Speaker 1: Episode four fifteen, how Catherine paid off twenty seven thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in student loans in five months.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. It's debt free summer and
Speaker 1: we are playing another debt free story for you. Who
Speaker 1: this is from our listener, Catherine. And Catherine was such
Speaker 1: a joy to talk to last year. She is so
Speaker 1: young and just on such a great path, uh, and
Speaker 1: so full of life. And if you have a student
Speaker 1: that just recently graduated college or high school, or you
Speaker 1: are a young person who recently graduated, then I think
Speaker 1: you're really gonna like Catherine's story or you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to pass it on to someone.
Speaker 3: And we've got some fun updates afterwards where Catherine has
Speaker 3: told us kind of what has happened in life since
Speaker 3: becoming debt free. So stick around after we replay this
Speaker 3: interview to hear where she's at now, and well, Jenn
Speaker 3: and I will share a little bit of our own.
Speaker 1: Little yeah, And if you want to see Catherine's interview
Speaker 1: in real life, you can head over to our YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: It's Frugal Friends on YouTube. We have all ten debt
Speaker 1: free stories over there. But if you're not a video person,
Speaker 1: then we are playing them every week this summer ten weeks.
Speaker 1: It's defree summer.
Speaker 3: Baby, it's not howkir All summer is defree free summer.
Speaker 3: We're still hot, but but we're becoming.
Speaker 1: A defree yes. But first, this episode is brought to
Speaker 1: you by your first job. Your first job out of school,
Speaker 1: so fresh, so young, so bright, so naive, and your
Speaker 1: first job may or may not have enrolled you automatically
Speaker 1: without you knowing, it into a four to oh one K,
Speaker 1: and that's great. We love that. We love that businesses
Speaker 1: do that because at a site out of mine and
Speaker 1: you're just saving on autopilot. But if you left that
Speaker 1: job to move to greener pastures or maybe browner ones,
Speaker 1: I don't know, then you are going to want to
Speaker 1: take back control of that four oh one K because
Speaker 1: once you leave your employer, then you no longer control
Speaker 1: that money. It's still yours, but you're probably going to
Speaker 1: be paying holding fees. It may not be invested where
Speaker 1: you want it, so you want to roll it over
Speaker 1: into an IRA. If that is too complex for you
Speaker 1: to even wrap your mind around four A one K
Speaker 1: to IRA, rollovers brokerage to Browridge, I get it. But
Speaker 1: that's why we have partnered with Capitalize. Capitalize as a
Speaker 1: service that will actually find your four oh one K
Speaker 1: for you and then help you roll it over for
Speaker 1: free into an IRA of your choice, whether that's a
Speaker 1: roboadvisor or do it yourself brokeridge. They're going to help
Speaker 1: you figure it out. Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash Capitalize.
Speaker 1: Let your first job be just a pleasant memory and
Speaker 1: not one that haunts you.
Speaker 3: Because you left behind your retirement investing there. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a great.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we have a lot on the horizon this summer
Speaker 1: with debt free stories. But if you missed last week's
Speaker 1: episode four thirteen, we had how Megan paid off her
Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars of debt as a teacher. And then
Speaker 1: we have a lot of episodes in general about debt,
Speaker 1: so like episode two seventy six, which debt should you
Speaker 1: pay off?
Speaker 5: First?
Speaker 1: Search back in our archives. So so many debt payoff
Speaker 1: stories over the last six years. There you will not
Speaker 1: and we try, we have always tried to serve a
Speaker 1: diverse set of stories of people who've paid off debt,
Speaker 1: so big amounts, small amounts, short periods of time, longer
Speaker 1: periods of time, different income brackets, kids, no kids. So
Speaker 1: that's always been super important to us that if we're
Speaker 1: going to share somebody's story, that it's relatable to not
Speaker 1: as many people as possible, but to specific as specific
Speaker 1: of the groups as possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are favorites when you get to hear from
Speaker 3: other people with especially when you're able to find someone
Speaker 3: with a similar story to you and here, what did
Speaker 3: they do, what ended up working for them and kind
Speaker 3: of figure out what what is this going to look.
Speaker 4: Like for you then?
Speaker 3: Because I know one person's journey is going to be
Speaker 3: exactly the same as another's, but collectively we can learn
Speaker 3: from one another. So it is one of our favorite
Speaker 3: things to do through interviews and the only series we
Speaker 3: ended up putting on YouTube. So we're excited to share
Speaker 3: it here and let's get into it. Let's hear from
Speaker 3: Catherine and we have a very special guest today, a
Speaker 3: listener of frugal friends just like you all watching. Catherine
Speaker 3: is here to share her story.
Speaker 5: Welcome Catherine. We're so glad to have you. Yes, welcome, Catherine.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm so
Speaker 6: excited to be in a position to talk about being
Speaker 6: debt free.
Speaker 3: So, Catherine, tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Speaker 3: Do you have children, where do you live? Give us
Speaker 3: a little bit of a background on who you are,
Speaker 3: and little sneak peeks into this debt free story.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I am too. So I still live at
Speaker 6: home with my family, which will be a big part
Speaker 6: of the story that I'm talking about. But I graduated
Speaker 6: college this past May and am now working full time
Speaker 6: in HR. It sounds boring, but I really love it.
Speaker 6: And then I also have my part time job that
Speaker 6: I kept from college, where I work as a bridal
Speaker 6: sales consultant, and that's purely because I think it's such
Speaker 6: a fun job. But yeah, so I live at home.
Speaker 6: I have my dog Misty and my fish Henry, so
Speaker 6: they're always kind of local. But I'm right outside of
Speaker 6: Boston and I've lived here my whole life.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 6: And so where did you go to school? Yeah, so
Speaker 6: I went to Bryant University. It's in Rhode Island, so
Speaker 6: it's about an hour away from where I live now.
Speaker 6: I was on campus until COVID hit kind of flipped
Speaker 6: everything upside down. So my junior year I was virtual
Speaker 6: and then my senior year I chose to commute to campus.
