Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm not
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about the why behind money. Today
Speaker 1: on the show, we're going to talk about how to
Speaker 1: implement your values into your spending. So Joel, let's give
Speaker 1: our listeners some updates on Airbnb. So folks, y'all might
Speaker 1: remember our our Airbnb episode where we talked about was
Speaker 1: it episode three? I think so yeah, early on. And
Speaker 1: do you want to go first with sort of where
Speaker 1: you guys are with the airstream? I will because mine sadder,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to play slightly shorter story. I
Speaker 1: found the perfect airstream on this awesome website airstream classifies
Speaker 1: dot com. You don't bump people out, man, they don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to listeners else. It was the prettiest
Speaker 1: thing ever in it was. It was an airstream margacy,
Speaker 1: which is the argassees are the old the ones that
Speaker 1: were painted. Most of the air streams you think of
Speaker 1: are those like metal glistening, beautiful stain in the steel
Speaker 1: or aluminum. Yeah, that look and they're awesome, but so
Speaker 1: that I really like the painted ones, the argaseas that
Speaker 1: were around from like nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: So I found this awesome one that was about five
Speaker 1: or six hours away from where I live, and I
Speaker 1: was like literally about to hop in the car. I
Speaker 1: was gonna go down there, but I didn't. And so
Speaker 1: here's all the folks can see your face. You're like
Speaker 1: you're torn between like, yeah, you're sad, but you're you're
Speaker 1: I mean you're happy, like you're glad you didn't do it.
Speaker 1: In the end, it's the right move, Yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: right move, but I also see the pain in your face. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's sad because it's something I talked about. It's
Speaker 1: something I'm really interested in doing, and I still think
Speaker 1: I will at some point. But here's the reason why
Speaker 1: I didn't. I ended up having a long phone conversation
Speaker 1: with my friend David, and he lives probably you know,
Speaker 1: five or six miles away from where I live and
Speaker 1: rents out almost the exact same kind of trailer and right, yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's been doing it for years now and has
Speaker 1: like he's like an Airbnb SuperHost, has all these great reviews.
Speaker 1: David is single, no kids, and owns his own business,
Speaker 1: so he's pretty flexible. And I talked to him for
Speaker 1: you know, a good long time about his experience, how
Speaker 1: it's been for him, and kind of what I could
Speaker 1: expect if I were to get into this, and he
Speaker 1: really kind of helped me understand that, especially with something
Speaker 1: like an airstream in your backyard versus like, uh, a
Speaker 1: basement apartment or something like that, there's a lot more
Speaker 1: like hand holding and you know, meeting the people that
Speaker 1: are staying in your place like you just you actually
Speaker 1: need to be there for it, and you need to
Speaker 1: introduce yourself to him. And he talked about how essentially
Speaker 1: the experience was incredibly different if he wasn't able to
Speaker 1: meet the guests that was staying there, and so that
Speaker 1: they would once they shook your hand and you got
Speaker 1: to know a couple of details about each other. They
Speaker 1: treated his place like a palace. But if you wasn't
Speaker 1: able to be there, people smoked in it, and um,
Speaker 1: there's there's just so many things that can go wrong, uh,
Speaker 1: that you have to pay attention to on a trailer
Speaker 1: that sits in your backyard a lot more than a
Speaker 1: part of your house. And so talking to him and
Speaker 1: getting all those details, it really helped me think through
Speaker 1: you know what I think, with a full time job
Speaker 1: with two kids, with a awful podcast, that's just terrible
Speaker 1: that no one likes, uh that poor. There's just no
Speaker 1: time in my life to dedicate towards and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, if it was like a basement apartment, we
Speaker 1: could maybe set up some systems and figure some things out.
Speaker 1: But with all the extra attention that something that sits
Speaker 1: in your backyard requires, not to mention, just getting it ready,
Speaker 1: which I was excited about, but and I was also
Speaker 1: excited about meeting the guests, so that was part of
Speaker 1: the fun talking to folks. But lots of times check
Speaker 1: in is between noon and three pm or something like that,
Speaker 1: So it's just tough to make that happen when when
Speaker 1: you have a day job. So for right now, my
Speaker 1: airstream dream putting on hold. But someday I will resurrect
Speaker 1: it from the ashes like a phoenix and it will happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about how it might be different with
Speaker 1: it being specifically an airstream. I guess folks aren't used
Speaker 1: to staying in an air stream, and so there's things
Speaker 1: where they're like, well, how does this work? Or where
Speaker 1: do I put my sheets. I don't know. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't something that sounds a little like sheets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but push this button, does it disappear exactly? Does it
Speaker 1: just end up on the ground outside? A lot of
Speaker 1: questions to answer. Yeah, So I had thought about that,
Speaker 1: But I guess that is a little bit different than
Speaker 1: kind of setting up the basement apartment, which is what
Speaker 1: we're looking at doing. And that was sort of our yea,
Speaker 1: our approach, our angle. I was gonna say, when we
Speaker 1: first recorded, I was like on the yes side, and
Speaker 1: I like, you know, I put on the brakes, and
Speaker 1: you were like, I don't know, man, Man, we weren't
Speaker 1: We weren't sold on it, you know, Like Kate and I.
Speaker 1: We talked about it some. We had briefly talked through
Speaker 1: some of the different pros and cons of it, but
Speaker 1: we hadn't really sat down and thought through the logistics
Speaker 1: of it, I guess, and I don't know. That mean,
Speaker 1: the more we did it, the more we realized that
Speaker 1: we could do that, you know, And so the same
Speaker 1: things I guess that you realized we're going to be
Speaker 1: a problem for you. Um, we realized that that wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna be an issue for us. You know, with me
Speaker 1: being self employed, being at home, I've got flexible hours.
Speaker 1: I'm more than happy to be able to meet some
Speaker 1: guests that that stop in and showing the place and
Speaker 1: hand the keys over, you know. So yeah, the more
Speaker 1: we talked about it, the more we realized that this
Speaker 1: could very well be something that would work for us.
Speaker 1: So your plan has also changed a little bit because
Speaker 1: when we first talked about it, you know, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: essentially talking about doing it by hand and digging, yeah, digging,
Speaker 1: digging it out. I mean you were essentially talking about
Speaker 1: taking your own trouble down underneath the house, clearing out
Speaker 1: the dirt, making some headspace, because right now there's there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of room down there. So how have
Speaker 1: your plans changed? Okay, So here's the big reason why
Speaker 1: that was the case then, because for the photography that
Speaker 1: I do, it was off season, which means I had
Speaker 1: all the time on my hands at that point, and
Speaker 1: thinking through I'm like, oh, yeah, I found that I
Speaker 1: don't look more than three months ahead sometimes and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have this much time for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life, right, And it's like, no, that only lasted
Speaker 1: for like a few weeks before because the season ramped
Speaker 1: up for me and I realized that my time is
Speaker 1: incredibly valuable and I want to spend it with my
Speaker 1: three girls and my wife and my dog and working
Speaker 1: on this awful podcast that we have. So it has changed,
Speaker 1: and after talking about it with Kate, we also realized
Speaker 1: that a way that we could sort of approach this
Speaker 1: would be essentially adding on a small section to the
Speaker 1: back of our house. So instead of sort of excavating
Speaker 1: out from underneath of our existing house, we would be
Speaker 1: digging out on the exterior of our home and then
Speaker 1: sort of building over that where we're gonna put a
Speaker 1: screen in porch. It's gonna be much easier, it's gonna
Speaker 1: make a lot more sense, and it's gonna give us
Speaker 1: a lot more space in the airbnb as well down there,
Speaker 1: which is something we were kind of concerned about from
Speaker 1: the beginning, and that we were able to kind of
Speaker 1: solve that problem by sort of changing up the plans. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to dive into the detail us anymore
Speaker 1: than this, but essentially we're moving forward. Man, We've got this.
