Maintaining Financial Stability Through Big Life Changes

But I finally feel like we've we can weave it in and make it as accessible as possible, and I think it's super relevant right now. And that's big life changes. Yes, whether that's a career change or going through a divorce or moving or kids changes with how many kids you have or don't have, kids, leaving kids, arriving, so many changes,

so whatever your big life changes. We have a few specific articles, but we are going to make this as accessible as possible for everyone while catering to the ones that were kind of our biggest requests. But first, our sponsors don't don't We just want to put sound noises with that great thing that we do. I know, we are our own soundtrack, the Frugal Friends work Book. You all, this is big news. Our show has always been about coming together around a shared desire to save more, consume less,

and do great things financially. And we have been working our hearts out to bring you something that helps you do that better. And it is called the Ferval Friends Workbook. We worked too hard on the inside to come up with a better name. The Frugal Friends work Book can be completed on your own, but it's created to be gone through in pairs or small groups. It's a six week long, well, six week long challenges that will help you become more frugal in various aspects of your life.

And it launches August seven, and you'll be hearing more about that in the coming weeks, but we just want to kind of build the hype. Yes, man, we are so excited for you guys to get your little digital hands on this and tiny little digit fingers. Yes. So

it's really exciting and we can't wait. This episode is also brought to you by plot Twists, specifically the great Instagram post I saw the other day that said you've got every right to give them a plot twist if things are not working in your life or if you want to go a different direction, you don't owe anybody else your story, you can just give them a plot twist. And I sorry whoever posted that, I could not find the original post to give you credit. Wow, but thank you.

I like that reframe of doing something different. It's just a plot twist. It's a plot twists what everybody make Your life a good boy? Your life is a good book, and so plot twist. That's what we're talking about today. And so both of our articles are from Forbes, because really there's no articles about just general financial steps to take during a big life change. Now you know, Jen, what you need to write on. I know it's super I mean, I guess maybe nobody is searching for that,

but people are asking. So this first article is specifically about divorce. We had a lot of people in the Frugal Friends community kind of asking for financial tips to get stability after a divorce, and so we're going to try and pick out the ones that are our best, that we think our best out of the seven must do steps for women who want financial stability post divorce. So this article is written to very specific right to

women post divorce. But we're hoping to be able to pull these tips out that can be helpful for whoever is listening and might be walking through a divorce, whether male or female, as well as any big life change. A lot of what's listed here can be useful for us in any kind of dramatic shift in our lives and what we need to be considering, specifically financially. Yeah,

so what were your favorites, Jill? Yeah? So I like how they pointed out just updating all of your accounts, and this is It sounds mundane, and it sounds really simple even, but it's really important that we make sure that all of our accounts are updated, meaning that correct names are on the accounts, correct addresses are on the accounts, and that would include bank, utility, insurance, credit cards, vehicles, schools, titles on cars and houses, and and all of your

financial institutions like you know, life insurance for owen K, pensions, I ra A, all of these things, which I would say is even a good thing to edit every couple of years, making sure that you've got the right addresses and names and that the accounts are how you want them to be. Eric and I, you know, we do joint accounts, so whether you want to make sure that your accounts are joint or you want to separate those accounts.

I think it's important that we make sure everybody has access to or doesn't have access to, the accounts that they need to. Yeah, it can sound really overwhelming when you're saying like this and this and this and this, but really all you need to do is sit down and go through your transactions on your you know, debit credit whatever, and and go through those transactions that are associated with like auto billing, or have a a number or an address associated with them. And that's how you

will find all of those things. Write them all down and then just go through like a checklist and make sure they're all up to date. And so you do this when whenever you move, and it's just really important to to do that, especially if you're changing your name after a divorce, you'll need like a new social Security card, passport, all those things that you would probably put off, but

it's death really better to do it sooner rather than later. Yeah, And on this website, on the Forbes article, they do have a checklist, So if you wanted to grab that off of this article, feel free to do that. And I do want to recognize that there is while we are primarily talking about finances as it relates to big life transitions, emotions and well this we will sprinkle this

throughout this entire episode. But I think it's also important to note that our emotional health and our mental health play a big role in these big life changes, and it can feel really overwhelming and really daunting to be doing all of these tasks that were not accustomed to doing. It's not a part of our daily life to be changing names on accounts, to be tracking all of the things that we just listed off, and so to break it down into bite sized pieces, it would be recommended.