Speaker 3: Nice Catherine, I'm feeling the build up to this debt
Speaker 3: payoff story. Can you tell us how much was it?
Speaker 3: How long did it take? You give us all the deeds?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so all of the debt I had was from
Speaker 6: student loans, And to be honest, COVID was the first
Speaker 6: time I really started to take a look at money
Speaker 6: because I think, like many of my friends, I was
Speaker 6: in the mindset of, oh, you go to college, you
Speaker 6: get debt, and that's just what happens. It racks up,
Speaker 6: but it's for the experience. And when I was sent
Speaker 6: home and I was virtual it it really made me
Speaker 6: pause and look at what I was spending on room
Speaker 6: and board and just how much money it was. And
Speaker 6: when I did out the math and realized, if I
Speaker 6: make some changes, I was going to graduate with over
Speaker 6: one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in new debt and
Speaker 6: I was like, that is not feasible. I don't want
Speaker 6: to have that. So that's when I made some of
Speaker 6: the changes to decide to commute my senior year, so
Speaker 6: that cut out a lot of room and board costs,
Speaker 6: but would still leave me at a point where I
Speaker 6: would graduate with about twenty seven thousand dollars in student loans.
Speaker 6: So I'd say fall semester of my senior year, around
Speaker 6: the time I found your podcast, I decided that I
Speaker 6: want to be able to pay off my debt as
Speaker 6: fast as I could. I was really lucky in that
Speaker 6: the jobs, the two jobs that I have right now,
Speaker 6: my full time job and my part time job, are
Speaker 6: local to where I live, so I was fortunate that
Speaker 6: I could stay at home. So as I graduated in May,
Speaker 6: I started to look at what my monthly income would be,
Speaker 6: knowing that my expenses were very limited. I don't have
Speaker 6: to pay rent, which I'm very grateful for, and then
Speaker 6: I wanted to see how I could best set myself up.
Speaker 6: So I looked at my retirement options, so my four
Speaker 6: oh one K and my roth IRA, and then set
Speaker 6: aside any expenses that I did have, see what was
Speaker 6: left over, and I thought that I would just start
Speaker 6: putting as much of that toward my student loans. I
Speaker 6: had a pretty high interest on one of them. It
Speaker 6: was about like eight or nine percent, so I really
Speaker 6: wanted to get that one down. And as I made
Speaker 6: it to about August, I realized as I was paying
Speaker 6: off my debt, I wasn't contributing anything to my short
Speaker 6: term savings that I built up through college, and I
Speaker 6: was like, I weighed the options of dipping into my
Speaker 6: savings a little bit to kind of help expedite this,
Speaker 6: knowing that it wouldn't grow in my mind until I
Speaker 6: paid off debt. Again. Being the lucky position I was
Speaker 6: to live at home, so I did choose to dip
Speaker 6: into debt a little bit to help pay off the
Speaker 6: twenty seven thousand, and then this past October, so it
Speaker 6: was just a few weeks ago I was able to
Speaker 6: make my final student loan payment, which just felt so good.
Speaker 6: It was such a weight lifted off my shoulders. Where
Speaker 6: now I feel like, as I'm still living at home,
Speaker 6: I can now more focus on the savings I need
Speaker 6: to be able to move out and be comfortable knowing
Speaker 6: that I won't have to worry about my student loans anymore.
Speaker 5: That's amazing, Catherine to prioritize that so quickly after graduating
Speaker 5: like I waited years to pay off are like my
Speaker 5: debt after graduating, because I was just so worried about
Speaker 5: it and to do it in five months. So I wonder,
Speaker 5: were there any times over that five months that you
Speaker 5: hit any roadblocks or hardships that made you second guess
Speaker 5: or question like what you were doing?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say I had a constant battle with
Speaker 6: myself of like, all right, am I being too crazy
Speaker 6: here wanting to pay it off? Am I missing out
Speaker 6: on opportunities? And that's when I've really honestly, I listened
Speaker 6: to the values based Budgeting episode so many times over
Speaker 6: the summer because I really started to think about what
Speaker 6: I valued and what I would be spending my money on. Anyway,
Speaker 6: So there were a couple of times where, you know,
Speaker 6: my friends would go out to dinner, things would be expensive,
Speaker 6: and I would really be like, oh, if I wasn't
Speaker 6: paying off debt, I would go. But then at the
Speaker 6: same time, I don't like spending a ton of money
Speaker 6: going out, so it wasn't worth it. So I think
Speaker 6: all those hiccups was a lot of really good self
Speaker 6: reflection to debate if something was worth it, And you know,
Speaker 6: each month was a little bit inconsistent, but I think
Speaker 6: I really tried to focus on spending money on what
Speaker 6: I value and not necessarily sacrificing that to pay off debt,
Speaker 6: but be as intentional as possible.
Speaker 3: Well done, Catherine, and how encouraging to hear what a
Speaker 3: benefit that values based spending episode was. Indeed, I normally
Speaker 3: think about listening to songs on redback financial episodes, but
Speaker 3: it really benefited you and allowed you to have freedom
Speaker 3: in some of that process of debt payoff, not just deprivation.
Speaker 3: You think it will be amazing to hear, but we're
Speaker 3: also curious about income for you. Can you tell us
Speaker 3: a bit about what your income was during the debt payoff,
Speaker 3: if it increased at all, what did that look like?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so when I started paying off debt, I was
Speaker 6: at my full time job and that salary hasn't changed,
Speaker 6: so that's remained the same. And I would say about
Speaker 6: a month into that is when I continued with my
Speaker 6: second job. I wanted to give myself a month to
Speaker 6: make sure I could you get acclimated. So I work
Speaker 6: my forty hours a week of my salary job, and
Speaker 6: then I should have done this matter fourteen hours a
Speaker 6: week of my other jobs, so combined because other job
Speaker 6: is commissioned, it offages a little bit. It brings me
Speaker 6: up to somewhere between seventy five and eighty, which I'm
Speaker 6: really grateful for to be able to allow me to
Speaker 6: pay off the debt and then focus on retirement income.