Speaker 1: This is a bigger project though, because the scope is
Speaker 1: kind of gotten bigger. It is going to require some financing,
Speaker 1: and so I've got that lined up with our credit
Speaker 1: union here in town. Super low closing costs, I mean
Speaker 1: like a few hundred bucks. Actually it was really cheap. Nice, uh,
Speaker 1: I mean we've got a great rate and we've got Yes,
Speaker 1: we've got our financing lockdown, and we're in talks now
Speaker 1: with an architect and we are waiting to get those
Speaker 1: drawings back before we basically get those out to us
Speaker 1: start having builders bid on it. So man, we're pumped.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say we're like for sure moving forward,
Speaker 1: but we were like really close. So we got some
Speaker 1: ballpark figures as well, and yeah, it's gonna fall within
Speaker 1: the range that we're that's gonna work for us, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna still be able to get a good r
Speaker 1: o I with the amount of money that we're gonna
Speaker 1: put into it, and your house will be worth more. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think gonna increase the value of our home.
Speaker 1: And without going into any more details, were slightly increasing
Speaker 1: the usability of our house. Well, I think the one
Speaker 1: thing that I'm gonna miss the most, and I have
Speaker 1: a dream that's gonna die as you as you've partake
Speaker 1: in this, Matt, and that's you have this hot tub
Speaker 1: on your back deck right now, and the hot tub's
Speaker 1: gotta go. I've I've actually gonna be gone. Man. I've
Speaker 1: started a petition, uh in the neighborhood to try to
Speaker 1: get you to make it a functioning hot tub, because
Speaker 1: right now it's been since you about the house that's
Speaker 1: been sitting there and not working. Um, And so I've
Speaker 1: got a petition started. Are welcome to take that had
Speaker 1: a lot of signatures and uh no, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be on your porch and I just want to use it.
Speaker 1: You you yeah, you fill it up with your water, buddy,
Speaker 1: and uh you can be the one out there cleaning
Speaker 1: it and testing the chemicals and doing all that. See,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm trying to avoid. So no hot tub
Speaker 1: for me, sadly, and no more hot tub for Matt.
Speaker 1: By the way, if anybody out there wants a free
Speaker 1: hot tub, hit me up. We'll give you my address
Speaker 1: at not Poor Matt on Twitter. Holler Adam, it's all yours.
Speaker 1: Beer time. Let's let's move on. I'm so thirsty, Yeah,
Speaker 1: are you really? I am too? Man, I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: my my mouth is crazy dry. I'm really thirsty, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna drink these not for water, for beer. So
Speaker 1: today we thought we would break open a beer that
Speaker 1: literally probably every single person listening to this I don't know.
Speaker 1: Actually we we did get an email from someone in Budapest,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they get this beer. So
Speaker 1: we have a listener in Budapest who who's already emailed
Speaker 1: us about um, some of the beers he's drinking. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if you get this beer there, but
Speaker 1: anybody else who lives in the continental United States, you
Speaker 1: probably have access to this beer. It is the New
Speaker 1: Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Hayes I p A. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the Voodoo Ranger line, it's essentially a new series. It's
Speaker 1: like a new line of I pas that New Belgium
Speaker 1: rolled out. For a while there they just had Ranger,
Speaker 1: but then they took it at to you know, three
Speaker 1: point oh, and now they've got Voodoo Ranger and it's
Speaker 1: a whole new line of of awesome I pas. And
Speaker 1: this one, in particular is a New England style I
Speaker 1: p A. If you can't tell from the name, Juicy
Speaker 1: Hayes I p A they've got like all the all
Speaker 1: the catchphrases that folks are looking for New England style
Speaker 1: so hot right now. Yeah, so I'm really pumped about this.
Speaker 1: It's like you said, the New England style I p
Speaker 1: A is like a craze, a full on craze right now.
Speaker 1: And there's a great article that will post in the
Speaker 1: show notes about these bigger brewers like Jumping on Board
Speaker 1: and so New Belgium, Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, they've all
Speaker 1: kind of launched their own I p A in this
Speaker 1: New England style and so we'll we'll pust a link
Speaker 1: to that article. It was just interesting to read. Yeah,
Speaker 1: basically just how it's going mainstream now right and and
Speaker 1: some folks will be like time to move on. It's
Speaker 1: like now that the big guys are getting behind it,
Speaker 1: it must you know, must suck now. But no, look
Speaker 1: for for us, we were just get excited about that
Speaker 1: because that's value. You know. Once the big guys started
Speaker 1: getting getting in there and they're able to perfect the
Speaker 1: you know, these recipes and these beers and sort of
Speaker 1: mass produce them, now everybody gets to have an awesome
Speaker 1: I p A that's juicy, way easier to drink than
Speaker 1: some of the traditional I PASS like the West Coast
Speaker 1: I p s for sure, that are crazy bitter and
Speaker 1: have a lot of a lot of bites to them.
Speaker 1: Like guys that don't really like I p a s.
Speaker 1: Give this one a shot. My start with a yeah,
Speaker 1: New England style juicy Hayes I p A. And the
Speaker 1: great thing is, I mean, well, I don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna be as good as something like Bissell Brothers or Trillium,
Speaker 1: the guys that have been doing it for years now
Speaker 1: and have like just crushed and we've had some of
Speaker 1: their beers and they're absolutely fantastic, or some of the
Speaker 1: breweries out of Vermont that really kind of started this
Speaker 1: this craze. But eight dollars for a six pack, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So I picked this up at well in the southeast
Speaker 1: we have Kroger, but I'm assuming you can probably get
Speaker 1: in a lot of places. But it was on sale
Speaker 1: so normally and they had it for seven ninety nine.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Yeah, eight bucks for a six pack. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's because they're trying to get
Speaker 1: it launched, well, you know, just so it gets out
Speaker 1: there and folks are able to get their hands on
Speaker 1: and start tasting it. But that's an incredible price I
Speaker 1: could Yeah, I picked up two two six packs. Well,
Speaker 1: going back, yeah, and going back to episode eight, you
Speaker 1: know how to get a deal on craft beer, Like
Speaker 1: we're we we truly think that some of these there's
Speaker 1: some really good nationwide breweries and New Belgium is one
Speaker 1: of them. Uh and so yeah, we need to drink
Speaker 1: this beer right now, do it? I'm thirsties. Look at that,
Speaker 1: poor man. It's not quite like full on orange juice
Speaker 1: like some of those ones out of Vermont, but it
Speaker 1: looks quite orangey. It's awesome. You can't like, I'm holding
Speaker 1: my glass and I can't see my fingers through it,
Speaker 1: which I really like. Yeah, that's a good sign. So
Speaker 1: that's a characteristic of the style is that it's hazy,
Speaker 1: which means it's unfiltered. So it's got a lot of
Speaker 1: those particulate uh, floating around of the beer. But it
Speaker 1: gives it gives it some some awesome flavor. I think
Speaker 1: usually when you filter a beer, you filter some of
Speaker 1: the taste out at the same time, and maybe you
Speaker 1: give it this certain look and the certain quality that
Speaker 1: you want clarity that is traditional, but you're missing out
Speaker 1: on some of those flavors. And so that's kind of
Speaker 1: one of the things that the New England Style has
Speaker 1: introduced is you know, let's not filter our beer and
Speaker 1: let's kind of see what happens. And it does seem
Speaker 1: to retain a more concentrated flavor than an I PA
Speaker 1: that's filtered. It's real nice, man. It goes down easy,
Speaker 1: almost goes down too easy. Yeah, it's really creamy. Even
Speaker 1: most of like the great New England Style i pas
Speaker 1: retained some of that hot bite, like you need like
Speaker 1: some bite to it, and this is like just fluid
Speaker 1: juice almost. It's really good and I can tell that,
Speaker 1: you know, they did a good job making it. But
Speaker 1: this is like an element of what I love about
Speaker 1: I p a s. It feels a little light to me,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like expecting just something a little bit bigger.
