Speaker 1: Episode three point fifty two, How to Simplify your money management.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity and life. Here your hosts Jen
Speaker 2: and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my
Speaker 1: name is Jill, and today we are doing another episode
Speaker 1: just the two of us know articles, just our little
Speaker 1: little brains and our big thoughts about simplification.
Speaker 3: And our loud mouths.
Speaker 1: Yes and how it relates to your money management and
Speaker 1: how to simplify because while a complex money management system
Speaker 1: can look appealing, it can look like the right way
Speaker 1: to do things. The best things in life are simple,
Speaker 1: and so we're going to talk about the why behind it,
Speaker 1: the what behind it, the how, and maybe some barriers
Speaker 1: that you might have to simplification and some guidance to
Speaker 1: get over them.
Speaker 3: The best things in life are also free, speaking of
Speaker 3: this episode is brought to you by sneakers, a weird
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Speaker 1: Well, that just felt compelled to add that you're a
Speaker 1: great co host. Thank you, Thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: had what I can and what I shouldn't. So if
Speaker 1: you love these episodes, that are just the two of
Speaker 1: us making it. If we try, we're trying, then we
Speaker 1: have several other ones. We are unhinged because we're writing
Speaker 1: a book, and so we are doing these episodes kind
Speaker 1: of as a foundation to lay. We found that these
Speaker 1: are the things we're talking about when we go on
Speaker 1: other people's podcasts and they're asking us about frugality and
Speaker 1: money management and values based spending, so we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about them on our own podcast and devote full
Speaker 1: episodes to each of the concepts that we think is
Speaker 1: most important. So we have one about efficiency and habits
Speaker 1: and routines. That's episode three forty six, how to put
Speaker 1: good money decisions on autopilot. We have one about honoring
Speaker 1: your season and how that impacts how you spend and
Speaker 1: how you create goals. That's episode three forty two, and
Speaker 1: then we have several other ones. Those are our most
Speaker 1: recent ones, but you will be able to access them
Speaker 1: all in our upcoming book coming out in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: So stick with us.
Speaker 3: We are contractually obligated to be here for at least
Speaker 3: another year and beyond that, so you're going to keep
Speaker 3: getting more from us. Yeah, sneakers, So.
Speaker 1: If you're new, cool, if you've been around for a while, cool,
Speaker 1: stay with us. So this is our episode about simplicity,
Speaker 1: and we were joking at the top of the show,
Speaker 1: but it is the best things in life are simple. Truly.
Speaker 1: When we think about the things in our life that
Speaker 1: are complex, they may seem good in the moment. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about like the relationships you have with boys in
Speaker 1: high school and college that you don't know how to
Speaker 1: define them, but you really think that that's your soulmate.
Speaker 1: And the relationship is like so complex and convoluted, and
Speaker 1: but you can't see it while you're in it. But
Speaker 1: then you turn thirty and you're like, gosh, what was
Speaker 1: I thinking? What was I doing?
Speaker 3: Why did it exist to say it's complicated as a
Speaker 3: relationship status on Facebook?
Speaker 1: Uh huh yeah. Uh So let us be the hindsight
Speaker 1: to your foresight. I don't know if I said that right,
Speaker 1: But we're going to talk about simplicity and kind of
Speaker 1: maybe reveal you maybe that your money management system might
Speaker 1: be too complex, maybe that your spending might be too complex,
Speaker 1: and how to get around that.
Speaker 3: So for starters, I mean, what do we mean when
Speaker 3: we talk about simplifying our money? And I think we're saying, ultimately,
Speaker 3: it's the opposite of chaos. I don't think many of
Speaker 3: us love chaos or thrive in chaos. We may be
Speaker 3: drawn to it, we may want to watch chaos unfold,
Speaker 3: but most of us don't want chaos to be an
Speaker 3: ever present reality in our lives, and especially not in
Speaker 3: our finances. Somehow we can find ourselves there of our
Speaker 3: money feeling chaotic, and more often than not, I think
Speaker 3: when our money feels chaotic, probably other parts of our
Speaker 3: lives feel chaotic because we know they all go hand
Speaker 3: in hand. It's why on this podcast we talk so
Speaker 3: much about all these other aspects of our life because
Speaker 3: they play an important role in what that then means
Speaker 3: for our money, our decision making, our behaviors, our relationships.
Speaker 3: And so when we're talking about simplifying our money, we
Speaker 3: want to be aiming at whatever is going to be
Speaker 3: individualized for us, but a sort of set it and
Speaker 3: forget it approach. This ability to manage our money well,
Speaker 3: feel confident about it, be good stewards of our money
Speaker 3: and all of our other resources, but yet also have
Speaker 3: the ability to move on with the rest of our lives.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's important to say that we
Speaker 3: can have a simplified money management system and way of living,
Speaker 3: and that doesn't mean it's ineffectual or possibly even not
Speaker 3: as good as someone who is in their money all
Speaker 3: of the time day trading and paying financial advisors buco dollars.
Speaker 3: That we can have both can have simplified money management
Speaker 3: strategies and effective money management strategies and where those two
Speaker 3: collide may look different for all of us, but finding
Speaker 3: the tension for all of us of where does that exist?
Speaker 3: Are there areas of my finances or even other parts
Speaker 3: of my life that feel really complicated, possibly even chaotic,
Speaker 3: And is there a way to bring a little bit
Speaker 3: more simplicity and a tethering and a tameness to it
Speaker 3: that makes me feel at peace inside myself and at
Speaker 3: peace with my finances.
Speaker 1: So, in addition to money, which we will spend most
Speaker 1: of the episode talking about, the three other places that
Speaker 1: we find have a direct correlation to your money management
Speaker 1: simplification that you should also be simplifying are your spaces,
Speaker 1: So your physical spaces. We did an episode recently of
Speaker 1: out like doing a thirty day declutter challenge, and this
Speaker 1: is a big one. So we're not just like arbitrarily organizing,
Speaker 1: but we are moving everything unnecessary outside of our space
Speaker 1: so that our space is simple, and we don't declutter
Speaker 1: for the sake of minimalism. We declutter for the sake
Speaker 1: of simplicity. So if you want to kind of view
Speaker 1: it like that, we're not getting rid of stuff because
Speaker 1: minimalism is this virtue we declutter so that we can
Speaker 1: simplify our space. Next is our schedule, so the where
Speaker 1: we can be physically is finite. We cannot be two
Speaker 1: places at once, we cannot bounce from place to place instantaneously,
Speaker 1: so our schedules can get overrun very easily. And simplifying
Speaker 1: your schedule has a direct impact on your money, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about why that is throughout the episode. And
Speaker 1: then lastly is our choices, and so this might also
Speaker 1: be our mental capacities. We have a finite mental capacity
Speaker 1: each day and sleep is literally the only thing that
Speaker 1: replenishes it. So we want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: are being responsible with our mental capacities throughout the day
Speaker 1: by simplifying our choices as much as possible, and we
Speaker 1: do that with routines and habits. We talked all about
Speaker 1: that in the episode Putting Good Money Decisions on Autopilot.
