Speaker 1: Episode to create a frugal one page financial plan. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends Podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rights, and liberate your life. Here your host
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. Mm hmmmm, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today
Speaker 1: is part two of our Radical Middle Method series where
Speaker 1: we're kind of going through. This is something we're doing
Speaker 1: in our Frugal Friends club membership, and we are sharing
Speaker 1: it with you because we think it's great and we
Speaker 1: want you to be able to benefit from it. And
Speaker 1: if you really dig it, you can join us in
Speaker 1: the club and we have a whole video series and
Speaker 1: workbook on it and other stuff. Something that feels so attainable.
Speaker 1: I love it when someone just says, oh, it's a
Speaker 1: one page it's a one page report, it's a one
Speaker 1: page plan, it's a one page Oh that's fantastic. That's digestible.
Speaker 1: But also it helps us to know how can we
Speaker 1: get these things on paper, even for some big or
Speaker 1: financial goals that we may have just a guide and
Speaker 1: we don't really hear people talking about this in other spaces,
Speaker 1: and we're really excited to have created a pathway forward
Speaker 1: for our community that still creates room to breathe and
Speaker 1: tailor it to yourself. So we really hope that this
Speaker 1: is helpful for you if you're just kind of all right,
Speaker 1: how do I get all this in order? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we know that a lot of people aren't talking about
Speaker 1: it because we just spent ten minutes redoing the outline
Speaker 1: for this episode, because the articles about it they didn't
Speaker 1: fly like. We got together and and Jill was like,
Speaker 1: I don't get it, and I was like, neither do I.
Speaker 1: So we just did the we in the last ten minutes,
Speaker 1: we redid this entire outline for you, and we are
Speaker 1: winging it. And let's see who this episode is brought
Speaker 1: to you by. Who's winging it with us? The Spending
Speaker 1: Symposium audio flash sale. Thank god, it's a good one.
Speaker 1: So prices are still rising and that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we're sharing the Radical Middle method here and now.
Speaker 1: And it's becoming increasingly difficult to plan and stick to
Speaker 1: a budget. We know it's getting harder and harder, and
Speaker 1: that's why we held the Spending Symposium last month. We
Speaker 1: had twenty experts teaching you their tips for spending less
Speaker 1: and saving better. So while that is over, the full
Speaker 1: all access passes no longer available, we did want to
Speaker 1: give you one more opportunity to get the MP three
Speaker 1: versions of all of our expert interviews from this year's summit,
Speaker 1: and we're actually going to throw in last year's as well,
Speaker 1: So that's almost forty interview MP three you're gonna get
Speaker 1: that you have never heard on the show. I think
Speaker 1: it's thirty nine interviews. So if you need more help
Speaker 1: controlling your spending right now, check it out. We are
Speaker 1: only offering them for one week, so had to Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash audio to see every session
Speaker 1: and start listening. Oh that's exciting. Yes, So if you
Speaker 1: need more than the what two hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: episodes and forty interviews in the audio flash sale, So
Speaker 1: here are there? There are so many. Here are some
Speaker 1: good ones to queue up after this episode that really
Speaker 1: align and go deeper into what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: So the first one is episode one, goal Setting and Strategizing,
Speaker 1: and we kind of tailor it for the New Year
Speaker 1: because that's when the episode released, but it's in general
Speaker 1: just about goal setting and strategizing. Episode one seventy one.
Speaker 1: Should you focus on paying down debt right now? That's
Speaker 1: a big top still a big topic. And then episode
Speaker 1: one understanding the stock market and investing with Bolos. It
Speaker 1: couldn't be. We have a lot of episodes on investing,
Speaker 1: but this is my favorite one about understanding the basics.
Speaker 1: She was awesome. She really helped down in a real way. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I love her book is one that I recommend
Speaker 1: quite frequently, which is Understand the stock Market, Grow your
Speaker 1: Money from Clever Girl Finance. So let's get into our
Speaker 1: new headlines, but we'll go over kind of what our
Speaker 1: when we say a one page financial plan, this is
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, and this we literally made this
Speaker 1: up because that I couldn't. I feel like a one
Speaker 1: page financial plan is really good. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: really attainable when you So there are different ends of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, and we always come back to the to
Speaker 1: the middle. But when we look at the ends of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, we there have the advice that says do
Speaker 1: this only this. If you do anything any deviation from this,
Speaker 1: then it's wrong. So you have like the one sentence
Speaker 1: financial plan essentially, and then all the way over to
Speaker 1: financial planners who will literally give you a like a
Speaker 1: three ring binder of a financial plan of stuff that
Speaker 1: you don't really understand and will never execute. And while
Speaker 1: I love stickers and highlighters, no one's going to be
Speaker 1: able to implement on a three ring binder. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: so these are the extremes, and so we're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's in the middle, what's attainable? And I think one
Speaker 1: page that you create yourself is super attainable. It's not
Speaker 1: just listening to what other people are telling you to do,
Speaker 1: but it's also not planning so intensely and so complexly
Speaker 1: that it doesn't leave room for deviation. Because life changes,
Speaker 1: people change, relationships grow, and there is and change does
Speaker 1: not mean failure. Deviation does not mean failure, and it
Speaker 1: more often than not means growth. Um And so a
Speaker 1: one page financial plan will give you room for flexibility,
Speaker 1: for customization and also do ability, which is what we're
Speaker 1: very much about. I love doability and ease, and I
Speaker 1: think we are supposed to review this. This isn't a
Speaker 1: set it and forget it. This isn't I wrote something
Speaker 1: on a piece of paper and it was one page,
Speaker 1: and that felt good, and then I forgot about it.