And like Jen just said too, here's the steps. Go through your transactions, write it down, and one by one take those off and make sure that they align with what your lifestyle is or is going to be. And I will say too that I think setting our hands to something, having something to do when we are in the midst of something that is maybe really emotionally draining or exhausting, or really difficult or has a lot of unknowns to it, it can help us to feel like

we have some power and control somewhere. And so finding those small areas like this updating accounts can bring us a sense of okay. This is something that I have within my power to bear influence on and I'm going to do that thing. Um. Yeah, And so these are just some things from my own social work perspective, from a therapist, counselor perspective that even can help. So we do better just facing it then pushing it off, especially if we're able to break it down into manageable pieces.

Definitely listen to Jill on everything she has to say on this episode. This is definitely her area of expertise, so she's going to have a lot of nuggets of wisdom and listeners, folks and the other So the other day I had to call my bank actually to get an overdraft free taken off because I'm a human and we don't keep a lot of money in our our mortgage at the account we pay our mortgage from, and so I overdraft. And so I was like, this is We're in the middle of a pandemic and it's going

to be I'm gonna be forever on the phone. It literally took me less than ten minutes. And so a lot of the things on your list that you're going to have to change, you may think like, look, this is gonna take me all day, I'm just gonna do it, wait until tomorrow. A lot of these things will take ten minutes, and so just do it like on your lunch break, first thing in the morning, or like when you get like before you go to bed, something like that.

Just block out that ten minutes. Some will take longer, but get overwhelmed with the length of time that these things will take. And it feels super empowering to just even check one of these things off to say, okay, I did that. To me, these items are clutter and it feels like a messy room to me. And as we can kind of just start tidying up and clearing some of the clutter with these lingering pieces, it really helps. Yeah.

And then after you so make this list and start checking off, then you're going to want to develop a comprehensive financial plan. That's the next on the list. So your finances have predictably changed a lot. If you're going from two incomes or maybe even no incomes, and then you're still having to pay the same amount for children, You've got college to look forward to, so you have to start you have to rethink your entire financial plan.

And then also if this is divorce, situation as start to figure out, like what you're co parenting and you know, financial situation, there is going to be too and so highly recommend for this getting a fee only financial planner, So not one that would deal with your your you know, stocks and bonds that they take a commission, but somebody who is a fee only fiduciary, so you will pay something up front for their advice. That is, you will

have to go and prepared. But because they're already getting paid upfront, they're going to do everything in their power so in the time that you have together, they are working in your best interests. They're not working off a commission, so they're not giving you advice that gets them paid more.

So definitely when you go to make a financial plan like this, not everybody needs, you know, a financial planner, but in situations like big life changes where you're figuring out stuff like this, that would be the instance where one could be in your best interest. Another tip that stood out to me on this list, and we're not going to go through all seven, just kind of the

highlights is a team having a team around us. And so Jen, you just mentioned this fee only financial advisor, and I would also add a counselor or therapist to that or and and they also list vocational counselor if maybe your transition involves getting back into the workforce after years of being out of it and what is that going to look like, or career change, which we're going to talk about more in the next article. And these don't have to be something that we pay for, of course,

that's kind of what this article is alluding to. But I think that we can find these people and these experts within our own networks or within our friend groups to be able to come around and support us. I mean, certainly a counselor you're going to have to pay, and I would encourage that, especially if going through a divorce situation. That again, like I said, there's a lot of weight on us emotionally and mentally, is important that we care for ourselves through that time, but also to get kind

of an interdisciplinary group of people around us. Somebody who can help advise us on revamping our resume, someone who can be caring for us mentally, maybe somebody who can advise us spiritually, friends who we can talk to. All of these people are necessary. So while we are primarily focusing on finances. We recognize that transition impacts our whole personhood and we need to take all of that into consideration in order to move forward well towards well being

in all aspects of our lives. So I love this team approach and identifying the people that you're going to need to have in your court and your circle around you and communicate that to them. Okay, over the next year, I'm gonna need this kind of support. And I see that you're really good at that. Could you help me in this area? And that could even include somebody who

was good at list making. If that's not you, but you know, to kind of change all of your accounts and do all of the nitty gritty clutter type stuff. But you've got a friend who's phenomenal at that, fantastic, have them come over once a week and do this. And I will say something about transition that I think shocks a lot of people. And this hurts, like, brace yourselves.

