure because like it's true though,
Speaker 1: like you and me being able to have these money conversations,
Speaker 1: that's why we started this podcast. Every time we got together,
Speaker 1: we're talking about our finances, We're talking talking about personal finance,
Speaker 1: we're talking about ways that we can hopefully be frugal
Speaker 1: and not cheat. Those have all been ways that have
Speaker 1: made this way more fun. But for me, man, the
Speaker 1: thing that has had the largest impact is not only
Speaker 1: tracking my spending, but budgeting every single month. Having started
Speaker 1: that over a decade ago, I can't imagine this sort
Speaker 1: of compounding benefits that I've realized over the years by
Speaker 1: being able to whip my finances into shape by giving
Speaker 1: every single dollar a name. For me and Kate, that
Speaker 1: truly has been life changing for us. But yeah, what
Speaker 1: about you? Yeah, I mean, I think, honestly, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to sound altruistic or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: for me, giving away a portion of what we have
Speaker 1: every single month and creating the habit of doing that
Speaker 1: has really helped my attachment to money, because I think
Speaker 1: I mentioned this on the show before, I had like
Speaker 1: an unhealthy attachment towards money. I think for a while
Speaker 1: I was overly frugal and tried to hang on to
Speaker 1: everything I got, and so developing a habit of giving
Speaker 1: away a portion of what I had helped me to
Speaker 1: see money in a better light as the tool that
Speaker 1: it is and as something that can be used in
Speaker 1: a positive way in the lives of people around me.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I think that's honestly been the
Speaker 1: most important money habit that I've developed over the years.
Speaker 1: But I know it's gonna be different for everyone, and
Speaker 1: so I think there are a lot of good things
Speaker 1: for people to to strive towards based on what we've
Speaker 1: talked about in this episode, and I hope this is
Speaker 1: helpful as people try to implement money habits into their
Speaker 1: lives to create a more robust financial future for themselves.
Speaker 1: You know, this has been a fun episode, but the
Speaker 1: fund is not over. I'm gonna kick it back to
Speaker 1: the beer because we're gonna talk about the Heaty Topper
Speaker 1: that you and I were able to share. This is
Speaker 1: by the Alchemists and donated to the show by Cameron
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta. He lives over on the West Side.
Speaker 1: He said, Man, he's over there by the money Like Garage.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of great breweries that are popping up
Speaker 1: over there. So so Cameron, I'm a little jealous of you,
Speaker 1: but thank you so much for donating this beer to
Speaker 1: the show. Joel, what were your thoughts on hetty Topper? Well, first,
Speaker 1: I have to say we deliberately disobeyed the Alchemist's orders.
Speaker 1: On the top of the can, it says drink from
Speaker 1: the can, and you know what, we poured it in
Speaker 1: a glass. So we gotta share these though we're we're
Speaker 1: rebels without a cost. Dude, I feel bad, but I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be passing this can back and forth. So
Speaker 1: we definitely we definitely poured the beer. But it was
Speaker 1: really good. Man. This was a somewhat floral I p
Speaker 1: a fruit forward in my opinion, but with no fruit
Speaker 1: in it. It's just the hops giving it those fruit
Speaker 1: and notes. And it had this really nice slightly bitter
Speaker 1: finished not overly bitter. It was just a super well
Speaker 1: rounded I p A that had just a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of flavor, a beer that you can tell that was
Speaker 1: just brewed with a lot of passion. It truly is
Speaker 1: an epic beer, no wonder it's got a cult following.
Speaker 1: And this was super tasty. Yeah, this is a legendary beer.
Speaker 1: The hot presence that it had, it really was wave
Speaker 1: after a wave of different hot flavors. When I first
Speaker 1: took the sip, I think I made three different uh Like,
Speaker 1: there's just these multiple waves of flavor that kind of
Speaker 1: cascaded onto my tongue and I love that. With it
Speaker 1: being a double, I felt like it was pretty bitter,
Speaker 1: but it was super balanced at the same time. There
Speaker 1: was just that a lot of that hot flavor going on.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. It did almost have sort of a
Speaker 1: fruit eatness to it, but it was like a fruity
Speaker 1: dankness that I was picking up from the hops. Yeah, Joel,
Speaker 1: this was a great one. I'm really happy that we
Speaker 1: were able to share this one together on the podcast.
Speaker 1: So do you have some final thoughts for us? Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: financial habits such an important conversation, and just really quickly,
Speaker 1: just want to remind folks that it's important to figure
Speaker 1: out which financial habits you want to prioritize and then
Speaker 1: take meaningful steps to implementing those habits. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: start easy, don't bite off more than you can chew,
Speaker 1: so that those habits actually stick and they don't fall
Speaker 1: by the wayside. Yeah, and then don't forget to join
Speaker 1: up with a buddy. When you have that accountability there
Speaker 1: for you, you're going to be much more likely to
Speaker 1: achieve your financial goals. So, Joel Man, that's gonna be it.
Speaker 1: I think for this episode, this has been a fun one.
Speaker 1: You can find our show notes up on our website
Speaker 1: at how to money dot com. Yeah, and if you've
Speaker 1: been listening to the show for a while and you
Speaker 1: found it helpful. We would love it if you would
Speaker 1: consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,