Speaker 6: But it's been about the same since I started paying
Speaker 6: off debt.
Speaker 5: Okay, cool, And so you did focus on some retirement
Speaker 5: while you paid off the debt.
Speaker 6: Yeah. So with my full time paycheck, I was able
Speaker 6: to reroute the money going to my phara one K automatically,
Speaker 6: so I was like, all right, if I never see it,
Speaker 6: it'll be like I'm never losing it. So it just
Speaker 6: would go there. And then I did the same thing
Speaker 6: with roth iray payments. I would automatically take it out
Speaker 6: of my account. I found for me that was the
Speaker 6: best way to make sure I was focusing on retirement
Speaker 6: at the same time, because I think if I had
Speaker 6: to move it in myself, I would be like, all right, well,
Speaker 6: debt retirement. It would have been a lot harder of
Speaker 6: a decision. So automating that was really helpful for me.
Speaker 3: That's so great, well done automating that investing for retirement
Speaker 3: while paying off debt. And now that you are debt,
Speaker 3: what's your next financial goal? What are you going to
Speaker 3: do with your finances now?
Speaker 6: So I guess I have two answers there. So in
Speaker 6: terms of my next financial goal, I'm aiming to start
Speaker 6: saving up for a housing deposit, whether that be an apartment,
Speaker 6: a condo, something I think. As lovely as the housing
Speaker 6: market has been, I realized if I'm able to buy
Speaker 6: instead of rent, that's something I want to do, or
Speaker 6: at least be in a position where I can buy
Speaker 6: sooner rather than later. So that's definitely my next financial goal.
Speaker 6: And I talked a little bit about how I'm really
Speaker 6: trying to be more intentional spending. I think that's something
Speaker 6: I'm still trying to work on every day, especially getting
Speaker 6: into the holiday season. That temptations are real, So I
Speaker 6: think this would be a good time to really focus
Speaker 6: in on that not be I mean, I love shopping,
Speaker 6: I love a good deal, so I really want to
Speaker 6: make sure this holiday season I can like stay true
Speaker 6: to that and not get off.
Speaker 5: Course, that's great, Catherine, that's like I love it to
Speaker 5: be doing as well as you're doing, I get is incredible. Yeah,
Speaker 5: taking advantages of the things that you are are being
Speaker 5: given and I can take advantage of this is amazing.
Speaker 5: So now that you have paid off this debt, you've
Speaker 5: achieved this goal, You've got your working on your next
Speaker 5: financial goal.
Speaker 1: What words of wisdom?
Speaker 5: What would you say to someone who is where you
Speaker 5: were when you started, when you had this epiphany of
Speaker 5: how much student loan debt you have and should I
Speaker 5: take out more? What should I dip in the sames like,
Speaker 5: what would you say to you at the beginning of this?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I guess I have kind of point. So first,
Speaker 6: when I think back to freshman year and I knew
Speaker 6: what I was getting into with loans, I really just
Speaker 6: didn't think about what the cost was because I knew
Speaker 6: everyone at student loans and that's just what you did.
Speaker 6: And I was like, I'll take it whatever, I'll pay
Speaker 6: them off for as long as I need to. And
Speaker 6: I wasn't as involved as I should have been in
Speaker 6: that process. So I would say to anyone in that position,
Speaker 6: whether it's for your undergrad or grad school, really think
Speaker 6: about the loan value, what it covers, if living on
Speaker 6: campus is really important to you, if there are ways
Speaker 6: you can save money that way, and then when it
Speaker 6: comes to the actual process of paying it off that
Speaker 6: the number really is the scariest part. Like if you
Speaker 6: had asked me two years ago if I would have
Speaker 6: paid off on my debt in like five months, I
Speaker 6: would have said you were absolutely crazy, Because I think
Speaker 6: once you really sit down and make a plan, of course,
Speaker 6: depending on your circumstances, that'll kind of dictate how long
Speaker 6: it takes and what you're comfortable with. But having that
Speaker 6: plan made this so much easier when I could really
Speaker 6: break down and see it, what was my disposable income,
Speaker 6: what am I comfortable putting away? Am I in a
Speaker 6: position to use some of my savings? And that really
Speaker 6: made it so much simpler because the number was just
Speaker 6: the most daunting part at first.
Speaker 3: Such great advice, Catherine for anyone considering taking out student
Speaker 3: loan debts. Yeah, when you think back to that time,
Speaker 3: were there any things that you were not excited to
Speaker 3: give up or thought that you'd have to give up
Speaker 3: and it was just really gonna suck or what did
Speaker 3: that look like? Was there was there deprivation involved? Yeah?
Speaker 6: I think the biggest thing was, I would say, prior
Speaker 6: to really focusing on debt, eating out and food or
Speaker 6: of course always one of the biggest expenses, especially throughout college,
Speaker 6: so I knew that that would be something I would
Speaker 6: have to really rain in and cut down. But I
Speaker 6: think on the flip side, I found other ways to
Speaker 6: have fun with that. So instead of going out as
Speaker 6: often as did with some of my friends, like they
Speaker 6: would come over and we would cook together, and it
Speaker 6: didn't always come out as good as when you go
Speaker 6: out to eat, but it was something that was really fun.
Speaker 6: So I think, and that's something I'm continuing now, is
Speaker 6: really trying to find ways of all. Right, so I
Speaker 6: like hanging out with friends, I don't want to spend
Speaker 6: money out, but if we cook together, we're achieving kind
Speaker 6: of the same outcome. So that worked out really well.
