Speaker 1: Personally with ya feels men money, money, money, money. I
Speaker 1: don't even know where that comes from, but I love
Speaker 1: that saying. This week we are talking all about that
Speaker 1: M word.
Speaker 2: Yes, money.
Speaker 1: No one likes to talk about finances because they're scary,
Speaker 1: but we're going to dive into it. First up, I
Speaker 1: have Anna brading On, a financial educator and author, to
Speaker 1: talk about the three m's of money, how to save
Speaker 1: while you're still living your life, and the best of
Speaker 1: the best big investments to make. We're talking cars, houses,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Then Daniel Brigham is coming on
Speaker 1: to share his story and how moments in his life
Speaker 1: led to a difficult relationship with money, and how he
Speaker 1: turned things around and the steps he still takes today
Speaker 1: to create a better life for himself.
Speaker 2: I have Anna brading On with me. I'm really excited.
Speaker 1: She's a financial education instructor and an author and this
Speaker 1: topic is so important.
Speaker 2: So Anna, thank you for being here. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing very well, thank you.
Speaker 4: I mean survival mode in the British winter at the moment,
Speaker 4: but I will get through it. I'm powering on and
Speaker 4: saying it will be spring, so that'd be great.
Speaker 2: Yes it will.
Speaker 1: We're powering over here in the winter too, So I
Speaker 1: totally understand. I'm really excited to talk with you about
Speaker 1: all things finances because this is one thing that I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I had a lot of education on
Speaker 1: growing up. I got really lucky that I had parents
Speaker 1: who were really smart with their money, and they were
Speaker 1: good at saving and they were good at investing, and
Speaker 1: they taught that to me.
Speaker 2: But in schools it's not something you really learn about.
Speaker 2: So this is why I have you on.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be our educational teacher today.
Speaker 3: That's my happy place. I'm tightally fine with that.
Speaker 4: Bye way, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So here we go.
Speaker 1: What are some things about money that we should have
Speaker 1: been taught growing up? As we really started to get
Speaker 1: into finances and we got our first paychecked and we understood, oh.
Speaker 2: We're getting paid for the things that we're doing.
Speaker 1: What are some things that you wish maybe if we
Speaker 1: did get tied in school, they would have tout us.
Speaker 4: There are so many things and so many angles we
Speaker 4: can go on in this. And one of the things
Speaker 4: I like to talk about is the three what I
Speaker 4: call the three ms in money. And I think if
Speaker 4: we zoom out for a second and we just go
Speaker 4: big picture. Okay, let's just take a step backwards and
Speaker 4: look at the big picture of money and finance, because
Speaker 4: there's so much we need to know that we didn't
Speaker 4: get to it exactly as you're saying.
Speaker 3: Let's break it down a little bit.
Speaker 4: So I have like three MS of money, so I
Speaker 4: have mindset, manage, and multiply, and I think so often
Speaker 4: what we can do is we come to a crunch
Speaker 4: point in our lives where we go, oh, it's not working.
Speaker 4: I feel broke, i feel stressed out about my finances.
Speaker 4: I've got nothing in my savings account. I've just dipped
Speaker 4: into it over Christmas. Panic, panic, panic, And then we
Speaker 4: can go into fix it mode and try and figure
Speaker 4: stuff out. But I think it's really important to understand
Speaker 4: this overarching, broad, big picture of our finances and then
Speaker 4: when these things up, we can zoom in on one
Speaker 4: of those MS and have a look. Is it a
Speaker 4: mindset thing going on here? Is it a managed thing
Speaker 4: of how you're managing your money.
Speaker 3: Or is it a multiply thing of how you're growing.
Speaker 4: And building your wealth. So those are the kind of
Speaker 4: that's the big picture. So the three m's is a
Speaker 4: really good starting point I think.
Speaker 1: I think the mindset is really difficult from people, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes.
Speaker 2: To saving our money.
Speaker 1: I think the idea of saving is really great and
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, I need to do that, but when
Speaker 1: it comes down to it, we just don't. So when
Speaker 1: somebody's trying to save, or you're encouraging them to start saving,
Speaker 1: what are those first steps you're encouraging them to take.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think let's come back to the mindset thing
Speaker 4: for a second, because I think as you're describing it there,
Speaker 4: when one of the key ways to know one of
Speaker 4: the key signs that you've got a mindset thing going
Speaker 4: on here is when you're trying to do something and
Speaker 4: it's just not happening, and you're like, I'm trying to
Speaker 4: go trying to get my saving sorted, I'm trying to
Speaker 4: move forward, but I just keep coming back to this
Speaker 4: same point. I think that can be a really key
Speaker 4: indicator that there's something going on and you're inner wiring
Speaker 4: that's stopping it actually happening.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I always like to think of mindset stuff as like
Speaker 4: either a handbrake or an accelerator pedal. So if you
Speaker 4: want to start saving and you really want to get
Speaker 4: it going. It is your mindset wired in such a
Speaker 4: way that actually, when you get going, you're just powering
Speaker 4: that direction.
Speaker 3: Or is it just the break goes on and you
Speaker 3: just can't get going.
Speaker 4: But I think your right to flag savings because I
Speaker 4: think that can be one of the toughest things. And
Speaker 4: let's be honest, saving money is.
Speaker 3: Not glamorous and it's not sexy.
Speaker 4: It's not the thing that makes you go, oh, I
Speaker 4: just can't wait to get savings is really exciting.
Speaker 3: Some stuff we.
Speaker 4: Talk about with money is really exciting. It's fun, it's interesting.
Speaker 4: Maybe you started a little business and it's starting to
Speaker 4: get going, you've made your first sale.
Speaker 3: So fun. But when we talk.
Speaker 4: About the quiet discipline of putting a bit of money
Speaker 4: into a savings account, it's just not as glamorous. So
Speaker 4: I think it's good to acknowledge that and identify that.
Speaker 4: So what I like to do is I like to
Speaker 4: really zone in and focus on what is this saving
Speaker 4: going to achieve for me? What's the outcome, what's the
Speaker 4: why behind it?
Speaker 3: Because I think when we.
Speaker 4: Dial into the why, when we get that really clear
Speaker 4: in our focusing, in our mind, we can align our motions.
Speaker 3: We can align our mindset and it can then just
Speaker 3: help keep us on track when it does get a
Speaker 3: bit boring and it gets to be a little bit difficult.
Speaker 4: Those moments where you're standing in I don't know equivalent
Speaker 4: closed shop is in America in the UK, we've got
Speaker 4: your Zara and you've got your h.
Speaker 2: And m oh yeah we have those two those Definitely.
Speaker 4: You're looking at that amazing outfit and you're thinking, I
Speaker 4: really want that, but I've got savings.
Speaker 3: I've committed to saving.
Speaker 4: But I can look, I can just open that app
Speaker 4: on my phone, I can see the money is there.
Speaker 4: I can just dip into it. And it's in those
Speaker 4: moments that you better have a good reason to save,
Speaker 4: because that's going to bail you out.
Speaker 3: In that moment.
Speaker 4: So what is it, What is it that's motivating you
Speaker 4: to do it? Is it just because someone's told you
Speaker 4: to or in my case, it was a case of
Speaker 4: I needed I knew I needed to build an emergency fund,
Speaker 4: which we could talk about maybe if you want, later on,
Speaker 4: but it was this sort of idea of building up
Speaker 4: a lump sum and I knew that if I did
Speaker 4: that and I completed that, that would then open.
Speaker 3: The door to allow me to start confidently.
Speaker 4: Investing, and I knew that investing was the thing I
Speaker 4: really wanted to get to because then I could start
Speaker 4: to grow my wealth and I could start to move
Speaker 4: from a place of being paycheck to paycheck the whole
Speaker 4: time and actually start planning for my future and get
Speaker 4: excited about that. So it was like this, It was
Speaker 4: almost like this tool really to get me to where
Speaker 4: I wanted to actually be.
Speaker 3: So I think when you know why you're saving what
Speaker 3: it's for.
Speaker 4: I've got clarity on that that can really help motivate
Speaker 4: you and keep you going.
Speaker 1: You mentioned here and talking about being an azara or
Speaker 1: an age and now, yeah, why do we have these
Speaker 1: tendencies to want to overspend? What's happening there that's in
Speaker 1: our brain that may help us understand a little bit
Speaker 1: more why we might be overspending for whatever your vice is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously there's so many ways to overspend, isn't there?
Speaker 4: And particularly now, we're in a point in time that
Speaker 4: we've never been in in history before, where you can
Speaker 4: click a button and get the very thing you want
Speaker 4: tomorrow or even today. Potentially that's never been the case
Speaker 4: in the whole of the.
Speaker 3: History of time, that's never been the case.
Speaker 4: So we are facing challenges of immedia gratification now that
Speaker 4: we've never had to face before in this way, and
Speaker 4: so I think it doesn't you don't have to look
Speaker 4: very far to see something that you want. And also
Speaker 4: with the rise of marketing and sales and adverts, social media, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's absolutely bombarding us. We are constantly surrounded by the
Speaker 4: next cool thing, the next idea, the next cool gadget
Speaker 4: that we want to get, making you feel like the
Speaker 4: thing you've got right now isn't good enough anymore. And
Speaker 4: it's moving at such a pace that I think overspending
Speaker 4: is so common and so easy to fall into. And
Speaker 4: I think, to be honest, unless you're very strict, most
Speaker 4: of us do it. I think I do it from
Speaker 4: time to time. I'm not perfect. I see the flights
Speaker 4: and I think, oh, I could go and see my friend.
