Speaker 1: Episode forty two, Personal Finance Basics. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity,
Speaker 1: and live with your life. Here your host Jen and
Speaker 1: Jill Do. Hello, guys, welcome to another Frugal Friends Friday.
Speaker 1: I'm Jen, this is Jill. We're excited for another episode
Speaker 1: with you. Guys. We are known for talking about all
Speaker 1: things frugality, saving money. That's our thing. That's why you
Speaker 1: listen to us. You knew that. And we don't feel
Speaker 1: the need to be all things to all people. And
Speaker 1: I was looking on podcasts on Apple and Stitcher, and
Speaker 1: I was looking around and I did see one glaring
Speaker 1: omission from these podcast episodes, and it was just good,
Speaker 1: solid episode on personal finance one oh one. Everybody wants
Speaker 1: to go into investing basics and all these kind of
Speaker 1: like what they call one oh one but really is
Speaker 1: two oh one. And so we really wanted to bring
Speaker 1: it home today and talk about what you need to
Speaker 1: understand and care about to thrive financially, because frugality isn't
Speaker 1: the only thing. And if this doesn't mean we're going
Speaker 1: to start talking about like more retirement and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: If we did you know, we'd cover in a fruitent way,
Speaker 1: but we really want to go through the basics for
Speaker 1: anybody that might be stumbling upon this podcast and and
Speaker 1: really just want to know the foundations of what they
Speaker 1: need to care about. And then if you know the foundations,
Speaker 1: then you can go off and get your extend education elsewhere.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're doing today. Are you excited, Jill?
Speaker 1: I love building blocks, you know, the building blocks of
Speaker 1: personal finance, the building blocks at nursery schools that you
Speaker 1: can build and then push them down, just all versions.
Speaker 1: So of course I'm excited. I knew you would be.
Speaker 1: So let's get into our sponsors first and then we'll
Speaker 1: dive into these articles. And our first sponsor is modern
Speaker 1: frugality dot com and that is my blogging website, and
Speaker 1: I've got a ton of free and low cost printables,
Speaker 1: resources and e books uh to help you with frugality, specifically,
Speaker 1: so reducing your spending, minimizing your stuff, organizing meal planning,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and so whatever you're looking for in
Speaker 1: saving money in frugality, I've probably got a little bit
Speaker 1: to offer, just a little, not a lot, but a little.
Speaker 1: So if you head over to Modern frugality dot com
Speaker 1: or shop dot Modern frugality dot com. You're going to
Speaker 1: get fifty percent off any purchase with the code frugal
Speaker 1: Friends nineteen and that never expires. And I am constantly
Speaker 1: adding new planners and then also just free printable, so
Speaker 1: even if you don't buy anything, you still get a
Speaker 1: lot of freebees over there. So head over check it out. Fantastic.
Speaker 1: I love off and this episode is also brought to
Speaker 1: you by refusing to reward bad behavior. It's an age
Speaker 1: old parenting technique, but it also applies in many other circumstances. Take,
Speaker 1: for instance, the area where I live. We have nothing around.
Speaker 1: We've got no mountains, no legs, no oceans, no sweet parks,
Speaker 1: and every other building in our kind of downtown quote
Speaker 1: unquote area is like abandoned, and yet the property taxes
Speaker 1: are astronomical. What's the girl to do? I am going
Speaker 1: to refuse to reward bad behavior by not buying or
Speaker 1: renting in this area. Instead, I'm going to live in
Speaker 1: an RV. That'll get them. This can also be done
Speaker 1: at work, at home, when you're out with friends. If
Speaker 1: someone misbehaves, don't give in. Try it out. Refusing to
Speaker 1: reward bad behavior. It works on kids and adults. Oh man, um, hey,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should have reviewed the sponsor before
Speaker 1: we started the episode. I'm on a tangent these days,
Speaker 1: like I am so done with the area that we
Speaker 1: live in, but this is like I do want to
Speaker 1: be here. It just it's way too expensive. You should
Speaker 1: see how expensive it is for what you get your
Speaker 1: Your property taxes are super bad. So I get it.
Speaker 1: Until they learn their lesson, I'm not exactly and moving on.
Speaker 1: What a good sponsor, Yeah, what a great one. So
Speaker 1: we have two articles for you today and they more
Speaker 1: or less sady the same thing, but they word it differently.
Speaker 1: So I still thought it was a good idea to
Speaker 1: showcase both because one's wording might resonate with you more
Speaker 1: than the other. Uh So, our first one today is
Speaker 1: from the Balance dot com and it is financial planning
Speaker 1: Basics Personal Finance one oh one. And so sometimes when
Speaker 1: people hear the word financial planning, they get really anxious.