Speaker 3: That's great. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think it is like the number. The seeing the
Speaker 5: number on the screen and thinking about the things that
Speaker 5: you'll have to give up to get rid of it
Speaker 5: is a big barrier for a lot of people to
Speaker 5: paying off debt, Like that was my story. That was
Speaker 5: the big thing that kept me from paying off debt
Speaker 5: for so long. But I think it kind of forces
Speaker 5: you into this creativity mode where you're trying to meet
Speaker 5: the same values the things that you value most in
Speaker 5: a more creative way, and so instead of depriving yourself,
Speaker 5: you're just trying to get creative. And I did bring
Speaker 5: some of that stuff with me, like past step payoffs.
Speaker 5: Some of it I left behind, but some of it, yeah,
Speaker 5: I did carry with me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly because I Even another example, there's my boyfriend
Speaker 6: and I love to travel, and I had never really
Speaker 6: been camping. He had introduced that to me, and that's
Speaker 6: been such a fun way for us to be able
Speaker 6: to like frugally travel. We love spending time in New
Speaker 6: Hampshire and for us it's not really realistic to spend
Speaker 6: a lot of money on hotels or motels, especially in
Speaker 6: the summer. Like camping is great because we get to
Speaker 6: be there and it's like twenty bucks a night to stay,
Speaker 6: which is awesome.
Speaker 3: Oh good for you, Catherine. I'm a little bit more
Speaker 3: of an RV camper by south, I'm more of a however,
Speaker 3: summers in the North tent camping, Like I get it,
Speaker 3: that's the best of what you're going to get there.
Speaker 3: So you found a great way to travel and do
Speaker 3: fun things on a budget, which is amazing. But what's
Speaker 3: even more amazing is this accomplishment of off twenty seven
Speaker 3: thousand dollars of student loan done in just five months
Speaker 3: as a twenty two year old. This is unbelievable. I
Speaker 3: just want to give you opportunity to celebrate however you
Speaker 3: want to celebrate. What do you want to do, Catherine,
Speaker 3: to celebrate this debt payoff?
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 3: I'matching you. Yeah, we did it.
Speaker 6: That is amazing, Like it's crazy. I just saying it
Speaker 6: out loud that I paid it off.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Congrats, Catherine. Thank you so much for sharing your
Speaker 3: story with us.
Speaker 5: I hope that it inspires other listeners, other people in
Speaker 5: their twenties and beyond, to pay off their student loans sooner,
Speaker 5: no matter what situation they are, but especially if they're younger.
Speaker 5: If you're younger and have a lot of resources available
Speaker 5: to you that you may not have when you're older and.
Speaker 3: You've got kids, and I feel inspired. I mean, goodness,
Speaker 3: she's done more with her debt payoff than we did.
Speaker 6: That's funny to.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but even just the way that you have chosen
Speaker 3: to make such good decisions with your finances, how that's
Speaker 3: now going to carry out throughout the rest of life.
Speaker 3: You've really set yourself up so well and we're so
Speaker 3: glad to have you hear share your debt payoff story,
Speaker 3: but also as a fellow Frugal Friends listener to be
Speaker 3: a small part of this journey finding your values and
Speaker 3: just crushing debts so quickly. Well done for celebrating you today, Catherine.
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, thank you so much for having me to
Speaker 6: let me kind of talk about this journey, and thank
Speaker 6: you for everything that you do. Honestly, your podcast was
Speaker 6: a huge reason that I was able to do this.
Speaker 6: I found you guys my junior year in college and
Speaker 6: that's really helped set me up for success. So really,
Speaker 6: thank you so much for everything that you do.
Speaker 5: Yeah again, just like honored to play a small part
Speaker 5: in your story that our little podcast can provide inspiration
Speaker 5: to you.
Speaker 3: So well done. You did it. You did it in
Speaker 3: the hard work, and that's on you, Catherine. Well done.
Speaker 6: Good, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Thank you guys for watching this debt free story. If
Speaker 5: you liked it, then please subscribe to the Frugal Friends
Speaker 5: podcast YouTube channel. Subscribe to the podcast and hit notifications
Speaker 5: on YouTube to be notified.
Speaker 1: I get goosebumps when I hear like those are the
Speaker 1: debt free screams that we have or all the versions.
Speaker 1: Not everybody did a debt free scream, but the versions
Speaker 1: of debt free celebrations that everybody did for the series
Speaker 1: just all gave me goosebumps. So I love that we
Speaker 1: were able to share Catherine's story when she was so
Speaker 1: everyone had to go through a screening process before we
Speaker 1: interviewed them, and we kind of asked them just some
Speaker 1: like general questions and some questions that would be helpful,
Speaker 1: like what would you say to someone out there who's
Speaker 1: where you were before you started the journey. We asked
Speaker 1: everybody that, and Catherine's answer stuck with me. The most
Speaker 1: daunting part is the number. And when you really sit
Speaker 1: and break down your income and debt and start to
Speaker 1: make a plan, it's so much more manageable to wrap
Speaker 1: your head around. And it's so true. When we were
Speaker 1: writing the book, we talked a lot about dopamine and
Speaker 1: how shopping is a dopamine hit. It's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we shop, but it's the actual anticipation of the
Speaker 1: shopping that provides a higher release of dopamine than the
Speaker 1: actual act of shopping, And it is always the anticipation
Speaker 1: of something that is either scarier or more enjoyable than
Speaker 1: the actual act of it. And I think about vacation
Speaker 1: leading up to vacation is so much more exciting and
Speaker 1: actually being on vacation, especially if you're on vacation with children.
Speaker 4: That's not vacations going away.
Speaker 1: Raising your children in another location, which probably some of
Speaker 1: you are doing right now. But like the most daunting
Speaker 1: part is thinking about the number or looking at your
Speaker 1: ninety day transaction inventory, anticipating what you will find. The
Speaker 1: anticipation of what you will find is always scarier than
Speaker 1: what it is when you actually sit down, break it down,
Speaker 1: make a plan, and wrap your head around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it can feel like pulling off a
Speaker 3: band aid a bit, and some people want to do
Speaker 3: it very quickly and others take more time to kind
Speaker 3: of build up and ease into it. But what we
Speaker 3: hear from everybody is that by the time they actually
Speaker 3: are able to look at it, there's much more relief.