Speaker 1: This is to be reviewed regularly, if not sensually, and
Speaker 1: so we just want to again, there's not like a
Speaker 1: specific article on what is the Frugal Friends one page
Speaker 1: financial plan. We go into that a lot within our
Speaker 1: membership and we can talk more for those who are
Speaker 1: interested in that, but we want to give it to
Speaker 1: our broader audience as well and how it works. So
Speaker 1: there's not a specific article that's just here's what it is,
Speaker 1: and then we're going to use articles to support how
Speaker 1: we can implement on that one page financial plan. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of going to be the way we moved
Speaker 1: through this episode. Yes, so there are three parts to
Speaker 1: the one page financial plan. It's goals, foundations, and then freedom.
Speaker 1: And so your goals are your short and long term
Speaker 1: goals or even short mid long term depending on your
Speaker 1: income and your life plan. Uh So the time it
Speaker 1: will take you to reach those goals will kind of
Speaker 1: dictate whether they're short, mid, or long for you. And
Speaker 1: then your foundations, your savings, and your debt. So we
Speaker 1: believe debt is neutral, but you do need to have
Speaker 1: a plan for paying it back because that's an agreement
Speaker 1: that you made. So there there needs to be a
Speaker 1: plan for saving your money and then also for paying
Speaker 1: your debt back, and then free edom, which is investing
Speaker 1: which we do support investing while you're paying off certain
Speaker 1: types of debt because time in the market is uh,
Speaker 1: we'll save you the most money overall when we're talking
Speaker 1: about buying freedom, because that's essentially what investing is is
Speaker 1: buying freedom. And the earlier you invest, the less you
Speaker 1: have to pay for that freedom, and the earlier you
Speaker 1: get to enjoy it. So those are the three parts,
Speaker 1: especially for our lower or medium income earners, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be what's going to set you up the best
Speaker 1: in the future is time in the market. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: even in today's market, I'll put that little caveat in there,
Speaker 1: we say the same thing knowing that we are in
Speaker 1: a very different market today than we were even a
Speaker 1: year ago, even two years ago. Uh So we still
Speaker 1: stand by that statement. So the first article that we
Speaker 1: are going to get into is about goals, and it's
Speaker 1: about the short and long term goals, and it's by
Speaker 1: It's from Investipedia, and it is talking about how to
Speaker 1: set financial goals for your future. How did you feel
Speaker 1: about this one, Jill? Did you like it? Better. I
Speaker 1: really liked this better Again, our quick pivot in the
Speaker 1: last ten minutes is fantastic. So for me, I think
Speaker 1: anyone who's listened to us for a while it will
Speaker 1: I might sound like a broken record. I love tangible tips.
Speaker 1: It's something that carries over into the mental health field.
Speaker 1: For me. While there's no quick fix for all of
Speaker 1: the different circumstances that we may face in life, having
Speaker 1: some sort of idea of what could I be aimed
Speaker 1: at or what are some of the tools and resources
Speaker 1: that would be helpful for me as I aim at
Speaker 1: well being? And this article felt like that to me.
Speaker 1: Of it's not going to look the same for every person,
Speaker 1: but it is good and benefit a shoal for all
Speaker 1: of us to aim at short term, mid term, and
Speaker 1: long term goals. And I even like that they didn't
Speaker 1: make that this aloof mysterious thing. They gave some really
Speaker 1: great examples of what could fall into each of these
Speaker 1: categories for those of us who just aren't quite sure,
Speaker 1: what does what? What would a short term goal look like,
Speaker 1: what would a long term goal look like? What do
Speaker 1: I need to be having my sights on? And then
Speaker 1: what are some questions that I can be asking myself,
Speaker 1: So that felt really great to me. I would recommend
Speaker 1: this article. So when we talk about a one page
Speaker 1: financial plan, I think reviewing an article like this would
Speaker 1: be really useful to say. If our one page financial
Speaker 1: plan begins with goals, and we're talking short term, mid term,
Speaker 1: and long term, well, then here's the things to consider.