Speaker 1: I kind of like to be socked in the face
Speaker 1: with something like this. But for eight bucks of six pack,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for an introduction to the style, then
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd say pick this up because it is
Speaker 1: really solid. I think I would drink this though over
Speaker 1: say most any other New Belgium beers. Right now, you know, Yes,
Speaker 1: I agree. Yeah, if I'm gonna pick up a New
Speaker 1: Belgian or just sort of a daily drinker like that, man,
Speaker 1: I'm totally gonna pick us up. I think it's great.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think to like you and I
Speaker 1: both just really like this style. So the ability to
Speaker 1: find somebody making essentially, you know, something in this vein
Speaker 1: for eight bucks to six pack. Yeah, I think I'm
Speaker 1: willing to take a little bit lesser quality for an
Speaker 1: eight dollar six pack because a lot of the people
Speaker 1: that are putting just tons and tons and tons of
Speaker 1: hops into these New England style i p as, they
Speaker 1: have to charge you know, fourteen fifteen, sixteen dollars, you know,
Speaker 1: for a six pack, and so they're just really prohibitively expensive.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I agree, I think this one's a worthwhile
Speaker 1: get solid beer, all right, Matt. Today the topic the
Speaker 1: why behind money, And to me, this is such an
Speaker 1: important thing to talk about. I think most people don't
Speaker 1: slow down long enough to think about the question of
Speaker 1: why behind, why they save and why they spend their money. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so their money just becomes allocated randomly to all
Speaker 1: these different places. And today we're going to focus on
Speaker 1: how to figure out the why behind your money so
Speaker 1: that you can prioritize your spending so that it actually
Speaker 1: reflects what you want out of life. Chedule. I'm excited
Speaker 1: about talking about this one as well. I think talking
Speaker 1: about the why behind what what we're gonna do is
Speaker 1: very important. You know, a lot of what we talk
Speaker 1: about are the nuts and bolts, the very practical things
Speaker 1: like how to do this, how to do that. But
Speaker 1: it's very important to know the why behind almost you know,
Speaker 1: pretty much everything that you do. And for some people,
Speaker 1: I think that comes a little bit easier and they
Speaker 1: kind of have a mission and they kind of can
Speaker 1: hit that and and run with it. But um, I
Speaker 1: think some folks do. It's important to talk through the
Speaker 1: why and to help people to know how to address that,
Speaker 1: just like we would help folks think through how to
Speaker 1: even just like improve their credit score things like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think of the question of the why of money
Speaker 1: almost like a fundamental It's almost like shooting pretty throws
Speaker 1: over and over and over to get good at it.
Speaker 1: There's something about this, like repetitively thinking about this and
Speaker 1: and having this kind of in the back of your mind, uh,
Speaker 1: and doing some intentional thought about it over time. Uh,
Speaker 1: because I just remember when so the way I grew
Speaker 1: up with money, Um, my parents awesome people, they weren't
Speaker 1: great with money. And so I learned growing up that
Speaker 1: I wanted to approach money differently. But it kind of
Speaker 1: led me to being like a tight wad and uh
Speaker 1: and super frugal. I didn't know how to use money. Well,
Speaker 1: it really took me sitting down and being incredibly thoughtful
Speaker 1: about what I wanted my life to look like and
Speaker 1: how money intersected that. And so once I did that,
Speaker 1: once I sat down and really kind of put out
Speaker 1: my life goals and saw how to apportion my money
Speaker 1: to make those things a reality, it really helped clear
Speaker 1: up my relationship with money. It wasn't like money is
Speaker 1: a scary thing or money is this is this thing
Speaker 1: that I just need to amass like a ridiculous amount
Speaker 1: of It became this easy way to kind of unify
Speaker 1: my whole life. Well, these are things I enjoyed, and
Speaker 1: here's how money can kind of is a part of that,
Speaker 1: and it helps me achieve what I ultimately want. Um.
Speaker 1: Without doing that, though, I think I would still be
Speaker 1: this just ridiculously frugal, not generous person with an awkward
Speaker 1: attachment to money as opposed to like a well thought through,
Speaker 1: fruitful attachment to money. Yeah you have more, You have
Speaker 1: more like the Uncle Scrooge miserly approached to it right,
Speaker 1: where like you have this view of money as being
Speaker 1: this sort of slippery thing that's just always trying to
Speaker 1: escape and I gotta go dive in it every day
Speaker 1: just to you know, fulfilled versus uh, using it like
Speaker 1: a tool. And that's what we're gonna be talking about today,
Speaker 1: is is approaching money from the standpoint of why behind
Speaker 1: why we save money and and sort of the why
Speaker 1: behind why we spend money. You know, why do we save?
Speaker 1: We save essentially to become financially independent at some point
Speaker 1: like down the road we want we want to be
Speaker 1: able to retire or to be financially independent to where
Speaker 1: we have the option to work or to not work
Speaker 1: and secures to be responsible essentially, you know, in the end,
Speaker 1: it's it's not about not living up fulfilling life necessarily,
Speaker 1: but it's about kind of being responsible and making sure
Speaker 1: you're kind of taking care of your future self. I
Speaker 1: think when it boils down to like why do I save.
Speaker 1: I think there's there's like two real reasons for me,
Speaker 1: and one of one reason is I don't want to
Speaker 1: be worried about money at night. I don't want to
Speaker 1: not be able to get to sleep because I've got
Speaker 1: a bill that I can't pay, or because there's there's
Speaker 1: something lingering on the horizon that I know I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to afford. I want a peaceful feeling
Speaker 1: about money, and so I save because I want to
Speaker 1: be able to sleep well at night. And I know
Speaker 1: that that's an issue probably for some of your listeners
Speaker 1: out there, that is something like, you know what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a problem I have, and I can't sleep well
Speaker 1: at night because my money issues are so great. The
Speaker 1: other reason that I want to save money is ultimately
Speaker 1: kind of what you're just talking about, Matt, is freedom.
Speaker 1: I want to be free to make whatever cho ice
Speaker 1: I want to make. I want freedom to decide that
Speaker 1: I want to work less or that I want to
Speaker 1: work more on exactly what I want to work on.
Speaker 1: So that something to be related, possibly maybe some Krummy
Speaker 1: podcast name I don't know or to that's like the
Speaker 1: third hit uh we've dealt towards Poorn up for it's self,
Speaker 1: deprecating that at poorn up like we love you podcasts,
Speaker 1: you always should treat it nicely, uh, And or you
Speaker 1: know what, just pack up in in a camp or
Speaker 1: something like that and take three months to ground the
Speaker 1: country with my family, whatever it is. I want the
Speaker 1: freedom to be able to make some of those choices
Speaker 1: and saving money. Being intentional with your money over the
Speaker 1: long term, you can make choices like that, and I
Speaker 1: think sometimes starting out day one that seems impossible. But
Speaker 1: if you are in this for the long haul and
Speaker 1: intentional about your savings, that is possible, and that is
Speaker 1: a worthy thing to be aimed for. Yeah, having those
Speaker 1: long term goals is hugely important. We don't save an
Speaker 1: because we love money. There's goals and things that we
Speaker 1: want to do long term and that's what fuels us.
Speaker 1: That gives us the why behind why we save. So Matt,
Speaker 1: knowing your why behind money actually makes saving a lot
Speaker 1: easier because, let's say my ultimate goal is too in
Speaker 1: five years take my family on this cross country road trip,
Speaker 1: and that's something I'm really interested in doing. Saving money
Speaker 1: today with that goal in mind, it makes it a
Speaker 1: heck of a lot easier. If I'm just like, that's
Speaker 1: your fuel. Right, If I'm just saving because it's a
Speaker 1: percentage on a piece of paper, or because it is
Speaker 1: what you know, Matt and Joel told me to do,
Speaker 1: or what a blog post told me to do, the
Speaker 1: implications for me actually doing that saving are not good.