Speaker 1: That is integral. You should definitely listen to that if
Speaker 1: you haven't yet. But those are kind of the what
Speaker 1: when we're talking about simplifying. These are the things that
Speaker 1: we are looking to simplify is our money management, our spaces,
Speaker 1: our schedule, and our choices. And we're looking at those
Speaker 1: three and how they impact our.
Speaker 3: Money, which then can lead us to well, why I
Speaker 3: want to aim at simplicity, Why is this so great?
Speaker 3: And again, I think it's because it's not complicated, because
Speaker 3: it's not chaotic, And of course there's going to be
Speaker 3: a spectrum for all of us of the degree of
Speaker 3: complication that we each have a threshold for or even
Speaker 3: desire for interest in. But I think at its core,
Speaker 3: simplicity implies an approachability and an attainability that historically, at
Speaker 3: least from my perspective, has not been the case, especially
Speaker 3: about money. I think there's multiple reasons for that, some
Speaker 3: of it just being gate kept information, maybe ideas and
Speaker 3: narratives that are perpetuating this idea that you kind of
Speaker 3: have to be on the inside. You've got to know
Speaker 3: the language and the acronyms, and you've got to have
Speaker 3: enough and you have to have access to the right
Speaker 3: people in order to kind of reach that next tier
Speaker 3: of success, so to speak. And I think simplicity is
Speaker 3: pushing back on that idea and also giving people and
Speaker 3: taking for ourselves freedom in these decisions that we make
Speaker 3: that it doesn't have to be complicated to be effective.
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be gate kept in order for
Speaker 3: it to actually be true and write information. I think again,
Speaker 3: there's an intersection of simplified money that's also effective for
Speaker 3: the here and now as well as the future. I
Speaker 3: think where we can get tripped up is when we
Speaker 3: don't know our values or what we truly want out
Speaker 3: of our money, and that can be one of the
Speaker 3: things that can lead our finances to feeling chaotic, feeling complicated,
Speaker 3: or maybe even feeling like they have to be complicated
Speaker 3: in order to prove that we're good at this, it
Speaker 3: has to look a certain way. And I think we're
Speaker 3: saying in all elements of our money and our life,
Speaker 3: we can aim at simplicity and it's only going to
Speaker 3: benefit all of these aspects of our life. That doesn't
Speaker 3: mean that you have to be minimalist. I think that
Speaker 3: there's a correlation between simplicity and minimalism, but there's also
Speaker 3: a lot of differences that can happen there too, and
Speaker 3: a freedom to find what does simplicity look like for
Speaker 3: me versus for you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because minimalism isn't always simplicity. It can sometimes be
Speaker 1: it can feel complex trying to attain this certain minimalist
Speaker 1: aesthetic that is being talked about on YouTube and social
Speaker 1: media that can feel really confusing. And so that's why
Speaker 1: we love to think about pursuing simplicity over just the
Speaker 1: getting rid of stuff, because you can have a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff and still have a simple life, but you're
Speaker 1: a lot will be different from somebody else's a lot.
Speaker 1: And so the idea of defining your enough is foundational
Speaker 1: to starting to define your simplicity. So looking at the
Speaker 1: things in your life, especially when your money, and deciding
Speaker 1: what's enough, what feels like enough, and really going through
Speaker 1: your transactions to say that, so that the number is
Speaker 1: not just a made up number that you think is right.
Speaker 1: So like for groceries, what is supposed to be your
Speaker 1: grocery budget every week?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: How much money are you supposed to spend on groceries
Speaker 1: for each person? There is no set amount that anybody
Speaker 1: has set. It's all you making this stuff up. So
Speaker 1: that's why we go back and we look at three
Speaker 1: months of grocery spending. We look at what we're buying
Speaker 1: at the grocery store and what we're buying on those
Speaker 1: weekly or semi weekly additional trips to the grocery store,
Speaker 1: see how much we're spending, and then we look at
Speaker 1: the actual food waste that is leaving our house, and
Speaker 1: we say, how much money am I throwing away? Right?
Speaker 1: How much money am I not eating? How much money
Speaker 1: am I spending on takeout? Because the meals I've planned
Speaker 1: are too complex for my lifestyle right now, for my
Speaker 1: season right now, And so you take those other expenses
Speaker 1: into account too when you are deciding what is enough
Speaker 1: for you and your family's grocery budget. So there's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's lovely to find these articles and viral social media
Speaker 1: posts of like, here's how I feed my family of
Speaker 1: four for fifty dollars a week. Is it sustainable? Probably not?
Speaker 1: Not in this economy. Is it right for you? Who knows?
Speaker 1: You have to look at what you're already spending on groceries,
Speaker 1: what you're throwing away, what you're spending outside of your
Speaker 1: grocery trips and your takeout and your restaurants and all
Speaker 1: of that to figure out what's a right number. So
Speaker 1: that's an all like a round about way of coming
Speaker 1: back to simplicity when it's simple, once you've done the
Speaker 1: hard work of defining what's enough for you because that
Speaker 1: it's not complex, but it's in depth, right, It's not
Speaker 1: something that's going to be done in five minutes. Once
Speaker 1: you've done that upfront work, then you can kind of
Speaker 1: give yourself parameters for what you will and will not
Speaker 1: do in the journey to simplicity. So like saying, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to make these extra grocery trips every week,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to spend more upfront at the grocery
Speaker 1: store so I get everything I need and it's pre chopped,
Speaker 1: because meal prep is what's keeping me from cooking the
Speaker 1: stuff and getting takeout. So these are things you have
Speaker 1: to think about and decide. And one last thing I'll
Speaker 1: add about the why for simplicity this comes. Complexity always
Speaker 1: costs you. Complexity means that somebody else is making money.
Speaker 1: So why investments have been so quote unquote complex for
Speaker 1: so long is because people make money selling certain investment
Speaker 1: products and managing your money for you. It's the same
Speaker 1: with insurance. The more complex an insurance product is, the
Speaker 1: more commission and the more money that insurance salesperson makes
Speaker 1: from you. Term life insurance as a simple product. It's
Speaker 1: a very simple product and it's also a very inexpensive product,
Speaker 1: but you can ramp that up into whole life, Universal
Speaker 1: life MPIs all the annuities, all these other types of
Speaker 1: insurance products that people will tell you about why you
Speaker 1: should get them, and the salespeople know exactly what to
Speaker 1: say to make it seem accessible enough, but just a
Speaker 1: little bit outside side of the amount of work you're
Speaker 1: willing to do to learn the product. And so it
Speaker 1: sounds like a good idea and it's not. It's complex
Speaker 1: if you can't understand it upfront. It's too complex, at
Speaker 1: least for starting out. There are times when whole life
Speaker 1: and annuities, actually it's for a small fraction of people
Speaker 1: are beneficial. It's a small fraction of people, and those
Speaker 1: people usually know who they are because other types of
Speaker 1: insurance aren't working for them. So that is that's the
Speaker 1: why for simplicity.