Speaker 1: So this one from Investipedia begins with the short term goals,
Speaker 1: and they can include things like setting a budget. Uh,
Speaker 1: at least looking at the debt making the goal of
Speaker 1: reducing I know, we get into foundations of maybe the
Speaker 1: how to, but that can be a goal, and starting
Speaker 1: an emergency fund maybe if you don't already have one,
Speaker 1: and I like how they highlight that having a budget
Speaker 1: can help you know where you're going, Like, you can't
Speaker 1: know where you're going unless you know where you are
Speaker 1: right now. I know we've got a spectrum of opinions
Speaker 1: on budgets, and that's okay. We can hold the tension
Speaker 1: between I don't want to ever look at a budget
Speaker 1: or I love budgeting and like, give me the three
Speaker 1: ring binder. We could find ourselves somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 1: But it is important, at least at this stage when
Speaker 1: we're doing a one page financial plan, where are we
Speaker 1: right now? If we can even look at a budget
Speaker 1: in that sense, that's going to help us know where
Speaker 1: we're going. And so again, examples of some short term
Speaker 1: goals could be creating that emergency fund, paying off credit
Speaker 1: card debt. Highlighting the credit card debt because that is
Speaker 1: the highest interest debt, most likely that we have. Back
Speaker 1: to Jen's point that debt is neutral, but we and
Speaker 1: and not all debt is created equal, So there could
Speaker 1: be different tiers of priority within your debt payoff absolutely,
Speaker 1: and again it will what is short, mid, and long
Speaker 1: term for you will be customized to you because based
Speaker 1: on your season in life, how much you earn, your
Speaker 1: earning potential, where you are even, like when we talked
Speaker 1: about like creating your dream life, that's what you have
Speaker 1: to do before you create your financial plan and create
Speaker 1: that separate from money. Everyone talks about like their goals
Speaker 1: in life, and like when I hear someone say their
Speaker 1: first goal is like financial, I'm like, but why why
Speaker 1: is it? Why do you have that goal? So you
Speaker 1: have to have your life goals first and and have
Speaker 1: those established, and then that really does dictate what is
Speaker 1: considered short mid term and long term. But these are
Speaker 1: really good um ages on what to expect. I mean, definitely,
Speaker 1: everyone should start with a budget, and that is a goal.
Speaker 1: Like the budget isn't just to get you to your
Speaker 1: goal actually being able to budget regularly and not essentially
Speaker 1: stick to a budget perfectly every month, that's not a goal,
Speaker 1: but to make budgeting a habit that that's your first goal.
Speaker 1: And people so quickly skip over that, and they skip
Speaker 1: right to the debt payoff or the savings, and they're like,
Speaker 1: why can't I meet my goals, because well, you didn't
Speaker 1: first establish a budget. That is a goal to be
Speaker 1: able to create that habit. So I love how they
Speaker 1: pointed that one out there. And then they move on
Speaker 1: to the mid term goals um which is like get
Speaker 1: life insurance and disability income insurance. So we love term
Speaker 1: life insurance. We think it is very essential to a
Speaker 1: hole a stick financial plan, and not a lot of
Speaker 1: people have it. But you don't know you need it
Speaker 1: until you need it. So something like that, payoff student loans,
Speaker 1: so we we move from these higher interest loans um
Speaker 1: to the kind of mid range student loan or maybe
Speaker 1: like a personal loan or stunt like that stuff that's
Speaker 1: lower than a credit card but higher than a mortgage.
Speaker 1: Right now, if your student loans are still zero percent,
Speaker 1: that's not included in this, but when inevitably they do
Speaker 1: come back um or if you have private student loans,
Speaker 1: that kind of would be would be the next tier.
Speaker 1: And then and then they say, consider your dreams. We
Speaker 1: already know that you want to consider your dreams first.
Speaker 1: But I love that they actually put this in a
Speaker 1: mid term goal because we often view it as a
Speaker 1: long term goal. Is like, whatever the dream is, that
Speaker 1: it's the long term goal, but it is closer. It
Speaker 1: should be closer to a midterm goal. So breaking creating
Speaker 1: your dream life plan and breaking it apart and breaking
Speaker 1: it apart until you see what's the what's the step
Speaker 1: by step? How can I not maybe get there all
Speaker 1: at once, but I can get there in the mid
Speaker 1: term and then see it fully into completion in the
Speaker 1: long term, but not necessarily waiting and for twenty years
Speaker 1: and putting it off that long. And if you listen
Speaker 1: to our episode about creating your dream life, then you're
Speaker 1: you're already there. You've already done this step, but yes,
Speaker 1: it needs to be done at some point and should
Speaker 1: be a part of your one page financial plan, and
Speaker 1: again permission to revisit and change some of those things.
Speaker 1: I know some of my goals, many of my goals
Speaker 1: I've shifted. The core of who I am hasn't changed
Speaker 1: that much, but the way that I think that that's
Speaker 1: gonna look does shift. But if we've got some financial
Speaker 1: planning around that, and there's room to shift it, So
Speaker 1: either way you slice it, paying attention to our finances
Speaker 1: and making good decisions is going to really help us.