This will sting a little bit too here, But it's important to know transition and our adjustment to it takes about six to twelve months, which is shocking to a lot of people. I think we think, Okay, transition is just about as long as change takes. Like I move from one place to another and it takes me three weeks to figure out where my toothbrushes, and that's about

the time that it takes me to adjust. No, in reality, and depending on the level of acuity of the transition, we're more likely looking at about a year of some adjustment for that dust to settle and we start to feel like, Okay, I can catch my breath again. Yeah.

That sucks to know, but at the same time, it can help us prepare our expectations are grace on ourselves, our ability to kind of put people in our court to know this is for the long haul, this is for the next year at least of my life that it's going to take that I need to check off all of these things on my list that I need this level of support around me. So prepare yourself for quite a good amount of transition time. Yeah, Oh my gosh, I felt that so so real when having my first child.

He's just now a year old, and I didn't feel like until he was nine months old that I actually found my life again, like I found normal again. It took like nine months, and so that's I mean, maybe a little extreme for some people. But yeah, look, I thought that once you had a kid, once you got out of the like screaming newborn phase, then you're good. Then you're a mom and you and you get it. But like that was not my experience at all. Yeah,

think about it. Everything is adjusting your relationship with your spouse, is adjusting your relationship with this new child, relationships with friends and extended family members, the way that you approach your job, how you handle finances, like, all of it is. All of it is changing, and it impacts our whole personhood with with any of these transitions that we're talking about. So I think that that can help us in knowing how to approach and kind of preparing ourselves for a

bit of a marathon rather than a sprint. Yeah. The greatest lesson in this that I've ever been taught is have the emotional intelligence to ask for help. You know who taught me that, Anthony from Queer Eye. Yes, so you love that show. I do. I do The last thing on this article that I'm going to say, um, and I forgot to mention earlier that it says so when we're talking about accounts, also, you need to change your beneficiaries. So that was something that I forgot, but

is to work on your credit score. So depending on the camp that you're in on how you feel about credit scores. You when you were going through a big life change that could include a number of things, you will most likely be taking out a new mortgage at some point, you could have the need to take out a car loan or something, and you will save money on those things by having a better credit score. So it's better to have it and not need it then to not have it and need it. So one way.

So one way I think of a credit score. It's not like I love debt score. It's an antidebt score. It's a test for okay, how much how much credit can a bank give me and how little of it can I use? And so if you think of a credit score like that is like a test, then you can build your credit faster. So definitely start with getting your credit report from all three bureaus and you can do that for free once a year from annual Credit

Report dot com. And then look at the way credit scores are waited, and sometimes they can get a little confusing. So really your main goal is to just make pay off your credit card every month in full. So don't worry about your ratio of usage or your oldest accounts stuff like that. Just worry about putting a purchase on the credit card and paying it all off. And so if you do that long enough, then you will build a credit score. So just think of that one simple thing.

I know credit experts are going to hear this and they're like, I do so many other things. But if you're just looking to do one thing, do that. And all of this, as we say, is for entertainment. This is our opinion. We're going through articles. We're not lawyers, attorneys, financial planners, none of that. We are the frugal friends. You know what do. I do a lot of reading about personal finance, and so I can't say any more than I'm not an expert because for the first year

the show, that's what I said. But we are not certified in any financial we're not divorce attorneys, were not yeah, any of those titles. I am a license counselor uh so you know you've got you've got some experts on the show in different ways, but we're not all things to all people. Right, don't give us a one star review. For not being divorce attorneys. Please please, please, please and

thank you. Yes. Okay, So that that's that article. Anything else you want to say there, Jen, No, I think we're ready to move on to our next Forbes article. And so this one is specifically for career change, but again we'll make it as blanket as possible, and it's preparing financially for a career change. So the last one is kind of like what you want to do after, and this one is kind of what you want to

do to prepare. And maybe this is maybe we should have switched these, but you know, kind ting, so you know me. It basically talks about budgeting at the very beginning spoiler spoiler alert in in they didn't use that words cephically, but that's what I'm going to say. That they meant really understanding your costs and your needs and