Speaker 3: It's such a good point, and I think for an
Speaker 3: even more sobering reason for simplicity is just the simple
Speaker 3: fact that we can be preyed upon in leaning into
Speaker 3: feeling as though your lack of knowledge means that things
Speaker 3: need to be more complicated. I think oftentimes we just
Speaker 3: did an episode about scams and one of the things
Speaker 3: that can lead us to become a victim of a
Speaker 3: scam is the not knowing, but not that just not knowing,
Speaker 3: but thinking that others have the info that you don't,
Speaker 3: others are smarter than you. You're not on the in,
Speaker 3: and so you've got to do XYZ to protect your money.
Speaker 3: It's this kind of perpetuating this thought that it must
Speaker 3: be so complicated and I just don't get it, or
Speaker 3: because my finances are so complicated and I don't know
Speaker 3: all of my different transactions or what's going on with
Speaker 3: my money, then this thing is probably true. I probably
Speaker 3: owe money versus having simplified finances knowing your transactions to
Speaker 3: be able to say I have one hundred percent did
Speaker 3: not pull that credit card. I one hundred percent did
Speaker 3: not make that transaction. I think we can protect ourselves
Speaker 3: in many ways. In aiming at simplicity and knowing that
Speaker 3: the simple way is a fantastic path to take means
Speaker 3: that we're not going to be prey to these more
Speaker 3: nefarious scams or people taking advantage of us trying to
Speaker 3: leverage the fact that maybe we don't know as much
Speaker 3: as some purported expert in personal finance or corporate finance.
Speaker 3: You name it. So keeping it simple, knowing what's happening,
Speaker 3: and also believing and knowing and living out the realities
Speaker 3: that your simplified money is managing your money well, it
Speaker 3: is helpful just for that reason, the darker reasons.
Speaker 1: So let's move on to how how do we simplify
Speaker 1: our money management? And how do these other factors space, schedule, choices,
Speaker 1: mental capacities, how do they impact? So the first thing
Speaker 1: to note not a step, but first thing, start small.
Speaker 1: It's counterintuitive when we want to simplify, we want to
Speaker 1: simplify everything at once, right, and that's it's difficult to
Speaker 1: do anything at once. So going back into your ninety
Speaker 1: day transaction inventory and just choosing one action, So like
Speaker 1: our efficiency question, what's one action that will make as
Speaker 1: many other actions as possible easier or unnecessary. So that
Speaker 1: might look like choosing a expense that you are making
Speaker 1: a ton of, like that it's just a habitual expense,
Speaker 1: and maybe it's not a lot of money, but it's
Speaker 1: a time suck, like to be going out and making
Speaker 1: this expense so often. Or maybe it's not many expenses,
Speaker 1: maybe it's just a high like high amount like impulse buys.
Speaker 1: But not as frequently, and so we're looking at the
Speaker 1: money thing, or maybe even the space thing, if that
Speaker 1: high amount is purchasing things for your home or cars.
Speaker 1: We did it. We did an impulse spending episode where
Speaker 1: we found out cars are actually the top three impulse buys.
Speaker 1: So kind of looking back at those and just choosing
Speaker 1: one thing to simplify and looking at the season that
Speaker 1: you're in will really help you figure out. What's that
Speaker 1: one thing I want to start with. Do I need
Speaker 1: to increase my income? Do I need to start there?
Speaker 1: Do I need to decrease my expenses because eventually everything
Speaker 1: is going to get looked at, but not all at
Speaker 1: the same time. Do I need to save for different things?
Speaker 1: And are these are big expenses coming up and I'm
Speaker 1: dipping into my emergency fund because I'm not saving in
Speaker 1: the right places. Or have I just totally been scared
Speaker 1: of investing and I haven't started investing for retirement? So
Speaker 1: what is one choice, one thing that you can simplify
Speaker 1: today moving forward that will make other actions easier or
Speaker 1: necessary to simplify.
Speaker 3: I also like to describe this as fine tuning thin
Speaker 3: similar to what you had said, Jen, that there's a
Speaker 3: whole spectrum where we can find ourselves in wall These
Speaker 3: things on social media, people saying how they fed their
Speaker 3: family of eight for one hundred dollars a week sound
Speaker 3: so alluring and in some ways can be motivating and
Speaker 3: help us to think creatively and problem solve. I think
Speaker 3: just fine tuning that for most of us, not every
Speaker 3: single aspect of our lives needs to be overhauled, but
Speaker 3: we can find one area and then find one small
Speaker 3: change within that area that we can make. And so
Speaker 3: if we're specifically looking at groceries, because we so often do,
Speaker 3: and that's a purchase we all make very regularly, it
Speaker 3: could mean for these next few grocery trips, I'm only
Speaker 3: going to shop the perimeter of the store. I'm not
Speaker 3: going to be going up and down getting the processed
Speaker 3: foods and convenience items. I'm going to work over these
Speaker 3: next couple of weeks to create meals out of what's
Speaker 3: in the perimeter of the store, which is going to
Speaker 3: be your more fresh foods, and you're going to be
Speaker 3: using those ingredients to cook, which will often be less expensive,
Speaker 3: potentially more time consuming. That doesn't have to be something
Speaker 3: that you stick with, but I think as we look
Speaker 3: at simplifying the way that we shop, the way that
Speaker 3: we spend, the way that we manage our finances. This
Speaker 3: is what we're talking about. Where can we begin small,
Speaker 3: make decisions and choices and actions that eliminate other decisions
Speaker 3: and actions, or make those actions easier and just fine tune.
Speaker 3: We don't have to approach this with an overhaul perspective.
Speaker 3: And so then when we think about these areas of
Speaker 3: our money that can be simplified, You've got these four
Speaker 3: main areas our income, our expenses, our savings, and our investing.
Speaker 3: So I'll just start off and describing income. It's worth
Speaker 3: looking at are there ways for me to simplify the
Speaker 3: money that I bring in? I don't mean less. When
Speaker 3: we say the word simplify, we also don't mean less.
Speaker 3: Sometimes less can be more, sometimes more is more. We're
Speaker 3: here for it all. But thinking about is my income
Speaker 3: does it represent a complicated tax situation? How can I
Speaker 3: evaluate the amount of time I'm actually putting in for
Speaker 3: the amount of money I'm receiving back. Where is the
Speaker 3: intersection of what brings me joy and my highest skill sets?
Speaker 3: Am I in a job, a career, an environment where
Speaker 3: I'm making money that is taking these things into consideration.
Speaker 3: If we're thinking about having a side hustle, I think
Speaker 3: it's important to think about the eighty twenty rule, the
Speaker 3: Peretto principle that ideally we want to be putting in
Speaker 3: primarily twenty percent of our efforts should reap eighty percent
Speaker 3: of our return on this. This was a hard one
Speaker 3: for me in particular. There are I have tried so
Speaker 3: many side hustles throughout my life time really, but certainly
Speaker 3: young adulthood, selling plants on the side of the road,
Speaker 3: making little bags and purses and trying to sell them.
Speaker 3: And while I enjoyed that, that was fun for me.
Speaker 3: It was a fun outlet and hobby, I did not
Speaker 3: make the amount of money that needs to be made
Speaker 3: for the amount of time put in. You know, when
Speaker 3: I'm spending three hours on creating a little kid's purse
Speaker 3: and selling it for fifteen dollars, that's not a great return.