Speaker 1: And then of course it moves into the long term
Speaker 1: financial goals, which is going to be part of that
Speaker 1: one page financial plan, and this article highlights which I
Speaker 1: would agree with. One of the biggest long term financial
Speaker 1: goals for most of us is going to be saving
Speaker 1: enough money to retire. One one common thing that people
Speaker 1: will recommend is saving ten to fifteen percent of every
Speaker 1: paycheck into a tax advantaged retirement account. This would be
Speaker 1: your four O one case four three B S or
Speaker 1: traditional IRA raw IRA. Of course, if you can save
Speaker 1: more than that in every paycheck, you're all the better
Speaker 1: off to be able to do that. But connected to
Speaker 1: this long term goal is the need to estimate what
Speaker 1: your retirement needs might be. There's a lot of different
Speaker 1: ways to approach that. Of course, none of us can
Speaker 1: totally for sure, No, we don't. Depending on how far
Speaker 1: away retirement is for us, that could be that could
Speaker 1: be a few decades, and we don't totally know what
Speaker 1: life is going to look like in a few decades,
Speaker 1: which is why I appreciate they say estimate. We are
Speaker 1: just estimating. Some of that includes considering what you're desired
Speaker 1: annual living expenses during retirement is going to be, uh,
Speaker 1: subtracting the income that you will receive, so this would
Speaker 1: social Security, I don't know for those of you who
Speaker 1: are close to retirement, that's there for you, with those
Speaker 1: of us who are further away, UH, t b D,
Speaker 1: t v D. And estimate how much in retirement assets
Speaker 1: you need for your desired retirement date and based this
Speaker 1: on what you currently have and are saving on an
Speaker 1: annual basis um. There's tons of online calculators that can
Speaker 1: help you figure that out. This episode isn't to totally
Speaker 1: go into how do we do that, so giving a
Speaker 1: little bit of the overview of how would we save
Speaker 1: for long term goals? Yeah, and we would recommend this
Speaker 1: this part of the financial plan maybe be like a
Speaker 1: quarter of the page and really just having like your ten,
Speaker 1: your five and your one year goal. And we're very,
Speaker 1: very into having one financial goal at a time, like
Speaker 1: just focus on one thing at a time, and that
Speaker 1: is going to get you the fastest results. And when
Speaker 1: we're trying to do things sustainably, doing things efficiently is
Speaker 1: really important. So having your ten year goal and then
Speaker 1: create a five year goal based on that, and then
Speaker 1: creating a one year goal based on that, and then
Speaker 1: breaking it down and just working on that one year
Speaker 1: goal and then if you reach it sooner than a year,
Speaker 1: then you can go on and create another year goal
Speaker 1: based on that five year But we you can have
Speaker 1: like a twenty year vision for your life. But when
Speaker 1: you start getting into goals up to twenty years, that's
Speaker 1: when you get that big binder like financial plan and
Speaker 1: it's not you're going to change. Probably in the next
Speaker 1: five years, even your ten year goal probably won't be
Speaker 1: the same. So give yourself flexibility and room four goals
Speaker 1: to change, but still have that north star, um that's
Speaker 1: pointing you in the direction of your your dream life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one that gives you flexibility to change your mind. We
Speaker 1: don't have that flexibility if we've not created it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the next part of your one page financial plan
Speaker 1: is the saving, debt and investing portion, and so that
Speaker 1: is broken up. We break it down kind of into
Speaker 1: foundations and freedom. So your foundations are your savings and
Speaker 1: your debt, and they are the things that make buying
Speaker 1: freedom easier. If you do the foundations right, then it
Speaker 1: comes easier to purchase your freedom. And there is no
Speaker 1: one right way to do the foundations right. The right
Speaker 1: way for you is to make it as easy for
Speaker 1: you to buy your freedom in the future. But you
Speaker 1: still need to plan obviously to save, to become a saver,
Speaker 1: to say, for short term expenses, and to pay off
Speaker 1: your debt because it is an agreement you signed that
Speaker 1: you would pay it back. So it's not something that
Speaker 1: you can't ignore unless you know, maybe there's some student
Speaker 1: loan forgiveness which you know, which would be great, But
Speaker 1: let's let's focus on our our entirety of our debt too.
Speaker 1: So our next article then is going over how to
Speaker 1: balance saving, investing, and paying off debt. And while balancing
Speaker 1: is probably my least favorite word because balancing is stressful,
Speaker 1: um and I don't think money has to be stressful.
Speaker 1: The article does, I think, provides some good questions to
Speaker 1: ask what do you think, Jill? Yeah, I'm just stuck
Speaker 1: on the balancing word and can't get the balanced beam
Speaker 1: out of my mind. I don't know why our society
Speaker 1: is so obsessed with balance when if you've ever been
Speaker 1: on a balance beam, it's impossible and stressful and usually
Speaker 1: ends in pain. So agreed. The radical middle is the picture.
Speaker 1: The picture in the article is this woman who has
Speaker 1: like four hula hoops. She has to hula hoops on
Speaker 1: each arm and she's just she's swinging them around like
Speaker 1: they're balancing, and she's just smiling and laughingly. She's having
Speaker 1: the best time in me. I would be over here
Speaker 1: with four hula hoops, like, ah, so what do I
Speaker 1: do with all this? I'd rather just stand in nature. Yes, So,
Speaker 1: this article I think is helpful and determining what's going
Speaker 1: to be best for you. And we're talking again about
Speaker 1: this one page financial plan and longer term goals and
Speaker 1: investing and once we've looked at savings and debt payoff,
Speaker 1: where do we want to put our money? And the
Speaker 1: question that this article is attempting to answers, save, invest,
Speaker 1: payoff debt? How do I approach all of these things
Speaker 1: almost looking at each one like a tent peg? And
Speaker 1: where do I place them? And how do I hold
Speaker 1: it all intention in a way that creates a nice
Speaker 1: tent and shelter for me? Uh, I have never really
Speaker 1: gone tent camping, like maybe once and I hated it. Uh,
Speaker 1: trailers for me maybe, But still I think it's a
Speaker 1: helpful illustration of everyone's tents are gonna look different, some
Speaker 1: of them are going to look like an RV, But
Speaker 1: how are you going to hold each of these pieces intentions?
Speaker 1: So they ask questions pretty much throughout the whole article,
Speaker 1: which for someone who's a social worker, that's my favorite.
Speaker 1: Just ask questions. You don't even have to have all
Speaker 1: the answers, just ask all the questions. So the first
Speaker 1: one that they ask is, well, what kind of debt
Speaker 1: do you have? If you want to know where should
Speaker 1: I be putting my money? Am I able to invest?