Speaker 1: But when I attach actual hopes and dreams to it,
Speaker 1: then it makes my desire an ability to save grow
Speaker 1: because it it just grows in importance for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're tying that motivation to something tangible, into something real
Speaker 1: in your life that you actually want to do other
Speaker 1: than you know, besides some percentage or some number that
Speaker 1: you have written down on a piece of paper, right exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't love money. The reason why behind saving that
Speaker 1: we save isn't because we love money. It's because we
Speaker 1: have these goals that we are pursuing and that's what
Speaker 1: fuels us. And it's a tool to achieve those goals.
Speaker 1: And so we could spend the rest of the podcast
Speaker 1: talking about saving because there's so much, so many different
Speaker 1: aspects that we can approach it from, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: attempt to leave it and now talk about more the Actually,
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of folks might be considered
Speaker 1: more of the fun aspect of the wide behind money,
Speaker 1: which is spending. So there's obviously you save or you spend.
Speaker 1: And so we just touched briefly on saving, and hopefully
Speaker 1: down the road will we'll dedicate an entire episode to saving.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, you wanna talk about spending now, and
Speaker 1: and basically we're gonna talk about why we spend money
Speaker 1: on what we do. So essentially it comes down to
Speaker 1: we want to be intentional to spend our money on
Speaker 1: things that we truly enjoy, and that ultimately means that
Speaker 1: you have to prioritize things because I mean, I think
Speaker 1: in a perfect world a lot of things I would
Speaker 1: want to do, and I certainly can't do them all today.
Speaker 1: I can't do them all tomorrow. I might not even
Speaker 1: be able to get to all of them in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: But I have to come out with a list of
Speaker 1: things that I prioritize, and how you allocate your money
Speaker 1: should reflect those priorities that you have written down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of touching on that. I feel like I'm starting
Speaker 1: to to realize man, that like, even if I had
Speaker 1: all the money in the world, which I do not,
Speaker 1: I don't have all the time in the world. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's gonna be like me kind
Speaker 1: of getting old, like old man Matt now, but I'm
Speaker 1: realizing that there's just so much time in the world
Speaker 1: and and and that's kind of becoming maybe the more
Speaker 1: and more rare resource in my life. And and so
Speaker 1: it's it's a prioritization not only for from a financial standpoint,
Speaker 1: but from a time again we're gonna we're talking about money,
Speaker 1: We're not gonna talk about time, uh today. But it
Speaker 1: all kind of ties together, you know, like have you
Speaker 1: ever had this thought? Oh? Yeah? And I think this
Speaker 1: thought process should take us all through what do we
Speaker 1: want our work life to look like? Too? And like
Speaker 1: how much money do we want to make? And I
Speaker 1: think this is like really really crucial, really really important
Speaker 1: to what we decided to do with our you know,
Speaker 1: thirty or forty or fifty hour a week work lives
Speaker 1: as well, because it really should and and hopefully, uh
Speaker 1: for me at least, it made me decide to do
Speaker 1: something that I think probably pays a little bit less
Speaker 1: than than other things might because it's meaningful work. And
Speaker 1: also that job allows me the flexibility to do some
Speaker 1: of these other things that maybe are low cost, but
Speaker 1: they require time and so so I have I get
Speaker 1: paid less, but you know, I'm I'm able to have
Speaker 1: more time to dedicate to some of these things that
Speaker 1: are low cost but there high benefit on the joy
Speaker 1: meter for me. So Matt and I each wrote down
Speaker 1: three items on on our lists, and these are things
Speaker 1: that I've thought about for a long time, and these
Speaker 1: are uh, there are a lot of things that I
Speaker 1: could tell you that I prioritize that are like free
Speaker 1: or close to free. Uh. And we touched on it,
Speaker 1: you know in an earlier episode nerdy board games super
Speaker 1: cheap they take time though, time and friends and community,
Speaker 1: right like, and so to me, stuff like that's really essential.
Speaker 1: But I particularly wanted to pick out three things that
Speaker 1: we spend money on, I actually spend money on, So yeah,
Speaker 1: that actually really costs money and not just a few
Speaker 1: bucks here and there. Uh, in those three things for
Speaker 1: me that spoke the most to me. Um, and that
Speaker 1: when I spend my money there, I'm like really really
Speaker 1: happy to do. So we're travel, craft beer, and folk art.
Speaker 1: I Mean, I feel like craft beer should be on
Speaker 1: my list two, but it's not I know, man, I
Speaker 1: mean I feel like, I mean, it's it's like you
Speaker 1: let to tell the podcast you should get another another
Speaker 1: free be because I mean craft here is gonna be
Speaker 1: one of I mean it should be one of mine
Speaker 1: as well. I mean obviously we you know, we love,
Speaker 1: we live enjoying uh delicious craft beer, and that's something
Speaker 1: that we do spend more money on maybe than the
Speaker 1: typical person out there. Yeah. I think for me, putting
Speaker 1: this down on my list gave me the ability to
Speaker 1: prioritize more of my money towards that because I think
Speaker 1: for a while I was like trying to straddle this
Speaker 1: line and I was like, well, if I drink Miller
Speaker 1: High Life four nights a week, I can drink a
Speaker 1: good craft beer on the weekend. And putting this down
Speaker 1: in my line on I'm like, hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is one of those few things that you highly prioritize.
Speaker 1: This is one of your wise like don't don't not
Speaker 1: drink a Voodoo Ranger, you know, on a Tuesday night
Speaker 1: if that's what you want to do, because you've given
Speaker 1: yourself the financial ability to do so. And so just
Speaker 1: withholding that from myself was really not reflective of my values.
Speaker 1: So it's really important for me to write it down
Speaker 1: and to kind of have that in the forefront of
Speaker 1: my mind so that when I do go into the
Speaker 1: craft beer shop every other week, I don't feel bad,
Speaker 1: you know, dropping forty bucks on beer because it is
Speaker 1: something that I value is a high priority. And real quick,
Speaker 1: I'll just say the other things. People probably like folk art,
Speaker 1: what's that? I don't know, will maybe we'll posted to
Speaker 1: pictures the same most folks know travel. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: folks can kind of relate to that. But yeah, folk cart,
Speaker 1: don't you like explained to folks what it is about
Speaker 1: that that you're drawn to? Man, I'm just obsessed with
Speaker 1: the colors and the subject matter. And essentially the definition
Speaker 1: really of a folk artist is an untrained artist that
Speaker 1: speaks to your heart. In fact that someone can kind
Speaker 1: of just come in there and kind of do whatever
Speaker 1: they want and it does it's pretty cool. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: like no rules to it, really, you know, you're you're
Speaker 1: not now you'll find a little bit of folk art museums,
Speaker 1: but there's so much like urban folk art two that
Speaker 1: really speaks to me that is even completely different than
Speaker 1: what was traditionally more of a southern Southern thing of
Speaker 1: of folk art, untrained artists, Howard Finster being you know,
Speaker 1: one of the most recognizable and well, you know, in
Speaker 1: the show notes, maybe we'll post a link to a
Speaker 1: couple of guys that I like to follow and I
Speaker 1: like to buy their pieces. But really, just like local
Speaker 1: art and folk art, I'm I'm just really into it,
Speaker 1: and so we have I will not put up like
Speaker 1: a piece of art from home goods in my house
Speaker 1: or something like that. Like I just won't buy a
Speaker 1: piece of art on Amazon. That's I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you've got some Thomas Kincaid in your bedroom, Matt, but uh,
Speaker 1: I do not. I'm just not a fan of it.