Speaker 3: And I had to eventually look at that of, Okay,
Speaker 3: this might just be a fun hobby, but I might
Speaker 3: be spending far too much time on this for the
Speaker 3: amount of money I'm getting back, and I just can't
Speaker 3: call it a revenue stream for myself. But then looking
Speaker 3: at other pieces, like your career. It could mean looking
Speaker 3: for a new job if that helps you to simplify.
Speaker 3: Maybe a new job means you don't have to have
Speaker 3: three side hustles plus a full time job. Is there
Speaker 3: a way to find work that meets the level of
Speaker 3: income that you're hoping for in one place? I know
Speaker 3: we have kind of elevated the gig economy and side
Speaker 3: hustles and just hustle culture, but there is something to
Speaker 3: be said for working a typical full time job, making
Speaker 3: what you need and leaving and having your weekends to yourself.
Speaker 3: If that version of simplicity is for you, take it.
Speaker 3: It could mean that we want to start our own businesses. Great,
Speaker 3: But evaluating all of these pieces, what does that mean
Speaker 3: for complications with taxes? What does that mean for just
Speaker 3: how much time time I'm putting in versus what I'm
Speaker 3: getting back? All of these things we can take into
Speaker 3: consideration as it relates to this one category of income.
Speaker 3: This doesn't have to be something we look at daily.
Speaker 3: This could be quarterly, bi annually, annually, depending on the
Speaker 3: fields that we're in, in our current situations and what
Speaker 3: we want out of life. Are seasons but at some
Speaker 3: point it's worth reevaluating. Is my income how I earn
Speaker 3: money as simplified as it could be or as I
Speaker 3: want it to be. Are there tweaks that can be
Speaker 3: made as they're fine tuning that can happen to simplify
Speaker 3: the way that I'm earning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll come up and kind of add how
Speaker 1: are three other simplified categories affect income? So side hustle
Speaker 1: that eighty twenty rule. So the eighty twenty rule gives
Speaker 1: freedom to play around, right, it's not supposed to be
Speaker 1: constricting to where I can only, you know, put in
Speaker 1: so little effort to make so much money, and then
Speaker 1: you fail and you're like, why everybody told me to
Speaker 1: put twenty percent effort? In reality, you're putting in one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of effort. You're trying new things. The eighty
Speaker 1: twenty rule is how you refine this side hustle or
Speaker 1: side business. I prefer side businesses. I think we're jaded
Speaker 1: by the gig economy at this point in our lives,
Speaker 1: and it would be better to have a business or
Speaker 1: career that makes up that pays you enough money for
Speaker 1: you to live. But if your desire is to start
Speaker 1: your own business, and you are also working a job
Speaker 1: while you build that business. That's the side hustle. And
Speaker 1: the way that you get out of your job to
Speaker 1: run your business is by following the eighty twenty principle
Speaker 1: of refinement, and so that is going to save you time.
Speaker 1: It's going to simplify the time that it takes to
Speaker 1: build a business. So as you play around, you keep
Speaker 1: track of your KPIs your income, and you see what's
Speaker 1: making you money, and you do more of that and
Speaker 1: you do less of the things that are not worth
Speaker 1: your time, so that you have time to play around
Speaker 1: with new things, and you just keep going in that pattern,
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to the most profitable thing. And
Speaker 1: I think I'm so glad you mentioned this, Jill, the
Speaker 1: consideration of the intersection of joy and skill set, because
Speaker 1: so many people will start a side business for joy,
Speaker 1: they will forget skill set, and they will completely ignore
Speaker 1: what the market is asking for. So if we can
Speaker 1: start by looking at the intersection of joy and skill set,
Speaker 1: what do I enjoy and what unique skills do I
Speaker 1: bring to the market, then we use the eighty twenty
Speaker 1: principle to always be looking for what the market is
Speaker 1: demanding and not just looking at what we like doing,
Speaker 1: because if you start from place of joy, you can
Speaker 1: always hire out, you know, once you start making money
Speaker 1: the stuff that you don't like. But we're always looking
Speaker 1: and going in the direction of the market. For your career,
Speaker 1: it's a schedule thing side hustle. Using that eighty twenty
Speaker 1: rule can also help you with your physical space too.
Speaker 1: But looking at your career is another time thing. You
Speaker 1: spend forty hours a week at your job, sometimes more,
Speaker 1: and are you making the most of it for you?
Speaker 1: Not just building somebody else's company, but you want to
Speaker 1: use that job to build your own resume and your
Speaker 1: own life. So are you making the most of those
Speaker 1: forty hours a week for you and your future and
Speaker 1: figuring out what you want to do in the future.
Speaker 1: And then just with the mental energy. When you are
Speaker 1: preserving your time and your physical spaces in the way
Speaker 1: that you bring an income, then you preserve your mental
Speaker 1: energy as well. If your job is very, very complex
Speaker 1: and your boss has you doing two people's jobs at once,
Speaker 1: it might be time to look for another job because
Speaker 1: your mental energy is being all used up at your
Speaker 1: job and you don't have anything left for yourself to
Speaker 1: make good financial decisions. So these are the things you
Speaker 1: have to think about when you're looking at simplifying your income.
Speaker 3: And the next is expenses. This is everything that we
Speaker 3: have to pay for, choose to pay for or even
Speaker 3: forget that we're paying for. Looking for ways to simplify
Speaker 3: our expenses. When it comes to bill pay, subscriptions, activities,
Speaker 3: really anything that is both discretionary and fixed expenses, it's
Speaker 3: worth looking at. Is this as simplified as possible. Of course,
Speaker 3: we recommend putting as many bills as possible on auto pay.
Speaker 3: We recommend doing a review of the subscriptions that you have,
Speaker 3: whether that's monthly, bi monthly, making sure that you're utilizing
Speaker 3: those subscriptions. You want to be still subscribed to those
Speaker 3: things it's worth it, or canceling them and not just
Speaker 3: getting random charges. That's a whole other when it comes
Speaker 3: to how people can scam you. Situation when we just
Speaker 3: don't really remember all that we're paying for. That can
Speaker 3: make it complicated, it can make it chaotic, and it
Speaker 3: can make us susceptible to hemorrhaging money that we don't
Speaker 3: have to hemorrhage. When it comes to events and entertainment
Speaker 3: and activities and groceries and rent and transportation and clothing
Speaker 3: and literally you name it that we spend on. It's
Speaker 3: worth looking at. How do I simplify this? Some of
Speaker 3: this too, of course, as it relates to activities and entertainment,
Speaker 3: will absolutely intersect with understanding values based spending, knowing ourselves,
Speaker 3: knowing what we want to spend on, so that we
Speaker 3: are then only spending on those things and not all
Speaker 3: of this peripheral stuff that might bring guilt or shame
Speaker 3: or just regret or wishing that it was something that
Speaker 3: it wasn't because it brings in all of these relational
Speaker 3: and emotional and mental components. Sometimes when we spend and
Speaker 3: have expenses that we just don't feel good about, that's
Speaker 3: part of simplifying, too, is making sure nearly every transaction
Speaker 3: we can feel really good about and that we have
Speaker 3: the money for it. I think adjacent to this category,
Speaker 3: we also want to consider our payment methods. For instance,
Speaker 3: how many credit cards do you have? It is wild
Speaker 3: to me even just hanging out with friends in my circle,
Speaker 3: my community and seeing people's wallets and purses, men and
Speaker 3: women alike, just the stacks and I don't know what's
Speaker 3: going on? Sometimes I gotta get bold and ask, like,
Speaker 3: can I just see all of these cards that you
Speaker 3: feel you need to have on you all of the time,
Speaker 3: what's going on? And for those who I have gotten
Speaker 3: bold enough to ask, usually it's just complicated. I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's like something left over from childhood that
Speaker 3: having a bunch of plastic can feel really cool and
Speaker 3: like you've got stuff going on, and maybe makes us
Speaker 3: feel like we've got more money than we actually do
Speaker 3: to have so many cards in our pockets. But more
Speaker 3: often than not, yeah, it's just it's just a bunch
Speaker 3: of checking accounts that got opened, or a bunch of
Speaker 3: credit cards that were opened, and we don't really remember
Speaker 3: what's on what, which can lead us into unexpected credit
Speaker 3: card debt just forgetting that Oh no, I use that
Speaker 3: credit card for that months ago, and now I forgot
Speaker 3: to pay that bill. Like, there's just so many examples
Speaker 3: that I can give of how having so many cards
Speaker 3: can just be a complicated way of managing our money.