Speaker 1: How much can I invest? One of the first questions
Speaker 1: is going to be do you have debt? And what kind?
Speaker 1: And again they highlight not all debt is created equal.
Speaker 1: We think it's neutral, Like we don't use the terms
Speaker 1: good debt bad debt. But there are debts that have
Speaker 1: higher interest rates on them that we would want to
Speaker 1: pay off sooner. There are some debts that have low
Speaker 1: interest rates or no interest rates, and so in that
Speaker 1: case we might not need to prioritize them as much
Speaker 1: and there could be space in the budget to be
Speaker 1: able to invest. H. Yeah, these plans on on this
Speaker 1: one page financial plan because you want to review it
Speaker 1: every year, like around every year. Maybe less, maybe a
Speaker 1: little more, but but you are really focusing on Okay,
Speaker 1: what's what what are the finances do I need to
Speaker 1: get me to that five and ten? But what do
Speaker 1: I really need to be focusing on the next year?
Speaker 1: So looking at the type of debt you have and seeing, oh,
Speaker 1: it's going to be much easier for me to buy
Speaker 1: more freedom if I have less of this debt. And
Speaker 1: we we categorize anything over seven percent as pretty high interest,
Speaker 1: and so anything over that really should be prioritized. So
Speaker 1: this kind of goes into the next one. What's your
Speaker 1: rate of interest averse rate of return? The reason that
Speaker 1: we say seven anything over seven is high is because
Speaker 1: a diversified portfolio is probably is going to overtime with
Speaker 1: inflation typically return anywhere from seven to ten percent. If
Speaker 1: you are all inequities, you're going to see closer to
Speaker 1: ten or twelve. But if you're diversified in some more
Speaker 1: conservative securities, then we're looking at seven to ten. And
Speaker 1: that's not the best, but that's typically the the average,
Speaker 1: and so that's the benchmark we use. Can you do better? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Do we talk about how to do that on this show.
Speaker 1: Not much um for us to talking about how to
Speaker 1: save money on purchasing freedom and time in the market
Speaker 1: does that, and so that's why you want to pay
Speaker 1: attention to your rate of interest first, rate of return.
Speaker 1: If you have higher interest loans that severe. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're seeing seven percent in the market and you've
Speaker 1: got a seven percent car loan, that cancels each other out,
Speaker 1: so you want to pay off that debt so that
Speaker 1: you can get more into the market. Um. But if
Speaker 1: you're seeing if you refinance, and you're seeing like a
Speaker 1: two and a half percent mortgage, um, while you could
Speaker 1: get seven percent in the market, then that one's kind
Speaker 1: of a no brainer to Or if your student loans
Speaker 1: or zero percent right now, putting more into the market
Speaker 1: right now it is all so a great decision. The
Speaker 1: next question to considers do you have an emergency fund?
Speaker 1: They just use the term healthy emergency fund? UH can
Speaker 1: can help you avoid expensive debt. That can help us
Speaker 1: determine how much we can start investing or continue investing
Speaker 1: if we've already got some of these basic foundational things done.
Speaker 1: Of course, what is healthy to one person might look
Speaker 1: different for another. There's various metrics for what an emergency
Speaker 1: fund can or should be. Some people will save three
Speaker 1: months worth of living expenses as an emergency fund, others
Speaker 1: six months worth of living expenses for an emergency fund.
Speaker 1: Others will save UH medical deductible for an emergency fund.
Speaker 1: So decide what's right for you. Know that your one
Speaker 1: page financial plan can include a tiered approach to that
Speaker 1: of well, here's where it's at now, but here's where
Speaker 1: I want to get it to be. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that I can't focus on something else until that
Speaker 1: becomes maybe the next prioritized goal. But some version of
Speaker 1: an emergency fund we want to look at. That's a
Speaker 1: good question to ask ourselves. Yeah, uh so the last
Speaker 1: one on here for me that all that I liked
Speaker 1: is um the obviously are you meeting your employer retirement
Speaker 1: contribution match? So that is the first thing that you
Speaker 1: should be doing always because that is part of your
Speaker 1: compensation package. You if you do not take it, you're
Speaker 1: essentially telling your employer, no, you don't need to pay
Speaker 1: me what we agreed upon. Uh So this is something
Speaker 1: that's just part of your compensation. That is I don't
Speaker 1: even believe counts as investing when we're looking at it
Speaker 1: on the scale of investing, but it is something you
Speaker 1: should always be getting your employer retirement contribution match at
Speaker 1: any time. So if you're not doing that, do that.
Speaker 1: And the last one I want highlight on here I
Speaker 1: love that it's in this article is the question of
Speaker 1: how can you best manage financial stress? And again, this
Speaker 1: is going to look different for all of us. Our
Speaker 1: capacities are different, but our mental health and financial health
Speaker 1: are both extremely important and oftentimes do influence and bear
Speaker 1: weight on one another. So when we're thinking about eliminating
Speaker 1: debt or saving or investing, we do have to ask
Speaker 1: ourselves what's going to be the pathway of peace for us?
Speaker 1: What is going to create the most calm inside of us,
Speaker 1: the most assurety clarity, just just what feels peaceable to
Speaker 1: us mentally, emotionally, relationally. And so that's why I think
Speaker 1: you see so many people making so many different approaches.