Speaker 1: I need these individualized pieces that speak to me, and
Speaker 1: so Emily and I have prioritized that. And sometimes, you know,
Speaker 1: these pieces are hundreds and hundreds of dollars. But it's
Speaker 1: something that we say, you know what, once a year,
Speaker 1: maybe twice a year, you know, we find a piece
Speaker 1: of art and usually it's a our anniversary celebration. You know,
Speaker 1: we get an awesome piece of art and it's fun
Speaker 1: to be like, oh, that's what we got your one,
Speaker 1: that's what we got your two. That's what we got
Speaker 1: your five and just to remember go down you know,
Speaker 1: memory road and say, you know, it's a reminder for
Speaker 1: us of our love and our love of art. And
Speaker 1: people walk into our house and I think it's one
Speaker 1: of the most instantly recognizable things. People are like, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of weird paintings in here. And
Speaker 1: so that's just kind of kind of fun too that
Speaker 1: it's visible in that way too, So like a raccoon
Speaker 1: sitting on a dock, ex exactly like the quintessential, Like
Speaker 1: what's the folk artist? Well maybe that so yeah, but
Speaker 1: writing those things down, travel, polk art, craft, beer, I'm
Speaker 1: now I don't feel bad allocating, you know, large amounts
Speaker 1: of money of those things. Those are kind of my
Speaker 1: spending wise, and it's really fun to get to like
Speaker 1: think about those. So, Matt, we talked about my three wise,
Speaker 1: and you know, one of them is weird. Uh, what
Speaker 1: what are yours? Yeah, Joe, So my three that I've
Speaker 1: got down are our house and I wrote down a
Speaker 1: t l ut d which is our soccer team, Atlanta United,
Speaker 1: and uh and bikes, which is kind of like beer
Speaker 1: for you. It's something you enjoy as well, right, ye.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so let's I mean, we we did a
Speaker 1: whole episode on bikes, how much joy it brings us,
Speaker 1: How it satisfies so many different things in our lives. Yeah,
Speaker 1: from a physical fitness, from a money saving standpoint, from
Speaker 1: just a community standpoint. There's so much joy that I
Speaker 1: get out of being on my bike and getting my
Speaker 1: daughters on the bike because well and getting out there
Speaker 1: so and buying a new bike. Oh yeah, just about
Speaker 1: your wife a new bike. You've got a few bikes, like,
Speaker 1: they cost money. So yeah, So that's why we have
Speaker 1: to prioritize it is because it I mean, it does
Speaker 1: cost money, and so it's it's something that we kind
Speaker 1: of need to budget for. And it's something that some
Speaker 1: people don't and that's fine because for them it's not
Speaker 1: a priority. But for us, it's a priority, and it's
Speaker 1: something that we're intentional about. All right. So when you
Speaker 1: wrote down house, um, I completely see this, Like there's
Speaker 1: a completely different mindset for you than me about our
Speaker 1: about our homes. And so for us it's more like
Speaker 1: a line item that I'm trying to lessen the amount
Speaker 1: that we spend on it. But for you, I can
Speaker 1: see why it's a priority. You work from home, you
Speaker 1: have a larger family than I do too, and so uh,
Speaker 1: it's it makes sense that you prioritize this more. But
Speaker 1: you can talk to me about that a little bit. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: the so you you nail the first one on the head, right.
Speaker 1: So I work, I work from home, and so I
Speaker 1: spend of my time at home. I'm not the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that needs to get out and kind of
Speaker 1: getting the coffee shop to be productive and get stuff done.
Speaker 1: You know, I like ruining my own coffee and staying
Speaker 1: at home and saving money. And I set up front
Speaker 1: in front of our house and in the office. You
Speaker 1: need more space for that. And for a guy that's
Speaker 1: working sixty hours a week, you know, maybe at home
Speaker 1: shouldn't be or isn't as much of a priority or
Speaker 1: barely there. You're traveling like a consultant man. Literally, if
Speaker 1: you're living out of a hotel Monday through Thursday and
Speaker 1: then you're you're flying home, it may not and probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a priority for you. But but for us
Speaker 1: having ah we're a family of five now plus Stella,
Speaker 1: But it's it's something that that we are that is
Speaker 1: a priority for us, and That's the other thing too,
Speaker 1: is our family. That's something that Kate and I have.
Speaker 1: We sat down there, we talked about and for the
Speaker 1: next six to eighteen years, we're gonna be home a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, we've got kids, We're gonna the girls are
Speaker 1: gonna be in school. We're gonna be spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time at home doing the home life kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Kate loves cooking, She's oftentimes in the kitchen. They're cooking
Speaker 1: with the girls, and we're teaching them there sort of
Speaker 1: in real life situations. We realized it became a priority
Speaker 1: for us from that standpoint. Not only do I spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time at home working, not only is
Speaker 1: it my home office and where I keep my gear,
Speaker 1: but it's also where we were raising our family, are
Speaker 1: growing family, and yes, we will be traveling and we
Speaker 1: love to travel. You know. That's something that you know
Speaker 1: that that you mentioned, and a lot of people resonate
Speaker 1: with that. I think it will become more and more priority,
Speaker 1: as as are our girls kind of age up. So
Speaker 1: two things. You said, you're growing family. Do you have
Speaker 1: some news you want to share with the podcast audience?
Speaker 1: I do not, okay, all right? And that would have
Speaker 1: been news to me too, so I was interested, uh,
Speaker 1: and it would be news to me, sir. And you
Speaker 1: guys are really into two hosting neighbors having people over too,
Speaker 1: And that is another reason to to prioritize your home,
Speaker 1: because if that means, you know, you're going out less uh,
Speaker 1: two restaurants, to entertainment, to movies, all those things, and
Speaker 1: you're having people over, that's a reason to prioritize kind
Speaker 1: of your home in that way. I think you obviously,
Speaker 1: in moderation, you have to be smart about it. But
Speaker 1: you know, you guys prioritize a lot of things about
Speaker 1: having this home that you have. You certainly have to
Speaker 1: cut back in a lot of other areas, but the
Speaker 1: fact that you've made this such an important piece of
Speaker 1: your life, it makes a lot of sense, and I
Speaker 1: think it reflects what you value in the right ways.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the things Matt, that can
Speaker 1: help people think about this properly. Some folks do what
Speaker 1: their quote unquote supposed to do, and they follow kind
Speaker 1: of the pattern that their neighbors or their parents or
Speaker 1: the people around them sept for them. I distinctly remember
Speaker 1: my dad telling me that when he moved across the
Speaker 1: country for this job. Not too long after college. One
Speaker 1: of his co workers told him, you know what, by
Speaker 1: by a little bit bigger house than you can afford,
Speaker 1: because because you're gonna get promotions and you're gonna get raises,
Speaker 1: and you know, eventually, like you're gonna be in the
Speaker 1: house of your dreams and you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: afford it. It's just gonna be a little type for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. That's essentially what my dad was told.
Speaker 1: And that's that's just terrible advice. I think people make
Speaker 1: decisions based on what a stock quintessential American lifestyle looks like,
Speaker 1: and they forget to take stock of what they actually want,
Speaker 1: like what's actually important to them. Yeah, it's just it's
Speaker 1: kind of this mind mindlessly wandering and taking the default
Speaker 1: path as opposed to being incredibly conscious about the choices
Speaker 1: that you want to make in your life. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's the thing, Like we're not harping against any sort
Speaker 1: of like one way of life, because in my mind,
Speaker 1: there's different sort of defaults. There's different sort of stock
Speaker 1: lifestyles that you can mindlessly sign up for without even
Speaker 1: realizing it. And whether that's like the sort of mindset
Speaker 1: of buying all the toys, and for maybe some folks
Speaker 1: that means like getting an RV and getting a boat,
Speaker 1: and different memberships to different clubs and paying doc fees
Speaker 1: and you know, just all this sort of stuff. It's
Speaker 1: not about one lifestyle over the other. It's just about
Speaker 1: making a sort of meaningful, intentional decision to focus on
Speaker 1: the things that are important to you and that you
Speaker 1: find value, that you find joy in. So I think
Speaker 1: think through how big is my house? Is it located
Speaker 1: where I want to live? And if I could live
Speaker 1: somewhere else, where would that be? And what benefit would
Speaker 1: that bring me if I were to move somewhere else.