your wants. You really can't make an educated decision about what you want to do next unless you know what money you spend and what money you bring in and whether or not you can make that change or how long it's going to take before you are able to make that change. So what this literally is is making a list of what do I spend Where does my money go? Breaking it down on food, shelter, clothing, transportation,

medical care, basic necessities, entertainment. How much do I just spend frivolously and making sure that you understand, yeah, what what do I bring in and what do I spend on? So that when you look at changing careers or making big moves or big life transitions, what am I going to need to make sure that I am accounting for? What do I need to make sure that that I need to make every month in order to continue to provide for my needs. Of course, that can include cutting expenses,

and we'll get to that. If you realize that, oh, I'm not going to make as much, or there's gonna be a few months of kind of some limbo where I might be kind of living off of savings, then okay, we can also look at cutting expenses, but we just need to start with what are we spending, where's our money going? And writing it out, making a visual, Yes,

you have to make a visual. I cannot tell you how many times I sit in my office with a client, well not I mean I say in my office and I do tell a health online anyhow, people say, oh, it's up here, it's up in my mind. I'll think about that this week and then week after week. Oh, I forgot to do that thing. Yes, because you need to write it down. I really, I really care for my clients and like that's that's the biggest pet peeve there is and it's not even that big of a

pet peeve. But I do need to tell you that you have to write things down. You have to create a visual because of so many reasons that I won't even get into all of it. But it helps to connect our brain wiring. It helps us to realize what it is that's even going through our minds. It gets us out of our bodies, it doesn't create as much clutter in our thought life, and then it just helps us to remember what it is that we're even talking about or doing. So, yes, write it down and that's

the budget. That's that visual. Yeah. And so then to piggyback off that is to save, save save, that's the next one. And so saving once because eight times out of ten you're going to see a big life change coming and so you're going to be able to save and that um, you know, short period or long period, what have you. But those two other times times they just happened to you and you can't see them coming, and so you need to also be saving for that, So starting to budget now and starting to beef up

that emergency fund. And that's why they say three to six months of expenses, and depending on how vulnerable your life is too big changes, you need to be on the bigger you know, the six month side of that, just in case. And so and sometimes it's not always big changes happening to you that you can't control. Sometimes

they're big changes you want to walk through. So the author was saying that she left her profession to do something else she wanted to do, and then savings can also allow you to choose to take sabbaticals or periodically cut to part time work, and it allowed her to change to a new career. So it's not always about saving for um, something neutral or something worst case scenario you. It's also about saving four big changes that you want

to happen. It's just good to have that buffer so that there is freedom, and we talk about that all the time. With a frugal lifestyle, it creates freedom for us to be able to do what we want. And part of then, as we tease that out, and the tangibles of that is that we are cognizant of putting away money for the unforeseeable and the foreseeable, but either way, we need to have a little bit of a buffer so that we can feel the freedom to do that

and not feel so stuck where we're at. So also on here is to make sure that your new career path can cover your costs. And you know we mentioned that already. That's part of already having the budget, already having your expenses listed out, to be tracking your spending, to be cutting your expenses, and then make sure, all right, is what I have set my sights on next, whether that's core ear or moving or you name it, kids

moving out of the house. Can this new change will I still have these costs covered as a result of that? And if not, that could mean okay, further slashing the budget. That could mean okay, that means that I can't make this transition for a couple more months yet, or I need to get a little bit more creative on where my big spending is, maybe that's housing or transportation, And are there is there some wiggle room there in what you're choosing to do on kind of your four pillars

and being able to decrease those expenses. Yeah, the last thing that I liked from this article, and I think it's just super wise, not just like financially, but in general it says to keep a toe in your old profession. But I think in general this could it just means keeping your options open. So when I changed my career, it was right at when the my licensure was up, and so I had the option to save a couple hundred bucks and just not renew my license because I

was switching to a new career. But I chose to renew that license and invest you know, that money into that just to keep my options open. And then I was listening to the radio this morning and this girl was moving in with her boyfriend, and she made sure that she had enough money in her savings account just in case she needed to break that lease or leave or you know, pay some money to keep her options open.