Speaker 1: There certainly could be some quote unquote wrong ways of
Speaker 1: going about finances, but there's certainly a lot of right ways,
Speaker 1: and they don't all have to look the same. Right
Speaker 1: for the person who pays off their mortgage early versus
Speaker 1: the person who chooses not to and just invest, both
Speaker 1: can be fine. It really has to do with what
Speaker 1: does financial stress look like for you, and how can
Speaker 1: you create the most peace in the midst of it.
Speaker 1: For many people, it does include a lot of things
Speaker 1: going on autopilot, not needing to think about this on
Speaker 1: a daily, hourly basis. I think anytime we need to
Speaker 1: think about something or be consumed by something regularly, it's
Speaker 1: going to cause stress. So this one page financial plan
Speaker 1: can help with that, finding ways to put our goals
Speaker 1: on autopilot where it doesn't have to be top of mind,
Speaker 1: but we have peace of mind in it. This is
Speaker 1: an incredible question to ask ourselves. Consider your own self
Speaker 1: in this, how you want to move forward again in
Speaker 1: a way that's going to reduce some of that stress
Speaker 1: but still be helpful for you. Yeah, and I'll give
Speaker 1: you a bit of a teaser from our episode coming
Speaker 1: next week with Jordan Grammant where he act really gives
Speaker 1: a really he gave me like I was very like
Speaker 1: mind blown about how do we find out what's causing
Speaker 1: like us financial stress and not just what we're being
Speaker 1: told is financially stressful, but like, look at your fears
Speaker 1: about money, Like what's your biggest fear about money? Validate
Speaker 1: that and don't give into the fear, but create your
Speaker 1: financial plan to air more on the side of serving
Speaker 1: that fear, so there can be a balance of our fears.
Speaker 1: Tell us who we are, but when we're healthy, they
Speaker 1: inform our choices. When they're unhealthy, they paralyze us. Anytime
Speaker 1: we can respond rather than ignore, we're going to be
Speaker 1: better off. Absolutely. You know what I love to respond
Speaker 1: to and never ignore. I want to do it all
Speaker 1: the time. I'm never fearful about it. That's right. It's
Speaker 1: time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe
Speaker 1: a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe
Speaker 1: you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and
Speaker 1: you're happy to not have to pay that bill. Anymore.
Speaker 1: That's bills, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week. Hi, guys, I wanted to call. I
Speaker 1: had two things I wanted to let you know for
Speaker 1: Bill of the Week. UM So, I just want to
Speaker 1: start this off. I have life insurance. I bought from
Speaker 1: Life Insurance probably like I don't know, seven years ago.
Speaker 1: Um So I've had this accidental plan, a life insurance plan,
Speaker 1: for probably like twenty years. I'm thirty seven, so so
Speaker 1: less than that, but a long long time. And it
Speaker 1: was just something that I signed at my bank, and
Speaker 1: I have had fifteen dollars removed from my account every
Speaker 1: month forever. And I've wanted to cancel this for like
Speaker 1: a really long time because it's such just stupid. But
Speaker 1: I've never picked up the phone to call because I
Speaker 1: was just dreading a call and I was always like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to find them the number.
Speaker 1: I don't even know anything about the policy. Anyway. I
Speaker 1: finally I've been I found you guys like a month ago.
Speaker 1: I've been binging podcasts and I'm like, I should just
Speaker 1: call because fifteen dollars a month is a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Um Anyway, it took me twelve minutes. They didn't even
Speaker 1: find me on it. They canceled it in two seconds. Again,
Speaker 1: I have term insurance for myself and my husband, so
Speaker 1: it was just a waste. And I'm just blown away
Speaker 1: that it took like no time and that I should
Speaker 1: I should have. I just I'm gonna I'm not a mathematician,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of money. Other than also, I
Speaker 1: listened to this old podcast about like going out to
Speaker 1: the state to see if you have any money, and
Speaker 1: my husband is like a hundred and forty three dollars
Speaker 1: as well sitting at the state from that podcast. So also,
Speaker 1: I just have to get something notarized at my bank
Speaker 1: and we're going to get a hundred and forty two
Speaker 1: dollars just for listening to Thanks guys, Wow, I am
Speaker 1: so pleased. If you'd like to send us a commission
Speaker 1: for that, like the commission Friends podcast, pay fifty cents
Speaker 1: to send us one dollar. Yeah, that's awesome. I love
Speaker 1: I love it when people get their money and they
Speaker 1: take it away from people it doesn't belong to. That's great.
Speaker 1: And the fact that I don't have to take it myself.
Speaker 1: I'm not Robin Hood, but the fact that I could
Speaker 1: help you be around Robin hood is great that Jill
Speaker 1: and I could do that for you. Guest, take what's
Speaker 1: rightfully yours. Yes, we've had so many people respond saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: I looked up with the state and turns out I
Speaker 1: had some money sitting there. Yeah, everyone should go. That
Speaker 1: was from our friend Lisa Rowan from the Money Hacks episode,
Speaker 1: and everyone should go buy her book Money Hacks as
Speaker 1: a thank you. Like use everybody who's found money should
Speaker 1: just take part of their found money to buy Money
Speaker 1: Hacks by Lisa Rowan's amazing. She does not pay me
Speaker 1: to say that. I just And also this canceling of
Speaker 1: if I'm understanding correctly, accidental insurance. You still have the
Speaker 1: term life insurance, but you recognize you didn't need this
Speaker 1: portion of it, and now that's money back into your account,
Speaker 1: which is fantastic, And it's so funny. We don't listen
Speaker 1: to these before, like this is the first time we
Speaker 1: heard that. We just mentioned how great term life insurance is.
