Speaker 1: Episode to forty eight, Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob
Speaker 1: and Linda Lodick. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where
Speaker 1: you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live rich
Speaker 1: your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: simplicity in finances, something that we absolutely love with some
Speaker 1: good friends of ours. Keeping it uncomplicated is what we love.
Speaker 1: Anytime we can clear the fluff, the better, and Bob
Speaker 1: and Linda are perfect people to talk to about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this isn't going to be a really good episode.
Speaker 1: Some really high level stuff. So just like the idea
Speaker 1: of practicing money with simplicity, but also really practical stuff
Speaker 1: that you can implement today. Um, including a one category
Speaker 1: budget that I'm kind of obsessed with. Very interesting. Have
Speaker 1: not heard this concept on our show before, although it
Speaker 1: won't be out of nowhere either, so keep listening in
Speaker 1: for more of that. Mm hmm. But first, our sponsors
Speaker 1: two episodes a week. Most of life is complicated, We're
Speaker 1: keeping it simple. Y'all already know this. We're doing two
Speaker 1: episodes a week. We got nothing else to sell to
Speaker 1: you other than just keep tuning in Tuesday, Friday, Tuesday Friday,
Speaker 1: keep it going, keep it simple, keep it keep it fresh,
Speaker 1: keep it fun, keep it frugal, keep it friends. If
Speaker 1: you're not happy, email us and we'll give you a
Speaker 1: refund invested you'll send right back too. Yeah. I like
Speaker 1: saying that behind the scenes, but I thought i'd give
Speaker 1: it a try on the air, and uh, I like
Speaker 1: it just as much. It made me uncomfortable, and that's
Speaker 1: how you know. Yeah. Uh so this is a This
Speaker 1: is an episode not just about simplicity, but also about um,
Speaker 1: generosity and purpose. Uh And so if you love the
Speaker 1: idea of those things, then a few other episodes you
Speaker 1: can queue up to play after this um our episode
Speaker 1: with Jordan Grummit about money and life lessons from a
Speaker 1: hospice doctor um episode to seven, That one's really really great,
Speaker 1: um Jordan is amazing, and then episode to twenty one,
Speaker 1: Your Generosity, Purpose and Eternal Economy with Derek Kinney. We
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about Derek in the interview because
Speaker 1: are there's so much alignment with what we're all doing,
Speaker 1: and both Bob and Linda and Derek are all amazing people.
Speaker 1: So we love to have amazing people on and introduce
Speaker 1: you to amazing people that are doing amazing things. Uh So,
Speaker 1: if you like that, just subscribe to the podcast and
Speaker 1: keep listening to all two episodes every week, episodes a week, baby,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we're on YouTube. Yeah, but let's get into
Speaker 1: the interview. Yeah. So, UM, Bob and Linda Lodick are
Speaker 1: the founders of seed time dot com and they're the
Speaker 1: host of the seed Time Money podcast. UM and they
Speaker 1: have been doing this. Bob specifically is a personal finance
Speaker 1: coach who's been doing who's been coaching people and writing
Speaker 1: about personal finance for about fifteen years. UM. And so
Speaker 1: they do it mostly in the Christian in faith based space,
Speaker 1: but all of their wisdom flows over to no matter um,
Speaker 1: what faith you practice. And they are amazing givers. They
Speaker 1: are amazing savers, amazing earners. Just you'll hear what I
Speaker 1: mean by all of this in the interview. But they
Speaker 1: have a mass. Bob has amassed all of his lessons
Speaker 1: of UM learning personal finance and coaching it for the
Speaker 1: past fifteen years into his new book, Simple Money, Rich Life,
Speaker 1: and you will hear like wisdom nuggets from his wife
Speaker 1: Linda throughout the book. Who um they describe her. He's
Speaker 1: like a certified personal financial finance coach and she's a
Speaker 1: certified um money spender, and so you'll hear her wisdom
Speaker 1: throughout the book as well, making sure the book remains
Speaker 1: attainable no matter how much background you have in personal finance.
Speaker 1: So we had a really great interview with them, and
Speaker 1: we are so excited to share it with you. Let's
Speaker 1: do it, Bob, Linda, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: We briefed you slightly, and I think that we've sufficiently
Speaker 1: freaked you out for how in hence today is going
Speaker 1: to be Uh, so glad that you're still on the call.
Speaker 1: We're still here. We're excited, and we're looking forward to
Speaker 1: all the curve balls you can throw. It's it's not
Speaker 1: just curveballs, it's yelling. It's but it'll be fun. It'll
Speaker 1: be fun yelling all day by three kids. So I'm prepared.
Speaker 1: I feel ready good. Oh perfect, Those kids. Kids are
Speaker 1: good for something, right, They are all right, So let's
Speaker 1: jump in. I you there's so much we could talk
Speaker 1: to you guys about. But um, thankfully you've distilled so
Speaker 1: much of it into um, your new book, Simple Money,
Speaker 1: Rich Life, that we have a good guide for where
Speaker 1: we want to go. Um, but I would really love
Speaker 1: to know. Like, so the personal finance space, especially in
Speaker 1: like the Christian literature field, it's kind of saturated, So like,
Speaker 1: why did you write Simple Money, Rich Life? And how
Speaker 1: is it different from what's already out there? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think for us, our approach is um while it's saturated,
Speaker 1: I think our approach is different In a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: We lead with a grace field approach. I think towards
Speaker 1: money that um, you know, he isn't always seen. And yeah,
Speaker 1: in some ways this book is written to Bob, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, and in some ways it's written to
Speaker 1: me fifteen years ago, and me being someone who has
Speaker 1: absolutely no introduction into finance and not knowing anything about it. Like,
Speaker 1: we have it super simple so that I can understand
Speaker 1: it because there's so many people and people have made
Speaker 1: it so complicated for so long that people like me,
Speaker 1: like a young girl in her twenties, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just not smart enough to figure this out. And
Speaker 1: that's just not true. It's not accurate. And so Bob
Speaker 1: kind of has walked me through so much that it
Speaker 1: just was like I didn't know I needed to know this,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, it feels like people who don't like
Speaker 1: money books or who don't read money books can get
Speaker 1: a lot out of this and not feel stupid the
Speaker 1: whole time. Do you know what I mean? Yeah? So,
Speaker 1: I mean, so that's part of it. But the simplicity component,
Speaker 1: it's not elementary, but it is simple, you know. I
Speaker 1: think it was Einstein who said, like, if you can't
Speaker 1: explain it simple, you don't understand it well enough, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And so I conslute an accusation
Speaker 1: to a lot of you know, highbrow personal finance stuff
Speaker 1: that's out there. But anyway, so that's part of it.