Speaker 4: Don't have a plan to pay for that. But I'm
Speaker 4: just going to do it. I'm just going to do it.
Speaker 4: And I think we've got to be real though, And
Speaker 4: I think one of the problems with overspending is because
Speaker 4: it's like a it's a little bit of escapism, because
Speaker 4: a lot of us, especially at the moment, with the
Speaker 4: way things have been in recent years post COVID, with
Speaker 4: cost of living crisis and really the rising cost of
Speaker 4: living going mad many of us potentially wording or before that,
Speaker 4: and now we're feeling in a position where we feel
Speaker 4: a little bit trapped, and we feel a bit stuck
Speaker 4: in that maybe in that paycheck to paycheck what I
Speaker 4: call the doom loop, because I just think it is
Speaker 4: a complete doom loop, and you feel, if I just
Speaker 4: get that thing, it's going to relieve that pressure a
Speaker 4: little bit, just for a moment. It's going to make
Speaker 4: me feel like I'm not trapped. It's going to make
Speaker 4: these circumstances feel a little bit better. And I think
Speaker 4: we've got to be real about that. But also we
Speaker 4: mustn't ignore those feelings of what you actually want. You
Speaker 4: want to have a fun, exciting, adventurous life cool we
Speaker 4: all do, I think, And I think one of the
Speaker 4: things I love to help people do is before they
Speaker 4: jump into the how and the what and the why
Speaker 4: of money and managing money and bank accounts and saving
Speaker 4: pots and a lot of stuff, I really love to
Speaker 4: inspire people to stop for a second and just say
Speaker 4: what is it you really want? What is it deep
Speaker 4: down that your circumstances don't even allow you to think
Speaker 4: about right now because you just think, oh, I'll never
Speaker 4: have that. If you put it down on paper and
Speaker 4: you get it all out, is it really that far off?
Speaker 4: If it is, maybe that will help you make some
Speaker 4: disc decisions to start moving in that direction. So I
Speaker 4: think overspending can often be a little bit of a
Speaker 4: signal to what it is going on under the bonnet
Speaker 4: and actually what you really want to be doing and
Speaker 4: having in your life.
Speaker 1: Oh, hearing you say that, just talking about the deep
Speaker 1: down what you really want and writing it out, because
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing with finances in general is
Speaker 1: we do feel like we want to have everything and
Speaker 1: we want to have this life. You have this juxtaposition
Speaker 1: of I want to do and live my life, but
Speaker 1: also I understand and I need to save and protect
Speaker 1: myself for the future or for emergency circumstances. We have
Speaker 1: that constantly going on, this internal conflict. When we talk
Speaker 1: about two mistakes, what are some mistakes that you're seeing
Speaker 1: people often make, especially in the beginning stages of financial
Speaker 1: decisions or learning to save or invest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think if we go really practical for a second.
Speaker 4: This is such a quick fix, but it really works.
Speaker 4: Is especially with saving. I think we tend to think
Speaker 4: I used to do this, like literally all through my twenties.
Speaker 1: It is bad.
Speaker 4: You basically get your income come in and then you go, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm going to spend what I need to spend, and
Speaker 4: I'm going to be really good this month.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I'm going to be so good, and then I'm
Speaker 3: going to save what's left at the end.
Speaker 4: And I think, right there is one of the biggest
Speaker 4: savings mistakes because there's this thing Parkinson's law.
Speaker 3: You may have heard of Parkinson's law, where it was
Speaker 3: about the.
Speaker 4: Time it takes to do a task it will expand
Speaker 4: to the time you give it.
Speaker 3: There's a derivative of that.
Speaker 4: For finance, which kind of goes along the lines of
Speaker 4: whatever money is available to you to spend, your spending
Speaker 4: will increase until it's all gone.
Speaker 3: That's just how it goes.
Speaker 4: So if you think to yourself, I'm going to be
Speaker 4: really good with my money this month, and I'm just
Speaker 4: going to spend really carefully, and then by the end
Speaker 4: of the month, I'm just going to save that bit
Speaker 4: what's actually going to happen is you're just going to
Speaker 4: spend more and then you're going to get to the
Speaker 4: end of the month and there's not going to be
Speaker 4: anything left, and that is me. If I don't plan
Speaker 4: for that, that is me, and I'm sure many people
Speaker 4: can relate.
Speaker 3: So one of the best hacks.
Speaker 4: It sounds so it's simple and so it's almost silly,
Speaker 4: but it's just put your money aside first as soon
Speaker 4: as you get paid. If you've planned to save, what
Speaker 4: is that amount, automate it to go out of sight
Speaker 4: into another account before you start spending for the month.
Speaker 4: Just that act alone of putting it out of sight,
Speaker 4: out of the way before you're spending starts. It's just
Speaker 4: night and day. It's just such a different approach, but
Speaker 4: it works. And then when you look at the number
Speaker 4: in your account, you're living off that amount, you're not
Speaker 4: living off the total amount, and that'll just help you
Speaker 4: as you go for your months. Just paste it out
Speaker 4: a bit more and work within your means having already saved.
Speaker 4: And also just a side note, spending is way more
Speaker 4: fun when you've already saved because you're not standing in
Speaker 4: the shop going, oh, I'm not I should be saving
Speaker 4: by it. I don't, just I really want that thing.
Speaker 4: You're like, I've saved, We're good, Let's spend happy days.
Speaker 4: This is my spending money, so I think it is
Speaker 4: a nicer way to go through the month.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 1: They're saying things that my dad has hounded into me
Speaker 1: since I was a kid.
Speaker 2: He was like, pay.
Speaker 1: Yourself first on yes, and this is what I saw
Speaker 1: on your social media too. I was like, yeah, she
Speaker 1: gets it, like you you do this first and you
Speaker 1: can take care of the rest later.
Speaker 2: And something too that he really honed into me very
Speaker 2: early on, which he wishes he did.
Speaker 1: We were a circumstance of their mistakes and the things
Speaker 1: they wish they did, and for him, he wishes he.
Speaker 2: Invested in his four oh one K sooner.
Speaker 1: And so he said, really early on, as soon as
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable and you feel like you're not surviving
Speaker 1: paycheck to paycheck, I want you to take a little
Speaker 1: bit out at a time and put it into your
Speaker 1: four A one K.
Speaker 2: Don't even think about it, just have it automatically go.
Speaker 1: In there and it'll be put away for a later
Speaker 1: use one day and you'll be really glad you did it,
Speaker 1: and so I've been doing that since maybe I was
Speaker 1: twenty five, and it was just a little at first,
Speaker 1: I think maybe ten dollars a month.
Speaker 2: It was not anything, but it was.
Speaker 1: Something enough to make me feel okay. I'm contributing. Why
Speaker 1: is that oral one key so important? Because it's really
Speaker 1: easy to think like future times, don't worry about it.
Speaker 4: It is so easy to think like that. I still
Speaker 4: do that now, and I'm getting closer to that bit.
Speaker 4: I'm much older than are you starting at that age.
Speaker 4: I wish i'd started that young and I had to
Speaker 4: play catch up, and I'm still playing catch up because
Speaker 4: I didn't start young, and it's frustrating.
Speaker 3: So I wish the same as your dad.
Speaker 4: I wish people got this early and just did it
Speaker 4: as like you say, exactly like that. A small amount
Speaker 4: to start with, doesn't have to be a lot, but
Speaker 4: it just gets the habit going. And then as you
Speaker 4: hopefully as things increase, your income increases, as you get older,
Speaker 4: you can increase the percentage perhaps that you're saving each
Speaker 4: month and putting into investments. The important thing, the thing
Speaker 4: it all comes down to, and it's not This is
Speaker 4: why it's so important to start young. It's all based
Speaker 4: on compound interest. Very boring sounding, but there's this magical
Speaker 4: force going on behind investing that makes it all work,
Speaker 4: and it's compound interest. It's a bit of math that
Speaker 4: without it, the whole thing falls down. The idea is
Speaker 4: you're earning on your earning, so you're getting a return
Speaker 4: on your investments, but then you're getting a return on
Speaker 4: that return as well, So instead of having a sort
Speaker 4: of straight line increase, it's a curve upwards. So the
Speaker 4: longer it goes, the more the growth happens. So there's
Speaker 4: crazy status I'm going to I'm not going to quote
Speaker 4: them exactly because I don't want to get them wrong.
Speaker 4: But Warren Buffett, for example, the majority of his wealth
Speaker 4: he created after he was about sixty eight I think
Speaker 4: it was, and then from that point it's just absolutely
Speaker 4: rocketed upwards. So he became a millionaire quite young. But
Speaker 4: then his wealth was increasing, but there was a moment
Speaker 4: where it just hipped, and it's compound interest. It's a
Speaker 4: classic example of compound interest. So I think the younger
Speaker 4: you can start, even if you're starting with a little bit,
Speaker 4: the longer you've got for your money to compound, and
Speaker 4: it really does make a difference. If you've got a
Speaker 4: spare moment and you want to geek out on this,
Speaker 4: you can go to the calculator site. There's loads of
Speaker 4: different calculators online, calculators like dot com or something like that.
Speaker 4: They've got a compound interest calculator.
Speaker 3: And I think to.