Speaker 3: On the other end, there was so much more fear
Speaker 3: and concern leading up to looking at the numbers, and
Speaker 3: usually relief. There can come the frustration or feeling overwhelmed, certainly,
Speaker 3: but at least relief in knowing what it is that
Speaker 3: I'm dealing with and I can now make a plan
Speaker 3: rather than it just being scary. One of the things
Speaker 3: that stood out to me though, in this actual interview,
Speaker 3: was how she referenced values based spending. I don't think
Speaker 3: she used those words exactly, but talking about how self
Speaker 3: reflection helped her to debate whether or not something was
Speaker 3: worth spending on. And she before that was describing how
Speaker 3: she was spending so much money going out with friends
Speaker 3: and started to realize it wasn't even what she actually enjoyed.
Speaker 3: And I know you and I have talked about this
Speaker 3: a lot on the podcast related to values based spending.
Speaker 3: For you, specifically Jen with beer, like I would go
Speaker 3: out to breweries because it's where my friends were hanging out,
Speaker 3: and that can be an inexpensive hangout. A lot of
Speaker 3: breweries have games you can play and it's just and
Speaker 3: you can bring your kids, and so to get a
Speaker 3: beer and hang out with friends is inexpensive. But for you,
Speaker 3: you're like, I don't like beer, so it's not worth
Speaker 3: it at all. Even that, Well, you used to really
Speaker 3: get a beer for three bucks. Now it's like eight
Speaker 3: to twelve dollars. It's just not worth it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's different stages though. So if your idea of
Speaker 1: hanging out is spending one hundred dollars to go out
Speaker 1: to dinner or one hundred dollars like ticket somewhere, then
Speaker 1: maybe jumping straight to inviting people to your home for
Speaker 1: a glass of wine from Aldi is not the next step.
Speaker 1: Maybe the next step is the brewery where you're getting
Speaker 1: five to eight dollars beers instead of you know, one hundred,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars like tickets and meals. It
Speaker 1: can be a step down, right, It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be straight from whatever you're doing to spending nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's also the ability to still hang out
Speaker 3: with friends, still show up Jepperry, Yes, but if you
Speaker 3: don't like the beer, you don't got to get the beer.
Speaker 3: But anyways, that was essentially her Catherine finding that this
Speaker 3: process of journeying to become debt free informed her more
Speaker 3: about her spending what she actually enjoyed, and that self
Speaker 3: reflection piece is something you never lose or once you
Speaker 3: build it, you can maintain it even beyond becoming debt free.
Speaker 1: It's a mindset of curiosity. It is building that curiosity
Speaker 1: muscle to self reflect and debate if something is worth
Speaker 1: it to you, It can be worth it to you.
Speaker 1: Anything can be worth it to you. But if we
Speaker 1: don't create that habit and that mindset of self reflection,
Speaker 1: then everything is worth it. We don't have any parameters,
Speaker 1: we don't have any boundaries, and so then we kind
Speaker 1: of lose what is truly worth it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's one of those gifts that can come.
Speaker 3: You don't anticipate what all a debt free journey is
Speaker 3: going to teach you, but all of us inevitably come
Speaker 3: out the other side with I never anticipated that I'd
Speaker 3: learned this, but here's what I still get to take
Speaker 3: with me kind of the gifts of what I thought
Speaker 3: was going to be super cumbersome, super overwhelming, and now
Speaker 3: here I am actually learning more and investing in myself
Speaker 3: in different ways and being creative. And there are silver
Speaker 3: linings to this whole journey, not just the debt freedom,
Speaker 3: but beyond that of what we can learn and take
Speaker 3: with us. So I appreciated Catherine kind of highlighting that,
Speaker 3: and then we asked her.
Speaker 1: For another Yes, we got an update from Catherine. So
Speaker 1: here's what she says, since I paid off my debt
Speaker 1: in October twenty twenty two, I achieved one big financial
Speaker 1: goal that I discussed in the video, which was the
Speaker 1: purchase of a condo. My boyfriend and I purchased a
Speaker 1: condo in November twenty twenty three. He's also debt free
Speaker 1: and paid off his student loans shortly after graduating. Because
Speaker 1: we were both debt free, we were able to put
Speaker 1: income previously going towards debt to our housing deposit fund.
Speaker 1: We had a crazy experience with the competitive housing market
Speaker 1: and high interest rates, but we were able to finally
Speaker 1: get a condo our sixteenth offer near our families. Through
Speaker 1: this process, I learned so much about negotiating and the
Speaker 1: importance of knowing your comfort level.
Speaker 3: This is exciting because she wrapped up saying when we
Speaker 3: asked what do you hope to do now that you've
Speaker 3: become debt free, it was I hope to save up
Speaker 3: for a down payment on a house. So it is
Speaker 3: a beautiful thing to be on this side and get
Speaker 3: the update that she did do it, And there you go.
Speaker 3: There's another gift you get to take with you after
Speaker 3: accomplishing debt freedom is that you can accomplish things, you
Speaker 3: can build upon that accomplishment and keep going. Like she
Speaker 3: was able to do this one thing, now she's able
Speaker 3: to say she's going to do this next thing and
Speaker 3: do it despite being up against some really crazy odds
Speaker 3: and difficulties.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's oh man, the housing markets. But yeah, when
Speaker 1: you are debt free and you have that lower debt
Speaker 1: to income ratio, then it can make the interest payments
Speaker 1: a little bit more manageable. And remember interest it will
Speaker 1: go down, it will don't quote me on that, please
Speaker 1: don't sue me, but like it ebbs and flows, right, so,
Speaker 1: and you can always refinance when it goes down. So
Speaker 1: if home ownership is something that is truly a value
Speaker 1: to you, doesn't have to to be, but if it
Speaker 1: is something that you value, then definitely getting in while
Speaker 1: the market is not as competitive, because when the market
Speaker 1: is competitive, it is traumatic. Sixteenth offer, Yeah, we experienced
Speaker 1: something very similar way past sixteen. But yeah, Catherine, I
Speaker 1: feel you. But congratulations girl, Yes, they're so excited.