Speaker 1: And then the other part is just, you know, God's
Speaker 1: just done a really crazy thing in our lives, and
Speaker 1: we want an opportunity to share our journey as an
Speaker 1: inspiration to other people of you know how when he
Speaker 1: gets involved in your finances, it becomes a game cheeter,
Speaker 1: a very very different thing. It is unfortunate what you're saying,
Speaker 1: that there's not much out there that is simple and
Speaker 1: full of race and that lack of shame peace, You
Speaker 1: would hope that you would find that in what has
Speaker 1: become maybe a complicated topic or an overwhelming topic. So
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you're in this space, and especially
Speaker 1: coming from the perspective of what would I have wanted
Speaker 1: to know fifteen years ago? I think that's a great
Speaker 1: place for any educator, influence, or person in any expert
Speaker 1: space to to say, well, what would have been helpful
Speaker 1: for me fifteen years ago, and let's start there. Those
Speaker 1: are the resources that I want, yeah, because I mean
Speaker 1: we're not exempt, like we were the ones that it
Speaker 1: was like we were stumbling around trying to figure this
Speaker 1: out and we were absolute message absolute. It's like, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people fall into that category.
Speaker 1: I think it's very rare to find someone whose parents
Speaker 1: taught them how to manage their money growing up, or
Speaker 1: you know, found it from another resource. And so if
Speaker 1: we were in that and the majority falls into that,
Speaker 1: why would be why would we be ashamed or making
Speaker 1: people feel ashamed of themselves for not ever learning something
Speaker 1: and they're trying to learn it as an adult, Like
Speaker 1: why should we be Why why should we feel weird
Speaker 1: about it? Why don't we just go okay? I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna learn about this. It's like everything else, you know,
Speaker 1: and ultimately we're all drawn to simplicity. No matter where
Speaker 1: we found ourselves in our understanding or knowledge, we all
Speaker 1: end up either beginning or coming back to this point
Speaker 1: of Okay, let's just simplify it. So to that point obviously,
Speaker 1: that's that's the main part of your title, Simple Money,
Speaker 1: Rich Life. And and to speak to specifically that simple part,
Speaker 1: you outline this four part formula that you use to
Speaker 1: in order to find financial freedom. Can you walk us
Speaker 1: through that formula? Yeah, So it comes from a John
Speaker 1: Wesley old preacher from a couple years ago. He had
Speaker 1: this quote that I've always loved where he said, I
Speaker 1: earn as much money as I can, which is pretty
Speaker 1: funny here in pre sure say that like intentionally I
Speaker 1: earned as much money as I can. But the reason
Speaker 1: he did that, and he goes on to say, I
Speaker 1: save or I reduce my expenses as much as I can,
Speaker 1: and I do both of those things so that I
Speaker 1: can give as much as I can. And so he
Speaker 1: saw his purpose on earth, as you know, through speaking
Speaker 1: and writing, like his two natural gifts that he had,
Speaker 1: he could impact the world through those, but then as
Speaker 1: he earned money from those, he could take that money
Speaker 1: and then again impact the world again in another way.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, it's we always resonated with me
Speaker 1: and Um, that kind of became the foundation of the book.
Speaker 1: And so we broke the book up in the four
Speaker 1: different parts. So we have this section all dedicated to
Speaker 1: earning and using your God given talents to advance your career,
Speaker 1: advance your business, help and serve people better. And typically
Speaker 1: the money follows that, and the other part, UM really
Speaker 1: like the frugality component, the reducing expenses, the spending money wisely,
Speaker 1: all this part becomes the safe part. Then we just
Speaker 1: talked about how we've grown who love giving and it's
Speaker 1: become one of our favorite things that we do when
Speaker 1: we both kind of came from, I think, having a
Speaker 1: background of having bad influences in terms of giving and
Speaker 1: having lots of negative experiences. So we've learned to make
Speaker 1: that fun. And then the fourth part is about enjoying it,
Speaker 1: enjoying the money that we have, enjoying spending not feeling
Speaker 1: guilty about it. Yeah, And is enjoying earning the process
Speaker 1: of earning money and then enjoying giving too. Yeah. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: It reminds me we had Derrek Kinney on a few
Speaker 1: months ago and also kind of yeah, kind of like
Speaker 1: I wasn't super familiar with him, but like opened my
Speaker 1: eyes to the joy of like earning to give and
Speaker 1: like earning to kind of further whatever your passions are.
Speaker 1: So like, you may not have as much time in
Speaker 1: your adult life as you did when you were in
Speaker 1: your like late teens, early twenties, but you can just
Speaker 1: channel that and you can still have like these passions
Speaker 1: and these desires to lens and give back, but you
Speaker 1: can do it in a different way, a way that's
Speaker 1: more appropriate for where you are in life, and that
Speaker 1: can make earning enjoyable. And I just I love that
Speaker 1: you're reiterated, like reiterating that concept in this like fresh
Speaker 1: way too. Yeah. I know, I love Derek. He's a
Speaker 1: good guy. We um. Yeah, we we have a whole
Speaker 1: a whole lot in common what we're trying to communicate.
Speaker 1: It aligns so much with what we talk about as
Speaker 1: well related to frugality, in that being a good steward
Speaker 1: of all of our resources, and that good stewardship doesn't
Speaker 1: just mean being stingy. It never means that actually hoarding
Speaker 1: or just doing something because it's cheap, but steward ing
Speaker 1: it well. And a lot of times that means investing
Speaker 1: our time, energy resources wisely, for generosity, for enjoyment, for
Speaker 1: our own futures, and when we do it well, none
Speaker 1: of the need to be neglected. And I love that
Speaker 1: message of what you're saying. It's not just so that
Speaker 1: I can just give to everybody else and I can
Speaker 1: come across as a martyr. Or it's not just so
Speaker 1: that I can live my best life, or it's not
Speaker 1: just so that I can hoard all this money. It's
Speaker 1: these collective goals that can happen simultaneously as I grow
Speaker 1: my skill set and I'm focused on earning more so
Speaker 1: that I can invest more. You know, you quote John Wesley.