Speaker 3: So simplifying our expenses and simplifying the ways that we
Speaker 3: pay for our expenses is just another category to be
Speaker 3: looking at.
Speaker 1: Where simplifying your income has to do a lot with
Speaker 1: simplifying your time and your schedule. Simplifying your expenses has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with simplifying your physical space. They
Speaker 1: all have a little bit to do with mental energy,
Speaker 1: but I think that's more the saving and investing side
Speaker 1: expenses for sure. Physical space And you even you brought
Speaker 1: up one that I didn't even think about credit cards.
Speaker 1: Your wallet. How thick is your wallet? How much physical
Speaker 1: space is your wallet taking up? Like we have these
Speaker 1: huge like clutches that are our wallets filled with receipts
Speaker 1: and credit cards and all kinds of things. And the
Speaker 1: simple fact is, no pun intended, the fewer transactions you make,
Speaker 1: the simpler your bank statement.
Speaker 3: Look, yeah, how much digital space is your bank statement? Take? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, We're I mean it's not just physical space, it's
Speaker 1: digital as well. So if you're finding it hard to
Speaker 1: track your transactions, how many transactions do you have in
Speaker 1: a day? Do you need to make fewer transactions to
Speaker 1: make it easier? And again, we're not advocating less for
Speaker 1: the sake of less, right, We're advocating for simplifying and
Speaker 1: shedding and refining until you find a spot that feels good,
Speaker 1: spot that feels manageable. And this is all money management.
Speaker 1: So what feels manageable? Because for a lot of us,
Speaker 1: I dare say, our schedules, our accounts are spending, our
Speaker 1: income feels unmanageable a lot of the times. And so
Speaker 1: it's getting to that place that feels good and manageable.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't mean to jump all over, but
Speaker 3: just to go back to the why. I think that's
Speaker 3: a reason too. That when we do all of this
Speaker 3: and we get ourselves into a good rhythm and habits
Speaker 3: and automation and it's simplified, that means we probably would
Speaker 3: only need thirty minutes a month to look at our
Speaker 3: money and know that it's all doing what it should
Speaker 3: be doing, going to the right places, and that's it.
Speaker 3: And Mann, does that sound like a version of freedom
Speaker 3: that I want? That's what repels a lot of people
Speaker 3: from a budget of how long is that going to take?
Speaker 3: It feels restrictive. But instead we're saying there's a simple
Speaker 3: way that is not going to take up much time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have control over how complex or simple your
Speaker 1: finances are. It's not the budget that has control of it.
Speaker 1: It's not your employer or the US economy. You have
Speaker 1: control over how complex or simple your finances are. And
Speaker 1: while yes, some are naturally maybe more complex, especially if
Speaker 1: you're in a season where you have medical bills or
Speaker 1: you have tech stuff going on, but these are seasons,
Speaker 1: this is not like for most people regular life. So yes,
Speaker 1: there will be seasons where you have some more complex
Speaker 1: financial situations. But we're hoping that you can build to
Speaker 1: a place of simplicity, or maybe debuild, unbuild, get to
Speaker 1: a place of simple money management, so when these more
Speaker 1: complex situations come up, you're better equipped to manage them
Speaker 1: from a place of strength and confidence instead of a
Speaker 1: place of stress and anxiety. So yeah, expenses, obviously, credit cards,
Speaker 1: the size of your wallet, physical space, but like also,
Speaker 1: what are you buying the things that you're buying? So
Speaker 1: are they loading up your house? Are you loading up
Speaker 1: your house with home decor, kitchen gadgets, journals? Gosh, I'm
Speaker 1: speaking right to right to me and my other journal
Speaker 1: loving friends. I'm calling us out. So look at the
Speaker 1: stuff that you you're accumulating in your house. Look at
Speaker 1: the trash you're accumulating. So not everybody has to pay
Speaker 1: for their trash. Some people do, and so is there
Speaker 1: a way that you can save money on your trash
Speaker 1: bill by making less trash, buying less stuff at the
Speaker 1: grocery store, buying less takeout. Sure, there are sustainable ways
Speaker 1: that you can do take out and groceries like, but
Speaker 1: compostable bags and takeout boxes are they're a poor solution
Speaker 1: to just not consuming the trash at all. So these
Speaker 1: are a lot of the things when we talk about
Speaker 1: being good stewards of our natural resources. You can't green wash,
Speaker 1: like you can't buy your way to green and so
Speaker 1: this is a way that you can lessen your physical
Speaker 1: impact on your space, but also less in your physical
Speaker 1: impact on the world as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then we've got the category of savings, the
Speaker 3: way in which we're saving, and how that can be
Speaker 3: as simplified as possible. This would include our banking methods,
Speaker 3: who and where we're banking with, how we're banking, what
Speaker 3: kind of automations we can put onto our savings, and
Speaker 3: making sure that this isn't overly complicated, because sometimes that
Speaker 3: can then be a barrier to saving at all. If
Speaker 3: we are not sure even where to put our money,
Speaker 3: or feel just overwhelmed by the options that are out there,
Speaker 3: then we may not be saving at all, and so
Speaker 3: I think finding methods that are going to feel really simple.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean that we need to have ten different
Speaker 3: bank accounts to leverage and hold all of our money.
Speaker 3: We've done an episode on this in the past of
Speaker 3: you know the best bank accounts to have, but ultimately
Speaker 3: it can just mean a checking account and a high
Speaker 3: yield savings account apart from investing, but keeping all of
Speaker 3: your mid to long term money goal, mid to short
Speaker 3: term money goals in a high yield savings account, maybe
Speaker 3: even just using your own spreadsheet to delineate what you've
Speaker 3: earmarked those funds for, and then keeping a certain amount
Speaker 3: in a checking account, not making it overly complicated, but
Speaker 3: of course also making sure that we're putting our money
Speaker 3: into an FDIC insured account. So this is also where people,
Speaker 3: I think can get tripped up with all these different
Speaker 3: offers of started an account with paypals, start an account
Speaker 3: with venmos, start an account with them, and everybody's offering
Speaker 3: all these different places to hold your money. And I
Speaker 3: think this is another area where we can go for
Speaker 3: simple and it's better even not just the same as complicated,
Speaker 3: but better than comple located to find a bank that
Speaker 3: works for you, that's going to hold your money, provide
Speaker 3: you the percent of return the highest that you can
Speaker 3: possibly get, and from there to automate it. To have
Speaker 3: your savings on autopilot, where every single month a certain
Speaker 3: amount is getting pulled aside for your various goals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this just saves mental energy, right when you
Speaker 1: don't have to be worrying about how many accounts you have.
