WEBVTT - Overcoming Common Financial Mistakes #275 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.760 Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:26.040 Matt's and today we're discussing overcoming common financial mistakes. Mean, man, 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.880 there are mistakes that we all make. However, there's a 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.560 few that are more common than others. And so yeah, 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.120 we're gonna talk about those mistakes, and specifically, we're gonna 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.760 talk about how to bounce back from those mistakes, because 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.760 that's you know, that's like that's the real important part. Yeah, 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:40.960 bouncing back is huge, getting back up on the horse, 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.600 you know. I Mean, there's all sorts of analogies I 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:48.159 think we could throw. I'm not a gymnast, Mari, right, Yeah, Like, 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.880 there's just there's so many ways. There's so many places 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:52.879 we can go with this. Um. But but yeah, when 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.640 we make a mistake, fixing it and learning from it 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.840 is so crucial to being able to move forward in 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.440 a positive manner. So yeah, we're gonna talk about that 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:02.920 today because it has just a major impact on how 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.039 we progress in our financial lives. But Matt, before we 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.120 get to that, I wanted to mention a website that 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.560 I recently stumbled upon, and I think, especially since we're 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.160 kind of in the Christmas shopping season, at this point 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.600 in time that it might be helpful to a lot 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.120 of people. It's called brick seek dot com. Brick seek 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.080 and like you're looking for a brick, yeah, but it's 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.560 brick seek um like yeah, and so it helps you 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.240 find bricks locally to where you are. No, it's a 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.280 great website. You know, it's like a brick and mortar essentially, 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:33.960 it's it's pointing you towards deals at brick and mortar 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.480 shops and you know where you live there, and so 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.600 it's it's pretty cool because in store deals can actually 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.680 be way bigger than online deals. Sometimes an individual store 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.760 might put something just on a massive clearance, whereas like 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.040 nationally you're online, you're not going to find that same price, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.160 or maybe even a market right like the whole Southeast 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.040 sees one particular item go um at a major discount, 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.760 and this website, brick seek, will identify some of those things. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:01.760 They'll they'll post some of the popular items that are 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.880 super cheap in certain retail locations. But then you can 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.960 also search for items and maybe you'll find just a 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.800 much better deal in a local brick and mortar store 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.560 than you would ordering from an online retailer. So it's 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.560 just like one more place that people can check in 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.880 order to try to find a better price. Yeah, you 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.880 can't beat those aggregators, right, because we don't have the 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.519 time to to go from website to website trying to 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.800 find the best deal. Sometimes you need an aggregator like 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.120 this calling all my local electronics retailers. And that's not 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:29.679 what I'm gonna do. That's not not how I'm gonna 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.720 spend my time making associates walk the aisles on prices 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.440 for me. Dude, they don't even do that anymore. Like 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.120 that's the thing. If you actually try to call up 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.240 a place, very few employees are gonna say, yeah, let 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.919 me go check check the price on that, Like they 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.200 won't do that. And so having I agreement, this is great, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.480 having the convenience of being able to shop online without 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.800 paying sort of like that additional fee for shopping online 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.720 and not looking for those local deals. I see this 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:53.799 as as being a great site because man, I love 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.720 shopping online. I do not like shopping in person anymore. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.400 I think store closures during the pandemic only kind of 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.440 reinforce It's like, oh, yeah, this is this is how 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.200 things should be for me. Yeah, literally like things showing up. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.040 The only store I go into anymore, the grocery store. Seriously, Yeah, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.720 that's the way it feels. Specifically, Aldi, have you been 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:11.639 up to Costco recently? You gotta make sure you have 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.359 your mask though. That's right now you always have to 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.000 wear a mask and costs me. Aldi. You know they 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:16.600 implement the mask thing too, but I guess it just 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.440 wasn't like this national announcement like when Costco did it. Yeah. No, 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.120 I've been to Costco a couple of times since the 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:22.880 mask mandate went into place, and I feel like they've 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.320 run things really really well, the top down communication to 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.640 the employees and then the way the employees are implementing, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.720 you know, the social distancing at the checkout and stuff 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:31.960 like that. They've done just a fantastic job through this. 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.000 The real question is can you buy a box of 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.840 five masks at Costco? Not a five founder but I 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.160 think you get a box of fifty yeah yeah, yeah, so, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.080 which is still like ten times more than what you 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.280 could probably buy it Aldi, right, yea, which is like, 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.800 here's a small package of five mask It's really cheap. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.200 And then get out of here exactly, return your card, 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:50.840 take your quarterback. All right, man, let's go ahead and 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:52.800 introduce our beer for this episode. We were drinking a 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.280 Hydrus double I p A. This is by Two Tides Brewing. Uh, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.360 this is another one that you picked up while you 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.320 were down there with your bride down in Tybee for 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.480 a little anniversary trip. Man, I'm looking forward to sharing 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.040 this one with you on the show, and yeah, talking 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.240 about it at the end of the episode too. All Right, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.360 but let's get onto the subject in hand for today. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.160 Today we're discussing overcoming common financial mistakes. And some money 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.440 mistakes are small and the impact is more like a 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.080 blip on our radar, Right, it's not that big of 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.120 a deal. Other money mistakes can be like an albatross 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.560 and they weighs us down for for years to come. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.880 But whether our mistake is more of a bump of 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:27.960 the road or if we've made a mistake that will 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.760 impact us for a long time to come, it's important 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.200 to learn how to overcome these mistakes so we can 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.120 move on and start kicking butt with our money again. Yeah, 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.120 this episode, we're gonna cover some common mistakes that we 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.440 make how we can pivot to handling money well. In 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.640 those circumstances as well as some important behavioral changes we 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.960 all need to make so that our mistakes don't weigh 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.080 us down for too long, creating like a quicksand like effect. Matt, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.200 you always like referring about to quicksand Yeah, and but 0:04:58.279 --> 0:04:59.960 like if we do that, if we let those mistake 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.080 like overwhelm us and keep us down for too long, 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.039 it does kind of make it harder for us to 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.240 move forward. It feels like our our feet are stuck 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:07.920 um and and so yeah, we have to talk about 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.159 how to like get past those things once so they 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.240 don't happen again and too, so that we can you know, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.039 move forward a plow ahead. Yeah, you know my favorite 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.520 quicksand reference uh Super Mario Brothers too. It's one of 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.640 the underrated Super Mario Brothers, but the on the original 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.560 and e s uh Super super Mario Brothers too had 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.760 quicksand and that was the one where the levels were 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.039 like vertical as well as horizontal, so you could like 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.880 drop down quicksand drop down to different levels, pull turn 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.320 ups and other vegetables up out of the ground. I 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.480 think Superrio three was my favor, but two was well. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:38.440 Three was through his classic because you could fly. But 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.400 two is Yeah, that one was pretty good, so good 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.960 to underrated for sure. Okay, let's let's get back to 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.480 financial mistakes. Though. You know, I think that the biggest 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.680 problem here isn't that we make mistakes, right, because we've 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.599 talked about this. We all screw up from time to time. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:51.760 But in fact, I think the real issue is when 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.200 we don't learn from those mistakes. Right. You know, on 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.840 the surface, this seems like maybe a pretty straightforward thing, right, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:05:59.960 you know, we make a mistake, we see the consequence 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.520 is of it, and we learn and then we just 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.960 need to avoid doing it again. Simple recipe, right. But 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.159 the thing is, it's a little trickier than that, because 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:09.680 you know, like you have to ask yourself, are you 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:11.760 just addressing the symptom of your mistake or are you 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.039 actually getting to the core of the issue. That's why 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.480 it's important to ask the question why are we bad 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.560 with our money? Right? Well, it might give us a 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.400 little bit of comfort to know that everyone does make 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.800 some occasional money errors, that doesn't get us any closer 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.960 to handling our own personal finances better. So yeah, let's 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:29.800 go ahead and get to that. Let's let's address the 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.200 why here. Sure, Yeah, I think I'm gonna think First 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.680 of all, it's just a really intimidating topic for a 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.480 lot of people money in general, and when something's intimidating 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.040 or a little bit scary, we tend to avoid those things. 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.560 I think it's really the biggest reason why so many 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.479 people make money mistakes. Money feels like a big bad boogeyman, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:49.520 and they're just don't want to go anywhere near it. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:51.800 So like, for example, like a lot of people are 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.120 intimidated by the idea of going to a gym to 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.240 work out, right, all the types of fancy equipment, all 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.480 the super fit folks there who know what they're doing. 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.680 I mean, I'll be out hasting judgment on you once 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:03.919 they see you walk through the door, Like look at 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.560 this tall skin. You get exactly who's like, who's biceps invert? 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.560 You know, like it's it's I feel like that is 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:12.800 something that has kept me from going to the gym before. 