Speaker 4: Visualize it, I wish I could flash up a graph
Speaker 4: right now. But to visualize, if I put in let's say,
Speaker 4: like your example, ten pounds or ten dollars a month
Speaker 4: for ten years, what does it do? And if so,
Speaker 4: let's say you've got a return of let's say eight
Speaker 4: percent or something, what does it do? Okay, well twenty Now,
Speaker 4: let's look at thirty, let's look at forty. And when
Speaker 4: you can visualize the difference, that's quite motivating. So I
Speaker 4: always recommend people have a little looking to play around
Speaker 4: with that whose even though it's quite geeky, it's worth doing.
Speaker 2: You talk about motivating.
Speaker 1: I had started, I don't know if you guys have
Speaker 1: Robin Hood over there, it's an investment app.
Speaker 3: All the stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So I had started playing around on that.
Speaker 2: When I finally got to the point where I was like, okay, uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll try a little investing. I have no idea
Speaker 2: what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: You're looking at someone who has zero experience, zero knowledge
Speaker 1: of the stock market. But I said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: just start buying some stocks of things that I use
Speaker 1: and I love because I know I'm using and loving them,
Speaker 1: which means there's probably other people that are.
Speaker 2: So that's what we started with. I think I bought like.
Speaker 1: Apple and Disney and all these different kind of just
Speaker 1: things that I use every day meta and I was
Speaker 1: buying stocks in them, and I was having so much fun.
Speaker 2: I was not playing with a lot of money, but
Speaker 2: I was having so much fun being like, oh, I
Speaker 2: made five dollars today.
Speaker 1: Now I know the stock market is like very volatile
Speaker 1: and that goes up and down, but the days when
Speaker 1: it would be up, I'd get so excited watching that
Speaker 1: experience happen and seeing something happen with my money that
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. This I just put into an
Speaker 1: app was really fun. So totally understand that motivating factor.
Speaker 1: And I do want you to speak on the investing
Speaker 1: because I, like I said, I am so not an expert,
Speaker 1: but you have the expertise to tell us, like what
Speaker 1: investments might be right for us, especially starting and as
Speaker 1: we start to grow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, even you saying that I have some expertise, I
Speaker 4: am not a financial advisor. I'm a financial educator. So
Speaker 4: I just to put it out there. I'm not going
Speaker 4: to tell you exactly what to invest in with your money.
Speaker 4: That only a financial advisor can do that. But that's
Speaker 4: the point, really, is that you don't need to have
Speaker 4: You don't need to dedicate your whole life to understanding
Speaker 4: stocks and shares and the ups and downs of the
Speaker 4: market to really benefit from investing. And I think my
Speaker 4: biggest tip would be don't. It's a bit of a
Speaker 4: vortex investing. You can get sucked in by all the
Speaker 4: information that's there and the different theories and different ways
Speaker 4: of investing, different asset classes you can invest in, and
Speaker 4: everyone's got an opinion, but you really need to almost
Speaker 4: learn quite quickly to drown out the noise and just
Speaker 4: look at what is a sensible long term strategy For
Speaker 4: someone like me who's not going to spend ten hours
Speaker 4: a day watching the stock market going up and down.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do that. I've got things i
Speaker 3: want to do with my life, So I.
Speaker 4: Think just to go just to be okay with picking
Speaker 4: sort of broad market index funds, those kinds of things
Speaker 4: that are capturing lots and lots of different companies, rather
Speaker 4: than even with picking your stocks. Even in that example,
Speaker 4: I think investing in what you're interested in is a
Speaker 4: nice idea. But I think at the same time, if
Speaker 4: something happened to Apple and you've got only Apple stock
Speaker 4: and maybe two others, it's quite a risky play because
Speaker 4: we don't know the inner workings of Apple, right We
Speaker 4: don't know what conversations are happening right now behind closed doors.
Speaker 4: There might be some big scandal about to come out tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Let's hope not, but that can happen, and it has
Speaker 4: happened in the past. And you have to remember that
Speaker 4: if all your eggs in one are in one basket,
Speaker 4: that is quite a risky play. So you want to
Speaker 4: look at what are less risky strategies but will still
Speaker 4: get me some potentially good returns on my money, because
Speaker 4: you still want your money to grow, right, So I
Speaker 4: think taking that approach where you're not just putting all
Speaker 4: your eggs in one basket is a really good move.
Speaker 4: There's very simple boring that you can put your money
Speaker 4: into that are not like all singing, all dancing, very exciting.
Speaker 4: They just follow different markets that are doing well and
Speaker 4: the best companies in those markets. And that's a less
Speaker 4: riskier approach than sort of trying to work it all
Speaker 4: out for yourself.
Speaker 1: Yes, the funds are super important to you when you
Speaker 1: look at different funds.
Speaker 2: Can you give us a few examples, just because.
Speaker 1: I know, like for me, when I started learning so
Speaker 1: much about this, I had I had no knowledge of anything.
Speaker 1: So some maybe some basic ideas of what those funds
Speaker 1: may look like.
Speaker 4: Sure, I think you can look at different geographies so
Speaker 4: you can go so say, for example, you would you
Speaker 4: were like, I want to invest in US. Okay, there's
Speaker 4: some great companies in the US. Let's be honest, let's
Speaker 4: see if we can capture some of those. So you've
Speaker 4: got the one that everyone talks about is S and
Speaker 4: P five hundred, which is just tracking five hundred amazing
Speaker 4: companies in the US that are doing very well. That's
Speaker 4: all it's doing. It's just following those five hundred companies.
Speaker 4: So that's a really interesting one. That's one that everyone
Speaker 4: normally quotes when they talk about index funds. But there's
Speaker 4: other ones like that around the world. There's an equivalent
Speaker 4: in the UK, and then you can get worldwide funds
Speaker 4: as well. But the thing to do, I think, would
Speaker 4: be to find an investing platform that has got a
Speaker 4: very high emphasis on education and handholding you through the process.
Speaker 4: I don't want to speak to specific platforms because it
Speaker 4: won't apply in different geographies. But in the UK we've
Speaker 4: got some great platforms now that aren't just dishing you
Speaker 4: up funds. There's going Okay, here's a few video tutorials
Speaker 4: on what this is and what you might be investing
Speaker 4: in if you invest in this, and hey, are you
Speaker 4: interested in potentially impact funds that are doing good in
Speaker 4: the world. Okay, let's talk to you about that. And
Speaker 4: I think I would just really encourage people to do
Speaker 4: just do a bit of rabbit hole. Just go down
Speaker 4: a rabbit hole and learn, but do it with repuatable source,
Speaker 4: like a decent investing platform, where they are educating you,
Speaker 4: the handholding you, they're telling you about the risk levels
Speaker 4: with each different fund. And yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 4: good route to go.
Speaker 2: Oh that's super helpful. I wish again it's living.
Speaker 1: You learn, like you start to understand things a little
Speaker 1: bit more, and I wish that's something even I had
Speaker 1: as I was starting to dip my toes in this
Speaker 1: very shark eating world where I had zero experience when
Speaker 1: I was doing on this kind of flip side of investing.
Speaker 2: We also have debt.
Speaker 1: There are so many people out there that carry debt unfortunately,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I feel like holds this storm
Speaker 1: cloud for people over their head. What are some tips
Speaker 1: or resources maybe that help for you when you're working
Speaker 1: with people and they have debt but they want to
Speaker 1: get out of debt and they want to be on
Speaker 1: their way to savings or investing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really good question.
Speaker 6: It is.
Speaker 4: It's very down cloud is a very good metaphor for
Speaker 4: what it feels like with debt, and I think and
Speaker 4: the way that it can grow and accumulate as well
Speaker 4: is pretty scary. And I think, let's mind ourselves again
Speaker 4: that we are in a really strange point in time
Speaker 4: where again you can just put anything on buy now,
Speaker 4: pay later, Just click that button, don't worry about paying
Speaker 4: for it today, just pay for it tomorrow. It's fine,
Speaker 4: so easy to take on debt now. So just to
Speaker 4: get in that position is very easy. And not to
Speaker 4: mention all the big things that have happened in the
Speaker 4: last few years that have just thrown curveballs at us
Speaker 4: one after.
Speaker 3: The other in life globally. So there's a lot of that.
Speaker 4: But I think somebody who is wanting to get out
Speaker 4: of debt, I think the first thing to say would
Speaker 4: just be like, huge, well done, excellent move. Having that
Speaker 4: shift from I'm going to just have it there sitting
Speaker 4: there growing to I'm going to do something about this
Speaker 4: now and I'm going to get out of this situation
Speaker 4: is incredibly brave. Takes effort, and it takes courage, and
Speaker 4: I think you need to know that's.
Speaker 3: A great decision.
Speaker 4: That is a great decision to tackle it, to face it,
Speaker 4: to battle with it, to get out of it is
Speaker 4: a great thing to do. I think another thing that
Speaker 4: I often say to people, which I think still is
Speaker 4: relatively unknown, is there's so many free resources and people
Speaker 4: that will give you their time for free to help
Speaker 4: you know what steps to take. So if we're talking
Speaker 4: significant amounts of debt and you're in a position where
Speaker 4: it's difficult to pay your bills, you're in a tight spot.
Speaker 4: There are so many amazing charities, resources organizations around the
Speaker 4: world that will help you for free. So the whole idea,
Speaker 4: if you have to do this on your own, you
Speaker 4: got yourself in this situation. It's your job to get
Speaker 4: yourself out. That's not necessarily true. I think to be
Speaker 4: able to walk it through with somebody is a really
Speaker 4: good move, and there are plenty of places that will
Speaker 4: do that without charging you anything for their time and
Speaker 4: expertise as well. Coming back to what we started with saving,
Speaker 4: one of the best I think motivators for getting out
Speaker 4: there is having that clear goal and that target and setting.