Speaker 3: We're still celebrating with you and celebrating all your subsequent
Speaker 3: accomplishments that you've had since then. Speaking of accomplishments, but
Speaker 3: not needing to wait at all.
Speaker 4: There's no sixteen offers happening over here. It's one off.
Speaker 1: First time accepted.
Speaker 4: The bill of the week.
Speaker 8: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 8: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 8: is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
Speaker 8: car died, and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 8: that bill anymore. Stuff bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3: This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 7: Hi, Jen and Jill, this is Sean calling from Tennessee.
Speaker 7: My bill of the week is that I was inspired
Speaker 7: by your episode three eighty one, the six week roth
Speaker 7: Ira challenge to finally jump in and open a roth
Speaker 7: Ira in my husband's name and my name for twenty
Speaker 7: twenty three. And I wanted to say that I appreciate
Speaker 7: Jiel's vulnerability in talking about how you need to invest
Speaker 7: the funds once you put them in the roth Ira,
Speaker 7: because I could definitely see myself sort of dusting off
Speaker 7: my hands and walking away after opening them and not
Speaker 7: realizing that I actually needed to do that. So thank
Speaker 7: you so much for the show. And I'm hoping this
Speaker 7: bill of the Week is going to pay off in
Speaker 7: the long run.
Speaker 1: I am shuck, I am so happy. I'm sough this
Speaker 1: episode is too much for you.
Speaker 9: It's all I wanted when when I wrote that episode,
Speaker 9: I was like, if one person opens a roth Ira
Speaker 9: and puts money in it and gets that twenty twenty
Speaker 9: three deadline, if one person does it, this episode will
Speaker 9: be worth it.
Speaker 1: Sean, you have made my day.
Speaker 4: You Oh but not just her, her and her partner,
Speaker 4: which is amazing. Nice. Oh my gosh, this is too much.
Speaker 4: This is we were just celebrating.
Speaker 1: You never know how something is gonna land when you
Speaker 1: when you've never done it before, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: know how that would land. But I am And we
Speaker 1: have heard from other people who contributed more to their
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three roth Ira. I maxed out our twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three rath Iras because of that challenge, because I
Speaker 1: felt convicted, not convicted, but like positively challenged by my
Speaker 1: own self imposed challenge.
Speaker 3: Well, you're asking other people to do it, so it's
Speaker 3: only fair that you tried too.
Speaker 1: And I definitely did not have the funds. It was
Speaker 1: not a smart idea I shouldn't have, but I had
Speaker 1: in the back of my head. Every dollar you put
Speaker 1: into that rath Ira, you can take back out penalty free.
Speaker 1: So if I do need it, I can have it
Speaker 1: within a week, but I can't put it in after
Speaker 1: the deadline.
Speaker 4: Oh that's good.
Speaker 1: That was my ration. That was that was my rationalization.
Speaker 1: And we've missed the twenty twenty three deadline has passed.
Speaker 1: That's okay, but we still have twenty twenty four. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so if you are worried, put the money in,
Speaker 1: because you can take the only money that is tied
Speaker 1: to it with penalty is the growth. So if I
Speaker 1: put in a thousand and it grows to ony ten,
Speaker 1: I got to leave that ten in there till sixty five.
Speaker 1: But I can take that thousand back at any time
Speaker 1: penalty freeze. So know that you can always take it
Speaker 1: back out, but you can't always put it in.
Speaker 3: To count towards the specific years you want. Sean, thank
Speaker 3: you so much for calling in and sharing this with us.
Speaker 3: This is very, very exciting, and I am so glad
Speaker 3: that my vulnerability helped you. If I can teach you
Speaker 3: how to avoid the mistakes that I've made, I am
Speaker 3: here for it.
Speaker 1: I made that mistake too. I left money into in
Speaker 1: an Ira, rollover for a year uninvested. I mean, everybody's
Speaker 1: going to do everybody doesn't.
Speaker 4: But you did it.
Speaker 3: You did it all and here you are probably sean
Speaker 3: inspiring other people to do this as well.
Speaker 4: Go up, Ira.
Speaker 1: If you want to leave us a bill of the week,
Speaker 1: then visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Leave
Speaker 1: us your bill. We are excited to hear it. It
Speaker 1: may probably will make our day.
Speaker 4: And now it's time for lighting around.
Speaker 1: All right, So today's lightning round in the theme of
Speaker 1: values based spending. What is something you are not spending
Speaker 1: on this summer? So you can say for something bigger
Speaker 1: you go first?
Speaker 7: Me?
Speaker 1: Okay, so things? What am I not spending on this summer?
Speaker 1: So I think I've mentioned this before. I wanted to
Speaker 1: go on a cruise so badly with Travis and Kai
Speaker 1: and leave Atlass behind. I'm tired of him. He's spinning,
Speaker 1: he's over a year old. I mean, we need a break,
Speaker 1: he's so needy. But I decided not to do that
Speaker 1: this year, so that next year maybe we could go
Speaker 1: on a bigger like take a bigger vacation.
Speaker 3: Next year with everybody, or still just with guy and
Speaker 3: Travis tbd, t BD.
Speaker 4: See how mature Atlas is by then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he bites, So he's not the person you want
Speaker 1: to take on vacation. You don't want to take a
Speaker 1: bier a vacation.
Speaker 4: No, you can't have a bite.
Speaker 1: Like if your friend bites, they hulk out, scream indiscriminately,
Speaker 1: like whether they're happy sad board just like scream.
Speaker 4: Dive off the top.
Speaker 1: If they oh, if they do dive off the top
Speaker 1: bunk and you have to catch them by their shirt
Speaker 1: so they don't break their neck. That's not the friend
Speaker 1: you want to take on vacation.