Speaker 1: You can just check one or two. So I just
Speaker 1: actually went through and simplified my accounts because over six
Speaker 1: years of writing about personal finance and doing this show,
Speaker 1: like I have opened up quite a few savings accounts
Speaker 1: just to test them out. So I recently went through
Speaker 1: and transferred all of my money back to my You know,
Speaker 1: I have one checking in savings account checking a low
Speaker 1: yield savings account at my credit union, and then one
Speaker 1: high yield savings account for my emergency fund and sinking funds,
Speaker 1: and then a traditional brokerage which has some fun money
Speaker 1: invested in it. So and like I said, like I
Speaker 1: keep my sinking funds and emergency funds in the same
Speaker 1: high old savings account because that works for me. You
Speaker 1: may want to separate them into different High Old Savings
Speaker 1: account if that's you. Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash c
Speaker 1: it is the place where we recommend opening it right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, c it is offering the highest apy that's why
Speaker 3: we like it.
Speaker 1: With the fewest hoops to jump through. That's another simplified thing,
Speaker 1: like you may not know, but you opened up a
Speaker 1: highield savings account because somebody told you to, like the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends, and they have like this minimum and they'll
Speaker 1: charge you every month if you don't have a direct
Speaker 1: deposit hooked up, or if you have under a certain amount,
Speaker 1: or if you're not adding a certain amount every month,
Speaker 1: those are the hoops to jump through and we hate those.
Speaker 1: So that's why that's why we recommend CI. Because it's
Speaker 1: a minimum of one hundred dollars to start to open
Speaker 1: the account. But then after that there's no minimums and
Speaker 1: no fees for monthly maintenance. Whether you're using the account
Speaker 1: or not. You can just park your funds in there
Speaker 1: and leave them and they have a really high apoi,
Speaker 1: literally one of the highest. So that's why we recommend
Speaker 1: what we recommend. We may not recommend the highest high
Speaker 1: Yield Savings account, but probably because that one has hoops
Speaker 1: to jump through. Uh so, yeah, looking at that, making
Speaker 1: sure you're not in any accounts that are charging a
Speaker 1: monthly fee, making sure you're not holding onto any credit
Speaker 1: cards you're not using that are charging a monthly fee.
Speaker 1: So that's why simplifying these accounts is so important. Then automation.
Speaker 1: Nobody has to tell you why that's important. There's one
Speaker 1: more thing I was going to talk about on this one,
Speaker 1: but I forget what it is. We can move on
Speaker 1: to investing and it'll probably come to me.
Speaker 3: So this is the fourth and final category of our
Speaker 3: mund that we can be looking at simplifying and when
Speaker 3: it comes to investing, this is going to be short
Speaker 3: and sweet. Automate it, do it and automate it. The
Speaker 3: do the roth ira or traditional ira, depending on your
Speaker 3: income level, take your employer match with the four oh
Speaker 3: one K, invest in that and put it all on automation.
Speaker 3: And primarily with that, we're talking the tax advantaged accounts
Speaker 3: for retirement. Of course, there's other versions of investing, but
Speaker 3: if we're talking about a simplified and especially place to start,
Speaker 3: then investing for retirement in these manners of automation and
Speaker 3: the tax advantaged accounts, and really you could stop there
Speaker 3: and be golden.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So we could do a whole episode on simplifying
Speaker 1: your investing, and we have. It's episode one point eighty
Speaker 1: Minimalist Investing, and it's all about simplifying your investing for retirement.
Speaker 1: So highly highly recommend you check that episode out because
Speaker 1: there's so many things that we could say about why
Speaker 1: simpler investing is as or more profitable than complex investing.
Speaker 1: I just posted a gift this morning from Wall Street
Speaker 1: Memes about It's not about It was a video of
Speaker 1: the sky skateboarding doing this like six skateboarding move and
Speaker 1: how like his playing the stock market. It was just
Speaker 1: like up seven percent, up fifty percent, up one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: up seven percent or seven hundred percent, and then immediately
Speaker 1: the guy like eats it and says down one thousand percent,
Speaker 1: So like it was. It's just so true of anybody
Speaker 1: trying to time the market or play the stock market.
Speaker 1: And this includes professional brokers. It just includes them. So
Speaker 1: there are for sure complex seasonal situation things like divorce,
Speaker 1: the five years before you retire, a death in the family,
Speaker 1: and inheritance. So there are seasonal things, short term seasonal
Speaker 1: things that are complex that you should get help for
Speaker 1: outside of what you've got going on, and then there
Speaker 1: may be even some higher you know, if you are
Speaker 1: a high net worth individual, a high income earner, than
Speaker 1: getting ongoing financial help from a financial planner also is
Speaker 1: better for you. But for the rest of us, and
Speaker 1: for ninety percent of the time, just simple straightforward investing
Speaker 1: in your retirement accounts can be the most easy and
Speaker 1: profitable typically way to go. This is not investment advice,
Speaker 1: but this is investment experience, investment entertainment.
Speaker 3: I think even when life gets complicated, though, we can
Speaker 3: still choose the simpler path of the options before us. So,
Speaker 3: even when these life events happen that can be overwhelming, stressful, chaotic,
Speaker 3: complicated with whatever's within our control and influence, finding the
Speaker 3: pathway of the most simplicity, which I'm going to in
Speaker 3: those situations, equate to the most peace. What's the most
Speaker 3: peaceable pathway forward in the realities of this event these circumstances,
Speaker 3: And so with what you just said, Jen, getting help,
Speaker 3: finding someone who is knowledgeable and trustworthy and an expert
Speaker 3: and has our best interests in mind could be the simple,
Speaker 3: peaceful pathway in the midst of complicated dynamics and circumstances.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes we can make things more complicated when
Speaker 3: we try to diy everything when it's not a DIY situation.
Speaker 3: Also being able to identify when is this mine to
Speaker 3: own and I can do it, and I can do
Speaker 3: it with ease and simplicity, and when is this a
Speaker 3: time when I need to pull someone else in for
Speaker 3: the sake of simplicity because this is going to take
Speaker 3: too much of my time. This is not the eighty
Speaker 3: twenty principle, or this is the eighty twenty principle in reverse,
Speaker 3: where it's going to take eighty percent of my time,
Speaker 3: energy efforts and I'm only going to reap a return
Speaker 3: of twenty percent. So we do want to acknowledge that
Speaker 3: there are times when life is just complicated. But in
Speaker 3: the midst of that, how can we choose simplicity?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you are choosing, like when you're choosing
Speaker 1: a financial planner because the season is too complex, you
Speaker 1: can choose somebody who is promoting complex financial strategies, or
Speaker 1: you can choose a simple, fee based financial planner that
Speaker 1: has a fiduciary responsibility to you, a certified financial planner.