Speaker 3: Yourselves if you can breaking it down.
Speaker 4: Into from now to completely cleared, what are the steps
Speaker 4: I'm going to take, and ticking them off as you go.
Speaker 4: So a lot of people have their sort of charts
Speaker 4: they put on the wall. They might have an app
Speaker 4: that kind of reminds them of how are they're doing.
Speaker 4: They're seeing that number come down. That's so good because
Speaker 4: that's just a good thing to do anyway. With saving
Speaker 4: these goals, with investing goals, with business goals, anything, and
Speaker 4: I think that is a really great motivator. It's just saying,
Speaker 4: if I was to pay that much per month by
Speaker 4: this date, I'm going to be debt free. And you
Speaker 4: do everything you can to stick to that to pay
Speaker 4: it down quicker if you can. Very motivating, and that's
Speaker 4: worked really well for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Because you just brought savings back up, it reminded me
Speaker 1: that I also wanted to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: in detail about the dip into savings because we also.
Speaker 2: A lot of us love to do this. I love
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, I have savings, I can go on
Speaker 1: that trip. It's there, I have the money.
Speaker 2: So how do we make sure we don't keep doing that?
Speaker 1: Especially in this situation too, when maybe you do have
Speaker 1: somebody who's in debt and they're trying to save, or
Speaker 1: you just have somebody in general that's trying to save
Speaker 1: for an emergency fund, how do we make sure we
Speaker 1: just don't touch the savings.
Speaker 4: It's great, Yeah, I can relate to that. Okay, I
Speaker 4: think step number one is what is that saving there for?
Speaker 4: What is it doing for you? So coming back to
Speaker 4: that giving it a reason to be there, I think
Speaker 4: many of us grow up with we don't have a lot.
Speaker 3: Of financial education.
Speaker 4: We don't, but one thing we do know is we
Speaker 4: should be saving like we have this kind of at
Speaker 4: the back of our mind, there's a little voice going,
Speaker 4: you should be saving, you should be saving, you know
Speaker 4: what you should be saving. And so you're out and
Speaker 4: about and you're trying to spend your money and you're
Speaker 4: just thinking, I should be saving. But no one ever
Speaker 4: really tells what to save for. They never really break
Speaker 4: it down and say, Okay, this is this type of saving,
Speaker 4: there's this type of saving.
Speaker 3: There's that type of saving.
Speaker 4: And I think, when I got clarity and what is
Speaker 4: it I actually need to have in my bank account
Speaker 4: for my current lifestyle right now to make sense and
Speaker 4: then to move on to other things. And I got
Speaker 4: those numbers, I was like, oh, greatly, just give me
Speaker 4: a bunch of targets to hit. I'll do that and
Speaker 4: then I can move on to the other things. So
Speaker 4: I think one of those so taking that time to
Speaker 4: stop and go, okay, yes, I've got a savings pot,
Speaker 4: but why is it there?
Speaker 3: What's it for?
Speaker 4: So the ones you really want to think about is
Speaker 4: your emergency fund, which is your three to six months buffer.
Speaker 3: You build up this kind of lump sum of cash
Speaker 3: so if.
Speaker 4: Anything happens to your income, if anything awful comes your way,
Speaker 4: let's hope it never does, but it can happen. You've
Speaker 4: got three to six months worth of living expenses and
Speaker 4: not all the fun stuff as well.
Speaker 3: Just what does it cost you.
Speaker 4: To live in a month that's saved up and ready
Speaker 4: to go if anything happens and you suddenly need to
Speaker 4: pay out tomorrow. Now, you want to keep that out
Speaker 4: of sight because that needs to be there when the
Speaker 4: time comes if you have an emergency. So I think
Speaker 4: so personally, Mary and my husband, we've built up ours
Speaker 4: and we transferred it recently into another account. I set
Speaker 4: up a whole different account. It's got better interest rates,
Speaker 4: so I can make a little bit of money on
Speaker 4: that money. But also it's very hard for me to
Speaker 4: log in because I can't remember my log in details.
Speaker 4: Very You've got that three step process to go to
Speaker 4: just to even.
Speaker 3: See what's in there at the moment. And I logged
Speaker 3: in the other day and I was like, why can
Speaker 3: I not log in here?
Speaker 4: And it's all good, it's just great security, But that
Speaker 4: process of having to actually go and find out how
Speaker 4: to log in is really helpful because it stops me
Speaker 4: just being able to quickly.
Speaker 3: Transfer money out. Really good thing to do.
Speaker 4: Then you've got your what I call smug savings, but
Speaker 4: other people call them sort of sinking funds as well.
Speaker 3: It's another term.
Speaker 4: I call them smug savings because I love this idea
Speaker 4: of Firstly, I don't really know what's sick, Like, what's
Speaker 4: sinking in that scenario?
Speaker 3: Is ship? Is it a boat?
Speaker 4: I don't really have never really resonated with that term.
Speaker 4: So I call them smug savings because what are the
Speaker 4: things in your life that you know if that expense
Speaker 4: came in you'd feel so smug if you had a
Speaker 4: pot of cash sitting there ready to go.
Speaker 3: For that thing.
Speaker 2: Oh I love this term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just makes more sense to me. So, Maddin,
Speaker 4: Christmas is coming up. If you celebrate Christmas, you're making
Speaker 4: me a bit of a spending time of year. You
Speaker 4: get to the first of December and you look at
Speaker 4: your accounts and you've got a pot in there in
Speaker 4: your bank called Christmas ready to go for the whole
Speaker 4: of December to go enjoy yourself.
Speaker 3: You're going to feel so good.
Speaker 4: You're gonna be like, yes, go me, I'm so good
Speaker 4: at this money stuff. So I think taking a step
Speaker 4: back and looking at your life as a whole, what
Speaker 4: are your big expenses are too big for one month
Speaker 4: that you really should be putting money aside towards every
Speaker 4: month to fund those little pots to make sure whenever
Speaker 4: that expense.
Speaker 3: Comes in, you've got money ready to go.
Speaker 4: Outside of those two things, there are are some other
Speaker 4: things like saving for a house to posit, and maybe
Speaker 4: a big expense like a car. But really, once you
Speaker 4: funded those things for your life and for what your
Speaker 4: numbers are, that's when you can go cool, I've done it. Now,
Speaker 4: I can move on to the other stuff, and I
Speaker 4: could put my money elsewhere. So I think knowing what
Speaker 4: the things are for helps you to not dip into
Speaker 4: them and helps you to have that separation between them,
Speaker 4: so it's not just one big giant pot of money
Speaker 4: that's fair game for any cool thing that might come
Speaker 4: up in your life.
Speaker 1: This is the part where my mom comes in, and
Speaker 1: she was really big on when I started saving, and
Speaker 1: she said, I need you to have specific, different categories,
Speaker 1: because that's going to help you understand what you're saving for,
Speaker 1: what it looks like, and at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: why you're putting it in there. And when I adapted
Speaker 1: my dog she goes time to add another emergency fund.
Speaker 1: You need to have something ready in case something were
Speaker 1: to happen, And it did really help me just to
Speaker 1: have categories of things, especially in the beginning. Now I've
Speaker 1: gotten it's such a habit and it's just I'm so.
Speaker 2: Trained in the brain to do it.
Speaker 1: But in the beginning it helped me as very young
Speaker 1: twenty something girl who had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1: It just categorized things so much easier and made it
Speaker 1: seem very real versus just money going to a different account.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, yeah, I think the more you can map that
Speaker 4: out for yourself early on, the better. And like you say,
Speaker 4: what a wise women to tell you don't just get
Speaker 4: the dog planned for the dog financially because they dogs
Speaker 4: are expensive, aren't they? And I think that's wise, that's
Speaker 4: good wisdom of using your money well so that you
Speaker 4: don't end up in a spot where you're having to
Speaker 4: dip into some other savings because you never planned for it.
Speaker 4: But I do think that the whole idea of just
Speaker 4: mapping it out for yourself it seems again a silly.
Speaker 3: Thing to do do.
Speaker 4: I meaned to do that, Yeah, you do, because life's complicated,
Speaker 4: and I find as I'm getting older, I've got three children.
Speaker 3: As they're getting older, more variables. Every day, it seems
Speaker 3: more things.
Speaker 4: I'm like, what how else do I need to put
Speaker 4: on my budget? I had this lovely moment last night
Speaker 4: that made me chuckle. So in the UK, we have
Speaker 4: this banking system called Monzo. It's like a I think
Speaker 4: it's in the US, but I think it's early Days
Speaker 4: in the US, which basically just allows you to split
Speaker 4: your money in your bank account into different pots, so
Speaker 4: you can physically move your money into pots inside one account.
Speaker 2: So it's not which is amazing, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: It's literally an absolute game changer. So we've got this.
Speaker 4: So I teach about these pot systems a lot because
Speaker 4: for me it was one of the things that took
Speaker 4: me from somebody who wasn't saving to somebody who's good
Speaker 4: at saving. So it really changed things for me. Anyway,
Speaker 4: me Mys, we were sitting there doing our budget last night.
Speaker 4: We were we've just moved, we've moved to London. We've
Speaker 4: changed a lot in the last year, so we're constantly
Speaker 4: reviewing it at the moment, which is it's not the
Speaker 4: funniest job in the world, is it.