Speaker 3: You really did give birth to something very wild. Number
Speaker 3: two was like everything of you and Travis, all that
Speaker 3: pent up energy.
Speaker 4: Yeah this came out and Atlas. Yeah he's amazing.
Speaker 3: He's walking now and he's not just walking, he's running, climbing, tipping, falling, jumping, diving.
Speaker 1: He's not jumping yet, but all of the above.
Speaker 3: You got to save up for medical expenses.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. Part of the reason why we didn't
Speaker 1: take that cruise is because of the medical expenses incurred
Speaker 1: by Atlas. That's part of the reason.
Speaker 3: So you're like, you got your fun, you got to
Speaker 3: visit the hospital.
Speaker 1: So I can say for something bigger. Yeah, his medical expenses,
Speaker 1: that's my something bigger. Yeah, uh yeah, we'll see Jill
Speaker 1: oh Man. Trying to do.
Speaker 3: Trying to do so much. I'm still in this phase
Speaker 3: of not traveling a bunch.
Speaker 4: Now. I am going on a.
Speaker 3: Trip back to pa where we're from, for a wedding,
Speaker 3: and we're going to have a staycation over my birthday. Yea,
Speaker 3: but those things are already paid for, Like we had
Speaker 3: already bought tickets back in the springtime, and I use
Speaker 3: points to book a local hotel for my birthday. So
Speaker 3: really I am not spending on travel or much activity
Speaker 3: throughout the summer. We're really just leaning into enjoying the
Speaker 3: season doing fun free things, probably going to go to
Speaker 3: the beach a ton and I would love to be
Speaker 3: able to take an international vacation, whether that's in the
Speaker 3: fall or winterenually just in the new year. But that's
Speaker 3: kind of any any extra dollars that I can put towards,
Speaker 3: that is what's happened.
Speaker 1: You ain't going anywhere in December or January.
Speaker 4: I know, I do know that I know, and why
Speaker 4: because we wrote a book.
Speaker 1: We wrote a book and it's going to be available
Speaker 1: for pre order soon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so soon. They did say this summer, so
Speaker 3: that could be any minute now. Yeah, we'll be sure
Speaker 3: to let you know.
Speaker 4: That's the minute.
Speaker 1: We know you will know.
Speaker 3: We will be so shameless on this podcast on social media.
Speaker 1: Yes, because we know. I mean, you've been asking for
Speaker 1: it all year and we've been dying to give it
Speaker 1: to you all year. So we can't wait.
Speaker 4: That's gonna be so good. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, we hope that you guys are considering what you
Speaker 3: value most and ways to get that either in low
Speaker 3: cost or no cost ways as much as possible, so
Speaker 3: that you can put more money towards the things that
Speaker 3: you truly love and value. Know that there's really fun
Speaker 3: things that you can do this summer, like continuing to
Speaker 3: tune in to these debt free stories to keep inspiring
Speaker 3: you through the summer. Anything else in our backlog that
Speaker 3: can help you through. Also our friend letter, please sign
Speaker 3: up for that. Also, thanks so much for listening. We
Speaker 3: love reading your kind reviews like this one. We love
Speaker 3: the short and sweet ones. This one comes from Harper
Speaker 3: one sixty six. It is five stars, says great encouragement.
Speaker 3: Being frugal can seem a lonely path. It's awesome to
Speaker 3: have frugal friends to make it fun and seem so achievable.
Speaker 4: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you Harper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can feel lonely, especially that debt payoff journey.
Speaker 3: If you're in a debt payoff journey, call.
Speaker 4: In, call it a bill of the week. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: you can feel not alone every time.
Speaker 1: Each time you pay something off, whether it isn't just
Speaker 1: one part of your student loan or one credit card,
Speaker 1: call us call in. We'd love to hear more debt
Speaker 1: free celebrations in the bill of the week line. We would.
Speaker 1: It is a space for that. Even if you paid
Speaker 1: off your debt a long time ago, but you never
Speaker 1: got the opportunity to celebrate it by calling into any podcasts,
Speaker 1: We're your girls.
Speaker 3: Call in here we are We're always looking for a
Speaker 3: reason to celebrate.
Speaker 1: Call on scream and please take a minute to leave
Speaker 1: a rating and review. It really helps potential new listeners
Speaker 1: figure out what the show is all about. If they're
Speaker 1: interested in debt payoff stories, you can let them know
Speaker 1: that we've got them and uh, yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: See you next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 4: Jill.
Speaker 1: Can you regale us with your story of can Kuon?
Speaker 3: Oh jeez, yes, yes, so okay, it's just the first thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll I was able to get away Eric and I
Speaker 3: not just me for our anniversary, like a couple months ago,
Speaker 3: and I was able to put all of that on Points.
Speaker 3: I had signed up for a credit a new credit card,
Speaker 3: knowing that I was going to want to take a trip,
Speaker 3: so this was planned, so we pretty much paid for
Speaker 3: the whole thing, flights and the all inclusive and can
Speaker 3: kuon on Points. We show up to the resort and
Speaker 3: they're trying to tell us that we are not in
Speaker 3: the room that we had booked. The it's a big
Speaker 3: resort and they had a section that was adults only.
Speaker 3: The rest of the resort was open to miners and
Speaker 3: families and kids and all of that, but there was
Speaker 3: one section that was adults only that we had booked.
Speaker 3: Our confirmation set it, but the resort was saying that
Speaker 3: on their end it was coming up as just a
Speaker 3: standard junior suite and they're gonna put us in this
Speaker 3: other section with all the kids and the like water
Speaker 3: park that's right outside the door. With like all the
Speaker 3: screaming children. Kids are great, but I intentionally looked for
Speaker 3: an adults only, so that's why I booked this resort.
Speaker 3: And they're like, we're sorry, you're just in this other section.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we're giving you that room, and I was
Speaker 3: not going to have it. I'm like, there's a mistake
Speaker 3: somewhere that is not my mistake and I should not
Speaker 3: have to suffer because of that. The resort essentially wiped
Speaker 3: their hands clean of it. They're like, well, there's nothing
Speaker 3: we can do. This is how the reservation is coming through.