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.800 It almost feels like you've got to get fit before 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.760 you going the gym so you can fit in. But 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.760 I think it's again similar with money, where um, where 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:22.440 there's like a barrier to entry and we're a little 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.760 freaked out and that definitely leads to a lot of 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:30.160 mistakes that we make because we just avoid the subject altogether. Yeah, totally, man. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.160 And you know, oftentimes I think the reason that it 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.520 can be intimidating is because we're ignorant, right, Like that's 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.720 not to say someone is a complete idiot, but that 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.840 they just simply lack the knowledge about a specific topic. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.560 You know, Like personally, I'm ignorant of a lot of 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.560 different things out there, Like a lot of times I 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:49.280 was because I choose to like, there are things that 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.800 don't pertain to me. But once we've identified that this 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.880 is something I need to pay attention to, that's when 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:55.360 it's time to fix it, you know. And so in 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.840 the gym example, like if I knew the proper way 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.120 to say, perform a power clean, you know, even if 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.679 I was just getting started working out, like I would 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.960 be able to have the confidence and know that I'm 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.560 doing it the right way that would give me the 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.080 that would encourage me to continue going right. And the 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.120 same thing is true with our money. Most of us 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.080 don't have parents who taught us many of these lessons, 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.000 and so because that we lack the proper know how, 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.720 and that's oftentimes a thing part of the reason why 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.480 we are so intimidated as well, it's knowledge. Yeah, I 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.320 completely agree. I think the lack of knowledge is definitely 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:26.520 an important key to this. And and we've talked about 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:28.640 this before, just that almost none of us were taught 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.960 about personal finances growing up in school or at home, 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.079 and that definitely only increases the intimidation and ignorance factors. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.320 So consistently learning about money so you aren't in the 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.720 dark about how to handle money well is important. And 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:45.800 know that you can't learn everything overnight. I think that's 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:47.600 one thing people try to do, is like, can I 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.560 imask everything I need to know about money in a 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:52.520 few days or a week so that I'll be okay? 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.720 And sometimes not the questions that we get even it's 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:56.520 like I really want to fix this, but I want 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.439 the quick solution, um, And there's not always a quick 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.920 solution in just the nature of personal finances to it 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:03.760 just takes a long time to save up your money. 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.560 It takes a long time to kind of straighten out 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:07.480 your credit, you know, like it's it's one of those things. 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:11.360 It's like inherently money takes time, right, and getting rich 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.280 or getting wealthy like building wealth. It it's a slow burn, 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.480 like it takes a lot of time, right, and compounding 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.719 takes years and decades to happen. Um. But you can, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.520 I think, consistently work to increase your knowledge with podcasts, blogs, 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.320 and books once you realize that you're not informed. The 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.320 knowledge gap I think is rarely an excuse with all 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.040 the resources that are available. I think the intimidation factor 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.680 makes sense, the ignorance factor makes sense, but there are 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.960 ways to overcome those and part of that is to 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.720 seek out that knowledge consistently. Um. And there are just 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.280 a lot of people out there creating things to try 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.960 to support you in that. Yeah. And unfortunately, we live 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.559 in a culture that we know tends to avoid talking 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.880 about money, and we've seen that the more we avoid 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.440 talking about something, the more it becomes taboo. And then 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.920 you know, there's this perpetual cycle of individuals making poor 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.360 money decisions. So it's important for personal finding for that 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.240 to become a more common topic. You know, it's not 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.960 difficult for us to start, you know with maybe light 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.520 or casual conversation with our friends, like you could maybe 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:09.839 ask them, hey, like what did you do with the 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.040 the stimulus check back? There, you know, back in the spring. 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:14.280 It's something that we you know, most of us all 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.360 received where you can ask them like hey, like where 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:18.760 you know, where do you bank? That's also something that's 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.240 an easy question because like we all have our money 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.760 somewhere and so starting there versus like hey, how much 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:25.640 like what percentage of your of your paycheck do you 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.240 save every single month? Like you know, like you want 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.600 to warm up to that? Or what's your craft beer budget? 