Speaker 1: So thank you for for validating that and not embarrassing
Speaker 1: us as well. If you all listening, want to submit
Speaker 1: your bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: slash bill leave us your bill. If it's a bubble bill,
Speaker 1: we love those. If it's a person, we love those.
Speaker 1: If it's found money, we love that too. What of
Speaker 1: them is? Just leave it for us. We love it.
Speaker 1: If you like it, we like it. And now it's
Speaker 1: time for we went more fun with that. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm having a good time. I'm on that high from
Speaker 1: that Bill of the week. I love it. I'm so pleased.
Speaker 1: So today we are going to share our one year
Speaker 1: financial goals. How's that sound? Chill? It sounds great. You
Speaker 1: love this, you love it too much? Well. So one
Speaker 1: of the really cool things about the membership for me personally,
Speaker 1: because as we all know, we do this podcast and
Speaker 1: we do our membership for ourselves because it helps us.
Speaker 1: And I do this podcast because I just want to
Speaker 1: hang out with you more. Jen. Yeah, we are selfish.
Speaker 1: We we did this within our membership with our members
Speaker 1: of creating various goals and holding each other accountable to
Speaker 1: create these goals. I'm not necessarily like a goal oriented person.
Speaker 1: That sounds kind of funny. I'm an achiever, but just
Speaker 1: kind of whatever is right in front of me, like
Speaker 1: I'll just work hard, at it and achieve it. I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily thinking five years down the road, what do
Speaker 1: I want to do? Anyhow, it has been really helpful
Speaker 1: to get my brain and body working in this kind
Speaker 1: of way. I am a calendar year type of goal setter,
Speaker 1: so this question is hitting at the halfway mark for
Speaker 1: us in or in the summer, and so for me,
Speaker 1: I'm evaluating what I kind of said at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year, which for me, my main one year
Speaker 1: financial goal and one of the things that you challenged
Speaker 1: us with in the membership jen was that that one
Speaker 1: year financial goal be something that you can do with money.
Speaker 1: That and I'm probably butchering it, so so correct me
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong. But my recollection is what can you
Speaker 1: do that in doing that thing helps to create more money.
Speaker 1: That's my summary of it. So for me Eric and I,
Speaker 1: having bought the house that we live in two years ago,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've been wanting to do
Speaker 1: with it is to create an airbnb to bring in
Speaker 1: more money, but I want to cash flow the renovation portion.
Speaker 1: So this is a goal for me. Of course, it
Speaker 1: was a vision that I had when we bought the house,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of other things that we had
Speaker 1: to do SOO was cash flow the Airbnb renovation, so
Speaker 1: that when that's done, it can be a stream of
Speaker 1: income for us, an additional stream of income. This is
Speaker 1: the one year goal. We're halfway through. We have hit
Speaker 1: many barriers, so there's a part of me this is
Speaker 1: very vulnerable to share because I don't know if this
Speaker 1: goal is going to be accomplished by the end of
Speaker 1: the year. You can check back in. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I think that that's what makes it a goal
Speaker 1: is it feels like a little bit outside of reach
Speaker 1: for us. Some some barriers that are outside of our control.
Speaker 1: We have hit, mainly with permitting, but that's okay. We
Speaker 1: will persevere. But my my hope is for that to happen.
Speaker 1: And so far, so far, we're doing well. We are
Speaker 1: cash flowing it. I just really hope that it doesn't
Speaker 1: go beyond the ear because I'd love to allocate then
Speaker 1: the money that we had been allocating to renovations into
Speaker 1: some investments. But slowly but surely, it doesn't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: happen overnight, and it has not been for lack of trying.
Speaker 1: You have been trying, like a twenty ft long by
Speaker 1: three ft deep trench across our entire house. I got
Speaker 1: real buff in that one. Then that trench is just decoration.
Speaker 1: The trench is still there, all of the dirt and
Speaker 1: say and I dug out now has grass growing on it.
Speaker 1: And we are just a despicable neighbor to have right now.
Speaker 1: But I'm working on it. If any of my neighbors
Speaker 1: listening to my podcasts, it's not her fault, it's the city. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so we also that. I mean, so our
Speaker 1: one year goal last year was to buy an investment property,
Speaker 1: and we did that. We completed that in May, and
Speaker 1: now well we did a workaround. We moved and then
Speaker 1: turned our old house to an investment property because that's
Speaker 1: what we had to do because we don't have just
Speaker 1: four dollars sitting in the bank like other investors do. Uh.
Speaker 1: So that happened, and so now our one year goal
Speaker 1: is to finish the renovations for for this year, finished
Speaker 1: renovations on the rental side of our new property, because
Speaker 1: we are turning part of it into an airbnb or
Speaker 1: maybe a mid term rental. We'll see. So that is
Speaker 1: the goal for the rest of twenty twenty two is
Speaker 1: to finish that and uh, check again, we got we
Speaker 1: got high home December of this year, we'll have to Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll have to share in December what we finished on
Speaker 1: our renovations if we are able to rent out the rentals.