Speaker 3: You need to talk with the third party booking site,
Speaker 3: which I booked it again through the travel site of
Speaker 3: the credit card. So I called them and I stayed
Speaker 3: at the front desk of the resort. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: not going away. I'm not gonna make you think that
Speaker 3: I'm a problem. That's I'm going to say, right.
Speaker 1: Right day, Rock, I'm going to annoy you. You cannot
Speaker 1: ignore me.
Speaker 3: No matter which way we slice this, someone is going
Speaker 3: to get me in the room that I want.
Speaker 4: To be in four hours later.
Speaker 1: Like that little that means.
Speaker 3: Hours later, yes, and that feels nice now, like oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: four hours later. Yeah, imagine standing at a front desk
Speaker 3: in a location you're unfamiliar with, not knowing if you're
Speaker 3: going to get a room. For four hours on hold
Speaker 3: talking with I probably talked to eight different people on
Speaker 3: the phone.
Speaker 4: I kept getting bounced around.
Speaker 3: Anyhow, finally talked with a supervisor who ended up being
Speaker 3: able to book me in the type of room that
Speaker 3: I wanted and I didn't have to pay for it,
Speaker 3: so they they booked it under my name, no money
Speaker 3: had to come out of my pocket. I was reassigned
Speaker 3: to the room, and bonus, they actually upgraded me. The
Speaker 3: credit card travel company upgraded the room for my troubles,
Speaker 3: so we had a swim up room. And before I
Speaker 3: knew that he had upgraded me, I asked for travel
Speaker 3: credit for my troubles because now four hours of my
Speaker 3: vacation has been lost to this thing that was not
Speaker 3: my mistake. And he was like, we can give you
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars, and I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 3: want two hundred dollars because it's not just me, it's
Speaker 3: also my husband who's been impacted by this. So like
Speaker 3: one hundred for me, one hundred for him, and They're like, okay,
Speaker 3: we can do that. They're like, but mind you, we
Speaker 3: did also upgrade your room. I'm like, that's awesome. I
Speaker 3: didn't know that you did that, and I didn't ask
Speaker 3: for that, so I'm still gonna want the two hundred.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we got a room upgrade in the right
Speaker 3: section of the hotel, two hundred dollars travel credit, sitting
Speaker 3: and waiting for me in my credit card travel rewards center,
Speaker 3: and it ended up being a great vacation. I'm still
Speaker 3: sad to have lost that afternoon, but at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, if you would have asked me, will
Speaker 3: you pay four hours of your time for a swim
Speaker 3: up room and a two hundred dollars travel credit, I
Speaker 3: probably would have said, yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, it is better than sitting through a timeshare. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sales spiel, Yeah you know it's better than that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I never would do that, but you're right. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So that was quite something. I'm so glad it worked out,
Speaker 3: because four hours in I was still facing the possibility
Speaker 3: of not getting to be placed in the part of
Speaker 3: the resort that I had booked. But the fact that
Speaker 3: it did work out was a beautiful thing, and we
Speaker 3: did have a really lovely three days enjoying that pool
Speaker 3: outside of our room.
Speaker 1: Several takeaways. The first is that this was through the
Speaker 1: Capital one platform. You had a similar trouble through the
Speaker 1: Chase Travel platform and Chase was unwilling to do anything
Speaker 1: for you, so Capital one was more flexible. Another thing
Speaker 1: is to be careful when going through these travel sites.
Speaker 1: It's always much safer to go, especially if you're going
Speaker 1: with Chase. I probably will never book through their platform
Speaker 1: because they have a unreliable customer service when there's problem,
Speaker 1: and b they have so many travel partners that you
Speaker 1: can transfer points out to that you can just book
Speaker 1: straight through hotels and airlines.
Speaker 3: Just know that sometimes your points won't go as far.
Speaker 3: I did make that mistake one time when I transferred
Speaker 3: Chase points over to I want to say, it was
Speaker 3: like Hilton or something, and as far as Chase's site went,
Speaker 3: those points should have covered a night in a room,
Speaker 3: but once they were in the Hilton or Marriott site,
Speaker 3: it was only half of what I needed through their
Speaker 3: platform for a room, so I had to buy extra
Speaker 3: points to book. So yeah, you can get bitten sometimes
Speaker 3: that way.
Speaker 1: You do have to be aware of the brand or
Speaker 1: the airline and just the conversion, Yeah, do a conversion,
Speaker 1: do a a comparison and that, Yeah, you don't know
Speaker 1: if you don't ask.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Another thing that I am making mental note of for
Speaker 3: myself is they did offer that we could go take
Speaker 3: the room that they were offering us while we tried
Speaker 3: to figure out this issue of not being booked in
Speaker 3: the right room, and I said no, And I'm very
Speaker 3: glad that I did, because they feel like if I
Speaker 3: would have taken a room and I would have been
Speaker 3: out of their sight, and if the travel company would
Speaker 3: have known, yeah, I am somewhere, I'm in a room
Speaker 3: like then they might have been less likely to have
Speaker 3: helped me out. But the fact that I hadn't yet
Speaker 3: made it into the resort, and we couldn't eat or
Speaker 3: get anything to drink until we had the bracelets on,
Speaker 3: so I was not yet in a room, I wasn't
Speaker 3: able to kind of be pawned off off like you're fine,
Speaker 3: it's we don't need to do anything for you. So
Speaker 3: I'm glad that I didn't kind of let them move
Speaker 3: me someplace else and forget about me. I'm glad that
Speaker 3: I stayed and I kept of course some people aren't
Speaker 3: going to have it in them, and you're willing to
Speaker 3: just like take take the section in the kids screaming area,
Speaker 3: and that'd be fine too, But I was willing to fight.
Speaker 1: Jill's a fighter.