Speaker 1: So there are options there too, And I would say
Speaker 1: if you trust your gut, then use your gut, use
Speaker 1: your intuition, because you'll be able to decipher if something
Speaker 1: is complex and being sold to you or maybe cost
Speaker 1: some money up front. But you're getting what you pay for,
Speaker 1: So just remember that you do you do get what
Speaker 1: you pay for when it comes to financial planning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of getting what you pay for, or in
Speaker 3: this case, getting more than what you pay for, because
Speaker 3: it's free.
Speaker 4: Not a week, that's right, it's time for the best
Speaker 4: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 4: the name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage,
Speaker 4: maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 4: to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Be bills, butfalo bills, bill claim.
Speaker 2: This is the bill of the week.
Speaker 5: Hi Jen, Hi Jill. My name's Emily, and my bill
Speaker 5: of the week is my home insurance. I just bought
Speaker 5: a house a couple of months ago, and I'm not
Speaker 5: having the insurance go through ESCRO. I'm paying it myself.
Speaker 5: So when I closed, I paid for the insurance like
Speaker 5: the next week, just to make sure that the whole
Speaker 5: year was done and that was paid, and then I
Speaker 5: just got an email this week saying that the title
Speaker 5: company also paid the insurance. So I'm getting an eight
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty four dollars refund because the home insurance
Speaker 5: got paid twice and that is that's why my bill
Speaker 5: of the week is the home insurance. And I'm completely
Speaker 5: blown away by this. So I hope your week is
Speaker 5: going well. Bye.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go. That is a testament to you
Speaker 1: should never blindly trust s GROW or your mortgage company.
Speaker 3: Always be checking, yeah, always be trying to simplify, keeping
Speaker 3: a pulse on that money. Getting an eight hundred three
Speaker 3: four dollar refund, that's a good day. It's a real
Speaker 3: good day. Yeah, thanks Emily.
Speaker 1: And so normally I would say just go with the
Speaker 1: s GROW if you live in a state like Florida
Speaker 1: where you don't really have options for comparing home insurance,
Speaker 1: but if you can compare home insurance and get a
Speaker 1: better deal by doing it on your own, then that's definitely.
Speaker 1: It doesn't simplify it. It makes it a little more complex,
Speaker 1: but it's a very small increase income flexity because you
Speaker 1: can still automate it. So less for the sake of
Speaker 1: less isn't always the best, isn't always the best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, then that's when we've simplified everything else. That's when
Speaker 3: we can then choose where am I willing to spend
Speaker 3: more time because the return is going to be worth it.
Speaker 3: Look at us, we're trying to make the most out
Speaker 3: of this little segment, circling back to simplicity. Can you
Speaker 3: tell we like it? Thanks Emily for sharing your bill
Speaker 3: and congrats on buying a house. If you all listening,
Speaker 3: have a bill about bills being refunded to you, what
Speaker 3: it's like living life as a person named Bill or
Speaker 3: just a duck Bill that you had an interaction with
Speaker 3: recently while out by a pond, you know, whatever it is, frugalfriendspodcast,
Speaker 3: dot com, slash bill. We're ready for it, and now
Speaker 3: it's time for Hello.
Speaker 1: So our lightning round question today is how do you
Speaker 1: streamline and reduce the time it takes to manage your money?
Speaker 1: So time, and I would say also mental energy. This
Speaker 1: kind of saving time and mental energy are the most
Speaker 1: important reasons to simplify your money management. But Jill, I
Speaker 1: will let you go first.
Speaker 3: Wow. So a lot of the things we just talked
Speaker 3: about in this episode that came from our little minds,
Speaker 3: big thoughts loud mouths. I think we've put into practice
Speaker 3: of automation. I've got as much as possible on automation,
Speaker 3: from savings investing to bill pay and that makes life
Speaker 3: go so smoothly. I don't have more than two credit
Speaker 3: cards at a time, and I'm about to go down
Speaker 3: to just one credit cards because sometimes that even feels
Speaker 3: too complicated to me. Literally, I carry around my phone,
Speaker 3: my license, and a credit card, which is why I'm
Speaker 3: so confused when people just have these stacks of plastic.
Speaker 3: But for me, I couldn't handle all of that. It's
Speaker 3: too overwhelming. I know that there would be bills I
Speaker 3: forget to pay, There'd be charges I have no idea about.
Speaker 3: There'd be debt somewhere. I just I personally can't handle
Speaker 3: that much plastic. So that's my rule for myself. And
Speaker 3: then I think just as a lifestyle, living a life
Speaker 3: that is simplified, where our expenses are significantly less than
Speaker 3: what we earn. Both Eric and I even combined, earn
Speaker 3: a moderate amount of money annually, and yet have looked
Speaker 3: at over years and put into practice. It's been a
Speaker 3: journey of how can we simplify our expenses and our
Speaker 3: lives style as much as possible, where every month we
Speaker 3: have at least one thousand dollars left over, And so
Speaker 3: I think that that can give us room to not
Speaker 3: have to look at our money so much. Now I
Speaker 3: enjoy it. I like sitting down and looking at my
Speaker 3: transactions and just go and ham in the spreadsheets and gamifying,
Speaker 3: saving for sinking funds. But ultimately, if there are times
Speaker 3: when life is crazy for other reasons, whether outside of
Speaker 3: my control or chosen, it's okay if I don't sit
Speaker 3: down for even a month and look at my expenses,
Speaker 3: because I've so honed in on and created habits and
Speaker 3: routines around a simplified life that I don't have to
Speaker 3: spend a lot of time looking at my money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would also say automation. I just simplified my accounts,
Speaker 1: Like I said, so the checking, saving combo, high yield savings,
Speaker 1: and traditional brokerage, like that's what I have, and then
Speaker 1: I have even for our investments. We have one single
Speaker 1: stock that we got in an IPO that's fun money,
Speaker 1: and then just the iras is what we invest in.
Speaker 1: And so we travel hack, and some people love travel hacking.
Speaker 1: It's like a hobby LIKEQ pawning. Some people love c
Speaker 1: pawning because it's it's a hobby that they love. They
Speaker 1: do it, you know, more to stockpile and give away
Speaker 1: to charities than they do to save money. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Some people will travel hack and they'll have a credit
Speaker 1: card and they will use one for groceries, one for restaurants,
Speaker 1: one for bills all this. I will only use one
Speaker 1: credit card at a time, and we'll usually only get
Speaker 1: two per year. At this point, when we traveled more,
Speaker 1: we would do more credit cards. We don't travel as
Speaker 1: much with two young children, so those are my main money.
Speaker 3: Simplify your life, have.