So it's having that savings and having that wisdom to know, how what do I need to like keep from my old life just to keep my options open for a little while. You don't need to like straddle the then and now forever, but until you're sure that this life chain is solidified and you're you're good. So, like Jill said, six months to a year, then just try to keep

your options open as much as feasibly possible. And that's that's the age old wisdom of don't put you all your eggs in one basket, right, and which is why it can be helpful for us to already have some side hustles and to be engaging and maybe even different types of hobbies because who knows where those things can go from there, or to even keep you afloat during a big transition again, whether foreseeable or unforeseen. Yeah, and I mean there is something we can see every episode.

You see it coming, you just don't know exactly when it's the that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clan. This is the bill of the week. Hey ladies, this is Rika from New Jersey. I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you so much for providing

us with great content. I truly enjoy your show and look forward to listening each and every week. On that note, I wanted to let you both know that my bill the week includes not one, but two different credit cards that I was able to pay off thanks to the

stimulus check that came in earlier this month. I'm blessed to still be working during this pandemic and earning my regular pay, so I made sure the money was spent wisely to help with my lingering debt, which unfortunately I'm still working towards paying off each month, but taking it day by day. Anyways, I figured you guys would be proud. I just want to let you know that I couldn't have done it without you, so thanks so much for always keeping me on track, Stay safe and be well. Bye.

Oh my gosh, we are so proud doing that thing with my hands doing little celebration victory dance for you and the YouTube video. Thanks so much for calling in and sharing your right. We are proud of you, proud for you, so happy to be with you on this journey. And my goodness, what a good use of some extra unexpected money that has come in and the ability to pay off debt with that and not need that to cover groceries or other expenses, and yet still make a

wise choice with it. And it sounds like it is creating so much freedom for you that we can all just live vicariously through and hopefully motivate ourselves to make wise decisions with our money in whatever stage of life we're in right now. So well done, Erica from New Jersey. Leave us your bill of the week at Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and we will celebrate with you whatever that bill is. And now it's time for m M. Yes. So we are going to share with

you some real life realness. And I'm gonna snap because I've as you know, I've been watching rewatching all the seasons of Where I So I'm like very very into this realness right now, very snappy. Yeah, And we are going to share with you kind of how we financially navigated a few big life changes or you know, one or a few however comes up, however the conversation comes. So my big life change that's happening currently is a move to Florida. So for those of you who know

or don't know, here it is. I am, this is Jill moving with my husband Eric, from Pennsylvania to Florida because I talk enough about how I really can't stand the cold weather in Pennsylvania and so we're just doing it. We're going to move to Florida. We have bought a house, and we are less than thirty days away from moving into that house. So we're kind of a little bit

smack dab in the middle of a transition. I know that there's like, and that's the funny thing about transitions, that there's so many different points to it, so many different almost middle points of transition. So we're kind of in in some of that middle and knowing that there's a lot ahead but some of that I can't do yet, and just kind of preparing myself mentally and emotionally for that. For me, this is an exciting transition. So I think

it's also worth noting this is this is a side note. Sorry, I can't help myself what kind of life transition you're in, whether that is perceived by you as positive or negative or a bit of both, and to not let other people dictate what that is for you. I know sometimes we can think, like, oh, having a baby, that you just must be so excited and for some people it's

well yes and no, or you name it. In any kind of life transition, we can assume what that is for somebody else, but it may not be so recognizing that, yes, we have exciting life changes, and we also have really awful, terrible, traumatic, crisis filled transitions that happen as well, and and the way that we approach either one of those does require

different things, different levels of support. Anyhow, for me, moving to Florida is exciting, so I recognize that, and I allow myself to kind of feed off of that excitement and the hope of things that is to come and starting to plan for what life is going to look like then. And that has been enjoyable and I think has helped with some of the unknowns, something that I've also done. And I am a list maker. Thankfully this comes naturally to me. I like it, I find it helpful.

But I have created a Google sheets form of all of the things that need to happen, and I've color color coded it. It's funny because I'm not incredibly type A. This is a little sound very type to you. I am a fly by the state of my pants with a color coded list kind of person. Everything about you. Thanks same to you. So I have created like a what needs to happen before we move, and I think

that's purple. Some things that are more finance related or selling of things, and that's in yellow, and then things that need to happen after the move. I don't know. That is probably like some other fun color. And then more long term things that I'm hoping for because I'm realizing all these things are flying through my head constantly of like, oh, I gotta do this, and it might be so small and minor, but it's something that's going to need to get done, and now I've got a

place to put it. But it's also not oh, here's everything. I've got it separated out as far as when does that thing need to happen, so that when something pops into my head but it doesn't need to happen for like six months from now, fine, it's on the list. And at least then I can say, and this is a therapy term containment, so that I don't get sucked into this vortex of clutter that's going on in my head. I can know that's on the list. I don't need

to think about that right now. I will do that when on the list when the time comes, and that really helps to be able to inhale exhale throughout this process. But yes, a list lightened down, that's a great, great tip I am trying to make. I so I do consider myself type A and I'm currently trying to figure out a method for list making because I have so many projects that I'm working on at a given time.