Speaker 1: I've got two cars or one car or whatever? How
Speaker 1: many cars does our family need? And maybe do we
Speaker 1: need the cars that are as fancy as they are
Speaker 1: as currently constructed? In our lives? How much am I working?
Speaker 1: And what am I working for? What am I working
Speaker 1: for in my daily nine? And then ultimately like what
Speaker 1: am I working for? What does this money mean? So
Speaker 1: what am I doing with my days? And then what
Speaker 1: does that mean for further down the road? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you have to take stock of all those
Speaker 1: things in order to be able to kind of define
Speaker 1: your why behind money. And one more thing, I think.
Speaker 1: I think the other default mode is I work for
Speaker 1: forty years, I retire sixty five. That's the default sort
Speaker 1: of like I work and then I retire, and you
Speaker 1: know what, there's a good chance I'll be working until
Speaker 1: sixty five, hopefully doing something I really enjoy and exactly
Speaker 1: what I want to do though, because I'll have that
Speaker 1: ability to choose. But I think that that forty years
Speaker 1: is essentially the most important years of your life, is
Speaker 1: some prime years. Yeah, And I don't think anybody at
Speaker 1: the end looks back and says, you know what, I
Speaker 1: wish I would have worked more. It's usually the things
Speaker 1: that they missed because they were working too much. And
Speaker 1: if you prioritize what you do as a reflection of
Speaker 1: of either what you enjoy or you know, the results
Speaker 1: you want to see in the world, and then prioritize
Speaker 1: your time away from work in a way that reflects
Speaker 1: your values, I think it's just really easy to get
Speaker 1: to get into a workaholic syndrome. And it's self perpetuating too, right,
Speaker 1: Like the more you do it, the more you kind
Speaker 1: of get sucked in, and then you get more responsibilities
Speaker 1: kind of heaped upon you, and then you feel like
Speaker 1: you can't quit, and it's sort of this sort of
Speaker 1: endless treadmill, you know. And I honestly think and some
Speaker 1: of your thoughts on this too, but I feel like
Speaker 1: it starts early on. I think it's starts somewhat with education,
Speaker 1: when it's like we're on the sort of education path,
Speaker 1: right like, and you start off kindergarten, you start going
Speaker 1: you know, middle school, in high school. By the time
Speaker 1: you're in high school, there's almost no question that, like,
Speaker 1: you should be going to college. That's sort of what's
Speaker 1: being fed to you. And there's good reason. People that
Speaker 1: go to undergrad you earn more. It's reflected in the
Speaker 1: types of jobs that you can get after graduation. However,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's for everybody. It puts us on
Speaker 1: this path of not thinking and when by default, like
Speaker 1: your next steps are kind of already playing out for you.
Speaker 1: It's like a muscle, and the more the more you
Speaker 1: work that muscle, the better you get at it. The
Speaker 1: less you work it, the worst you are at making
Speaker 1: those decisions. And so I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: times you see people that are also then after even
Speaker 1: undergrad then going to grad school because it's like, well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I've been doing, and I know
Speaker 1: that once I do grad school, I can definitely get this.
Speaker 1: I just don't like the kind of path that puts
Speaker 1: people on where they're not really thinking for themselves necessarily.
Speaker 1: I think there's been like a cultural push to prioritize
Speaker 1: co edge, and we're pushing people even that know that
Speaker 1: they're good with their hands or you know, good at
Speaker 1: mechanical skills or whatever it may be. Yeah, who could
Speaker 1: literally come out of high school and have you know,
Speaker 1: a great job working for themselves, working in a mechanic
Speaker 1: shop or becoming a plumber or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: Those can quickly become high paying jobs in our economy now.
Speaker 1: And we've pushed people like that into college, burden them
Speaker 1: with lots of debt, tons of student loan debt, and
Speaker 1: then essentially told them to go, you know, be a
Speaker 1: history major, when they would have been much better off.
Speaker 1: They would have spent less time, less opportunity, cost um
Speaker 1: less student loans, uh, and they would be they'd be
Speaker 1: more fulfilled working a job that they enjoy. And so
Speaker 1: I think we've done like a huge disservice to some
Speaker 1: of our young people by making it sound like that's
Speaker 1: the only path and kind of missing out on apprenticeships
Speaker 1: and helping people to see the value in skilled labor
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, or even encouraging them to like think
Speaker 1: about what they enjoy doing. You know, Like so much
Speaker 1: of this kind of comes down to like individual self
Speaker 1: and think through that, like what I'd be happy, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of what you were saying about maybe taking a
Speaker 1: job that might have a you know, a lower salary,
Speaker 1: but might be completely fulfilling. That being said, I don't
Speaker 1: want to discount going to college, right, Like, for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, that's a great move and a great decision,
Speaker 1: and especially for people that have thought it through. What
Speaker 1: we're what we're kind of focusing on is the intentionality
Speaker 1: and being focused in thinking it through and taking the
Speaker 1: steps that you know you want to take to further
Speaker 1: your career. And that's actually somewhere where like having a
Speaker 1: mission statement I think might be very helpful for some folks.
Speaker 1: This is something that we've had different sort of versions
Speaker 1: of since Kate and I were married, but like an
Speaker 1: actual mission statement, whether that be for you as as
Speaker 1: an individual or if you have a family, just kind
Speaker 1: of talking through some of the values that you have.
Speaker 1: And you know, it kind of sounds kind of crazy
Speaker 1: to be like, what's my mission statement? Like what does
Speaker 1: that mean? But I mean it can literally be as
Speaker 1: simple as thinking through your values, like what are some
Speaker 1: things that you want to you prioritize in your life.
Speaker 1: And once you have that, a lot of decisions become
Speaker 1: easy because it's like it falls under that and then
Speaker 1: you say, oh, does this align with our values? Does
Speaker 1: this align with our mission statement? So then it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's see if this makes sense sort of financially.
Speaker 1: So I think the creating this mission statement is helpful
Speaker 1: as an individual or as a family, like you said, Matt,
Speaker 1: and I think it helps you get on the same
Speaker 1: page with your spouse or significant other two so that
Speaker 1: when something does pop up and you're like do we
Speaker 1: want to spend our money this way? Do we want
Speaker 1: to move to another city for a job, or do
Speaker 1: we want to purchase this new car or whatever, it is,
Speaker 1: like you can go back to this mission statement. It's
Speaker 1: like this foundational It's like a pillar of your family
Speaker 1: that you can go back to and say wait, no, Actually,
Speaker 1: if we were to make that decision, it doesn't quite
Speaker 1: reflect our values and what we actually want out of life.
Speaker 1: We would just be trying to keep up with the joneses,
Speaker 1: or we would just be doing what society tells us
Speaker 1: is valuable, even though ultimately that's not what we want. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I completely agree. So how like, so let's take some
Speaker 1: practical steps then, Like, how would you encourage folks to
Speaker 1: figure out what it is that they want? All right?
Speaker 1: So I would say, first, you need to think about it.