Speaker 3: You'd rather be watching TV? In the evening.
Speaker 4: Anyway, We're sitting there and then he just goes So
Speaker 4: we joke about how many pots I got, and I
Speaker 4: think at the time counted it was about sixteen or
Speaker 4: seventeen different pots, different categories.
Speaker 1: So wasn't it not though, just the great example of
Speaker 1: a mom like that, if anything that details it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And he was sitting there last night doing the
Speaker 4: automations for next month and he just hit the button.
Speaker 4: It was like, you've exceeded the maximum amount of pots.
Speaker 4: And I was like, yeah, that sounds about right. That
Speaker 4: sounds about my life right now. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: can you screenshot that because I feel like I need
Speaker 4: to share that on socials because that's too good.
Speaker 3: But I've watunate it was gone.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I think the more the Mary I map out
Speaker 4: your life, look at your situation. And remember personal finance
Speaker 4: is called personal finance.
Speaker 3: It's personal to you. Doesn't need to.
Speaker 4: Look like somebody else down the road. It doesn't need
Speaker 4: to look like how your best friend's doing it. What
Speaker 4: do you need to make your life work? What do
Speaker 4: you need to have in your emergency fund? Based on
Speaker 4: your lifestyle? So make it personal.
Speaker 1: There's one thing I want to end down here because
Speaker 1: you're giving such great advice and just educationally, this is
Speaker 1: something that I just so wish that I had in
Speaker 1: my teens, even in high school. I wish it would
Speaker 1: have been in it as a seed. I want to
Speaker 1: end on this one. When we look at buying things,
Speaker 1: what you talked about big purchase, its house, its cars,
Speaker 1: getting a dog. What are some things that are a
Speaker 1: very smart investment, like as far as personally to do
Speaker 1: versus looking at this is probably something that might drag
Speaker 1: you down the later. Maybe it's more credit cards, but
Speaker 1: it could be any number of things. Yeah, when you're
Speaker 1: talking to people, what are those kind of two things
Speaker 1: on that side of things?
Speaker 3: Oh, such a good question.
Speaker 4: I think make sure you understand the difference between assets
Speaker 4: and liabilities. And I don't know many of your audiences
Speaker 4: probably read the book Rich Dad, Poor dab By Robert Kiyosaki,
Speaker 4: excellent book, but he really introduced that whole concept to
Speaker 4: me of assets and liabilities and just understanding that one
Speaker 4: concept alone can massively change.
Speaker 3: The way you spend your money.
Speaker 4: So, in terms of what you've talked about ragging you
Speaker 4: down in the future, what a great way to put it,
Speaker 4: because that's the job of a liability, and liability is
Speaker 4: something that you buy that then costs you money to
Speaker 4: have it. So I hate to say it, but even
Speaker 4: a dog like sounds awful, But like.
Speaker 3: Dogs cost money.
Speaker 4: Your dog's not going to make you money unless you
Speaker 4: make them on Instagram dogs Superstar and then you start
Speaker 4: making money that way. But that's okay. Doesn't mean they're wrong.
Speaker 3: It's not bad to have a Dog's great to have
Speaker 3: a dog.
Speaker 4: But it's just understanding that is going to be something
Speaker 4: that costs you money later on down the line.
Speaker 3: And I think being.
Speaker 4: Real about that and having a strategy and a plan
Speaker 4: for that if that's what you want to do, because
Speaker 4: we can't we can't just say liabilities are bad.
Speaker 3: Anything that costs money is bad. We need to live
Speaker 3: super frugal lives and be miserable.
Speaker 4: That's not the goal here. But I think just understanding
Speaker 4: how many things in your life have you got that
Speaker 4: fall under a liability category. Have you got an expensive
Speaker 4: car that's costing you lots and lots of money each month?
Speaker 4: If you're thinking about buying a car in the future,
Speaker 4: how do you want to go about that? Do you
Speaker 4: want to do it in a way that's going to
Speaker 4: have a massive monthly expense that if something happens to
Speaker 4: your income later on, that's going to be a real burden.
Speaker 4: There's just a lot of just understanding that liability categories
Speaker 4: really helpful. And then on the flip side, you've got assets,
Speaker 4: which are things that you can buy that do make
Speaker 4: you money and actually adds to your income. So liabilities
Speaker 4: again not wrong. If you've got to just how much
Speaker 4: that's going to cost you to keep them and have them,
Speaker 4: can you actually afford that? And then assets super cool
Speaker 4: because go for it. Get your assets going because they
Speaker 4: actually add to your income, and then you've got more
Speaker 4: room each month and your budget to use and do
Speaker 4: what you want to do with that money. So assets
Speaker 4: would be things like investing in a property that you
Speaker 4: can rent out. It would be things like we talked
Speaker 4: about investing investing in a business so that you can
Speaker 4: actually one day make an income from that business, but
Speaker 4: potentially dividends from that business. All kinds of different ways
Speaker 4: of creating assets. But I don't think we really talk
Speaker 4: enough about assets and how to create assets other than
Speaker 4: thinking about your one stream of income. Much is your job,
Speaker 4: and then you've got your liability. So I think learning
Speaker 4: about assets understanding them is a really good thing to.
Speaker 3: Do as well.
Speaker 1: Oh you just made that sound so beautifully and just
Speaker 1: so helpful and the most basic of terms.
Speaker 2: So I appreciate you for that because it's again, those
Speaker 2: aren't even terms.
Speaker 1: I learned when I bought my house that this was
Speaker 1: an asset and this would be helpful versus me for
Speaker 1: five years pain rent that went no place at all.
Speaker 1: So I learned as I got older, and it's something
Speaker 1: that I'm continuing to learn.
Speaker 2: But just hearing you talk.
Speaker 1: About it, I think it's going to be super beneficial
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. And I thank you for
Speaker 1: being here, Thanks for talking with me and sharing so
Speaker 1: much of just your knowledge on wealth and understanding, and
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thanks having me.
Speaker 2: Right now. I have on Daniel Brigham.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of Daniel's content online sharing his
Speaker 1: story his relationship to money, and so I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring them on to talk about some of those experiences. So, Hi, Daniel,
Speaker 1: how are you? Thanks for being here?
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having me on. How you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 1: We were both talking about how we didn't get much sleep,
Speaker 1: so we might be a little delusional during this episode,
Speaker 1: but that's okay.
Speaker 5: Those are the make it more interesting.
Speaker 2: It definitely will.
Speaker 1: I want to kick things off by having you share
Speaker 1: your story of how you grew up, how you had
Speaker 1: some drug and alcohol problems that also related to some
Speaker 1: of the financial problems, and how your dad getting sick
Speaker 1: led you to also making some changes.
Speaker 2: So if you are up for it, that's where we're
Speaker 2: going to start.
Speaker 5: Let's do it. What a good way to wake up.
Speaker 6: I grew up in a super small town in Vermont,
Speaker 6: which I'm incredibly grateful for. I think it's really shaped
Speaker 6: who I am. But one of the things that was
Speaker 6: part of that as I grew up with a single
Speaker 6: mom in a trailer and a really small town that
Speaker 6: wasn't like a poor town. There's actually a lot of
Speaker 6: people there money, and so my whole life I just
Speaker 6: felt a little bit discouraged by our financial situation and
Speaker 6: always thought why did we have to be the ones
Speaker 6: with no money? And so as a result, as I
Speaker 6: got older and went to college, I was oftentimes trying
Speaker 6: to overcompensate for the fact that I didn't want people
Speaker 6: to think that about me. I wanted people to think
Speaker 6: that I had money, and I actually became more obsessed
Speaker 6: with people perceiving that I had money even if I
Speaker 6: was completely broke. Then people to think that I didn't
Speaker 6: have money and maybe actually start saving money over time.
Speaker 6: That led to a lot of bad spending decisions, a
Speaker 6: lot of bad decisions with my budget.
Speaker 5: And it wasn't that's funny.
Speaker 6: I had like around one hundred thousand dollars in debt,
Speaker 6: and it wasn't until like you just brought up my dad.
Speaker 6: It wasn't until my dad got sick and I realized
Speaker 6: I had no money to go and see him. My
Speaker 6: parents didn't, Neither of them had no money. My dad
Speaker 6: never had a job for more than six months kind
Speaker 6: of guy. And so I really had to figure out
Speaker 6: a way if I wanted to be able to go
Speaker 6: see him before he passed away, to scrap up some money.
Speaker 5: And it was a big awakening to just thinking that
Speaker 5: I had.
Speaker 6: A good job, that I was doing all the right
Speaker 6: things because I was told to go to college and
Speaker 6: just get a good job, to realize actually I was
Speaker 6: being a complete boso with my finances.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, did you have to kill your relationship with
Speaker 1: yourself of what you experienced growing up before you could
Speaker 1: start to look at finances and change that relationship or
Speaker 1: did it all happen at the same time.
Speaker 6: So it actually that stuff happened later on as I
Speaker 6: was going through that journey. So because when my dad
Speaker 6: got sick and I realized I had no money, I also,
Speaker 6: when I made a budget, realized that I was going
Speaker 6: further into debt every single month and that I wasn't
Speaker 6: going to be able to even pay for my rent.
Speaker 6: So the reaction that I had in that moment was
Speaker 6: more fear based.
Speaker 5: And there's a good.