Speaker 1: And yes, there's definitely a reason for you to feel
Speaker 1: anxious about that, because sometimes financial planning can be associated
Speaker 1: with financial planners who are sometimes not the most honest
Speaker 1: and upstanding people. That yeah, because there are a lot
Speaker 1: of really good ones, and we'll talk about how to
Speaker 1: find one of those later, but it's yeah, so there's
Speaker 1: definitely a reason to be weary when you hear financial planning,
Speaker 1: but all it really is it is the concepts of
Speaker 1: personal finance, which a financial planner is supposed to go
Speaker 1: over with you, but sometimes they have other motives, so
Speaker 1: learn it yourself first, and that way you can discern
Speaker 1: whether somebody is trying to sell you something or really
Speaker 1: trying to help you. And so that's another reason it's
Speaker 1: important to learn these basics so that you can vet
Speaker 1: people and whatever financial wisdom they're trying to give you.
Speaker 1: And this is always the frugal way, right finding out
Speaker 1: for ourselves, problem solving, learning, digging deeper, just handing over
Speaker 1: our wallet for someone else to figure it out. So
Speaker 1: we should all be familiar with this process for sure.
Speaker 1: And there are five different basics on this article and
Speaker 1: the first one is of course budgeting. We need to
Speaker 1: understand the concept of budgeting, and we just had a
Speaker 1: budgeting episode recently that everybody loves, so you definitely check
Speaker 1: that out if you want to learn more about that. Um, Jill,
Speaker 1: what do you feel about budgeting? I? Think it's great,
Speaker 1: and I liked what they said here about creating a
Speaker 1: detailed and written budget. It sounds so simple and obvious,
Speaker 1: but I do think sometimes we can think that we
Speaker 1: have our budget in our heads, like, no, I'm good,
Speaker 1: I know I know about how much I can spend.
Speaker 1: But reality is that your mind isn't accurately tracking how
Speaker 1: much you're spending. You could think you only spent two dollars,
Speaker 1: but you actually spent five. Good think you have fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars to spend, but you actually have seven fifty to spend.
Speaker 1: So it's just really good practice. It's best practice to
Speaker 1: actually have it written down, don't just think you know
Speaker 1: it in your head and then go about willie nilly
Speaker 1: with your credit card. Yeah. I love that this was
Speaker 1: number one, because so many people will just jump straight
Speaker 1: to number two or three without getting number one, and
Speaker 1: I'm definitely guilty of that. I've tried to learn and
Speaker 1: master other parts of personal finance while ignoring a budget.
Speaker 1: But there's a reason that it's the first thing on
Speaker 1: this list, and you'll see it's it's pretty much the
Speaker 1: first thing on the necklace too. But using a budget
Speaker 1: to plan your spending is so much more effective than
Speaker 1: just using an app to track it. So really understanding
Speaker 1: how you budget and what kind of budgets are out
Speaker 1: there and and all of that stuff, that is definitely
Speaker 1: goal number one. It'll connect to more with your money,
Speaker 1: to know what you want to do with it when
Speaker 1: you have a bit more ownership of it. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so once you have mastered that, you don't really need
Speaker 1: to master it. You just need to like start doing it,
Speaker 1: because no one's mastered it, to be honest, nobody has
Speaker 1: really mastered the budget. We move on to number two,
Speaker 1: which is cutting expenses, and that's where we come in.
Speaker 1: That's so good at that we know all about this, Yes,
Speaker 1: so I also love that. Um And in full disclosure
Speaker 1: on this particular list, it's not get a side hustle
Speaker 1: and try and boost your income so that you're spending
Speaker 1: in your budget meets your income. It's no try to
Speaker 1: stop spending as much like really look at your expenses
Speaker 1: and try and cut them, figure out where you can
Speaker 1: let go. And so many of our episodes talk about
Speaker 1: this as well, how to cut bills and lots of
Speaker 1: other things, so definitely check those out. But this is
Speaker 1: another foundational peace as far as financial planning basics. Go.
Speaker 1: Learning how to do this and sticking to it is
Speaker 1: really vital in longevity for your financial success. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I was recently on a podcast where they asked me
Speaker 1: like essentially why I was frugal or why I chanted
Speaker 1: to be frugal, and and it's because, like I have decided,
Speaker 1: I don't want to try and out earn my spending.