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.040 That's another good question, right, get things started, Yeah, like 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.000 what is it that you spend your money on? Yeah? Yeah, 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.079 And then also to we sometimes bank money mistakes when 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.040 we when we have the proper knowledge, we know what 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.400 we're supposed to do, right, So so it's not even 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.199 a lack of that, but we allow emotions to get 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.320 the best of us. It's whether it's fear and someone 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.640 ends up selling a bunch of funds in their retirement 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.480 as the markets tanking right and you're just scared and 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.679 that causes you to make a terrible money decision, or 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.920 maybe it's fear of missing out or agreed when you're 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.560 buying single stocks and companies you just don't know very 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:02.760 much about. Maybe it was a Twitter stock tip that 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.320 you saw. You're just jumping in on the hype. Yeah, exactly, 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.120 Or like somebody on CNBC randomly touted one company that's 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.000 poised to shoot through the roof and you're like, all right, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.720 I'm in um, that is not a good idea, right. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.360 Sometimes we're our own worst enemies when it comes to 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.760 how we handle our money, and oftentimes that is the 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.199 behavioral side, the emotional side kicking in, even when we 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.120 fundamentally know what we're supposed to do. Yeah, that's right, man. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.400 So even though we we have the right knowledge, sometimes 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.920 it takes us changing our behavior. And actually, later on 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:30.839 in this episode, we're gonna talk about things that we 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:32.839 can do, steps that we can take that will prevent 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.800 us from making these mistakes, you know, ways that we 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.560 can alter our behavior. But first me, let's get personal. 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.560 You know, you want to share with listeners maybe a 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.839 big financial mistake that you've made at some point. It 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.520 was the Maserati I bought just yesterday. It was a 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.640 really bad decision. I thought you were gonna say, Mazda. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.359 I was like, I love that car. Almost the Maserati 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.800 dog mad. But yeah, so I say, it's interesting. I 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:58.960 actually haven't made a massive financial mistake. And it's not 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.960 I'm not saying that to but but here's actually why 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.600 that's the case. Um, my parents actually made quite a 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.040 few financial mistakes when I was a kid, and those 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.719 years when I was eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, I was 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.360 like just incredibly impressionable and I saw just a lot 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.040 of financial misteps that that just had a big impact 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.000 on our family. And so it's not that I haven't 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.800 made um financial mistakes in my life, but they've been 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:22.920 really small, Like it's nothing that I can be like 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.920 I was in fifty thou dollars of credit card tax 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.480 or anything like that. Like I actually have never paid 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.800 a diamond interest to the credit card companies. But so 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.439 much of that was essentially going through some of those 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.040 money hardships earlier on UM and learning from somebody else 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.280 struggling with money in my life, and so that was 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.120 like really hard. That's actually part of the reason I'm 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.200 so passionate about money education now and part of the 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.840 reason this podcast means so much to get to create 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.880 this together. But if I had to pick the one 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.640 thing about myself that that I've struggled with, I would 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.240 say it's the getting something on sale mentality. They just 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:55.560 lasted for a long time, and I still struggle with 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:57.840 a little bit, right. It's like, oh, if that's a deal, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:59.560 I want to get it even if I don't need it, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.800 even if I don't need it, and I might not 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.600 even use it sometimes. I mean, I've fallen into that trap. 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.840 And so just that sale mentality has been my biggest 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.520 financial mistake that I've had to grapple with consistently over 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.280 the years. But now that that's out of the way, 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.320 I want to know yours well. I mean that being said, 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.400 I feel like maybe you have improved because prime Day 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.559 came and went, man, and like you said several weeks ago, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.120 you didn't buy a single thing. So it's not a 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.880 zero you've Yeah, you've gotten better at it. Man. Uh. 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.080 But as far as my financial mistakes, I feel like 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.720 mine were made mostly between the age of sixteen and 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.240 twenty one or twenty two. I lived really frugally, like 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.440 most of all of our mistakes in life. That's honestly 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.640 probably true. Man, Like the biggest learning period, right, it's 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.640 like your brain isn't fully developed yet, you know, not 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.160 like what you're twenty three, you think you're grown Oh 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.040 my gosh, yeah, you have some money. Uh. In my case, 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.800 specifically in college to like, I was living really really frugally. 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.559 But however, ever, since I was a teenager up until 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.520 that point, I was really into cars, not like really fancy, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.880 high end, nice cars, but like I just had a 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.160 certain type of car that I liked, and then after 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.120 a couple of years, you know, I wanted to switch 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:02.520 it up, and so I'd sell it and then get 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.200 another one and kind of fix it up a little bit. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.320 I was really into SUVs. I may have even installed 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.240 like a fancy bumper with a winch on on one 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.240 of my one of my SUVs back in the day. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.640 But I always said a lot of money on vehicles, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.160 you know, like I could have still had a decent Jeep, 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.040 although that's a whole other story because jeeps, you know, 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.920 cost so much money to maintain. But even having just 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.640 maybe purchased one of those instead of multiple Jeeps over 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.560 the years, I made some, yeah, some bad mistakes, and 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.240 because of that, I was parted with a lot of 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.320 that money early on. That's I guess a regret that 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.400 I have, Like looking back, I'm like, how so dumb, 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:36.880 But at the same time, being able to make some 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.600 of those like slightly smaller mistakes back in the day. 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:41.520 That's an important part of growing up, right, And so 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.680 I had I not made those errors early on, maybe 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.280 I would be making larger mistakes today. Maybe I wouldn't 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.360 be saving maybe you know, I wouldn't be doing smarter 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.880 things with my money. But but yeah, hopefully kind of 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.120 through that learning process, I think that certainly helped me 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.360 to to become who I am today. Yeah, I think 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.560 that's a that's just a positive way to view the 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.440 mistakes that we've made. I think sometimes I'm just trying 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.920 to spend it dog. I think sometimes in our culture 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.960 we tend to glorify failure or completely run away from it, Right, 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.600 Like when we look at entrepreneurs who like failed twice, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:10.680 but then their third company was just this massive success, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.600 where Like there could be the sense in which that 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.240 that failure is almost glorified, and it's like, look, the 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.760 failure led me to hear um. And we don't want 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.480 to like glorify We're not trying to encourage failure, right, 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.840 But but there is a sense too in which we 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.160 we might failure shame um. And so I think we 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.200 want to take a stand somewhere in the middle where 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.560 we say, you know what, we're not like pro failure, 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.600 but those failures will hopefully lead us to to learn 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:35.680 something and to make a positive change so we can 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.400 move forward. Well, but yeah, we just shared our money mistakes. 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.720 We'll get to kind of some other common ones and 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.720 then how we can go about fixing those mistakes learning 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.080 from them. And we'll get to that right after this break. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:57.120 All right, man, we are back from the break. We're 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.640 talking about overcoming common financial mistakes, and so we you know, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:02.680 we talked about why it is that we make these 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.400 mistakes in the in the last section. Uh, now let's 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.960 talk about you know what some of these common financial 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.760 mistakes are. Uh. One of those that we definitely want 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.880 to cover is spending more than we bring in every 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.320 single month. Sadly, way too common. Yeah, a lot of 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:18.920 us have have been in that position. Uh, And unfortunately 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.480 that leads to an inability to create any financial breathing 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.480 room in our lives. Right then, because of that, there 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.880 is there tends to be a reliance on credit cards, 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.800 which then often leads to debts and which and that 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.880 exacerbates the problem. Right. And the thing is, man, it's 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.200 not just people who make minimum wage that this impacts, 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.600 you know, people of all sorts of different income levels 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.240 are the ones who are struggling with this um It 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:44.960 also makes me think about too, like there are two 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.400 sides of the equation here. If you're not making enough money, 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.680 you can spend less and you can earn more. But 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.800 the reason that we're focusing on spending less is because 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.360 you can always earn more money. But if you haven't 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.080 mastered this principle of spending less than you make, you 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.760 are always going to to raise your spending to meet that, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:01.720 you know, that level that you're earning. And so I 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.240 feel like in this case, spending lesson you make is 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.400 sort of an important principle to to have mastered before 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.080 we even start talking about earning more money, you know, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.919 like it's just so foundational to getting ahead with your 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.760 personal finances. Yeah, that's true. And I think this is 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.960 such a big deal, Matt because when you don't have 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.640 any financial breathing room, it increases your stress levels and 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.080 it inhibits your ability to actually save for the future 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.320 and the goals that you have for down the road 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.000 in your life. Like if you're exhausting every bit or 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.879 more of what you're bringing in, you're robbing your future 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.399 self and you're making sure that those goals that you 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.560 have set out for yourself either aren't going to come 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.360 about or it's gonna be a million times more difficult 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.320