Speaker 6: Thing that came out of that where I it really
Speaker 6: forced me to get better. But I never was actually
Speaker 6: processing any of my trauma that I had growing up
Speaker 6: with money and finances, and it wasn't until I became
Speaker 6: more stable where my wife used to buy these go
Speaker 6: Macro bars and they're like three dollars, and I would
Speaker 6: have these knee jerk reactions once she came back with one,
Speaker 6: because I had this trauma around We're gonna run out
Speaker 6: of money, We're not gonna be able to pay rent,
Speaker 6: all these things that are just completely ridiculous. But it
Speaker 6: just really triggered me when I felt like we were
Speaker 6: spending things that weren't part of the budget, and that's
Speaker 6: when I decided to be like, Okay, I'm clearly this
Speaker 6: is causing problems in my life. I should go figure
Speaker 6: this out. But that was years after all those events.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So really the starting to budget and change your relationship
Speaker 1: with money really came at that heels of really wanting
Speaker 1: to see your dad and then shifted and you're just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this makes more sense for me to go down this path.
Speaker 5: Yeah, pretty much. So it was a combination like that.
Speaker 6: My dad was the catalyst to making the budget, cause
Speaker 6: it I was confused. I at the time, I was
Speaker 6: working in tech sales, which I think if most people
Speaker 6: heard that, they say, oh, you make good money doing that.
Speaker 6: And I was making fifty grand a year at the time,
Speaker 6: which to me felt like it was good money. But
Speaker 6: obviously people are aware of the economy. It's not like
Speaker 6: I was rich or anything. But by going through and
Speaker 6: being like, Okay, why can't I afford to go and
Speaker 6: pay for a flight from Austin to Philadelphia that didn't
Speaker 6: make a lot of sense to me, And so when
Speaker 6: I made the budget, it just really exposed how irresponsible
Speaker 6: I was being and how that was going to lead
Speaker 6: to me basically coming to a point where either I
Speaker 6: could choose to pay rent or I could keep, you know,
Speaker 6: going out and doing drugs and alcohol and partying and
Speaker 6: being flashy with the little bit of money that I had.
Speaker 6: So my dad wasn't necessarily the motivator. I wish I
Speaker 6: could say that he was the motivator to get better
Speaker 6: with my finances, but it really was just rooted in fear,
Speaker 6: which I think, unfortunately, if you think about the stick
Speaker 6: versus the carrot, we all tend to be more motivated by.
Speaker 5: The stick, unfortunately, than we are by the carrot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Were you ever at a moment.
Speaker 1: During all of this that you got so far into
Speaker 1: a hole and you were like, how do I get
Speaker 1: out of this?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, That's how I felt immediately. At the time.
Speaker 6: I didn't even think that I was going to be
Speaker 6: able to get rid of all my debt. I had
Speaker 6: a personal loan with a really high interest rate, and
Speaker 6: I told myself, if I could get rid of that
Speaker 6: at least, then I could maybe go back to being
Speaker 6: an idiot, and I could manage the car payment, and
Speaker 6: I could manage my student loans, and I could manage
Speaker 6: the credit card. But if I got rid of that
Speaker 6: personal loan, it would make a big impact. And so
Speaker 6: I did some just really wild things, like I sold
Speaker 6: my blood plasma.
Speaker 5: I just started working every single day.
Speaker 6: I signed up for Rover, I signed up for this
Speaker 6: brand Besti's thing, which is like brand ambassador work, like
Speaker 6: I just was looking for. If I could work twenty
Speaker 6: four hours a day, I would have at the time.
Speaker 6: And then as I started doing that, the good thing
Speaker 6: is when you're working, you're not spending money. So it
Speaker 6: slowed down my ability to go spend money. But it
Speaker 6: just made me think, man, I'm doing all this effort
Speaker 6: to make this money. Maybe I don't want to buy
Speaker 6: that thing. So it was a slow build where it
Speaker 6: made me just appreciate the hard work that I was doing,
Speaker 6: and so then I just didn't want to spend my money.
Speaker 6: And then when I paid off that loan, that was
Speaker 6: when I started to think, Okay, maybe I could actually
Speaker 6: pay off my credit card too, and maybe I actually
Speaker 6: don't need this car, right, And so I actually swapped
Speaker 6: it out for a soccer mom ban, and slowly but
Speaker 6: surely it was like, Okay, maybe I don't need these
Speaker 6: fancy clothes. Maybe I actually can just thrift something, or
Speaker 6: maybe I don't need to go out to eat all
Speaker 6: the time.
Speaker 5: Maybe I can actually just make my own.
Speaker 6: Like I used to make this chicken stew and spend
Speaker 6: twenty five bucks a week on groceries and I just
Speaker 6: eat nothing but chicken stew. So I did a lot
Speaker 6: of weird things, but it was all rooted in the
Speaker 6: fact that I just started to appreciate my dollar more
Speaker 6: because I was working so hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a hard lesson to learn, especially what
Speaker 1: you talked about how you grew up in that way.
Speaker 2: You were never taught those things.
Speaker 1: You had to learn them on your own and have
Speaker 1: those personal experiences, which.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people can relate to, because.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a different relationship with money and it's all
Speaker 1: rooted in how we grew up and what.
Speaker 2: We were taught.
Speaker 1: So can you expand on that a little bit more
Speaker 1: like your experience and your emotions that you would feel,
Speaker 1: especially looking back on your life and you're like, why
Speaker 1: didn't I get to like you mentioned, why didn't I
Speaker 1: get to grow up rich and not have these problems?
Speaker 2: What was that like for you?
Speaker 1: As you're finally addressing some of those things and those
Speaker 1: feelings you were having.
Speaker 5: It's interesting.
Speaker 6: I found that sometimes how much money your parents have
Speaker 6: nothing to do with the financial principles that they instill
Speaker 6: in you. Like sometimes people make a lot of money
Speaker 6: and they instill those But it's really interesting. My mom
Speaker 6: has a learning disability and my dad was autistic, and
Speaker 6: so I think for them. One of the things I
Speaker 6: really had to deal with as I was facing these
Speaker 6: things was you don't think about that. As a kid,
Speaker 6: You're like, oh, my parents, we aren't they like other parents.
Speaker 6: But as an adult I started to just really feel
Speaker 6: for them more and really accept them and say, you
Speaker 6: know what, I shouldn't have these massive expectations for them.
Speaker 6: They're humans, it's not that so no one told them
Speaker 6: taught them how to be a parent, and so really
Speaker 6: a big part of that for me was just accepting
Speaker 6: my parents for who they are and not holding this
Speaker 6: grudge against the things that I thought they could have
Speaker 6: done differently with either progressing their career or holding down
Speaker 6: a job or even today, my mom makes a lot
Speaker 6: of bad financial decisions, and it's really hard for me
Speaker 6: sometimes to not be able to control that because she's
Speaker 6: her own person and so I think a lot of
Speaker 6: the trauma was just really on that piece. Because I
Speaker 6: want to have a good relationship with my mom and
Speaker 6: I want to have a good relationship with my parents.
Speaker 6: But if I'm like resenting them for things that are
Speaker 6: really not their fault but maybe they should have taught me,
Speaker 6: that's probably not fair for them. But I think your
Speaker 6: question was more maybe like reacting to other people around me,
Speaker 6: and that part I still do struggle with a lot.
Speaker 6: If I'm just being honest with it's really hard to
Speaker 6: not have imposter syndrome. You know, my wife and I
Speaker 6: now are coming up on being millionaires, and it's.
Speaker 5: Wild to think about that.
Speaker 6: But there's this voice in my head that still tells me,
Speaker 6: even though I've made it that far, still the person
Speaker 6: that was growing up poor not worthy, and that people
Speaker 6: who grew up with parents that had money are better
Speaker 6: than me, even though maybe they have a bunch of debt.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: Maybe I'll eventually be able to figure that out, but
Speaker 6: it's still something that really is like a battle in
Speaker 6: my mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a few kind of different ways I want
Speaker 2: to go with this. You mentioned.
Speaker 1: Your wife, which I would like to talk about the
Speaker 1: experiences you had when you met her, especially as all
Speaker 1: of this is happening.
Speaker 2: But I also want to.
Speaker 1: Acknowledge that I think as an adult, it's really hard
Speaker 1: to come to terms with understanding that your parents were
Speaker 1: also kids two at one point, and they had to
Speaker 1: grow and they were the best way I could ever
Speaker 1: say when I talk to people about parents is your
Speaker 1: parents are also experiencing life for the first time too,
Speaker 1: and they do truly the best that they can with
Speaker 1: what tools and resources they were given. And you have
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that as an adult, which is a very
Speaker 1: delicate balance to understanding, Okay, this is somebody that I
Speaker 1: love and care for, but also they're their own human
Speaker 1: and they had all of these reasons, and I can't
Speaker 1: hold this against them.
Speaker 2: Now it's my turn to also do better.
Speaker 1: So I want to recognize that you mentioned that, because
Speaker 1: I think that's something a lot of people experience, especially
Speaker 1: when they get older and they look back on their
Speaker 1: life and they're addressing things that happened when they were kids.
Speaker 6: It's so tough because there's still a part of us
Speaker 6: that's like the teenage version of ourselves that's okay, mom, okay,
Speaker 6: and thinks that way and it actually I've noticed it
Speaker 6: more after my dad passed away, where I started to
Speaker 6: have more conversations because I was about twenty four or
Speaker 6: twenty five when he passed away, so I was really
Speaker 6: just becoming an adult at that phase, and he had
Speaker 6: been sick for a couple of years, and so I
Speaker 6: didn't really ever feel like I got to know him
Speaker 6: as an adult. And so I spent time with his
Speaker 6: sister and I spent time with my grandmother, just trying
Speaker 6: to get to know him more because I had realized
Speaker 6: I had developed all these perceptions of him, and as
Speaker 6: I was going through that journey, that's when I started
Speaker 6: to realize that, yeah, he was just his own person,
Speaker 6: with his own struggles, his own traumas, his own limitations,
Speaker 6: and he loved me very much, but he's an imperfect
Speaker 6: person like we all are.