I am really cluttered with places that I'm keeping them all down, so I'm trying to figure out how to best contain them. And I think I've been trying like different project management apps, and I was like, maybe a Google sheet is just where you need to be, you know me, I'm just all about making my own Yes, you do for me, So this is kind of like a two parter or even a three partner. I don't know.

So I went through a few career changes, and actually, when we were thinking about this lightning around, I was like, I don't have nothing big has happened in my life. And then was like, wait, you did a total one eight career change and I didn't believe you forgot about it. Seems like another life. So I mentioned earlier that I made a career change. I was a licensed acupuncturist for over five years. That's what my masters is in I, and that was what I wanted to do for the

rest of my life. I had very very much had my dream job, and so after paying off our debt and getting into personal finance, I realized that that is also something I was super passionate about. And it became this this mental transition from Okay, I have my dream job, I'm set to I have I peaked at twenty five, and then discovering this new thing and realizing, okay, maybe

I haven't peaked, maybe there's more for me. But it was this very I had a big existential crisis when I moved from becoming an acupuncturist to becoming a full time writer and so I kind of but I did it in stages. So I initially turned down a job to write for the Penny Corder, and then maybe a year or two later is when I accepted it, because that's how long it kind of took me to mentally get there. And so also, don't let people tell you

how long you need to make your transition. Like I said before, you definitely don't want to live with one ft in the past and one ft in the present. But if it takes you a while to make a transition, then let like give yourself the grace to take that time. I needed the time, and I'm so happy that I did leave my job, and I don't regret those years that I worked there at all. But I've my world has been opened up so much by making this change.

And it wasn't a scary financial change for us. It was actually really good financially, so that one was more

of an emotional change. But then a year into it, they laid off half of their staff and I made another change to a freelance financial writer, So that was more of an unexpected and negative change because I lost my health insurance and I was maybe four or six weeks away from giving birth, so that was and so that wasn't just a big change where we had to do a lot of things like you know, paperwork to get on a different insurance um and thankfully Travis had

the option of health insurance through his work, but we were also in a time crunch to do it because we had to get that whole thing switched over before I gave birth. So I would say I learned a lot about taking the time to make your changes, but also it can be done very quickly if you needed to be done. I love how you maintained both acupuncture and financial personal finance writing and even worked under another company for a time before kind of finding your feet

to do it yourself. I think that that was such a wise, bootstrapping way of doing it, and that doesn't always work out for everyone, but it is something to keep in mind of, what are the steps that I could take to get to this goal rather than just completely diving in headfirst. If that feels like, oh, that's a big risk or that could mean a lot of sacrifice, is there a way to kind of scale it back

a bit and slowly but surely make that shift. Yeah, that's a great point because when I left acupuncture, so after we paid off our debt, we did ten five and one year life and financial plans. So we looked at where we wanted to be in a year from now out five and ten, and we we looked at all the areas of our life and our finances that

it would take to get there. Has that changed completely, It's changed completely, But without that initial planning then I wouldn't have been able to see those steps on the journey as actually steps to get to where I want to be, which is working for myself. So this is actually being a freelance writer for other websites is still a step on the journey to me working full time

in frugal Friends and modern frugality. And so I took the Financial Freedom Planner, which is a planner I sell a modern frugality and we went through that, and so I was able to see, like, do I want to be doing the same job in the same place at the same pay for ten more years and that is what's and and that's the trigger. That was the question I needed to ask to start making the change. And so that looked like, Okay, I'd like to work under

somebody in this new profession. And then I view the firing as a blessing because who knows if I would have had the courage to leave on my own to start freelancing if I wasn't pushed. So so that was just a blessing to be pushed into that. And but