Speaker 1: I would rather work less, have more freedom in my
Speaker 1: schedule and and be more flexible and not have to
Speaker 1: worry about out earning all of my mindless spending and
Speaker 1: the short thrills that impulse buying has versus like all
Speaker 1: of the boredom that comes from like sitting at a
Speaker 1: job that you don't like. The reality is that even
Speaker 1: if you do start earning more money, then you will
Speaker 1: rise to meet that Usually if you don't have a budget,
Speaker 1: if you're not actively trying to cut expenses, then you
Speaker 1: will feel that inside yourself of oh, well, now I
Speaker 1: can afford to do this and this and this. So
Speaker 1: where it was typically lots of stupid target purchases, now
Speaker 1: it's really expensive restaurants and this and that. So I
Speaker 1: think that it's a good practice regardless of how much
Speaker 1: money you earn, because it can still get out of
Speaker 1: hand in any bracket in which you land. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: The third one is getting out of debt. And these
Speaker 1: are all super boring so far. They are not sexy. Really,
Speaker 1: I got excited about it. Oh you did? I did, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: get out of debt, see you later debt. Yes, there
Speaker 1: are all kinds of sexy ways you can pay off debt,
Speaker 1: like the debt avalanche or the debt snowball. Like it
Speaker 1: sounds dangerous but I know, but it's really just getting
Speaker 1: rid of the problem that you accumulated before you had
Speaker 1: a budget and you cut your spending. So first you're
Speaker 1: setting the foundation of Okay, now I want to change
Speaker 1: and I want to do well with personal finance. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna set the foundation of budgeting and cutting my expenses.
Speaker 1: And then only after you've done that you set yourself
Speaker 1: up for success. Will you have the knowledge and the
Speaker 1: resources to do number three, which is get out of debt.
Speaker 1: And this is a really easy one for people to
Speaker 1: jump to first. I I would say that I jumped
Speaker 1: to this one first when I was paying off debt.
Speaker 1: How how do you feel, Jill? Definitely, because it's the
Speaker 1: most glaring, it's the most weighty that you just, at
Speaker 1: least for me, I wanted it gone, so I didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily think through well, oh, budgeting, I mean cutting expenses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of an obvious one if you want to
Speaker 1: get out of debt quickly. But my focus was getting
Speaker 1: out of debt, not necessarily on these other pieces that
Speaker 1: are going to last me beyond being out of debt.
Speaker 1: Even once you're out of debt, you're still gonna need
Speaker 1: to know how to budget and cut expenses. So yeah,
Speaker 1: they go hand in hand, but I don't think that
Speaker 1: one is necessarily better than the other. But I like
Speaker 1: the access this is laying out of get good at
Speaker 1: a budget when when you when you try to put
Speaker 1: get out of debt first, you get really discouraged by
Speaker 1: how slowly it goes, and then trying to master these
Speaker 1: other things can be really difficult because you're focusing on
Speaker 1: them out of order. M hmm. I like to say
Speaker 1: it's not sexy, but it's solid, like these are this
Speaker 1: is the order that things should go in. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of guests on our show who have paid
Speaker 1: off debt, and they will all say that their budget
Speaker 1: was essential and they will all have ways, very unique
Speaker 1: ways that they cut their expenses to free up money
Speaker 1: to pay off debt. It doesn't have to take forever.
Speaker 1: It's not like you have to be budgeting for a
Speaker 1: year and then cutting expenses for a year before you
Speaker 1: are able to get out of debt. It will happen simultaneously.
Speaker 1: But those things are necessary tools in the toolbox for
Speaker 1: this goal of being debt free, right because side and
Speaker 1: side hustles are nice to help you become debt free,
Speaker 1: but they're usually very low paying and you have to
Speaker 1: put a lot of hours in and if you're trying
Speaker 1: to do something that's more passive, then that takes a
Speaker 1: build up period. So even while you're paying off debt,
Speaker 1: that's probably not making you as much money as it
Speaker 1: will when you are debt free, which has been my
Speaker 1: personal experience. So again, that's why the first two are
Speaker 1: so important, and they come before the third and then
Speaker 1: number four, which I love, is saving for retirement. And
Speaker 1: a lot of people will ask how much should I
Speaker 1: be saving for retirement? What's the minimum? Yah YadA, YadA YadA,
Speaker 1: Where should I be saving? What kind of accounts should
Speaker 1: I have? And we do have an episode called investing
Speaker 1: for frugal folks with specifically says how to invest if
Speaker 1: you are more the frugal type. But point blank, you
Speaker 1: don't have to get really complicated and saving for retirement.