Speaker 5: And it stinks that it took that for me to
Speaker 5: realize that.
Speaker 6: But now I try to when I think about my mom,
Speaker 6: I really try to appreciate that more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's probably helpful with you and understanding your
Speaker 1: relationship with your mom too, I would imagine.
Speaker 2: So there was a reason for it, but it is
Speaker 2: also it.
Speaker 1: Truly is hard and you have when I say, the
Speaker 1: delicate balance of honoring that like you feel a certain
Speaker 1: way because you didn't have certain things, while also honoring
Speaker 1: that they were at their own and they had their
Speaker 1: own experiences and their living life for the first time too.
Speaker 2: That's really hard.
Speaker 1: You're experiencing multiple different emotions in that same span of
Speaker 1: things happening.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: The biggest challenge that I'll cap it off with I
Speaker 6: think that I faced with all that was and I'm
Speaker 6: sure other people can relate to this, but my dad
Speaker 6: got sick and we hadn't talked for over two years
Speaker 6: because we'd gotten in this big fight, and I decided
Speaker 6: I didn't want a relationship with anymore, relationship with him anymore,
Speaker 6: And when he got sick, then I immediately had to
Speaker 6: throw away this grudge that we didn't ever work through, right,
Speaker 6: And I remember when he did pass, I was really
Speaker 6: struggling with I should be more sad than I am.
Speaker 6: But at the same time, I didn't have the traditional
Speaker 6: relationship with my dad, and that's always been a really
Speaker 6: wonky one too, because I think oftentimes we feel pressure
Speaker 6: from society to have a certain relationship with our parents,
Speaker 6: because that's like the hallmark version of it, when in reality,
Speaker 6: our relationships with our parents are super complex and very unique.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point, and I know we're talking
Speaker 1: finances and stuff, but I'm so glad you shared that
Speaker 1: because it is it's very unique.
Speaker 2: And just like with all things in.
Speaker 1: Social media, we love to compare ourselves to others in
Speaker 1: every single way, and seeing people have those experiences while
Speaker 1: you don't is difficult and when it's challenging, that's part
Speaker 1: of it. Now, you had also talked about your wife
Speaker 1: a little bit. What was it like for you because
Speaker 1: you did have this specific relationship to money and I
Speaker 1: imagine probably at the point where you were looking to
Speaker 1: meet a partner, you were probably pretty frugal and you
Speaker 1: were trying to understand what this would look like. So
Speaker 1: when you start looking for a partner and these all
Speaker 1: things have happened to you, what was that like?
Speaker 5: I think there's some context here.
Speaker 6: So for one, my skill set and when it comes
Speaker 6: to finances, we only need to lean into of what
Speaker 6: our god given talents are. And one of my biggest
Speaker 6: skill sets is just being able to network with people
Speaker 6: and create connections and be really outgoing when it comes
Speaker 6: to dating, it turns out that's a really good skill
Speaker 6: to have. So I want to put that caveat in
Speaker 6: there because I understand that is just going to result
Speaker 6: in me probably having a slightly different dating world than
Speaker 6: other people. But when it came to going past the
Speaker 6: just meeting somebody and actually developing intimacy, like letting someone
Speaker 6: actually into your world, I was. I actually feel like
Speaker 6: the reason why I let my wife more into that world,
Speaker 6: I was always very hesitant. My dad was sick when
Speaker 6: I initially met her and passed while we were getting
Speaker 6: to know each other still, so I was just very
Speaker 6: guarded at the time in general.
Speaker 5: But one of the reasons why I.
Speaker 6: Chose to let her in was because I felt like
Speaker 6: there were little things that I started to pick up
Speaker 6: on that we were aligned on, and finances was one
Speaker 6: of those things, and so I just felt very.
Speaker 5: Confident being who I was.
Speaker 6: I didn't feel like we needed to have the same
Speaker 6: financial situation by any means, but I felt like I
Speaker 6: could share where I was at and I wasn't going
Speaker 6: to be judged. And I think for anybody when it
Speaker 6: comes to dating, you need to be able to talk
Speaker 6: about those things, because finances might not even be your problem.
Speaker 6: But you're going to have some problem, and if you
Speaker 6: can't talk about that with the person that you're going
Speaker 6: to be the most intimate with, like what a awful relationship.
Speaker 6: Like that's one of the major benefits of being in
Speaker 6: a relationship. And so I hear a lot of men
Speaker 6: talk about how they want to get their financial poop together.
Speaker 6: They'll say, Hey, I want to get my finances together
Speaker 6: before I get out into the dating pool.
Speaker 5: And I just don't think that should be a factor.
Speaker 6: It'd be like sometimes I feel like it's almost an
Speaker 6: excuse to not commit to something, or it's an excuse
Speaker 6: not to get intimate with someone because it's scary and
Speaker 6: we've all been hurt before. We just want to keep
Speaker 6: our independence because we're all a little bit selfish. But
Speaker 6: I just think that if you're it doesn't matter where
Speaker 6: you are on the journey, and in fact, if you're struggling,
Speaker 6: having that partner is going to probably help accelerate that journey,
Speaker 6: because it definitely did for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And to your point, if you try and make sure
Speaker 1: everything is perfect before you find someone, before you do anything,
Speaker 1: before you chase a dream, before you get your finances
Speaker 1: in check. You're going to be waiting a long time.
Speaker 1: There's never going to be a perfect time to do anything.
Speaker 1: It's a perfect time for you that matters. And I
Speaker 1: like that you address that because dating and finances there's
Speaker 1: a lot that comes with that, and you have a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people who feel this need.
Speaker 1: To provide, especially on the men's side, where they're like,
Speaker 1: I need to do all these things and I need
Speaker 1: to have all my.
Speaker 2: Ducks in a row. You can have a lot of
Speaker 2: ducks in a row and still be good.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have every single thing figured out
Speaker 1: that part of a partnership. But to your point, it
Speaker 1: is what I see a lot on social media. Finances
Speaker 1: and guys in dating is a hot topic.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And then it's funny because then you have the
Speaker 6: guys that are really successful, right, maybe they did wait,
Speaker 6: but then they probably have this fear of I'm gonna
Speaker 6: go to the dating pool and I can't really relate
Speaker 6: to this because this was never me. But I imagine then
Speaker 6: they're thinking, was this person can actually like who I am?
Speaker 6: Or are they just gonna like all the things maybe
Speaker 6: that I can provide? And then also can I even
Speaker 6: be vulnerable because they only know me as this person
Speaker 6: who's like strong and successful, and so if I were
Speaker 6: to lose everything, or if I were to hit this
Speaker 6: rock bottom moment in my life, with that person stand
Speaker 6: by me. And one of the amazing parts is I
Speaker 6: met my wife when I was going through rock bottom.
Speaker 6: So I have a lot.
Speaker 5: Of confidence that unless I did something.
Speaker 6: Really stupid, but if bad things happen to me, if
Speaker 6: a storm came my way, I know my wife would
Speaker 6: stay with me. And that's really amazing security. And one
Speaker 6: of the reasons why I have that. I'm not saying
Speaker 6: the only way to go about it is to do that,
Speaker 6: but one of the reasons I have that is because
Speaker 6: I went through that.
Speaker 5: Journey with her.
Speaker 1: One of my therapists told me she always said in
Speaker 1: the beginning of dating, and she's like, honestly, you need
Speaker 1: to go through one hard moment. It doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: what it is, whether somebody loses a tire and they
Speaker 1: have to change it on the side of the road
Speaker 1: or some major kind of moment in somebody's life before
Speaker 1: you truly start knowing who that person is to truly
Speaker 1: say I can commit.
Speaker 2: To them, because you don't until you've seen.
Speaker 1: Someone go through something hard, you don't really know who
Speaker 1: that person is. And I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: truth to that in what you're saying and the experiences
Speaker 1: you had.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 6: And my wife has gone through a lot of hard
Speaker 6: things too, So on the flip side, I've seen that
Speaker 6: and it's true.
Speaker 5: And I think vice versa.
Speaker 6: If your partner goes through something tough, they get to
Speaker 6: see how you handle it, and if you go through
Speaker 6: something tough, they get to see how you handle adversity.
Speaker 6: And I think it's both of those things are equally important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for you, when you did meet your wife,
Speaker 1: how did you bring up the topic of finances and
Speaker 1: understanding that you guys are on this level.
Speaker 2: Because finances are a hard thing.
Speaker 1: People don't love to talk about them, and it's weird
Speaker 1: to be like, this is how I am, this is
Speaker 1: how I feel.
Speaker 2: It may have been a little bit easier.
Speaker 1: For you because it's part of your story, but I'm
Speaker 1: curious how that went.
Speaker 5: Oh man, I.
Speaker 6: Met my wife like eight years ago, and it's so
Speaker 6: we met in San Francisco. I was out there visiting,
Speaker 6: and then.
Speaker 5: Afterwards we were a pen pals for a few months.
Speaker 6: Because I was going out to San Francisco quite a bit,
Speaker 6: so I'll admit in the beginning, no finances were talked about.