Speaker 1: Kids, gosh, yeah, well even still so, I'll say for
Speaker 1: our five twenty nine for Kai, we haven't opened one
Speaker 1: for Atlas yet. We're waiting for him to prove his
Speaker 1: academic excellence. But we have one for Kai. That was
Speaker 1: a joke, I'm sorry, and we put five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in it, and we don't contribute monthly. It's not a
Speaker 1: part of our budget because time in the market is
Speaker 1: more profitable than timing the market. So you make make
Speaker 1: a little bit more money if you just lump summit
Speaker 1: and let it sit versus putting the same amount in
Speaker 1: overtime essentially, So we just did that and then we
Speaker 1: don't have to think about it in our budget I do.
Speaker 1: I will lump some whatever I can. Actually, I will
Speaker 1: do annual subscriptions on things I know that I will
Speaker 1: use if I am unsure if I'll love it, I'll
Speaker 1: spend the extra money to do a couple months at
Speaker 1: a time. I'll spend a little bit more to do
Speaker 1: a monthly membership to make sure I really want it,
Speaker 1: because there are so many times, and companies know this,
Speaker 1: you'll pay for a year because it's a deal, and
Speaker 1: then after a few months you don't use it anymore.
Speaker 1: So I don't do that. I'll just pay for a
Speaker 1: few months and then if I prove myself that I
Speaker 1: really will use the subscription, then I'll do a year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go. Sometimes it's worth it to pay
Speaker 3: a little more for the sake of simplicity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're looking at long term here, but yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's kind of what I do. So thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. We hope this refresher on simplicity
Speaker 1: helped you and inspired you to simplify something in your finances.
Speaker 1: Just one thing, go out and just do one thing today.
Speaker 1: And so if that one thing is leaving us a
Speaker 1: review and rating on Apple Podcasts, I wouldn't hate that.
Speaker 1: Like this one from ae Harks useful practical tips for
Speaker 1: budgeting in frugality. I have fully enjoyed this podcast and
Speaker 1: the girls let you know you can start small with
Speaker 1: spending frugality at any budget. I also, as a mother,
Speaker 1: appreciated what was said when it comes to teaching our
Speaker 1: kids about being aware of our spending and being patient
Speaker 1: when saving. Looking forward to future episodes.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and thanks for that kind review and thank
Speaker 3: you all for listening. So again, if you enjoyed the show,
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Speaker 1: See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 1: So Jill Tonight, I'm going to a concert that's tonight.
Speaker 1: Yes you are, Yes, our friends, I am and I
Speaker 1: are going to see Noah Khan and it will be
Speaker 1: my Aras tour, So I am that excited for it.
Speaker 3: No shade on the swifties. We do not believe Noah
Speaker 3: Khan is to the same level as Taylor, but for
Speaker 3: Jen Carabas is the same is not the same thing
Speaker 3: as Olive Gardens, So we gotta be patient.
Speaker 1: I feel slighted on that, ah, I do. But Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 5: Jill?
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm going to veer away from where I
Speaker 1: was going because I don't want to offend people. What
Speaker 1: was your best concert or concerts?
Speaker 3: Probably? Oh gosh, I have such a bad memory with things.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Thrice. It's a band that I
Speaker 3: really enjoy and got to see them live. Nice. Yeah,
Speaker 3: how about you?
Speaker 1: I have several. I have several. I went to so
Speaker 1: many shows. I'm surprised you don't have more, because I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've been to more shows in your lifetime than
Speaker 1: I have. But I went to a lot in college.
Speaker 1: In high school, I would say in high school, Panic
Speaker 1: at the Disco, Oh nice, probably the best show that
Speaker 1: I ever went to.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In college, I would say, Me Without You, oh nice? Yes,
Speaker 1: mm hmm. They would come out before their shows, Like
Speaker 1: you would get to the Me Without You show early
Speaker 1: because you knew they would come out and hang out
Speaker 1: and like play songs with the people waiting in line
Speaker 1: like that was just a thing.
Speaker 3: I want to say the thrice show I was at
Speaker 3: Me without You played first or second. I think that
Speaker 3: they played together, though I hope I'm not making this up.
Speaker 3: But Eric used to tour with them, so that's always
Speaker 3: a fun experience when we go to concerts where Eric
Speaker 3: knows them from his life in music, and so we
Speaker 3: get to hang out backstage and eat all the food
Speaker 3: that they put on their riders.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What else? Between the Trees is a local band
Speaker 1: in Orlando, and I used to go to their shows
Speaker 1: all the time, and then found out that Travis loved them.
Speaker 1: He didn't live in Orlando. I didn't realize how big
Speaker 1: they were in Florida. I thought that they were literally
Speaker 1: a local band because I lived in Orlando at the time,
Speaker 1: and so when I met Travis and found out that
Speaker 1: he liked that band, I was flabbergasted. That is fun
Speaker 1: and we still talk about that.
Speaker 3: Okay, Wait, speaking of Travis, I've got a better question
Speaker 3: for you. How was your anniversary? Can we talk about that.
Speaker 3: It's not going to make this an extra extra long episode.
Speaker 1: It was good. I mean, it was very chill, so
Speaker 1: we took a bike ride, we went to one of
Speaker 1: our favorite Brench places, and he had planned a few
Speaker 1: things that didn't pan out, so we ended up going
Speaker 1: to see the Barbie Movie and Travis liked it, which
Speaker 1: was the last thing I expected. I did not want
Speaker 1: to go because I didn't because I thought he was
Speaker 1: going to hate it so much it was going to
Speaker 1: ruin the experience for me, which does happen sometimes. But
Speaker 1: he liked it, and he teared up several times.
Speaker 3: He said, yeah, uh, well, it's a sign of an
Speaker 3: emotionally intelligent man.
Speaker 1: I know he is. He always has been. But we
Speaker 1: went back to the hotel that we got downtown and
Speaker 1: we watched Catfish. Yes yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, this goal.
Speaker 1: If you've listened to our I forget which one of
Speaker 1: our most recent episodes, we talked about Catfish. But and
Speaker 1: then we got dinner at Bella Brava, which you may
Speaker 1: know this Jill.
Speaker 3: But does not sound low key. This is all right,
Speaker 3: keep going.
Speaker 1: Our listeners will not know that Brava is an actual
Speaker 1: nice Italian restaurant in downtown Saint Pete. So it's no
Speaker 1: like hoity toity place, but it is nicer than Caraba's garden.
Speaker 1: It's nicer than nice servan Carabas.
Speaker 3: You heard it here, folks.
Speaker 1: I never said Carabas was like the height of Carabas.
Speaker 3: Was what you would do with a windfall. Bless you forget,
Speaker 3: that was your answer.
Speaker 1: Well, I never said I wanted the height of restaurant ors.
Speaker 1: I never said I wanted to go to a Michelin
Speaker 1: star restaurant. I like Carabas. Even when we were sitting there,
Speaker 1: I was like, I could be at Carabas and just
Speaker 1: be having just as fun of a time. I thought that,
Speaker 1: But I also loved the food. I had a big
Speaker 1: plate of cheese filled mioki. And then the next day,
Speaker 1: when we got home, I went to the gym and
Speaker 1: ran five miles and I was like, mmmm, that's fueled
Speaker 1: by joki.
Speaker 3: Wow. Well, we have not made this episode simple for
Speaker 3: our listeners. Sometimes simple is long. Sometimes more is long winded.
Speaker 3: More is more, like with pasta yum,