Speaker 1: Retirement is not about picking stocks. Picking stocks is for
Speaker 1: people that like that sort of thing. Um, saving for
Speaker 1: retirement is very simple and should be very set it
Speaker 1: and forget it. Mm hmm. Yeah. I think that's a
Speaker 1: great tip, gen because I think people can there's barriers
Speaker 1: to saving for retirement if it starts to feel complicated,
Speaker 1: like paying off debt. Okay, yeah, that's a goal that
Speaker 1: I can accomplish, might take a while, might might be
Speaker 1: a lot of work, might be a little overwhelming. But
Speaker 1: the saving root for retirement piece feels a little bit
Speaker 1: like trying to find your way through weeds, probably because
Speaker 1: of what people can make it seem to be that
Speaker 1: you need know all this stuff about investing, but really
Speaker 1: it can be as simple as putting away twenty bucks
Speaker 1: out of your paycheck every two weeks and start there.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that's going to set you up incredibly,
Speaker 1: but it is a start thing. Like don't don't not
Speaker 1: do that thing just because it's it seems too complicated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't settle for that, but you can start with it.
Speaker 1: So some of the basics that you should know about
Speaker 1: saving for retirement are your your four oh one K
Speaker 1: or four oh three B and your IRA are probably
Speaker 1: your most common and important savings vehicles. So most people
Speaker 1: have a four oh one K or four three B
Speaker 1: through their work and most of the time it will
Speaker 1: have a match. So we say, go get that match
Speaker 1: and then go with an IRA because you can more
Speaker 1: easily pick what's in there. And one of the hard
Speaker 1: things about like choosing your own retirement account is that,
Speaker 1: like when you're paying off debt, you have one, maybe
Speaker 1: a two or three creditors, you don't have to choose
Speaker 1: between thousands of index funds and dozens of companies on
Speaker 1: like where to pay off debt, but that you do
Speaker 1: essentially when you invest companies like Vanguard and Schwab and Fidelity,
Speaker 1: really good companies, and then just going with a really
Speaker 1: low cost index fund so that you don't pay so
Speaker 1: many fees and you don't need to pay somebody to
Speaker 1: get those you can access them yourself. So just putting
Speaker 1: those putting low cost index funds in your retirement accounts.
Speaker 1: I like Total Stock Market because it gives you a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything. But if you really want to
Speaker 1: know more about investing and saving for retirement, I recommend
Speaker 1: this Simple Path to Wealth by Jail Collins. It is
Speaker 1: a great book. And then also check out the interview
Speaker 1: we did with Jim Wong on investing for frugal folks.
Speaker 1: But so, yeah, not a lot you need to know.
Speaker 1: Everything I said could sound complicated if you have no
Speaker 1: clue what I'm saying. I don't understand the words that
Speaker 1: are coming out your mouth. Yeah, but that's really it.
Speaker 1: Like having two accounts with like two index funds each
Speaker 1: in them, make me the same funds that you have
Speaker 1: in one that are in the other. If you're you know,
Speaker 1: if your employer offers the same ones that you want
Speaker 1: to pick outside, and that's and that's it. And there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other things we can go into
Speaker 1: with like pensions and total security that are very individualized,
Speaker 1: but for the general population, Yeah, we're talking basics of
Speaker 1: financial planning. So this is something that you would need
Speaker 1: to be thinking about in this process. So I know
Speaker 1: that it exists. If you're still in debt, focus on
Speaker 1: getting out of debt, but know that saving for retirement
Speaker 1: is part of this plan. Correct. And then the last
Speaker 1: part that a lot of people tend to look over,
Speaker 1: uh is insurance, and being properly insured is the safety
Speaker 1: net you have to make sure these first four things
Speaker 1: that you've done are are not going to come crashing
Speaker 1: in your face because they can ruin like all of
Speaker 1: your financial plans. So being properly insured with life insurance,
Speaker 1: disability insurance, homeowners insurance or renters insurance, and then whatever
Speaker 1: other insurance makes you feel safe. But those are the
Speaker 1: big three. Yeah. I was surprised to see insurance on
Speaker 1: this list because I kind of thought that it was
Speaker 1: a given, and like you have to have homeowners insurance
Speaker 1: and different things like that. I would not have previously
Speaker 1: thought of this as a financial basic, but yeah, some
Speaker 1: people don't have to have homeowners insurns. And actually I
Speaker 1: will add health insurance to this because it's no longer required.
Speaker 1: But so yeah, life, health, disability, and homeowners protect all
Speaker 1: of your big investments, meaning yourself, your loved ones, your house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Eric is a big investment, so better he leaves, then
Speaker 1: I better cash in at least, right I know? And um,
Speaker 1: I have found when shopping for life insurance that currently
Speaker 1: have in life UM has the lowest rates and I
Speaker 1: am they do not sponsor or affiliate with me UM.
Speaker 1: I just have Haven Life Insurance. Uh. And they're backed
Speaker 1: by Mass Mutual, so they are who I currently recommend. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a little plug for them, I know, a free plug.