Speaker 5: It was very just like flirty text.
Speaker 1: And it's okay, you got to you gotta talk to
Speaker 1: somebody to get to know him a little bit.
Speaker 2: For somebody just drop some bombs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And then after that, I think it was a
Speaker 6: little bit we were the first time we ever talked
Speaker 6: on the phone. We ended up talking for three hours.
Speaker 6: So then you're like, WHOA, I have a lot to
Speaker 6: talk to this person about. So I'm trying to think
Speaker 6: about when some of the more finance related things, because
Speaker 6: I definitely felt a little bit nervous because it wasn't
Speaker 6: an area that I was feeling very confident in myself
Speaker 6: about what it felt like a blemish, and so I
Speaker 6: was like, Okay, what am I going to reveal this
Speaker 6: blemish of mine? But then she had a moment where
Speaker 6: she was vulnerable about some stuff that her parents were
Speaker 6: going through financially, and it made me feel as though, Okay,
Speaker 6: I can share this with her and she's not going
Speaker 6: to judge me. After I started talking to her about it,
Speaker 6: I almost was like desperate puppy afterwards, I was like, please, don't.
Speaker 6: I just shared this really vulnerable thing, don't judge me
Speaker 6: and run away. So it was this really big weight
Speaker 6: when I finally did start talking to her about those things.
Speaker 6: But then we're both incredibly emotional, so as you can imagine,
Speaker 6: when we it is not pretty. But then we have
Speaker 6: like super quick rebounds. But we decided to just move
Speaker 6: in together after three months of dating long distance, and
Speaker 6: so that's when finances really just started. You can't avoid it,
Speaker 6: like we're living together and we're figuring it all out.
Speaker 6: And the good thing was my wife was a writer,
Speaker 6: so she was not really making a lot of money.
Speaker 6: But the bad news was she moved in with me
Speaker 6: and I got laid off the very next day. To
Speaker 6: your point about it, like adversity, like neither one of
Speaker 6: us are making any money right when she moves here.
Speaker 5: And one of those moments where.
Speaker 6: I didn't think about it as much as we were
Speaker 6: going through it, But afterwards, I thought to myself, man,
Speaker 6: she could have totally been not down with it. She'd
Speaker 6: only been there for maybe a month, so she could
Speaker 6: have decided to just leave. But she suck it out
Speaker 6: and she'll joke about it now and say, I.
Speaker 5: Was wondering if this was going to work.
Speaker 6: But I think to your point about the adversity piece,
Speaker 6: it just it came up really quick. And yeah, neither
Speaker 6: of us, I think, just neither one of us were
Speaker 6: judging the other person every time that finances came up.
Speaker 6: I know that's not a great answer for maybe someone
Speaker 6: that's early on how you go about bringing up finances.
Speaker 6: I will say I lead a group through Dave Ramsey's
Speaker 6: Financial Peace University, and this past group or whatever, the
Speaker 6: last group that we went through over the nine weeks,
Speaker 6: I was with a bunch of just single girls, which
Speaker 6: obviously my wife was crazy about. I just got paired
Speaker 6: up that way, and so dating would come up a
Speaker 6: lot with them because they felt like they were doing
Speaker 6: all these things to improve their finances and how they
Speaker 6: think about it and their financial literacy, and so they're like,
Speaker 6: I don't want to date a guy that doesn't care
Speaker 6: about this.
Speaker 5: As much as me.
Speaker 6: But the consistent thing that they would say was I
Speaker 6: don't care necessarily that he's got everything figured out. I
Speaker 6: just want to know that we're aligned on how we
Speaker 6: think about these things. And I just think if you're dating,
Speaker 6: if you're early in dating, you're questioning or the things
Speaker 6: that you ask shouldn't be about how much money they
Speaker 6: have or how much debt that they have initially. It
Speaker 6: should just be more about how they think about those things.
Speaker 6: And you can notice little things like if you go
Speaker 6: on a date with the guy and he's driving a
Speaker 6: thirty thousand.
Speaker 5: Dollars car and he makes sixty thousand.
Speaker 6: Dollars, I don't know, maybe that's a sign that he's
Speaker 6: an overspender.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gave a lot of tips in there and
Speaker 1: stuff you did great, and you shared a lot of
Speaker 1: pieces of that. I think something that I noticed from
Speaker 1: all of is that you were willing to be vulnerable
Speaker 1: even though it was so hard, because you felt you
Speaker 1: were in a safe space and you felt there was
Speaker 1: empathy there that you could be.
Speaker 2: That person that you needed to be.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what everybody's looking for and dating,
Speaker 1: and when you find that right person, I think these
Speaker 1: conversations can start to become a little bit easier.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's also a sign.
Speaker 1: When you meet someone you're like, this doesn't feel comfortable
Speaker 1: to talk about. That's probably not the best situation to
Speaker 1: be in. So there was a lot there that you
Speaker 1: gave and I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 2: One thing I want to make sure to ask you
Speaker 2: about too.
Speaker 1: Some of what you were mentioning in there sounded like
Speaker 1: budgeting and as you were changing things, Why is budgeting
Speaker 1: so important to you? Now?
Speaker 2: I know you also talk a lot about that in
Speaker 2: your social content.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think no matter what stage you're at, maybe
Speaker 6: if you're like Elon Muskritch, maybe you don't need to
Speaker 6: make a budget, but he probably even has a budget himself.
Speaker 6: I think regardless of what stage you're at, budgets can
Speaker 6: serve a very different purpose. And I've noticed that there's
Speaker 6: a perception of restriction or even hey, I don't need
Speaker 6: to budget. I'm not broke, right like people oftentimes maybe
Speaker 6: associate budgeting with being broke.
Speaker 5: But when you're in a.
Speaker 6: Partnership with somebody, a budget is a written I wouldn't
Speaker 6: say contract, but a written contract of how you guys
Speaker 6: are going to spend your money. Because my wife and
Speaker 6: I don't talk about your money and my money. We
Speaker 6: talk about our money whenever we do things, and it
Speaker 6: doesn't mean that if she goes and buys something for
Speaker 6: twenty dollars that I'm like, hey, you spent our money.
Speaker 6: But it means that if we spend a certain amount,
Speaker 6: like I think for us it's around like something that's
Speaker 6: over five hundred dollars, we usually will ask each other
Speaker 6: about it.
Speaker 5: So it's our money.
Speaker 6: So if you're in a relationship, budgeting is a great
Speaker 6: way to just get alignment with each other and have
Speaker 6: that conversation. And for us, I don't think that we
Speaker 6: would talk a lot about how we would spend our
Speaker 6: money if we weren't sitting down and making a budget.
Speaker 6: But if you're just someone who is just feeling like
Speaker 6: you're struggling, a budget is an audit of your situation.
Speaker 6: Budgets are like going to the doctor when you're sick.
Speaker 6: You know, you can't figure out how to heal yourself
Speaker 6: if you don't get a proper diagnosis. Right, If you're like, hey,
Speaker 6: I'm living paycheck to paycheck but you never actually go
Speaker 6: through your expenses or how much money you truly have
Speaker 6: coming in, I don't know how you can expect to
Speaker 6: get any better. And so I felt like that was
Speaker 6: just such a foundational staf And then on top of it,
Speaker 6: it's it also it's a test of your behaviors, So
Speaker 6: it's one thing to commit to making a budget, but
Speaker 6: ninety percent of it is actually sticking to it, and
Speaker 6: so to me, it feels like if you can just
Speaker 6: do that part, you could almost know nothing else about finances.
Speaker 6: But if you're just good at sticking to a budget
Speaker 6: and living within your means, you're going to be just
Speaker 6: fine because you'll probably figure out a way to start investing.
Speaker 6: Over time, you'll probably save up for emergencies. Like all
Speaker 6: the other stuff is smaller details that can definitely help
Speaker 6: you accelerate your journey. But if you can't follow a budget,
Speaker 6: the I'm like zero to one right. If you can't
Speaker 6: get to one, you're never going to get to all
Speaker 6: the other things.
Speaker 1: Baby steps are very important, the baby steps, Yeah, could, Daniel.
Speaker 1: I so appreciate you being here and sharing your story.
Speaker 1: I think it's really important. And just how you share
Speaker 1: and how you talk about these things. Is there hard
Speaker 1: topics and people need to hear these things? Is there
Speaker 1: anything that we didn't get to want to make sure
Speaker 1: people here know about anything like that?
Speaker 5: No, not really.
Speaker 6: I'm pretty new to this game myself and trying to
Speaker 6: figure out myself online a little bit, I think right now,
Speaker 6: So I think the one thing that I'll just echoes
Speaker 6: that zero to one piece. If people are struggling to
Speaker 6: get from zero to one, that's the stuff that I
Speaker 6: talk about online, that's the stuff that I write about
Speaker 6: in my newsletter and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 6: if you're past that, then there's probably way better people
Speaker 6: than me to get your advice from.
Speaker 1: I think you're super relatable and what you're doing again
Speaker 1: is important. So Daniel, thank you for being here, Thanks
Speaker 1: for sharing your story, and it's really great to talk
Speaker 1: with you. Likewise, I hope you came away from this
Speaker 1: episode with some new tools and resources while also feeling
Speaker 1: heard when it comes to maybe your relationship with money.
Speaker 1: If you like the episode, please subscribe it's a huge help,
Speaker 1: and follow the podcast Instagram at take this personally. As always,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy you're here. I'll talk to you guys
Speaker 1: next week.