Speaker 1: So sit down, think about it, pen and paper. What
Speaker 1: brings you the most joy? Those are great things to
Speaker 1: write down. And I think, like, so, you know what,
Speaker 1: spending time with my kids, or playing nerdy board games,
Speaker 1: playing disc golf, what. So many of those things are
Speaker 1: free for me. It's awesome. So really, what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do is value my time and my time to
Speaker 1: get to do those things that I love. So what
Speaker 1: you should do, sit down, right down? What brings you
Speaker 1: the most joy? If you live alone, if you're if
Speaker 1: this is just you, great, it's a lot easier if
Speaker 1: if it's with your spouse, you both you sit down
Speaker 1: and write these things out and you come together and
Speaker 1: you talk and you figure out, you know, what, where
Speaker 1: do these things intersect and where do they depart from
Speaker 1: one another. But ultimately that list is going to help
Speaker 1: you as you attempt to write this mission statement and
Speaker 1: as you attempt to prioritize the things that matter the
Speaker 1: most to your family in particular. And this may not
Speaker 1: be something that like you've ever done right like this.
Speaker 1: I mean, this isn't like a normal thing that I
Speaker 1: feel like once you kind of you know, you get
Speaker 1: a job and you kind of kind of start falling
Speaker 1: into the rhythms of life, sitting down and taking the
Speaker 1: time to do something like this isn't like a natural
Speaker 1: isn't a natural thing, So it's weird, it's foreign. You're
Speaker 1: just used to the routine in the daily life, and
Speaker 1: so you just kind of fall into the rut and
Speaker 1: you don't really think about these sort of things. You
Speaker 1: very rarely take the time to step back and be
Speaker 1: thoughtful like this, and that's what we're trying to fight.
Speaker 1: And so that being said, like you may not have
Speaker 1: ever really sat down and thought through this, and this
Speaker 1: might require some brainstorming, you know, like think through like
Speaker 1: what are the different possibilities that are out there because
Speaker 1: you can do them. Like, it just takes some prioritization.
Speaker 1: It takes thinking through what is truly important, like listening
Speaker 1: them all out, figuring out what it is that you
Speaker 1: actually want to focus on. And by starting to make
Speaker 1: that list, you'll quickly be able to figure out what
Speaker 1: it is that is more important than the others. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that brainstorming is such an important piece because
Speaker 1: we tend to think of things in like a box
Speaker 1: and we can't go outside that box. And like our
Speaker 1: life can really only handle up to these certain limits
Speaker 1: that we've been posted on ourselves. But really, if you
Speaker 1: think big and brainstorm some of these big possibilities that
Speaker 1: could happen in your life, like a six month trek
Speaker 1: around Europe. You know that's a big goal and that's
Speaker 1: really hard for people to achieve. You can get there
Speaker 1: if that's something you prioritize. You have to think it
Speaker 1: up first, and then you have to talk about it,
Speaker 1: and then you have to prioritize your spending to make
Speaker 1: that a possibility. But if you don't brainstorm the possibilities,
Speaker 1: if you're kind of left tabling those hopes and dreams,
Speaker 1: that's a Crumby way to live. You want to be
Speaker 1: intentional enough to think about them and to put those
Speaker 1: possibilities out there as a family or as an individual
Speaker 1: so that you can start working in that direction. For
Speaker 1: some folks that might be a priority. For some folks
Speaker 1: that sounds like a nightmare, right, And so there might
Speaker 1: be the individual who's like, well, no, I just want
Speaker 1: to have like my boat and I want to be
Speaker 1: able to go fishing on the weekends. And for that person,
Speaker 1: if that's what they've identified as like what's important in
Speaker 1: their life, man, go for it, you know, Like that's
Speaker 1: the That's what's so cool about this is that like
Speaker 1: we're not trying to say that there's one way you
Speaker 1: have to do it. We just want you to do
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you want to do and be
Speaker 1: proactive about it and to freaking crush it. Like if
Speaker 1: you want to go and fish every Saturday morning, go
Speaker 1: for it. Like that's that's cool, that's awesome. But think
Speaker 1: about that. Is it fishing or is it the lakehouse?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's like like which
Speaker 1: one is your priority? And some people would say, well,
Speaker 1: I like to fish, I'm gonna get a lakehouse. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of upkeep. That's a lot. Maybe that
Speaker 1: is your priority, maybe because that's where family gatherings happen
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Is it the fishing or is
Speaker 1: it the lakehouse? What is it? Or is it fishing
Speaker 1: or is it backpacking across Europe? You know, like there's
Speaker 1: different things for different folks, and we just want you
Speaker 1: to be thoughtful about what it is that you're you're
Speaker 1: doing and to not sort of fall into these ruts
Speaker 1: because people around you are doing those things and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I should do that as Uh, that's what
Speaker 1: we're trying to avoid. So once you've done this full
Speaker 1: brain storm, I would say the next thing you need
Speaker 1: to do is prioritize. So if you have these big, ambitious,
Speaker 1: lofty goals, you might not be able to do them all,
Speaker 1: or you know, some of them might take a lot
Speaker 1: more time. Like I mentioned earlier, you know, one of
Speaker 1: our goals as a family, at some point, maybe five
Speaker 1: six years from now, I want to be able to
Speaker 1: take three months and travel around the country in an RV.
Speaker 1: You know, my kids will be old enough at that point.
Speaker 1: That's just a memory I want to make with my
Speaker 1: kids and there's all sorts of things that I can prioritize,
Speaker 1: but no, you know, this one's happening way down the line.
Speaker 1: This one is something that I can accomplish next year.
Speaker 1: This one is something I can accomplish tomorrow because I
Speaker 1: just need to make my schedule reflect my priorities at
Speaker 1: the same time. So prioritize those goals, know that you
Speaker 1: might not be able to achieve all of them, and
Speaker 1: then start kind of put your money where your mouth
Speaker 1: is as you prioritize those things out. So let's say, Matt,
Speaker 1: you just did this and you wrote down all these
Speaker 1: things that you prioritized, and a fancy car and a
Speaker 1: three thousand square foot house aren't anywhere in there. But
Speaker 1: as it turns out, you're living in a three thousand
Speaker 1: squarefoot house and you drive a fancy car. What do
Speaker 1: you do because we just said do it, like, what
Speaker 1: do you do? Then? Yeah, man, you you sell them.
Speaker 1: If you've realized that those are not priorities in your
Speaker 1: life and you realize that you're sort of in that position,
Speaker 1: you have control of your life. These aren't things that
Speaker 1: are sort of there and they're unchangeable. These are things
Speaker 1: you can change. Start making a plan, and part of
Speaker 1: that plan might involve, you know, for a lot of
Speaker 1: folks might be selling a house or taking some drastic steps.
Speaker 1: And we're not at all advocating you to like completely
Speaker 1: upend your life, but the first step towards doing that
Speaker 1: is thinking through what that might look like. And I
Speaker 1: think for a lot of folks that might actually look
Speaker 1: like selling a house and and moving, or maybe some
Speaker 1: not so extreme extreme examples, it might just mean like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe that means for us not going out to eat
Speaker 1: as much in instead of putting that money towards travel,
Speaker 1: because that's what we really truly in away and what
Speaker 1: we value. Yeah, I mean, I think realign, realign your
Speaker 1: money allocation to reflect those goals that you've just deemed
Speaker 1: as the most important things. Some of those things might
Speaker 1: take some time, like, for instance, a house. Let's you
Speaker 1: have got this three thousand square foot house, I've got
Speaker 1: a mortgage, I've got all these things, I've got kids,
Speaker 1: we've got to move, all these things that go along
Speaker 1: with it. That might be something that takes time, but
Speaker 1: at least it's on your radar, and at least it's
Speaker 1: something you can start working towards. It's something that you've
Speaker 1: thought about and you've addressed, right, It's it's something that
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to solve overnight, but it's
Speaker 1: something that we want you to be conscious to. Or
Speaker 1: I've got a car payment, but you know what, I've
Speaker 1: only got a year left of it, and once I'm done,
Speaker 1: I hold onto this for the next ten years because
Speaker 1: I was just gonna get another lease or another car
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be. But not anymore. Not anymore,
Speaker 1: that's your new car, because it doesn't reflect what I
Speaker 1: truly want, because what I want is more time, or
Speaker 1: what I want is more travel, whatever it is. I
Speaker 1: know that you can change those priorities, and you can
Speaker 1: change your spending to reflect those priorities. And when you do,
Speaker 1: that's the sweet spot. That's a beautiful place in life
Speaker 1: when you can look at your budget, when you can
Speaker 1: look at that outflow and say, you know what that
Speaker 1: really and truly reflects kind of my heart, what I
Speaker 1: want my life look like, what I want my family
Speaker 1: to look like. And I think this is like a pendulum, right,
Speaker 1: Like there's sometimes like I feel like I'm in the
Speaker 1: middle of it, but most of the time I'm like
Speaker 1: a little left or a little right, and I'm not
Speaker 1: not quite in that sweet spot where I want to be.
Speaker 1: It's always sort of changing a little bit here and there, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: But if you can think about it like that and
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, I'm way over here on
Speaker 1: the left, but you know what my goal is, just
Speaker 1: kind of get it a little more, a little more
Speaker 1: in equilibrium, a little closer to the center um and
Speaker 1: and think about it like that pendulum that that's swinging.
Speaker 1: You have the power, though, to kind of put yourself
Speaker 1: in that position. It sometimes it takes time. Some some
Speaker 1: people are gonna have a harder time than others. But
Speaker 1: you have to start somewhere. You have to start by
Speaker 1: thinking about it and then doing it. And no one
Speaker 1: else is gonna do it for you. No one else
Speaker 1: is gonna realign you're spending to reflect your values. You
Speaker 1: have to be the main key actor in this. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is your job and it's your life and you've
Speaker 1: only got one and I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: living a stock lifestyle that's not for me. I want
Speaker 1: my life to reflect those core values that I have
Speaker 1: more and more every day every year. And so we're
Speaker 1: just saying, you know what's slowed down. Stop, take a look,
Speaker 1: take a minute, and these are I think some actionable
Speaker 1: points where you can move forward with that. All right,
Speaker 1: let's stop and take a look at this beer. Mind's
Speaker 1: all gone. Yeah, that's why we're not racing. But it
Speaker 1: sounds like we raised sometimes. So, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: something I love about this beer too. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess we kind of touched on this earlier, but this
Speaker 1: is one of the few six packs that we've that
Speaker 1: we've had on I mean, we didn't have an entire
Speaker 1: six pack this. This is a lot of the beers
Speaker 1: that we've had. Our single bottle is harder to find.
Speaker 1: They come in the format of like a seven fifty bottle.
Speaker 1: They might only be available in two or three states.
Speaker 1: Even so some of them that don't distribute very organ seasonal, Like,
Speaker 1: I think this is something that you'll see on the
Speaker 1: shelves I think year round. Uh, and you'll be able
Speaker 1: to find pretty much anywhere. Yeah, this is really good
Speaker 1: and it's like juice heavy, it's still really really, really tasty. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's the best beer I've had from New
Speaker 1: Belgium that comes in six packs. Yeah, I really like
Speaker 1: New Belgium's Lips of Face series, which is awesome. Serious, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's sort of like single I guess some good ones,
Speaker 1: so look for those two. But I think this is
Speaker 1: probably the best release I've had from them that comes
Speaker 1: out in six packs. This is really tasty. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would recommend given it a shot. So if you find
Speaker 1: Voodoo Ranger Juicy Hayes, I p a at your local
Speaker 1: grocery store or bottle shop, not even bottle shop, you
Speaker 1: can just pick this up at It's crazy that that's
Speaker 1: your big grocery store. It's crazy the amount of good
Speaker 1: beer you can get at your grocery store now. I mean,
Speaker 1: so many grocery stores targets, Like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: grocery change that really starting to um amp up their
Speaker 1: craft beer selection and that's what folks are wanting. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's really cool to see. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: prefer to go to my bottle shop. I mean, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd rather be able to talk to the
Speaker 1: dude about the beer. And I'm kind of weird about that,
Speaker 1: but if I need something real quick and the closest
Speaker 1: place to me is the grocery store, man, it's awesome.
Speaker 1: This is a good option. And this is a great option,
Speaker 1: all right, Joel, Let's let's do a quick wrap up.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap it all right. So first, the big y
Speaker 1: behind money, save your money. So, and the why behind
Speaker 1: saving is to eventually have financial freedom. And work is
Speaker 1: a good thing, but you want to have the option
Speaker 1: to not work or work less so that you can
Speaker 1: prioritize your time the way you want to. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: about having options. It's not like we're not advocating saving
Speaker 1: because we love money. It's not to accrue the most
Speaker 1: money humanly possible. Yeah, we have goals and missions and
Speaker 1: part of getting to those goals and those missions, and
Speaker 1: what we spend our money on is spending, right, And
Speaker 1: so obviously spending has an inverse relationship there with saving.
Speaker 1: And so we want you to spend your money in
Speaker 1: ways that are intentional and meaningful and that align with
Speaker 1: your values in life. Yeah, and so that means not
Speaker 1: living a default or stock lifestyle. Everyone else around you
Speaker 1: has two cars and a three thousand square foot house.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that's what you need to do. And
Speaker 1: maybe that's how you want to live, but be thoughtful
Speaker 1: about it. And so don't just live the lifestyle that
Speaker 1: your co workers or friends, or your parents have lived.
Speaker 1: Make sure that your lifestyle is reflective of what you
Speaker 1: want your life to look like. And maybe you don't
Speaker 1: even know what that is. We live in a world
Speaker 1: that's just so fast, you know, and it's just everything
Speaker 1: is just happening so quickly. We don't take pause to
Speaker 1: think through the things that are important to us and
Speaker 1: the things that we value. And so for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, including myself, man, this is sort of weird
Speaker 1: to do, but to sit down and think through, like
Speaker 1: what's important to me, soul searching, but it's important. It's
Speaker 1: it can it can be like this big ethereal thing,
Speaker 1: but like, really you just think through what do you
Speaker 1: value and what do you find the most enjoyment, And
Speaker 1: that's what we want you to pursue. That's what we
Speaker 1: want you to focus your life around. And even the
Speaker 1: mission Statement, if that's what it takes to kind of
Speaker 1: create a concise sort of statement that you can refer
Speaker 1: back to, it makes a lot of life easier. When
Speaker 1: there's decisions that come up, you can refer back to
Speaker 1: the mission Statement. So think about how you're spending, think
Speaker 1: about what brings you joy, prioritize those things that bring
Speaker 1: you joy and figure out what goals are achievable and
Speaker 1: the timetable that it might take to reach those and
Speaker 1: then do it. Yeah, do it. You have control of
Speaker 1: your life. Like Joel said earlier, you're like the main
Speaker 1: player in your own life. Nobody else is going to
Speaker 1: be advocating for you to do the things that you
Speaker 1: want to do right on. So next time, maybe we'll
Speaker 1: tackle something a little bit easier. It's really nice when
Speaker 1: there's like do these three steps and it'll increase your
Speaker 1: credit score. Things like that are are nice to kind
Speaker 1: of wrap your head around. This is tough, it is,
Speaker 1: but hopefully we've given people something to wrestle with. I mean,
Speaker 1: it makes me want to go back even and and
Speaker 1: look my goals and talk with my wife about the
Speaker 1: stuff again. And I feel like it's something that comes
Speaker 1: up a lot. And if you like this podcast, we
Speaker 1: would really appreciate it if you would subscribe on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever you listen, maybe leave a brief review
Speaker 1: in our home on the web is how to money
Speaker 1: dot com. Check it out. We'll have some show notes
Speaker 1: up there for you. So until next time, Man, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out, Best Friends Out,