Speaker 1: But hey, if they want a sponsor, come on in.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I think it's a good overview the five
Speaker 1: basics on that one. I liked this next next article,
Speaker 1: This one spoke to me a bit more. It does.
Speaker 1: It does speak a little more, so we will we'll
Speaker 1: fly through this a little faster since we went so
Speaker 1: deep into the other one. But this one's from the
Speaker 1: Simple Dollar and it's everything you really needed to know
Speaker 1: about personal finance on the back of five business cards,
Speaker 1: which was fun. Yeah, and uh, he has little drawings.
Speaker 1: You should definitely check out the article because he does
Speaker 1: draw them on the back of his so fun. It
Speaker 1: helps me for those of you who don't like to
Speaker 1: read and you're a little bit more visual, you've got pictures. Yes,
Speaker 1: So his number one tip for personal finance, Uh, the
Speaker 1: basics is spend less than you earn and groundbreaking. He's
Speaker 1: got a little picture which with stacks of money that
Speaker 1: says how much you make and then how much you
Speaker 1: spend is a little smaller, and then at the bottom
Speaker 1: is the gap. And the goal is to make that
Speaker 1: gap as big as you can, so, meaning that you
Speaker 1: spend far less than what you make, so that you've
Speaker 1: got a big amount of money that you can throw
Speaker 1: at these other things that you want to throw it at,
Speaker 1: whether it be paying down debt or saving for retirement
Speaker 1: or I don't know, putting it into insurance plans. Of
Speaker 1: that's the thing for sure. Yeah, and uh so, yes,
Speaker 1: spend less than you earn. What a concept and if
Speaker 1: it's if we all got it, we'd all be okay, right.
Speaker 1: It sounds so simple, But this is the reason why
Speaker 1: we have so many financial difficulties is that we don't
Speaker 1: do this. And I understand that for some this isn't possible.
Speaker 1: You're not making enough to just live even a simple life.
Speaker 1: And so we'll talk about that a bit more about
Speaker 1: how you can make more money, because that's no place
Speaker 1: to live. But if if you bring in sixty k year,
Speaker 1: don't live off of sixty k a year, don't make
Speaker 1: all of your bills, sixt k, live off of thirty k. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if that seems impossible, live off fifty k one year,
Speaker 1: and then go fort k the next, and then try
Speaker 1: thirty k the next year, and maybe you go up
Speaker 1: to forty five. I don't know. Who just doesn't like
Speaker 1: a challenge. And so the next one he puts on here,
Speaker 1: number two is earn more. And I love that he
Speaker 1: included this um even though I love that the first
Speaker 1: one didn't, because it is good reminder that sometimes we'll
Speaker 1: just go through life and we will settle for one
Speaker 1: to three percent raises and that's our quote unquote earning more.
Speaker 1: But people who are really success successful long term don't
Speaker 1: rely on raises. They do these things. And he lists
Speaker 1: six things um ways to increase your income, and I
Speaker 1: loved It's like start aside business, add more income streams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then some really creative one and I don't know
Speaker 1: if creative is the right word, but non traditional things
Speaker 1: under how you can earn more? So yeah, I cant
Speaker 1: you know, increase your education that might put you into
Speaker 1: a different earning bracket. More streams of income a k
Speaker 1: A side hustles. But also he lists here moving towards
Speaker 1: your passions, which I found interesting, And I think what
Speaker 1: he's saying here is linking that with you are going
Speaker 1: to be more motivated to put in more effort to
Speaker 1: do things maybe well or better than you might do
Speaker 1: something that you don't care that much about, and so
Speaker 1: you're earning potential might increase just because you're doing something
Speaker 1: that you like. So I liked that. But also not
Speaker 1: burning bridges, which is fantastic, because yes, that can be
Speaker 1: a reason that we are able to earn more or
Speaker 1: move into different fields, or or stay in our field
Speaker 1: but move to different businesses or organizations because we haven't
Speaker 1: burned bridges. We've networked and we've kept in touch, and
Speaker 1: we haven't been a jerk. In fact, maybe we've been
Speaker 1: kind even could you imagine, yet still not rewarding bad behavior. No, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I loved. I loved his last two were essentially networking,
Speaker 1: because yeah, that's the way most people get jobs and
Speaker 1: your promotions and different opportunities is from people they know.
Speaker 1: So so as fun as those videos are online of
Speaker 1: people walking out of their jobs and like lighting the
Speaker 1: place on fire, don't do that. It's so short excited
Speaker 1: to think that you're never going to see those people again.