Speaker 1: I think it was Spider Man's father who said, with
Speaker 1: with great power comes great responsibity. Wee girl, it was
Speaker 1: his uncle. Oh, it's fine, it's fine, I've got you
Speaker 1: fellow nerds here for you, his father figure who was
Speaker 1: his father figure. No matter who said it, it's this
Speaker 1: message of invest well. If you've been given in something,
Speaker 1: a skill set, money, all of it be a good
Speaker 1: steward of it and and see how we can give
Speaker 1: back and enjoy life. I love those things simultaneously. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think there's kind of this. There's two sides
Speaker 1: of this where it's like either you just work, work, work,
Speaker 1: and you just are miserable and you just get it
Speaker 1: done and do the thing that you're supposed to do,
Speaker 1: or this this there's this side of like, well I
Speaker 1: just don't feel like it, so I'm not gonna do
Speaker 1: it type of thing. And really I feel like both
Speaker 1: are completely out of balance. And it's a it's an
Speaker 1: invitation from the Lord saying, hey, I've given you these
Speaker 1: things that come easy to you, that are that come
Speaker 1: more difficulty or with more difficulty to others, and you
Speaker 1: can take those things and use them to bless others,
Speaker 1: have fun while you're doing it, enjoy it. And it's
Speaker 1: it's you're actually giving to others. And I don't know
Speaker 1: why it's so hard to see it that way. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, my upbringing, I remember my dad was like,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna work. You're gonna work, work, work, you know,
Speaker 1: and it caused me to go, well, I just don't
Speaker 1: like it. I don't want to, so I would pull
Speaker 1: away from that, whereas it's neither of those, Like there's
Speaker 1: something in the middle of God going hey, we do
Speaker 1: you want to join me in doing this thing that
Speaker 1: you really enjoy that this other person doesn't and will
Speaker 1: bless them a ton? You know? Yeah, I think ultimately
Speaker 1: there's a balance here that I I love that. I
Speaker 1: think we've discovered financially that um, the proper place of giving,
Speaker 1: the proper place of spending time earning. You know that
Speaker 1: they're just the balance of all this stuff. There's a
Speaker 1: there's sweet spot, you know if I like, you have
Speaker 1: a then diagram like right in the middle where you
Speaker 1: can have this really balanced, healthy life and really enjoy
Speaker 1: life to the fullest. And that's what we're after, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love something like in the radical middle. You see
Speaker 1: the radical middle all the time because everyone lives in
Speaker 1: these extremes of work work work, or like don't work
Speaker 1: at all yellow. But there, I mean, life is in
Speaker 1: the middle. It's and people that doesn't go viral on
Speaker 1: Instagram or TikTok, the radical health does that go viral? Um,
Speaker 1: But it's where the joy is. It's where the sustainable
Speaker 1: joy is. I think, well, it's standing out to me
Speaker 1: that that is where the less complicated lifestyle exists, where
Speaker 1: there's the convergence of what I enjoy with what the
Speaker 1: need is around me, where my need and skill set
Speaker 1: could like all these different points that are converging, and
Speaker 1: that ven diagram that you're describing, that shaded area. And
Speaker 1: I think life can get more complicated when we are
Speaker 1: doing the things that are not joyful or within our
Speaker 1: skill set and and aren't producing the money. But you're
Speaker 1: kind of encouraging us to find this joy filled, purposeful
Speaker 1: point that is life giving earns us money and provides
Speaker 1: to those around us. I mean, gosh, yes, if we
Speaker 1: could all find that now amazing. Yeah, that's the goal,
Speaker 1: you know, And we talked about this in the book.
Speaker 1: But like, this isn't like for me, this took many
Speaker 1: years to get out of being a job that I hated,
Speaker 1: that it was soul sucking and it was just terrible.
Speaker 1: This wasn't a oh I'm gonna do that tomorrow, everything perfect.
Speaker 1: It took me a long time, and I think it
Speaker 1: takes a lot of people a long time. But but
Speaker 1: I guess my encouragement is for anybody in that situation,
Speaker 1: like it's worth the fight that don't don't stop trying, um,
Speaker 1: because even though it might take a long time, UM,
Speaker 1: it's worth it when you get into that spot. Like
Speaker 1: I remember another Einstein quote he said, uh, and I
Speaker 1: love this. This has stuck with me so long. He said,
Speaker 1: when you judge a fish by his ability to climb
Speaker 1: a tree, um, or if you judge a fish by
Speaker 1: his ability country, he'll spend his whole life thinking that
Speaker 1: he's stupid. And and I think we have so much
Speaker 1: of that going on our society, where we're all uniquely
Speaker 1: gifted to do different things, but we have a system,
Speaker 1: whatever education system or work system or whatever, that tries
Speaker 1: to fit us all into the square holes or these
Speaker 1: round holes or whatever. And and there's something really unique
Speaker 1: and special about when you get in line with your
Speaker 1: natural gifts and use them where it's just like everything
Speaker 1: just starts amplifying. It's like you're on roller skates going
Speaker 1: downhill with the wind of your back, you know, versus
Speaker 1: trying to climate tree as a fish, you know, or
Speaker 1: whatever the analogy is. And so that's what I'm encouraging
Speaker 1: people just to continue to chase after yeah, because that
Speaker 1: is the hardest part I think I am and I
Speaker 1: have a several friends and one husband who are currently
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what is that for me like now,
Speaker 1: because it can change too and so it's really hard
Speaker 1: and it's not something that can be done overnight. Takes
Speaker 1: a lot of reflection, intentional reflection to figure out, like
Speaker 1: what what are my skills and gifts, What are the
Speaker 1: ones that I enjoy doing? What are the ones that
Speaker 1: can make me money? Or maybe if I don't think
Speaker 1: they can make me money, how can I get creative
Speaker 1: and brains storm? So this is like a process that
Speaker 1: I think, even if you're not actively looking for new work,
Speaker 1: that it's it's very much worth always being aware of
Speaker 1: in yourself for the day when it comes that maybe
Speaker 1: your desires do change, because that happens to so many
Speaker 1: people I know too. Like we're getting to this point
Speaker 1: in my life where friends are like switching careers and
Speaker 1: it was not because the one they chose, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was I don't know, maybe they made a wrong decision,
Speaker 1: But like I think for the most part, it's not
Speaker 1: because they made a wrong decision, is just because they've
Speaker 1: grown and they've I don't want to say like evolved,
Speaker 1: but like just changed as we all do, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely a novel idea to do what you
Speaker 1: love and get paid for it. But it's an idea
Speaker 1: that takes work. And I think we're all like living
Speaker 1: proof that if you do the work, you can find
Speaker 1: that for sure. Yeah, and I mean and we all
Speaker 1: know that there's never been a better time in the
Speaker 1: history of the world to be able to do that,
Speaker 1: to be able to take your unique passion and turn
Speaker 1: it into an income. Like I was just on a
Speaker 1: YouTube channel the other day. I was our toil was
Speaker 1: messed up, and I was trying to like YouTube a
Speaker 1: how to fix the thing or whatever. Found some dude
Speaker 1: who's a plumber who had six million YouTube subscribers, and
Speaker 1: I was I was talking to somebody else about him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, listen, six million YouTube subscribers, even decent ads
Speaker 1: on there. I promise you this guy is making way
Speaker 1: more from making YouTube videos than he is from his
Speaker 1: plumbing profession, you know. And so it's like there's so
Speaker 1: many different ways, and I think that's what's exciting because
Speaker 1: fifty years ago we didn't have this many options. It's
Speaker 1: like you could have a gifting to do something, and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, that's great and you can still use
Speaker 1: to serve people, but you probably need to make money
Speaker 1: from it, and um so I'm excited about the time
Speaker 1: that we live in just that. Again, while it's not easy,
Speaker 1: while um yeah, it's not a simple path or a
Speaker 1: really simple thing to do, uh, it is worth chasing,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. And I know you talked more abo
Speaker 1: about this in your book, like how to Find Your
Speaker 1: Way and like the digital online making money safe. But
Speaker 1: there's something else in the book that I want you
Speaker 1: to expound on. Can you tell us about the one
Speaker 1: category budget because that sounds great. Yeah, so it sounds
Speaker 1: controversial and we love I'm sure absolutely anything budgeting earlated
Speaker 1: is controversial. Yeah. So this was birth out of really
Speaker 1: me just kind of studying the principle. You know, so
Speaker 1: if anybody doesn't know this whole idea that the results
Speaker 1: or eight percent the results are driven from of the work.
Speaker 1: And so you'll find this everywhere all throughout business. So
Speaker 1: like if you go to Amazon's website, they will find
Speaker 1: that eight percent of the revenues are generated from the
Speaker 1: products there. They remember reading a gym owner who kind
Speaker 1: of concluded that basically eight percent of the results you
Speaker 1: get in the gym are done or received from of
Speaker 1: the time actually spent exercising. And so I began looking
Speaker 1: through all this in our students UM, and I was wondering,
Speaker 1: I wonder if this idea, this concept would apply to
Speaker 1: budgeting anyway, ended up finding that same kind of pattern
Speaker 1: where basically eighty percent of money that we can save
Speaker 1: by budgeting can be attributed back to one or two
Speaker 1: categories for most people. And so out of that, because
Speaker 1: you know, like you guys have probably encountered, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, I don't want to budget. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna budget, blah blah blah, I'm just never gonna
Speaker 1: do it, bubba. You know, they think it's too complicated, things,
Speaker 1: too hard, all these different things. And so we decided
Speaker 1: to start talking to those people, like, all right, what
Speaker 1: if we just had one category that you had to budget,
Speaker 1: and what if we told you'd get eighty percent of
Speaker 1: the results just from doing this one category. And people's
Speaker 1: eyes perked up and everybody's interested. You know, it's like, yes,
Speaker 1: I want eighty percent results with just the work. And
Speaker 1: so so that's how this was born. And essentially what
Speaker 1: it involves is just identifying, UM, what that one category
Speaker 1: is that you typically over spend on it that you
Speaker 1: struggle to rein in your spending. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: no surprise that for most people it's food related, but
Speaker 1: it also might be hobby related. It might be whatever.
Speaker 1: If we're making Amazon dot Com its own category, like
Speaker 1: it could be that um for party years. It might
Speaker 1: be buying alcohol in the weekends, like whatever the thing is.
Speaker 1: But but where's that one category where you just have
Speaker 1: a hard time reining it in? You're like, I want
Speaker 1: to spend three a month and this, but every month
Speaker 1: it's and then identifying that and then putting walls in place,
Speaker 1: um in order to keep you from doing that. And
Speaker 1: so we can dive into that, you may get into
Speaker 1: the nuts and bolts. Yes, we're here to share. We're
Speaker 1: here to share. There's lots of good in the book.
Speaker 1: But we're here to share. We're not gonna I'm here
Speaker 1: to here tool that's all right. So we'll use grocery
Speaker 1: savings or grocery as an example. So this is probably
Speaker 1: our one category story. Yeah, this is a tough one generally,
Speaker 1: and so let's just use an example. Say that we
Speaker 1: decide we realize our groceries is our one categories struggling
Speaker 1: on and we say, all right, we want to spend
Speaker 1: five a month under groceries. We think that's realistic. That
Speaker 1: we keep finding that we're spending six because we just
Speaker 1: go over because we just don't be walls in place.
Speaker 1: And so there's a couple of options of how we
Speaker 1: can handle this. So one option would be literally go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store at the beginning of the month
Speaker 1: when we get paid by a five gift card. As
Speaker 1: soon as we get paid, and that's all we buy
Speaker 1: groceries with for the entire month, Like that's the only
Speaker 1: way we do it. And it's like and so having
Speaker 1: a little bit of a wall to bump up against
Speaker 1: versus just a credit card where there's no wall and
Speaker 1: we just you know, keep on spending. Another option would
Speaker 1: be for the cash lovers, it could be the same thing,
Speaker 1: like literally, go take out five hud dollars cash allah
Speaker 1: the envelope system, throw it near walllet and that's the
Speaker 1: only way you buy groceries. And another approach, which I
Speaker 1: think is what we tend to opt towards, is actually
Speaker 1: opening a separate checking account and again specifically for the
Speaker 1: purposes of groceries and so. And you can do this
Speaker 1: by literally getting a separate debit card account right groceries
Speaker 1: on it or whatever, and that's the only card that
Speaker 1: you used to buy groceries. And so obviously this cannot
Speaker 1: prevent you from spending more than that. But it's amazing
Speaker 1: how these little walls, just that little amount of friction
Speaker 1: that you put in place, can slow you down and
Speaker 1: just force you to hit the brakes and help you
Speaker 1: get closer to that goal of what you're shooting for
Speaker 1: and force you to consider, how how can I stay
Speaker 1: within these boundary lines, these these bumpers when I'm when
Speaker 1: I'm bowling from my groceries. Yeah, and we did this,
Speaker 1: like in the beginning of our marriage, we had forty
Speaker 1: five dollars a week to feed the two of us,
Speaker 1: and it was like, okay, how are we going to
Speaker 1: do this? But we we put our grocer we did
Speaker 1: our grocery grocery budget on a separate debit card, and
Speaker 1: that was how we bought things. And then it was like,
Speaker 1: once it's gone, we either have to figure out where
Speaker 1: else it's going to come from, you know, fast for
Speaker 1: a couple of days, Hey, we can we can live
Speaker 1: for a full week without it. What is it? One
Speaker 1: week about water, two weeks without food. Yeah, inter minute fasting.
Speaker 1: It's like a real diet. Yeah, that people do. I
Speaker 1: love the gift card idea, doing like maybe the different
Speaker 1: weeks on gift cards. It's definitely. I've never been a like,
Speaker 1: never been a fan at least for myself of like
Speaker 1: the cash system, just because I don't like carrying so
Speaker 1: much cash. Yeah, but the gift card seems like a
Speaker 1: really great alternative to really give yourself a hard stop.
Speaker 1: And like, the great thing about these these like like
Speaker 1: barriers and these walls is that you can like lower
Speaker 1: them over time once you build a habit of like
Speaker 1: getting once you get better, you could like, Okay, you're
Speaker 1: not getting the gift cards every week, You're doing it
Speaker 1: on the debit card or or whatever, which is so
Speaker 1: it's great. Yeah, I say the thing that I this
Speaker 1: is particularly ful for someone who doesn't have any budget,
Speaker 1: has no desire to budget. I tried budgeting before. I
Speaker 1: hate that. Like it's just a good on ramp. It's easy,
Speaker 1: it's quick, and it's like and once you start seeing results,
Speaker 1: like you start saving two hundreds a month by doing
Speaker 1: this all right, Okay, I see there's something here. Maybe
Speaker 1: I can take the next step in. You know, although
Speaker 1: I am a huge fan of budgeting, but I never
Speaker 1: was before I married Bob. I was like, this is stupid.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna work. You're trying to put me in
Speaker 1: up frocks and tell me what to do. So if
Speaker 1: you have a problem budgeting, you come talk to me.
Speaker 1: I will one hundred percent convince you that this is
Speaker 1: the best way to live. I really like, I really
Speaker 1: am like this is this is life changing and so
Speaker 1: so good. When done those guarantee, Linda, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot of people coming your way. They want they
Speaker 1: want your We're for real. Yeah, I love it because
Speaker 1: I think what you're describing is getting at some of
Speaker 1: the root of the budgeting issues. It's not as if
Speaker 1: by having a one category budget you're saying you're not
Speaker 1: paying all the other bills. It's just that usually that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily what people struggle with. It's the discretionary categories,
Speaker 1: but not just finding the little petty categories, but the
Speaker 1: big ones. Where is your biggest issue? Which aligns a
Speaker 1: lot with I know Jen talks a lot about the
Speaker 1: one thing, having one goal at a time, So focusing
Speaker 1: on the biggest barrier and how to overcome some of
Speaker 1: the difficulties that you're facing with some very real, tangible tools,
Speaker 1: which does make it sounds so simple, versus, Okay, sit
Speaker 1: down and do this, this and that. You need to
Speaker 1: have twenty five different categories and and maybe that works
Speaker 1: for some people, but if it's not, then here you go.
Speaker 1: Here's a really simple pathway of what's your biggest issue.
Speaker 1: Let's focus on that. We don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: the rest of it exactly, which which is so hard.
Speaker 1: Like that was me. I started with the twenty categories
Speaker 1: and the big old budget, and then I could just
Speaker 1: never stick to it and to hear something like I
Speaker 1: wish I had heard about the one category budget when
Speaker 1: I was starting out, because there's so much freedom in that.
Speaker 1: It's not saying we're disregarding everything. It's saying that we're
Speaker 1: working on the the biggest stressor the biggest struggle. We're
Speaker 1: just gonna work. We're gonna work on that one first,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna worry about the ones that are
Speaker 1: caught like that are costing you a little less than that,
Speaker 1: and then a little less than that one. There's so
Speaker 1: much freedom in that well and that word you just
Speaker 1: said the biggest stressor like that is one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I love having a budget is because I do
Speaker 1: not feel stressed out anymore. I was stressed out all
Speaker 1: the time, and now I'm like, I know exactly what's
Speaker 1: what and I can I can just see everything so
Speaker 1: clearly that I'm not stressed out anymore. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just it's it's the greatest thing. So for the people
Speaker 1: who are listening right now and experiencing this kind of
Speaker 1: epiphany of yes, simplicity is the way to go, and
Speaker 1: I want that and I want to find this purpose
Speaker 1: filled thing I can put my hands to that might
Speaker 1: produce some generosity. What are some of the first steps
Speaker 1: someone could take in designing that life experiencing that reality. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the step that I think comes before this one
Speaker 1: category budget for like all prefaces by saying, I've spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time around money nerds, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't think that this was a thing. I just thought
Speaker 1: all I thought everyone did this just like brushing your
Speaker 1: teeth or whatever. But I've come to realize that's not
Speaker 1: the case, and this that this and I'm referring to
Speaker 1: is actually paying attention to where your money is going, okay,
Speaker 1: And so what I mean by that is there's so
Speaker 1: many people now I've come to understand, who just spend
Speaker 1: money and don't know where it's going, like and it
Speaker 1: just like every single month the money comes in, money
Speaker 1: goes out. It's like I don't really know until I
Speaker 1: can't pay my credit card at the end of months,
Speaker 1: like oh shoot, you know, and that kind of like
Speaker 1: chadic money lifestyle, which is so foreign to me. But
Speaker 1: you know, so the first step out of it, the
Speaker 1: first step out of that is paying attention, okay. And
Speaker 1: so this is the uh if you've ever been to
Speaker 1: um nutritionists and they say start a food journal and
Speaker 1: write down every single thing that you eat. And I've
Speaker 1: done this before, and literally, as soon as you start
Speaker 1: writing down, you start eating better. You don't have to
Speaker 1: try to eat better, you just automatically eat better because
Speaker 1: you're writing it down and you're paying attention to what
Speaker 1: you're putting in your body. And it's the exact same
Speaker 1: thing with our money, you know, like, um, we have
Speaker 1: to be paying attention to where it's going, you know.
Speaker 1: So you can do this right down everything you spend
Speaker 1: like plenty of us have done those exercises in the past,
Speaker 1: and it works like you spend less money when you're
Speaker 1: writing everything down. But for people who don't want to
Speaker 1: write everything down, because I'm not someone who wants to
Speaker 1: do that, Like, there are tools like mint dot com
Speaker 1: or personal capital that you can use in a way
Speaker 1: where you can actually identify, you know, in about ten
Speaker 1: minutes time, going to plug in some information ten minutes time,
Speaker 1: you can see exactly where your money is going for
Speaker 1: the last three months and you can quickly identify because
Speaker 1: so many people think, oh, I spent fives on groceries
Speaker 1: every month, like they think that, but they have no
Speaker 1: idea and then they get in there and they find
Speaker 1: out it's seven or fifty hours every single month. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: I hear this over and over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and uh and so that will growing food away, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So it's like just the whole
Speaker 1: mindset is like they don't understand where it's going, and
Speaker 1: then they start putting the pieces together. And what I
Speaker 1: love about it is it just it gives you information
Speaker 1: because if you're like, well, that's actually just not going
Speaker 1: to change I'm just not willing to change that part
Speaker 1: of my lifestyle. Then it's just good information to have, Okay,
Speaker 1: So then maybe I should look at other things and
Speaker 1: how can I make the allowance for that to be
Speaker 1: my lifestyle? You know what I mean? Well, yeah, And
Speaker 1: one example of this, we're working with a couple kind
Speaker 1: of in a coaching capacity, and they said, um, really
Speaker 1: really dire situation. They are ready to move out of
Speaker 1: their house because things are just too tight and they
Speaker 1: couldn't afford the home that they were in, and so
Speaker 1: they were talking to us as kind of a last
Speaker 1: ditch thing of we need to move out of our house.
Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas? And so I had them
Speaker 1: do this exercise of literally going in I think it
Speaker 1: was personal capital when and sign up there to confirm
Speaker 1: what they suspect they or what they were telling me,
Speaker 1: because I asked them, I'm like, how much do you
Speaker 1: guys spend eating out each month? And I said two hundreds,
Speaker 1: about two hundreds every month. They went into this exercise
Speaker 1: and I sent them an email two weeks later and
Speaker 1: they said, well, we were kind of wrong. We actually
Speaker 1: spent eight hundred dollars a month eating out and I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's such great information because now you can decide, like
Speaker 1: if you really want to eat like you can do that,
Speaker 1: but you need to move, or if you just want
Speaker 1: to eat at home a little bit more like you
Speaker 1: can probably stay in your house. And so it was
Speaker 1: so empowering for them to actually know what was happening.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I think so many people are
Speaker 1: missing out on. Yes, I am so glad that you
Speaker 1: said that, because it's not a it's not a like
Speaker 1: there's no one right way to do it. If you
Speaker 1: value eating out or if you value something and you
Speaker 1: want to keep spending on it, like, there's no like shame,
Speaker 1: and that having the information is just meant to empower you.
Speaker 1: It's not meant to shame you, but it does empower
Speaker 1: you to make the informed decisions. So like maybe I'm
Speaker 1: a foodie and I enjoy my food, but I don't
Speaker 1: need as big of an apartment. I can downsize, Like
Speaker 1: there's no shame or built in that. That's a beautiful realization.
Speaker 1: And you're making values based choices, like but we're can
Speaker 1: we're like conditioned to think there's one right way to
Speaker 1: do it, and it's always cutting you're eating out budget
Speaker 1: or it's always cutting clothes or YadA yadda whatever. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'm very I'm so glad that you like you positioned
Speaker 1: it that way, because I think it does make people
Speaker 1: nervous to like check what they're spending because they think
Speaker 1: then they have to change it like completely. I that
Speaker 1: as a first step too, because like you're highlighting, it's
Speaker 1: very possible that we could assume we know what the
Speaker 1: biggest issue is and where we need to cut spending,
Speaker 1: and we could be totally off. Like in this example,
Speaker 1: they almost moved because they thought housing was the thing
Speaker 1: that was the biggest barrier, and in reality it was
Speaker 1: it was eating out. So before we jumped to that
Speaker 1: very awesome, simple one category budget, we've got to know
Speaker 1: you've got to be aware take inventory to then actually
Speaker 1: know where's the most acute pain point that you actually
Speaker 1: want to rain in. Yeah, exactly, speaking of no one
Speaker 1: right way, a variety of ways to make something real, good, enjoyable, relevant.
Speaker 1: I am really pretty biased on this way though. The
Speaker 1: bill of the week, Right, it's time for the best
Speaker 1: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 1: and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 1: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: this is the bill of the week. I told you
Speaker 1: we would yell at you, but it wouldn't be at you,
Speaker 1: would just be in your direction. So Bob and Linda,
Speaker 1: every week we invite either our listeners or our guests
Speaker 1: to share with us their bill of the week. And UM,
Speaker 1: you've had about a half hour to come up with yours,
Speaker 1: and we would love to hear what you've come up with.
Speaker 1: I got a bill, So Bill, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: the full backstory in this. I had a millionaire mentor
Speaker 1: who was a guitar teacher of mine, UM, jazz guitar
Speaker 1: teacher who taught me to play jazz guitar and I
Speaker 1: and he just did this. He was a retired school teacher, um,
Speaker 1: but he retired a multimillionaire, didn't start investing until he
Speaker 1: was nearly forty. And he was teaching the guitar lessons
Speaker 1: just for fun because he liked doing it. And I
Speaker 1: remember asking him, how did you get so wealthy? Like
Speaker 1: what did you do? Like I don't how do I
Speaker 1: learn this, you know, because I was young twenties and
Speaker 1: really curious, and he's like, all right, i'll take you aside.
Speaker 1: I'll show you everything, I'll teach you everything. So he
Speaker 1: went ahead and just um took me aside and just
Speaker 1: told me everything he did, had done, and how he
Speaker 1: had succeeded financially. And I'm like, this is really really interesting.
Speaker 1: Two things he said outside of the investing things. I
Speaker 1: learned a whole lot about investing from him, But two
Speaker 1: things he said were really interesting. He said, most Americans
Speaker 1: destroy their financial future with basically two categories. Um, one
Speaker 1: is eating out and the other one is the amount
Speaker 1: of money that we spend on cars or transportation as
Speaker 1: a whole. And he staid, of most Americans just cut
Speaker 1: back in those two areas, like could easily retire millionaires.
Speaker 1: And that always stuck with me, you know, I've always
Speaker 1: kept that in mind. But anyway, wrapping all this up,
Speaker 1: his name isn't actually Bill, but I refer to him
Speaker 1: as Bill quite often because um, yeah, I referred him
Speaker 1: as Bill in the book. I referred to him as
Speaker 1: Bill anytime I'm talking publicly about him, because, um, he's
Speaker 1: kind of a private guy and so I don't want
Speaker 1: to keep out his real name, your literal Bill. You
Speaker 1: created Bill? Who created you? Oh? Man? So meta? What
Speaker 1: como Bill? The fictitious Bill millionaire mentor taught you to
Speaker 1: play jazz guitar and spoke about eating out in transportation.
Speaker 1: So many elements to this one. It was a complex bill,
Speaker 1: and you came up with it so quickly. I had.
Speaker 1: As soon as he said Bill, he was ready to go. Man, hilarious.
Speaker 1: Respect that and and and Bill is in the book
Speaker 1: and now tied it up with a nice little bow
Speaker 1: and everything. Yeah, we got it. We got a tip
Speaker 1: in there, We've got a book reference. We got Budget
Speaker 1: America's Budget Killers. Thanks Bill, what a good one. We
Speaker 1: didn't know we were in for. But you do know
Speaker 1: that the actual bills people named Bill, or bills based
Speaker 1: on people are our favorites. So they are you? Really?
Speaker 1: You really hit hit it there. If you all listening
Speaker 1: want to submit your bill, if it's about someone whose
Speaker 1: name is not Bill, you but you've named them Bill
Speaker 1: to protect their identity, or you know anything else related
Speaker 1: to Bill, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill,
Speaker 1: leave us your bill, and now it's time for we
Speaker 1: make our own sound effects on this show blow budget
Speaker 1: about you space spending, and it's not on the sound
Speaker 1: effect on sound effects. Sound effects. Al right, So in
Speaker 1: the lightning round, we all get a bit vulnerable. Um,
Speaker 1: we've got one question and we will all answer and
Speaker 1: ten turns. So, Bob and Linda, what is the worst
Speaker 1: money advice you've ever heard? I got? I get a
Speaker 1: really good one. Okay, I knew you. I thought you would.
Speaker 1: It's really funny that. So it's I'll try to tell
Speaker 1: stories quickly as possible. It's an exact lightning anyway. So
Speaker 1: I'm in the sauna at my gym. I know you're
Speaker 1: going to tell three or four months ago. It's just
Speaker 1: the best I've ever heard. The best bad advice. You
Speaker 1: don't have to speed it up. Let's sauna advice is uh.
Speaker 1: And I'm in there, and anybody who's been in a sauna,
Speaker 1: or at least guys saunas uh. You get in there
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like an elevator. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: do we talk or do we just sitting here in
Speaker 1: silence even though we're close to each other and sweating,
Speaker 1: and like, what do we do? I type of thing.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting in there. There was a guy in there,
Speaker 1: and we're both kind of doing that, like let's just
Speaker 1: be quiet, look at our phones, not talk whatever. And
Speaker 1: and as I'm sitting in the next to him, he
Speaker 1: just starts like grunting, like yeah, you know, like one
Speaker 1: of these it's literally just me and him and did
Speaker 1: this little box. And so I'm like, he definitely wants
Speaker 1: my attention. Um, so I'll bite, Okay, what's going on?
Speaker 1: Like this tells you the type of person he is, right,
Speaker 1: I'm so it's everything I want. Normally, when I want attention,
Speaker 1: I just grunt yea. So he just grunting, high fiving
Speaker 1: himself more or less, and so I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: what's going on? What are you so excited about? He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just made five in two minutes. And I'm like, okay, great,
Speaker 1: tell me more. Like you know, I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: like going along with it. And he anyway tells me
Speaker 1: how he's got some day trading thing or whatever and
Speaker 1: he's just making money whatever hand or fist instantly something.
Speaker 1: And actually, for anybody's really interested, this was during the
Speaker 1: whole um game, stop saying for anybody who's following all that,
Speaker 1: um and uh so it was during that whole thing.
Speaker 1: So that's the first part. And then as we're sitting there,
Speaker 1: young kid comes in. So this this guy, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's probably needs thirties or something. Then a young kid
Speaker 1: comes in, probably young twenties. So that was the three
Speaker 1: of us sitting in there, and somehow my grunting friend
Speaker 1: and then this young kids started kind of talking, and
Speaker 1: grunting guy asked the kid, what do you do for work?
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I deliver pizzas or something. Trying to
Speaker 1: pay a whole bunch of dad. And then guy says, oh,
Speaker 1: that's stupid, man, don't waste your time paying off the desert.
Speaker 1: File bankruptcy, like make it go away, and then like
Speaker 1: it just goes on from there. But it's pretty much
Speaker 1: like file bankruptcy. You'll make it go away and then
Speaker 1: start day trading stocks with me and whatever. Any year
Speaker 1: you're gonna be rich. I was sitting there like ready
Speaker 1: to expand to leave so that he could be like,
Speaker 1: don't do what he said. Whatever you do, don't take
Speaker 1: that advice. But it was definitely like it's like, how
Speaker 1: can I get this recorded and get this on Instagram
Speaker 1: somehow like this is just too unbelievable, like it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just absolutely unbelievable. But the worst advice I've heard so
Speaker 1: far file bankruptcy and day trade with me. You do
Speaker 1: just want to follow those people? Almost romance, I got
Speaker 1: the answer to your problems. I'm sweating in a song
Speaker 1: on grunting. You should follow me, day trade with me,
Speaker 1: day trade, give it all up in day trade with me.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, Oh my gosh. I wish I had a
Speaker 1: story that was that great. Again, you had this one.
Speaker 1: You had like thirty seconds to come up with it,
Speaker 1: not even and yours is already ready to go. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. So mine is that like money managers no
Speaker 1: better than you. So just like give your money to
Speaker 1: a money manager and let them handle it. And that
Speaker 1: was given to me by several people, and I almost
Speaker 1: did it, Like I got as close as like the
Speaker 1: meeting in the office. They're they're reviewing like investment options
Speaker 1: of which there are like three or four, like only
Speaker 1: three or like I think it was four option like
Speaker 1: things that you can choose from, and like I I
Speaker 1: was just looking at this list of all these fees,
Speaker 1: like very few options or customization, and I was like,
Speaker 1: is this the way people do it? Um. I was like,
Speaker 1: this feels like I didn't think this is what this
Speaker 1: would be like. But they're just so confident, like so
Speaker 1: confident that they know what they're doing. And yeah. I
Speaker 1: went to YouTube after that meeting and I was like,
Speaker 1: is this how people do it? And so then I
Speaker 1: was I actually this and this is before personal finance,
Speaker 1: like before I got into this world. And I found
Speaker 1: like a video of actually Paula pant and Joe sulci
Speaker 1: Hi of them talking about Index Fence. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this sounds more like what I thought
Speaker 1: it would be and that I like, and it's a
Speaker 1: lot less expensive than what this guy is selling me.
Speaker 1: And so I called the guy. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you can like manage my husband's portfolio, but like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go out where. He's like, we actually don't do that.
Speaker 1: We manage as a couple. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: then we're both heading out. So yeah, and I was
Speaker 1: I just I thought, that's what you did, that's how
Speaker 1: you invest. You give your money to a person and
Speaker 1: they do it for you. UM. And I have since
Speaker 1: learned that that that is wrong, but they don't know
Speaker 1: better than than you. Yeah, you can make your own decisions.
Speaker 1: What about you, Linda? Do you have any steam room
Speaker 1: or ice backstory? No, I don't have anything that's that good.
Speaker 1: But I do think some of the worst advice is
Speaker 1: you should get it, you deserve it, as that just
Speaker 1: gets told. That's just I think that's an excuse for
Speaker 1: people to just be foolish with their money, and it's
Speaker 1: you just don't deserve it, Like we're living in a
Speaker 1: pretty blessed life and we don't really deserve other stuff
Speaker 1: because we worked hard one day or I don't think
Speaker 1: most people need to hear that. I mean, Jill might
Speaker 1: need to from whatever that is true, but most people,
Speaker 1: most people don't need to hear that. They need to
Speaker 1: hear like it's okay to like not let money burn
Speaker 1: a hole in your pocket. Yeah, mind similar to that, Linda.
Speaker 1: Kind of this idea of yolo. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if people say that anymore you only live once. Kids
Speaker 1: past your own adults are saying it they as kids,
Speaker 1: but still living in that. I think this idea that
Speaker 1: it always is the last and and this concept of oh,
Speaker 1: in one year from now, are you going to look
Speaker 1: back and even miss that five hundred dollars, and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe not, I won't necessarily remember that. But if that's
Speaker 1: the mindset that I'm going through life with and I'm
Speaker 1: just blowing five dollars on this vacation five hundred dollars
Speaker 1: on that gadget, eventually that's going to make a big
Speaker 1: hole in the bucket. I think if I've planned for it,
Speaker 1: and this is something I really want to do, then
Speaker 1: that's great. I can have the freedom to spend it.
Speaker 1: But this kind of constant over rolling over of oh
Speaker 1: I won't miss it two years from now, that won't matter.
Speaker 1: Two years from now, that won't matter. But continuing to
Speaker 1: say that's just to myself, like this is, that's not
Speaker 1: going to be helpful long term. Yeah, yeah, I agree
Speaker 1: with that. So now we've just given everybody the Bear
Speaker 1: and Stained Bears for girl Friends experience what not to do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: some good bad advice on the FORR girl Friends podcast today. So,
Speaker 1: Bob Linda, we've talked a lot about your book. Where
Speaker 1: can people find that and find more from you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean I'm assuming they still sell it
Speaker 1: an Amazon. Last I checked, it's still up there, should
Speaker 1: we will find anywhere still exist? Yeah, simple money Bridge Live.
Speaker 1: We uh were on Instagram at seed Time see d
Speaker 1: T I M E. And that's our website as well,
Speaker 1: seed time dot com and um yeah, come say hi.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hang out. Yeah, and send a great
Speaker 1: podcast if you want to hear about budgeting. And we're
Speaker 1: podcasters as well, seed Time Money Podcast. Um all the stuff,
Speaker 1: love well everywhere, correcting, bad advice check out check out
Speaker 1: the local sauna. See what the financial vice they are
Speaker 1: doling out in there. Let us know what things are
Speaker 1: being here, things for simplifying things for us. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's been fun. What a dynamic duo. They are so
Speaker 1: enjoyable to chat with. And I love the attainable again simple.
Speaker 1: I know we keep using that term, but it really
Speaker 1: is not just on brand for them, but lived out, practiced,
Speaker 1: preached and makes this whole thing sounds so much more
Speaker 1: exciting to engage with when we can keep it simple
Speaker 1: and we can find a life that's enjoyable and life giving. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so much of I mean obviously earn ing, earning
Speaker 1: a living doing what you love seems to be a
Speaker 1: dream for a lot of people. But I think they
Speaker 1: do a great job in the book of maybe giving
Speaker 1: low barrier to entry ways that maybe you can start
Speaker 1: your own thing, but also that it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be your own thing. That you can be living your
Speaker 1: your passion. You can be happy at work doing a
Speaker 1: nine to five, working for someone else. There is a
Speaker 1: spectrum of ways that you can earn well, be happy,
Speaker 1: save well, give well, and enjoy life. And so I
Speaker 1: just I love that they are not just giving a
Speaker 1: step by step here's what to do, but just kind
Speaker 1: of an introduction to all of it with like simple
Speaker 1: frameworks and in different seasons of my life, I know,
Speaker 1: and there's permission for everyone else to find this. Different
Speaker 1: things are important. Sometimes it's the flexibility that's life giving.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's the earning that I'm really excited about. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's the actual task or job. So we can find
Speaker 1: ourselves wherever on that spectrum. But I think ultimately that
Speaker 1: that permission to not have to just drudge our way
Speaker 1: through it, but be able to find where those convergences
Speaker 1: are something that I enjoy, where the with a job
Speaker 1: that needs to be done, and if we're not finding
Speaker 1: ourselves in that currently, that's okay. But also to know
Speaker 1: that there's space and room to go after that as
Speaker 1: we discover and learn more and more about ourselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so thank you so much for listening. Many of you
Speaker 1: know we have a private community where we do monthly
Speaker 1: money challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to
Speaker 1: congratulate one of our members for a big win. Um
Speaker 1: to Naya, she says. My partner spring a leak in
Speaker 1: his house. Because we're long hall truck drivers, the problem
Speaker 1: became a bigger problem quickly. Insurance deductibles quotes contractors the
Speaker 1: whole nine yards and only five days home to handle
Speaker 1: it all. So the plumber found the problem, but it
Speaker 1: was not an easy fix, and they quote us five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I pointed out the plumber clearly did not
Speaker 1: do their job when called out in April because it
Speaker 1: was the same company, uh and didn't do what he
Speaker 1: built us for and they should have found the same problem.
Speaker 1: So he took the entire price we had already paid
Speaker 1: and deducted it as a credit towards the work we
Speaker 1: needed to have done, which dropped the bill from five
Speaker 1: thousand to forty three hundred. So congratulations tonight for taking
Speaker 1: that initiative, pushing back a little and getting that discount
Speaker 1: that you deserved. Agreed, that's a big dent to remove
Speaker 1: about six eighty off the bill. It's not taking advantage
Speaker 1: of him, he still got paid, but recognizing the job
Speaker 1: that should have happened negotiating it lower. Well done, So
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. If you want to check out our
Speaker 1: monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash club. See what we've got coming up next, See
Speaker 1: you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian.
Speaker 1: What were we recently talking about? More? Frugal fails have
Speaker 1: been surfacing in our conversations. I mean they always come.
Speaker 1: I mean they're a normal part of when you get creative.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you fail creatively. So true. So that's like a
Speaker 1: normal part of my life, failing creatively, failing creatively humorously
Speaker 1: trying to laugh at it. Yeah, what did you fail at?
Speaker 1: Did you fail at something I did? I just told
Speaker 1: you the story and we were laughing. What the heck?
Speaker 1: We laughed about it. We were laughing and laughing. I
Speaker 1: think it was some sort of medical thing. Well, this
Speaker 1: is not helpful, and I have no idea to tell
Speaker 1: you what I laughed at so hard today. So, um,
Speaker 1: we're going to this conference next week with some good friends,
Speaker 1: um not chill, and we need to highlight that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of my good friends, Alison, she we were all
Speaker 1: looking at our profiles on this conference app and we're
Speaker 1: looking at some people had just ridiculous like you could
Speaker 1: put what your title is, like your your company and
Speaker 1: your title. So I'm co host Frugal Friends podcast and
Speaker 1: one guy was tried to add me and his his
Speaker 1: actual like he had his his hand like social handles,
Speaker 1: and his title was influencer fo k, Instagram, sixty k, TikTok,
Speaker 1: seventeen k LinkedIn. That was he just all of his
Speaker 1: numbers were his title. And so we were laughing slightly
Speaker 1: about that, and Allison's like, oh, I don't even know
Speaker 1: if I put a title, And so we looked to
Speaker 1: see what her title was and she just put her
Speaker 1: email addressing for her title. And I was like and
Speaker 1: and she's, I mean, she is somebody that you She
Speaker 1: she would not want to give her email address out
Speaker 1: willy nilly because everyone will be emailing her. And I
Speaker 1: was like, girl, you have just given everyone, all of
Speaker 1: these people your email. That's amazing I laughed a lot
Speaker 1: at that. I love how much like these simple forms
Speaker 1: where you would think this is cut and dry, first name,
Speaker 1: last name, title company, and people are going to know
Speaker 1: how to fill it out, and you just get such
Speaker 1: a variety of answers and the information people want to
Speaker 1: give or don't want to give. Right. Some is done
Speaker 1: on purpose and is a creative fail, and then some
Speaker 1: things are just a fail. She's like, I think I
Speaker 1: just auto input everything, so I guess after your name,
Speaker 1: her phone just thought she wanted her email. That's true, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you just press enter. Yeah, she didn't take her
Speaker 1: email off. And but I laughed, probably a little more
Speaker 1: than I should, because I was like, you're going to
Speaker 1: get so many emails from people you don't want to
Speaker 1: hear from. At least it's better than phone calls. I'd
Speaker 1: rather have my email than my phone number. Oh really,
Speaker 1: I'm too scared to call people bowl, so I'll give
Speaker 1: my phone number out. It's