it's just another step on. Okay, so now I'm at home, I'm where I want to be, but I still can get other income from people who have it while I'm working on building my own So financial planning is like goal planning is so important, and who would have thought that that would now be perceived as a blessing for you, which I think is something I want to highlight in what you're saying for anybody who is in a difficult transition right now, maybe forced or unseen, or is a

really difficult type of transition to hold on to. Hope, certainly do some of these things that can help to put some power back back into yourself and on your plate and be caring for yourself in the different ways that we've talked about, but also recognize that your perspective on your situation right now will most likely be different one, two, three, five years from now, and and we're not quite sure how that story is going to unfold, but it can be true that the best is yet to come for

you even as you're walking through something very difficult. So yeah, it's so. I mean, it's easy to look back now and say that was such a great thing. It did not feel that way at the time, but how incredible that you can say, Wow, I'm I'm grateful for the push that that gave me and what I have developed into as a result of that. Resilience does come if

we let it out of very difficult situations. And so if you are able to push through to take the necessary steps to not lose hope of enjoyable life and well being, you know, in in seasons it comes and goes, you will build resilience. Part of that is gratitude, choosing gratitude in that process. So well said what that's a great ending to this episode. There it is. Well, guys, thanks so much for listening to us and for your

suggestions on these episodes. We really hope that this was helpful for our frugal friends community and everyone else who's just finding us now. And we want to thank you so much for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher like this one. So it is it happens to be five stars and they say love it. It comes from coupon Kate. This podcast is keeping my spirits up during this crazy quarantine time while teaching me some frugal tips

I haven't done yet. I love the episode on side Hustles because it's not the same as everyone else's lip us. You girls rock and I'm addicted. I can't wait to recommend this to my friends, Thanks so much coupon Kate. It's so good to hear that we're providing some refreshing content on even topics that are talked about so often.

So yeah, that's encouraging. And and these reviews for those of you who have listened to a handful of episodes and really understand the vibe to be able to give a review, that is helpful for others to know what to expect out of these types of yeah, out of our podcast. Yeah, don't think everything that is said or needs to be said has been said, because sometimes really good reviews get pushed to the bottom and we need

them said again. So think about what got you to listen to this show and just say it again, because it really does help, especially with starting to get advertisers on the show so that I don't have to this one thing on my plate taken off. That helps us a lot, and it does will to continue to provide this for free. Yeah, ever ever want to charge our listeners, we will, I mean, we will never charge for this. And we just want to make some money so that

I can stop freelancing. Remember steps steps in my life, help me get there, help me. Yeah, And so also we thank our friends who share these episodes, because that also helps me get to the next stage in my life. So we are rewarding all of our friends who share and review, and every five tags and reviews we get, we give away a ten dollar Amazon gift card. So

keep doing that. Help me, Just help me. And if you do leave us a review on iTunes or stitchers, send us a screenshot of that review to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com. Back us on social media. Do both you'll be entered into a drawing possibly get in to another Amazon DV card. Who whoo bye byes. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Sirian.

I really wanted to mention another queer Eye story during the episode of feel like I've made enough Queer Eye references, but I was just rewatching season five and it's the episode with the guy who who's he's in a wheelchair and he runs a nonprofit called Disabled but not Really, And before he was paralyzed, he was this like horrible person, and then after being in the wheelchair for a while, he like decided to like change his life for like him and his daughter, and so now he was this

like fitness professional in a wheelchair. He can climb a rope with his arms in his wheelchair, with his wheelchair shopped him. And so he's just this completely different person. And now he views when he got shot and paralyzed as a blessing because it changed his life and he is a completely different person, better person. People are amazing.

People are absolutely amazing. But that's the thing. I think there's choices in that because the same thing could happen to another person and it just spirals into complete destruction. And I think when we talk about, oh, I want tangibles,

I want tangibles, and just talking theory isn't enough. Well, theory and perspective and what we choose to set our minds on does actually really shift the trajectory of our lives too, Like right, like choosing to to do something different, to change his life, to choose gratitude, to have the perspective that this awful thing that happened to him physically

is a blessing. That's amazing. Yeah, And he was able, he was even able to confront the man who shot him and like at the end give him hug and thank him and like, yeah, that transition took two years, Like he spent two years just lying in bed feeling sorry for himself, but realized the sooner that you make a change, the more time you have in life to enjoy that that change and that that positivity. I oh, I just get goose bumps. M wow on that note,