Speaker 1: You'll never need a reference from them. You're never gonna
Speaker 1: need to work again in your life or whatever. Like,
Speaker 1: it's so emotionally driven and it's fun to circulate the internet,
Speaker 1: but in reality, that's not a good way to live
Speaker 1: your life. You're you're not gonna earn more money if
Speaker 1: you're storming out of McDonald's and lighting the place on
Speaker 1: fire as you leave, you know you're probably gonna get
Speaker 1: sued and and lose all your money at that point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right. And number three, while I think it's out
Speaker 1: of order and it should have been number two, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to complain. Is live frugal? Oh yeah, we
Speaker 1: like that one. Yes, And he gives five different tips
Speaker 1: or things to remember basically when you think of frugality. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I like these ones obviously. It's maximize every dollar.
Speaker 1: Habits of all kinds are dangerous. So don't let yourself
Speaker 1: get in any habits like that you haven't tried to implement.
Speaker 1: Don't let your body just like create habits for you.
Speaker 1: I do chew gum. That is a habit of mine.
Speaker 1: I can't kick it. Yeah, I just tell myself it's
Speaker 1: less than cigarettes. So you don't chew gum while we
Speaker 1: do the podcast. I don't know where you get to
Speaker 1: not chew it. I drink water though, yeah. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then don't make yourself miserable. We're also all about that.
Speaker 1: And don't forget the big picture. Yes, that all right,
Speaker 1: keeping the goals in mind, the why, that's basically the why.
Speaker 1: I out a post recently about budgeting, and I had
Speaker 1: a line in it that said, budgeting without a goal
Speaker 1: is basically making a spreadsheet that tells you to have
Speaker 1: less fun. And both of my editors emailed me later
Speaker 1: and they're they're like, this line is gold. That is gold. Yes,
Speaker 1: I knew we'd do big things together, big things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so know your why, know your goal, don't forget it,
Speaker 1: don't lose the tree in the forest. What makes this
Speaker 1: whole thing fun? Mm hmm. Number four is manage your money.
Speaker 1: And that includes paying off the debt, building an emergency fund,
Speaker 1: doing the retirement, saving for college, investing. Yes, and and
Speaker 1: he goes into a little more depth on like the
Speaker 1: order you should do all this in the order you
Speaker 1: should pay off debt, all this stuff. So if you
Speaker 1: are interested in that, definitely head over to the article
Speaker 1: He's a really good drawer. I mean, for it being
Speaker 1: on the back of a business card. I really like
Speaker 1: looking at the stacks of money. It's please it's good
Speaker 1: at drawing. Stacks of money is real. And we will
Speaker 1: have these articles linked in our show notes in case
Speaker 1: you want to look at these stacks of money and
Speaker 1: get inspired. But this last card has a mountain on
Speaker 1: it and it says control your own destiny in all
Speaker 1: caps with three exclamation marks. And I love this One's
Speaker 1: probably my favorite out of everything because it's what's really important, right, Like,
Speaker 1: why are we doing this personal finance thing if not
Speaker 1: to have control of our destinies. Yeah, that's destiny. Sounds
Speaker 1: a little bit too extreme for me, but maybe future.
Speaker 1: Yeah that I get to decide what that is. And
Speaker 1: I like how he's listing here that it's not about
Speaker 1: being rich, and we say that this whole time, that
Speaker 1: this is not the goal is just like, get be
Speaker 1: frugal so you can get rich. It's a certain lifestyle
Speaker 1: that we are saying, even if you are super rich,
Speaker 1: still live below that and decide what you want to
Speaker 1: do with your money. It's a all about freedom, which
Speaker 1: I I of course, will always be preaching that one
Speaker 1: that it's it's how you want your finances to look,
Speaker 1: your family life to look, your giving potential to look.
Speaker 1: You get to use these tools that we are talking
Speaker 1: about to figure out what it's going to be in
Speaker 1: your own life. It's not one path that everybody's got
Speaker 1: to get on and it's got to look this certain way.
Speaker 1: It's it's freedom, baby, mm hmm. Yes, And all of
Speaker 1: these things are about giving you the options to do
Speaker 1: what you want. You don't have to do all the
Speaker 1: things that that maybe traditionally you've been told you have
Speaker 1: to do. You can kind of make your own way
Speaker 1: if you have the financial means to get there. And
Speaker 1: financial means doesn't mean you have to make six figures.
Speaker 1: It means you just need to figure out what financial
Speaker 1: situation you have to be in to afford whatever your
Speaker 1: destiny or your future or your passion looks like. M
Speaker 1: hm m hmm. And it's not going to look the same.
Speaker 1: My future is not the same as yours. Jen. I
Speaker 1: hate to break it to you. I wish that our
Speaker 1: futures led us together and we could be together forever.