Speaker 1: Have a feeling tail between my legs. At least we're
Speaker 1: not doing anything that requires digging or permits or anything.
Speaker 1: So it is really all on us. I will I
Speaker 1: will say, well, this isn't I know. We talked about
Speaker 1: like focusing on one thing, but this was a very
Speaker 1: easy thing to do. But I did get Erica roth
Speaker 1: Ira for those of you who were wondering that it happen,
Speaker 1: and now that's on autopilot and I had hoped for
Speaker 1: that to happen in so one thing's accomplished. And Jill
Speaker 1: did that all on her own. I was not there.
Speaker 1: She told me about that. Actually, we were on a
Speaker 1: call with our membership when she told everyone. I was like,
Speaker 1: what I didn't by myself. Yeah, I'm an old dog
Speaker 1: can learn new tricks. And that's true, but it worked
Speaker 1: for me. It's impressive because you set up a roth
Speaker 1: Ira like maybe once or twice in your life, so
Speaker 1: like every time I help somebody set up a roth Ira.
Speaker 1: I have forgotten how did you? Because I'm not doing
Speaker 1: this every day, so I kind of want you to
Speaker 1: check it for me. I still am like, I think
Speaker 1: I need to bring my computer over and we need
Speaker 1: to check and make sure that I actually did it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will, I will check for you than um. But yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: renovations rental both of us where we're at. That's where
Speaker 1: we're at. You guys keep us accountable. They will, you know,
Speaker 1: they will. Thank you everyone for listening and for keeping
Speaker 1: us accountable. We are sharing, we've we've put it out
Speaker 1: there now, so shop shops, bad Snip Snap podcast, it's
Speaker 1: out there. You can't change this. Once Christian edits it,
Speaker 1: it's there. And many of you know that we have
Speaker 1: a private community who also keeps us accountable. We got
Speaker 1: it coming at us at all angles, and we do
Speaker 1: monthly monthly money challenges which is really fun. Again accountability groups,
Speaker 1: so not just accountability for us, but accountability for each other.
Speaker 1: We we share the wealth there and we want to
Speaker 1: congratulate one of our members for a big win. Christie
Speaker 1: kW shared with us that she just completed well, she says,
Speaker 1: just completed my graduate Certificate of advanced studies and educational
Speaker 1: technology and new literacies. We got some some accomplished people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fifteen credit hours b on my masters. I was
Speaker 1: able to cash flow taking one classes semester for the
Speaker 1: past year and a half, and we'll use what I
Speaker 1: learned in my current job. It will also help me
Speaker 1: in my side hustle of online tutoring. And because I
Speaker 1: make a little more money for every three credit hours
Speaker 1: of classes I take, will increase my final average salary
Speaker 1: when I retire in six years. Hashtag still got it
Speaker 1: do Christie six years away from retirement and still just
Speaker 1: crushing it. Learn and learn a new thing. That is
Speaker 1: definitely early retirement, Christie. Christie is not. You don't know
Speaker 1: that's going to be early retirement. Oh my gosh, awesome, Christie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Thank you everyone for listening. If you want to check
Speaker 1: out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com slash club to see what challenge we have
Speaker 1: coming up next. Love to see you there, We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time. By Frugal Friends is produced by Experiality Jill.
Speaker 1: How is the permitting going? Um? Oh? Jen It's Eric
Speaker 1: has gone in person multiple times to the permitting office
Speaker 1: and gets different answers ericas I've not gone with him.
Speaker 1: I feel like I kind of want to at this point,
Speaker 1: just so it can be a family affair. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: they essentially messed up the permitting. I don't want to
Speaker 1: go into too many details because well, we don't have
Speaker 1: time for it, and maybe other reasons, but essentially they
Speaker 1: filed the wrong permits and now they have no record
Speaker 1: of it. Goodness, one part of it is done and
Speaker 1: paid for, Like we paid three hundred four hundred dollars
Speaker 1: dred something like that, and we're like, well, but where
Speaker 1: are these permits and they're like, oh, you don't have those.
Speaker 1: We must have filed it under this other permitting thing.
Speaker 1: It's just like there's only so much capacity and emotional
Speaker 1: energy that we have for this part of the process.
Speaker 1: I will say, the actual labor of the renovation seems
Speaker 1: totally doable. I just can't wait till we can pick
Speaker 1: up a hammer again. Oh and also Eric did try
Speaker 1: and do some work that he could do without the permit,
Speaker 1: uh and sliced his finger with the chop saw. He
Speaker 1: like finally worked himself up to hey, I could do
Speaker 1: like these things and that would be fine before inspection.
Speaker 1: Uh ten minutes over in the Airbnb side of the
Speaker 1: house and slices his finger with the chop saw. Like
Speaker 1: we were debating do we need to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1: We decided not to because you know us um do
Speaker 1: as we say, not as we do. We super glut
Speaker 1: it and it worked. I ran to the store and
Speaker 1: got him a finger splint and super glued it and
Speaker 1: it's healing up great. So he's all right, well glad, right,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, we will. I wish we could hold
Speaker 1: the city accountable, but I guess we can't do that.
Speaker 1: But wishing you perseverance and cocktails to survive. It's all
Speaker 1: you need. It's the secret. Mm hmm