Speaker 1: With the way it's going up here in the North,
Speaker 1: with the crazy taxes and the cold weather. You never know.
Speaker 1: I know this has been a week for you to
Speaker 1: but you know what would make this week better? What
Speaker 1: the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for
Speaker 1: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 1: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 1: off your mortgage, maybe your car died, and you're happy
Speaker 1: to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill,
Speaker 1: Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 1: So here I am. This is Jill. I realized just
Speaker 1: the other day. I should have had this realization a
Speaker 1: much long, much longer time ago. That's not a saying
Speaker 1: whatever we're going with it. I am a bill sort
Speaker 1: of speak. So my nickname growing up, given to me
Speaker 1: by my grandmother is Jilly Willy And if you really
Speaker 1: were to like like the full the full on one
Speaker 1: is silly Jilly Willie from Philly. They thought they were
Speaker 1: so creative. I hated it. Any time that they would
Speaker 1: call me that, I hated it. But then it ended
Speaker 1: up just getting shortened to my grandmother calling me Willie,
Speaker 1: which you know, no one else called me that. Please
Speaker 1: don't or say that in public. But yeah, my nickname
Speaker 1: is Willie, and that is a form of bill, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: or bill will Willie would be short for William, which
Speaker 1: then Bill comes out of William. It's a stretch, okay,
Speaker 1: But like track with me here, I we're tracking, I
Speaker 1: me sitting in front of you and the bill. You're
Speaker 1: listening to a bill bill all the week. Congratulations. It
Speaker 1: took some mental gymnastics to get there, but I think
Speaker 1: it counts, y'all. This is what happens when our Bill
Speaker 1: of the week tank is empty. So is this a
Speaker 1: cautionary I thought it was fantastic. If you want to
Speaker 1: stop Jill from calling herself Willie, then you need to
Speaker 1: head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and
Speaker 1: give us anything that's similar or hopefully better than that
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. You can record
Speaker 1: it right on your desktop or leave us a voicemail
Speaker 1: please all right, Oh yeah, I'll concede. Yes, please do
Speaker 1: I do. I love you, Jill, and thanks Jen. I'm
Speaker 1: glad for your support and your smiles, despite despite my
Speaker 1: being silly and sitting here in Philly. I know you're
Speaker 1: you're going a little delirious in there. I did a
Speaker 1: lot of painting today and I think the fumes are
Speaker 1: getting to me. Yeah, yeah, we'll go with that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing more really that we have, So we
Speaker 1: wanted to just leave you with some final thoughts. And
Speaker 1: it is a hotly debated topic in personal finance, and
Speaker 1: it is when I struggled with coming out the gate.
Speaker 1: And I will give you my opinion on it, and
Speaker 1: Jill will give you hers, and it'll be called the
Speaker 1: lightning Round, the Lightning Round, and we'll actually talk about
Speaker 1: really slowly. But the question is, and we will also
Speaker 1: post this in our Facebook community group, the Frugal Friends community.
Speaker 1: Should you spend less or make more? That's what it
Speaker 1: comes down to. And I wonder can you or should
Speaker 1: you out earn your spending or should you cut it
Speaker 1: to the core wherever you landed on this. So I
Speaker 1: thought about this in that recent podcast interview. I did,
Speaker 1: and I realized that paying off debt is what inspired
Speaker 1: me to be more frugal, but it is not the
Speaker 1: reason I became frugal or desired it. It was kind
Speaker 1: of like a means to an like. I knew I
Speaker 1: had to do it, but I didn't want to. So
Speaker 1: right out the gate, I tried to get more side hustles,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't even look for ways I could cut
Speaker 1: my spending, negotiate my bills whatever. No, I went to
Speaker 1: the internet and I looked for side hustles because I
Speaker 1: really wanted to out earn my spending, because I didn't
Speaker 1: think my spending was crazy, so why would I try
Speaker 1: and cut my spending? And then I took on all
Speaker 1: these side hustles and I got shingles. Oh two months
Speaker 1: in yeah, two months, and I got shingles, A pain
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. That is when
Speaker 1: I realized that I don't want to out earn my spending.
Speaker 1: I would rather spend nothing then go through the stress
Speaker 1: of working to get all these things or working to
Speaker 1: pay off debt. And I would rather live very frugally
Speaker 1: and minimally and have freedom from freedom from earning, freedom
Speaker 1: from the pressure to earn, freedom from stuff, freedom from
Speaker 1: all that instead of trying to you know, have one
Speaker 1: of these income reports on my blog that says I
Speaker 1: made six figures. So are you landing more so on
Speaker 1: the spend less side of this argument, I am, Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's doesn't mean I'm not trying to earn more. I'm
Speaker 1: definitely always trying to earn more, but I am never
Speaker 1: prioritizing it over living my life calmly, stress free, enjoying
Speaker 1: it all that stuff. That stuff always takes priority, and
Speaker 1: I will cut expenses before I stress myself out to
Speaker 1: earn more. Well, I mean, who can argue with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, when you knew what are what our answers
Speaker 1: were going to be. But yeah, because I don't know
Speaker 1: what what more to say. Although I do think for me,
Speaker 1: I'm a both and kind of person rather than an
Speaker 1: either or so I like both for me. Of course,
Speaker 1: there is a cap to that. And if you were
Speaker 1: to say which is better which to put more time,
Speaker 1: energy and effort into pursuing, Yeah, you you'd put me
Speaker 1: into a corner of saying spend less. I do think
Speaker 1: that there's just a lot greater benefits self realization, uh determination,
Speaker 1: discipline that comes alongside of spending less versus just making
Speaker 1: more and making more, like you said, can bring on
Speaker 1: a lot of stress unnecessarily. That being said, I also
Speaker 1: think though, that we go in and out of seasons
Speaker 1: of this. At least that's been my experience of There
Speaker 1: are times when I am more focused on spending less
Speaker 1: in times when I am focused on making more, and
Speaker 1: it really depends on what my current circumstances are doing
Speaker 1: um and what I am able to take on. But
Speaker 1: then I might step out of that, like right now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going pretty hard at making more to get
Speaker 1: at some of these financial goals, but I'm still maintaining
Speaker 1: spending less. It just as kind of I think my
Speaker 1: focus shifts a little bit sometimes to different categories. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think our answer is both. It is both.
Speaker 1: If you packed me into a corner, i'd say focus
Speaker 1: on spending less, but I do. I think seasons can
Speaker 1: go in and out. And if you can do both
Speaker 1: at the same time, my goodness hats off to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll be better for it. Those are and I mean
Speaker 1: and essentially that is the basics of personal finance. Spend
Speaker 1: less than what you earn and increase the gap. And
Speaker 1: if you can just get the things that we've talked
Speaker 1: about in this episode, you don't really need much more
Speaker 1: unless you find yourself nerding out about it, and then
Speaker 1: you can go way way further. But if you don't
Speaker 1: find yourself geek out about it, then you don't have
Speaker 1: to stress yourself that there's this whole world that you
Speaker 1: don't know about, um, because you don't necessarily need to.
Speaker 1: There's just some basics, some core foundational principles and products
Speaker 1: that you need. And and after that, it's all kind
Speaker 1: of icing on the cake. I like icing on the cake.
Speaker 1: Anything to add gile. I would add some chocolate sauce
Speaker 1: to that, or ice cream. Oh, ice cream for sure.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the ice cream would be. It
Speaker 1: would be the entrepreneurship is the ice cream. I just
Speaker 1: picked a flavor. Yeah, it's very vanilla at this point.
Speaker 1: So that's that's it for episode today. Um, it's February
Speaker 1: now and we are switching up books for book club
Speaker 1: we're meeting. We're reading Meet the Frugal Woods by Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Willard Thames. So excited about this one. It is fantastic.
Speaker 1: And we are still doing our thing where we're given
Speaker 1: a free copy to anyone who leaves us a review.
Speaker 1: I mean, we do a drawing. It's not everybody, but
Speaker 1: you can be entered to win the free book of
Speaker 1: this Meet the Frugal Woods by leaving us a review
Speaker 1: on iTunes or Stitcher or ever. You listen to this
Speaker 1: podcast and then screenshot that review and send it to
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com so we can
Speaker 1: verify that you did it, and then we'll select the
Speaker 1: winners at the end of the month and get you
Speaker 1: your free book. Yes, and if you want to know
Speaker 1: an example of a really great review, we read one
Speaker 1: here every week and this week's is from Pippin Pop. Yes,
Speaker 1: it says, what a great show, so nice to learn
Speaker 1: new tips and tricks and consider things previously not considered.
Speaker 1: Budgeting is hard. Thanks for making it fun. Every Friday,
Speaker 1: fantastic short sweep to point five stars. That person might
Speaker 1: win a book. Who knows. Yeah, we just hit a
Speaker 1: hundred reviews, so that's an exciting milestone for us. It
Speaker 1: is ten years in there. Thank you so much, guys,
Speaker 1: and our thank you is giving you free books. So
Speaker 1: keep going with it. Go go go. So this has
Speaker 1: been fun and I'm I've enjoyed building with our building blocks.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to go do this thing. So we will
Speaker 1: see you guys next week. Alright, bye guys. Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria.