Episode three point thirteen Managing Money as a single woman.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast.
My name is.
Jill and my name is Chloe.
Ooh, it's a special treat it hurt it. We got Chloe here again, filling in for Jen as a stand in co host, which is different from being a guest.
She's co bosting with me.
More important, way more important.
Definitely.
Jen's out on maternity lead. She's Karen for the new baby Atlas. He's amazing. I've gotten to hold him. He's chunk. He makes my arms fall asleep, which is fun at least one part to my body's getting sleep. If you listen to episode three twelve, you already know Chloe's voice. She was here already, She's gonna be here again for the next episode. There's just so much goodness for getting from her. And if you ever go on the internet, you already know Chloe for her amazing dance moves and
all of her amazing investing and financial insight. She's literally all over the internet. You can find her podcast at Moneybear. She's on Instagram clobear money Coach. That's my personal favorite. She's got a blog clobear dot com, all sorts of resources, which I'm sure you'll hear more about. But just start somewhere, choose one of those things that I just mentioned and get at her.
Welcome Chloe, Hi, Chloe, thank you.
And we were joking about this before I joined today's episode that I was like, oh, crap, I haven't even looked at the notes yet. And then I saw the title and it was Managing money as a single woman, and I was like, oh, I'm fine, I got I got the life experience. It's my friends.
We haven't even made it to the Lightning round yet. We're just diving into vulnerability from the stars. So I mean, what's your relationship status, Chloe?
Were yet? I have been single for most of my life, which is why it's funny. But I just recently got into a relationship about six months ago now, So now I've got you know, I'm hanging up my single title for a little while, hopeful I mean hopefully forever. That sounds weird to say. I'm like, wait, how do I wait?
Wait?
Wait, wait, backtrack. So anyway, it's been going good so far. But I certainly have a lot of experience both in terms of being a single woman, living alone, the costs that come with being single, and dating in general. So I'm excited to talk about this today.
Well, I think it's important for all of us to know how to manage our money. But I think that there's always these different nuances and life circumstances that do bring about various different decisions for us depending on the circumstances that we're in. And so I think one of the things we like to do is look at all those different angles if we're not experts in it or we don't feel like we've got ample amount of experience in it to be able to bring others on to talk about that.
So it's so Chloe, but yeah, we want.
To be able to talk about specifically as a single woman wherever, and this could span life stages, right, you've got those in your twenties or seventies and eighties. If you're listening to this podcast, welcome. I'm so glad to have you, and I think that this is just an important topic to look at. Okay, what about for this specific life experience, because we get a lot of people saying like it makes it so much more difficult, but
then you have people saying it's so much easier. And I think we're going to look at both of those angles and really just help to equip with the tools needed in this episode. But first, I know you got something special for us, Chloe.
Oh yeah, let's get to our sponsors. This week's episode is brought to you by overshares Anonymous, where we look to hilop well rehabilitate the millennial urge to overshare in
order to connect and people please. Founded by Clobe dot com, a blog that started as a place for mostly profanity and oversharing on the things we deal with in life, like relationships, dating, mental health, and of course overcoming people pleasing, which, by the way, you know what pleases me helping people transform their relationship with finances and become investors, which is why I am hosting a free investing class this month, So if you guys go to Lazyinvestingclass dot com you
can check out the times that are available for this month. And really it's a live it's a live session. We talk about the basics that you need to know in order to become an investor. The ways that you can invest that aren't going to be incredibly risky and you don't have to worry about oh my god, am I risking my entire life savings? And it's really the only opportunity you have to pick my brain for completely free. So there's a Q and a session, we do a giveaway.
It's a lot of fun and it's a great community. So check that out again at Lazy Investing class dot com.
Oh wow, what an amazing sponsor we got today.
Over I know how was my ad voice was incredible.
I am signing up and I hope that I can win whatever prizes you give away.
Thank you so much. Just got it. Like the only thing I stumbled on was rehabilitate and I was like, I was going so good. Oh no, what I just cussed. We're gonna have to bleep that everyone bleep that.
You were doing good plostic.
So well, all right, everyone, just as a heads up over at the money Bear podcast, we we be cursing a lot.
So this is chloe Is.
Our podcast is the one to listen to on your way to drop the kids off at school.
And Chloe's is the one you listen to on your way home.
Oh I am between pumping the like late to early two thousand's R and B music.
Yes, I'm perfectly I will wear that crown.
It's amazing.
Well, if you're still with us and you happen to want more after this episode. On a similar topic, we've got episode two thirty nine, which is paying off fifty one thousand dollars of debt as a teacher and single mom with kat Lynn. Really incredible one, super popular one.
I know.
We love kind of the very typical and very accessible stories of yeah teachers. We've got a lot of teachers who listen to this single mom, so she kind of holds it down in that space and paid off her debt, which is amazing, So feel free to listen to that story. Then we've got episode one forty three, ha Lydia send paid off thirty six thousand dollars of debt on one income. So there's a lot of people out there crushing and slay in regardless of relationship status, and we hope that
this is your ultimate takeaway. We've got some ulterior motives in this episode, really, so let's get into the articles. We've got our first article is five ways that being single can cost you more. And I think this is one of those approaches where we are recognizing the people who say, I it costs so much more money to be single, and we're kind of playing Devil's advocate here
and just jumping into the naysayers. I will say, so, this article comes from CNN, and there are definitely holes to be poked, and we're going to poke those holes. We don't only talk about things on the internet that we agree with. Sometimes we talk about the things we disagree with because it's salacious and fun. Yes, so there's five. We'll go through all five. I'll kick it off. The first one is that you're more likely to pay more
for basics, which this one. I don't think that there's as many holes to be poked, but I think, as with anything that we're going to talk about this in this article, there are ways around this. And being single is not this sentence to a life of poverty by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, it could be the opposite. But we'll get there. But certainly there's things
to look at here. What are the pros and cons of living in singleness, whether by choice or not, And that's a whole other situation that we're not going to talk about here, but I do want to recognize some of the relational, mental emotional difficulties that can go into various relationship statuses. But we're primarily looking at what does
this mean for finances? And so if you are single, living on your own, yeah, it is very possible that you're going to pay more for basics, if you are one hundred percent foot in the bill for your living, for your utilities. Of course, all of your food is most likely on you. That's going to cost more, and it's something to keep in mind and to be prepared for. But then again a little bit of a hold of
poke here is that there's ways around it. We can have roommates, we can maybe live smaller so our expenses are less, we don't necessarily need as much space because we're not sharing it with other people. So there's a couple of different ways that we can go about this. But absolutely, like we see you, if you're living a single and you're living on your own, you are one hundred percent I N d ep E and d e
n T. Check my spelling things. For all the musicians out there who have helped me know how to spell that word. And yeah, you will probably have to foot the bill for maybe a little bit more than if you had a partner.
Yeah, I do feel like, out of everything in the article, this is the one that I resonated with the most is that you do. I mean, yes, you are willing to have roommates, which at a certain point, I think a lot of us no longer want to have roommates, no longer want to live with our parents, no longer want to share space. You know, you are going to be footing that bill, and that's the hardest I think is rent is almost always going to be double because
you could be splitting it with a partner, but you're not. Yes, of course there are options for smaller spaces, but if you look at the price of a one bedroom apartment versus like a two bedroom apartment, in most cities, a lot of the times, the two bedroom apartment is only
slightly more expensive, but still out of reach. You know, it's like maybe like maybe you're you're paying fifteen hundred dollars for a one bedroom, but the two bedrooms twenty two hundred dollars, So it's like if you're splitting that that would be less expensive than what you're playing paying on your own. So I do think that that's probably one of the hardest things about being single, is all
the just daily costs. Now. Granted, I think, and they mentioned this at the beginning of the article, is like, this is all a super being that if you are in a relationship, you're not in a relationship with somebody who is debt laiden or financially abusive, a gambler, or just a mooch. So there's obviously that nuance. But when you look at, you know, living basics without those kind of components, I do think, at least in my experience,
it feels like it's always double. You're just like cool, it would be so nice to split the utility bill
with somebody, or doesn't mean it's not worth it. I certainly love living alone, and I think the hardest part about even being in a relationship now is after spending so long living alone, I'm very set in my ways, and part of me thinks one of the most perfect scenarios and I love to see it trending is having two locations, like you can have at your house and I will have mine, and we will visit each other.
I think it's helpful to look at that reality that yes, this is true, you know for everyone out there, kind of saying this is so much more expensive yet in some of the bigger areas, it's very true. But I also like what you've highlighted that it's it's also not grass is greener on the other side and having a partner,
because that can bring its own financial difficulty. So this is just here we go reality, And especially for single women, I know it can be really important that that we feel safe regardless of if we're single or have a partner, we're living on our own or with other people.
But I know sometimes that can increase the cost.
If you want to kind of be in an apartment or condo situation that has security and you feel okay being outside at night, that could come with a higher ticket price.
So absolutely, I.
Think it just is it's worth just stating and acknowledging and yep, this is this is it.
So now what do we do about it?
Which you'll get there in the next few articles, but we'll keep poking holes before that.
Yes, So the second point that the article made was that you don't have a financial backstop, meaning you know you don't have somebody as a backup plan. You don't have this like extra earned in come if you were to lose one hundred percent of your income. What do you think about that, Chloe, I think it's I mean, it's true, and it's actually it's one of the things
my boyfriend and I have talked about. So my boyfriend full disclosure, is an ex boyfriend who we got back together, uh six months ago, and.
Shas anonymous or you're not anonymous, but.
Yeah, I know. Right before we hopped on, she was like, so, are you like comfortable sharing? I'm like, oh, don't you were read everything is on the table.
She literally said I could talk about this till my tongue falls out, and that kind of excited me.
I don't know why that was.
I have a whole blog of that we need to do redirects on of like old relationship articles that are probably pretty cringe now. But anyway, but so, my boyfriend and I had a conversation about this the first time we dated where I had this moment where I realized I had been functioning at this level, thinking that for my entire life I would be the one who was always one hundred percent responsible for our relationship, like financially, our relationship, like in terms of pretty much every component.
And I think it's because I've spent such a long time knowing that was my reality is as a single person, that is my reality. It's like I am one hundred percent responsible for everything. And I had to realize that
in order to take control of my finances. Because if you have spent most of your life kind of thinking, well, eventually I'll meet somebody and then we can start doing this, or buy a house, or then I'll say for retirement, or then I'll get my money, right, well, what happens when that doesn't happen, And it's like you have to take ownership that no one is coming to save you and you are responsible for your finances because then best case scenario is that then sure, eventually you get that
bonus partner who can help you achieve the goals, like you can achieve goals together. But if you don't prepare, worst case scenario is you never get that financial backstuff, you never get that extra financial support, and then you spent your whole life that. So I do think it's true. And anyway, going back to that conversation I had with my boyfriend. He was like, yeah, you do function like
that and you don't have to. And it's like, I still struggle with that because I still think, you know, everything is one hundred percent my responsibility, and I mean to an extent, what I can control is obviously my responsibility.
But yeah, it's it's it's the truth. Unless you've got family or you've got other people you can rely on, but sometimes it's just not something we want to rely on, you know, Like even though I could always call my parents if something were awful were to happen, it's not what I want.
Yeah, yeah, I think reading it made me a little uncomfortable, even though I agree it is true for most people. But I think whenever we talk about finances and relationships and partnership, it's so nuanced and we can point to so many examples of it working out in any of this scenarios, and sometimes the person is not a financial backstop, if anything, they're a financial drain. And yeah, sometimes the relationship doesn't work out the way that maybe you had hoped,
and that's a whole other situation. So I think, yeah, it's like I struggle with anything that kind of wants to paint something as black and white. If only I had this, then I would have a financial backstop, a sure plan, enough money for retirement. And that's not guaranteed ever.
Well, And that's why I think that regardless of if you are in a relationship or not, you have to function as if you do not have that financial backstop, like not to the place where it's detrimental to your relationship. But I think functioning in a way where it's like I'm setting myself up. That's that's why I had to do it, is like I had to set myself up for myself so that if I did not ever have a financial backstop, as they call it, you know, I'd
be okay. And I still function that way, but now it's like with a little bit more grace and a little bit more peace in knowing that, like Trek's always going to be there for me, but I want to make sure I am always covered period, end of story. And I think that that's doubly important for women. I think that that's so incredibly important.
Oh, here we go.
I think one of the things I will move on to number three. I don't mean to belabor this, but I'm realizing some of the discomfort that I have in this conversation is I think I can see from anybody, so pulling away from relationship status, these things that we identify in our situations that feel insurmountable or enough of a reason to not be able to do well then becomes the reason that we don't seek for growth.
Or well being or more knowledge or resources.
And and I think that's maybe some of this for me, is anything that we want to point to is like, well, I can't do that because I'm not like you. I've got this going on, like I have to pay for all of my housing. And that's not to say that that's not a difficult situation. But I think where we want to set up camp there as the reason that
I can't have retirement savings. Yeah, I don't think that we want to pinpoint any reason or because I have a spouse who doesn't want to become debt free is the reason that like I can't do anything well with my finances. And I think maybe just like pulling the curtains back on, what are the things that are holding us back? What are the main excuses I don't I'm not trying to boil this down to too small of an issue, But what are the things that we point
to that could become just inhibitors from moving forward. Oh yeah, this can be that.
That was a huge inhibitor for me for a really long time was thinking, oh, I'll change my situation when I meet someone, when I do this. It was like always this moving target of yeah, I can do this when. But that's like you have to eventually realize, like even if you meet this person, that's not a guarantee. And it shouldn't be like your number one, what's your retirement plan. It shouldn't be a partner. Your retirement plan can't be a partner. It can't be your kids. It needs to
be you. You need to come up with your own retirement plan. And one thing I did want to mention before we move on to the next point because I got on my soapbox and forgot to mention it is because of this, because single people often don't have that extra income, it's important the general recommendation for an emergency fund. A lot of people hear three months of emergency savings.
That's if you're a two income household. So if you are a one income household, you really want to be closer to six months all the way up to potentially twelve months. I don't think it's necessary unless you're like in a volatile industry or have a lot of anxiety, or if you're a business owner that could I could see that as well, but you do want to be closer to that six month emergency fund.
Thanks Chloe number three on here, which kind of made me chuckle.
But it's real. You may be charged extra on a group trip.
It seems to me a little bit of a smaller issue in the grand scheme of things, but yes, as a single person, if you're traveling with couples, they might be charging per couple and you might end up paying more.
As a result of that.
I would just say keep a pulse on that and advocate for yourself, which takes time. I'm not going to say that it's a snap of the fingers because it's friends and it's finances, and sometimes those things are hard to blend and talk about.
But yeah, yeah, it's another area.
You pretty straightforward on that one. I mean, I've definitely experienced that with like, you know, going to a wedding or something. When you're in a relationship, you can split the cost of a room, but when you're single, you've either got to like hope that somebody else wants to split a room, or pay for a room all on your own. So it is it is a luxury problem to have, because I certainly wouldn't want to share a room at this point in my life. But yeah, that's the thing.
Yeah, you don't always want to be the person just taking the couch at the Airbnb pay less waking up with everybody in the morning.
The next one was which I thought was interesting because I think this is uh, not the best way to say it. Your social Security benefits are less valuable. What I find interesting about this little portion that they're talking about is that they're basically saying if you never marry and you never have kids, when you retire, assuming you qualify, you will receive Social Security benefits based off of your lifetime of earnings, and when you die those benefits will stop.
When you're married or divorced, you'll usually get a little bit more money because of other family members, so like if you have a spouse, if you have an ex, you'll get a portion of theirs as well the spouse. I mean, obviously if it's your spouse, you guys are getting that social Security and splitting that social security, but in some instances children as well. But the reason I thought that this was kind of a weird thing to include is that, sure, it's possible, but it's a lot
more nuanced than that. Social Security in general is a very very nuanced and it's mostly based off of what you earn. Sure you could be getting more if you have an ex spouse that like, once you get to retirement regardless, you'll get part of their Social Security benefit,
which is nice. But in the situation of if you're still married, I'm pretty sure you still get the same amount that you would have if you had been single, but it's going to be based off of your married filing jointly, and so that's where it's kind of like there's a lot of nuance there. It's not just point blank, if you're married, you're going to get more Social Security benefits. It's possible, but I wouldn't take this and run with
it and be terrified. Social Security in of itself is a very complicated system, and how you figure out how much you're going to get is a very nuanced thing that's going to depend on a lot of factors.
Yeah, Well said We're not going to take a deep dive into that, but just know there's a little bit of a hole to be poked there, and it's not as cut and dry.
Yeah, want to make it seem definitely not. It's kind of like when I read it over like three times and I was like, I don't know if this is as accurate as it should be. When they're making a claim of like your Social Security benefits are less valuable, it's like, okay, but when you really break it down per person and their expenses, is it really so. I don't have the information to say for sure, but I think it's a lot more nuanced than that.
Yeah.
The last one on this article is you're more likely to run short of money for retirement.
Just brace it. Hold on, Chloe, hold on.
They say when they retire, single women, which include those who are divorced and widowed, have a retirement saving shortfall that is three times larger than that of their married peers, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. It is interesting that they're only talking about women, not about men, because
this article is just single people. They never mentioned women from the start, but they're pinpointing women here and the shortfall they're saying, is just to cover basic expenses such as housing, food, transportation, clothing. You know, we about to talk about how not to find yourself in this situation. Yes, this one also makes me. I mean, if it's true, it's true, but it's cringey either way.
Yeah, so the reason this one makes me cringe is just because the statement you're more likely to run short of money for retirement is such a fear based statement. And yes, statistically our current generations in retirement, yes, this is true that statistically women are more likely to run out of money for retirement because if you think about the people who are in retirement now, things were very
different in their prime earning years. Most of these folks had pensions, if not a lot of them were transitioned from pensions to to fi oh and canes during that time. And there wasn't necessarily a lot of education. And just in terms of like the women in the workforce, things
have really shifted. So to say, now our audience, you know, assuming our audience is a lot of millennials or Gen xers, this doesn't mean you're going to run short on money for retirement just because statistically right now, yes, women most likely to be in prop poverty and retirement most likely to deal with those shortcomings. That is a real issue. However, just because you're single running short on money for retirement, that's that's totally preventable. That's totally something that you can
prepare for. And I think a lot of the reason why a lot of folks in retirement right now is because of the workforce, because things have changed, because a variety of different issues. Not just hey, you're single, you're not gonna have money for retirement, like what a damaging message. Instead,
how about you, how about you say for retirement. And again, I guess this goes back to the same statement that we kind of got hung up on earlier, which was you know, you've got to be your own financial backstop. And I don't think that was the message for women forty years ago. I know it was. It wasn't.
Yeah, it was get a financial backstop, correct exactly?
Financial backstop, yes, exactly.
So it's like, yes, that is reality for folks in retirement right now. That does not mean you are more likely to run short on money. It means that this is the importance of why you need to make sure that you're saving for retirement. So that you do not end up in that situation. And my guess is, and we've seen it in the stats for millennials saving for retirement and gen z saving for retirement, we're saving a lot more for retirement in preparation for this because we know,
we know the situation's bad. We're making sure that we can retire someday and don't run out of money.
Yes, yes, Chloe, Well, let's correct this message with the next article. Or now that we've acknowledged the realities and the difficulties, I feel like we've gotten ahead of the butts.
We just straight out the gate, called it out.
Whatever someone's going to want to say in the reviews or emails. But but we're turning around. We did it, We acknowledged them.
There it is.
So now what do we do as a single woman with our finances? And so the next article we're going to look at goes through this, and of course plenty of opportunity for Chloe to share all of our insight. This one comes from Kiplinger and it is titled Flying Solo. Five financial strategies every single Woman should Know. I'm going to argue every woman, just every human, every person, but certainly important for single people to be focused on. So
Number one is give yourself a cash cushion. Chloe already alerted us to this, but having an emergency fund, having that backstop, being your own financial backstop, and having an emergency fund saved up. They do recommend three to six months, but similar to what you just said, Chloe, they say six to nine months for single people, because, yeah, you're not going to have someone else in the home, a partner with you who can kind of help weather that
financial storm. It's going to be a little bit more exceptible to recover from a job loss or some sort of finance overwhelming financial unforeseen circumstance if you've got more money in the bank. So, and I don't know if they did this intentionally, but I do think it's number one. It is one of those kind of first steps if you are considering finances as a single person, This is one of the first places to be focused on with your money stash in as much away as possible.
Yeah, and I think that we'll find in this article a lot of the things that are, you know, geared towards advice towards single people is the same stuff that you're going to hear in general advice. You know, you just got to make sure that you are doing these things. So the second point on there was make investing a habit, which is my favorite because I love investing so much, and I.
Mean, you can still be number two.
I know. I'm like, you could start by coming to my lazy investing class dot com. Let me just sneak that little shout out in there. Yeah, not a plug.
It's not a plug.
Helpful resource, helpful resource, hopeful, free resource. But I do think that making investing a habit is incredibly important, really as soon as possible.
Uh.
This article talks about making sure that at minimum, you're contributing enough to get your employer match. If not, you're leaving money on the table, which I couldn't I could not agree with more, and then not only that, looking at what other options do you have available? I think the thing that I always tell folks is you've got to know your numbers. You have to figure out, okay, approximately how much do I even need to be able to retire someday? And then how do I reverse engineer
that to make sure I get there? How do I make sure I'm saving enough to get there now? If you're early in your career, you're in your twenties, or you're in your even even in your thirties, and you calculate those numbers, and let's say you're starting in your thirties and you see this big, big number and you're like, oh, shoot, in order to reach that, I'm supposed to invest one
thousand dollars a month. It's okay. If your path is not going to be linear, you're if you're not able to invest one thousand dollars a month or whatever it is that you need to do based off of the calculators that you run. And I really like the bank rate retirement calculators, but always make sure that you're accounting for inflation. So the number one retirement calculator that I recommend to people is the bank rate retirement calculator with inflation.
You can literally just google those words that I just said, and I think it's like the third option down or something, but just make sure it's the one with inflation. But anyway, you've got to if you see that and you're like, oh my gosh, there is no way I can actually invest that amount of money, know that every little bit helps, even if you can only start with one hundred if you can start with two hundred, and know also that that includes what you're investing in your off four O
NK or yourroth IRA. That employer match includes all of those things. And it's more important that you know what you need to do so that when you get a promotion in the future, when you're making more money, that is top of mind. So you know, ooh, I got a promotion, but a lot of that needs to be going into my investments. So you may not be able to do what you need to do based off the calculators online right away, but it's more like, let's make
that a goal. Let's get to that so that you can retire with gobbles that are gobbles, oodles of money, oodles like gobbles, gobbles, gobbles of money, goferents, gobblesol overflowing goblets of money.
What everybody is ay is okay.
Number three on here is to prepare for the unexpected. I feel like this is very similar to number one as far as having an emergency savings. I think again the very specific tip for single people of having more than three months aiming at six to nine to twelve
months worth of living expenses saved. But they are also referencing insurance, which I do think is a worthwhile thing for everyone to consider income replacement, ability insurance, long term care insurance, certainly considering who you're leaving behind having life insurance, but considering income replacement. If you happen to have some sort of medical emergency that really wipes you out from work for a longer amount of time, that type of insurance.
Again for everybody, but yes, especially single people, this is something to be looking into and obtaining for yourself.
Yeah, especially because disability specifically, it can take months for disability to kick in from the government. So if you can afford disability insurance, it's really not a bad idea for pretty much everyone. I know. It can get expensive though. Long term care insurance I know unfortunately is almost unaffordable for most people. But I think that's why it's so important. Going back to habit number two is why you've got
to prepare. Outside of that stuff, You've got to self insuran. Essentially, you've got to be saving. You've got to have that emergency fund, and that gets more and more important the older you get. The three to six month emergency fund changes as you approach retirement. Once you get to retirement, you need to be looking at a year to two
years of an emergency fund. So just a side note, because there's a lot of people out there who are going to try and sell young single people insurance policies that they probably don't need, like whole life insurance or
iuls or anything along those lines. Most of the time, the general rule of thumb, and this leads into our next point about getting your affairs and affairs in order, is that the general rule of thumb is that if you have children, you need to have term life insurance, But whole life insurance and permanent life insurance policies, those are things that are very specific products that most average joes do not need because if you think about life insurance,
the whole point is to replace your income for people who are dependent on your income. And if you're single and you have no kids, first of all, why would you need life life insurance if you're saving and investing on your own. But whole life insurance it's really geared more towards a wealth preservation tool for folks, and that's for like the uber wealthy humans, the war and buffets
of the world. The Rockefellers of the world. Most average joes are not going to benefit from a permanent life insurance policy despite the insurance salesman trying to convince you that you will. So just had to mention that because
it's a big problem in the industry. But that leads us into get your Affairs in Order, And again, this is something that really applies to everybody, is you've got to make sure that you've got contingency plans for if something were to happen to you, if you're incapacitated, who's going to pay your bills? What are the plans? Do
you have beneficiaries? I think that's the easiest first step is making sure that all your accounts have beneficiaries on it so that there's no confusion if something were to happen to you. And then eventually looking into getting an estate plan as well, so that if you were to pass, if you've gotten a state that you need to pass on and explain what to do with that is covered and there's there's no arguments happening over what happens to your estate.
Well said, and the title get your Affairs in Order, I just it sounded so old Hollywood. And then darling, get your stairs in order, right, okay, And.
I'm like I get it. I'm like I get it, because it's like, how else do you say that in terms of like estate planning, But I mean I would push back in that. I don't think estate planning is like the number one thing you need to focus on. It depends on where you're at in your life. You know, like eventually, yes, you need an estate plan, but usually when you have an estate plan, it's because you have
some kind of wealth that you need to distribute. Most of the time, something as simple as a will, something as simple as you know, adding beneficiaries to those financial accounts. But you know, everybody's situation is different, and you at the very minimum want those beneficiaries and long term or I'm sorry, short, what did I call it? Term insurance if you've got kids.
Yeah, those are all excellent and really tangible tools and anchors to be focused on. I think as we're going through these tips, one of the things that's apparent to me is this is applicable to everyone. There's only a few things that are really specific to those who are single,
and it is that increased emergency fund. And I think especially this one that the getting your affairs in order, but when there's not that kind of obvious partner or spouse who's going to step in when there's a medical emergency or financial emergency, making sure that those people are named. I know we've talked about this in our episodes about aging parents and making sure that they're you know, the medical decision maker and the power of attorney and all
of these things are in order. I think similarly for single people of who is the person because if it's not named, it could be decided.
For you, yes, and so making.
Sure that you have decided when you are clear of mind, who do you want to be making your medical decisions, Who do you want to be if needed, doing anything financially, the beneficiaries, all of these pieces, because otherwise it's it's going to be decided for you and you may not be pleased with whatever someone else decides on your behalf.
And then the last one on this, which I do love and.
Encourage all women, all people, improve your financial acumen. And this is more and more accessible thanks to people like you, Chloe and all these people rising up in the financial personal finance space making an understanding of money accessible for all types of people, not just you know, if you look a certain way or you sound a certain way, Oh,
they're the ones who can understand investing. But finding someone who you feel represents you, who you feel you can listen to and trust and make sure you trust them because there's all kinds of voices out there. There's pros and cons to the fact that the internet is saturated with this, but finding people who are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and of course who you can find yourself in and learn
more and gain more tools and resources. Thankfully, there's blogs, there's podcasts, there's books, you name it, all kinds of ways that we can learn more about saving, cutting expenses, investing, negotiating, making wise financial decisions, strategizing. And I think this has been an area that has been historically cut off to women.
That we are saying no more, and we can.
Be single women and do very well for ourselves financially, and I think a lot of that comes from knowledge as well. And what are we going to do with if we feel like we have little? What are we going to do if we feel like we have a lot. How can we move from one place to the other if that's our desire? And so much of this is going to happen through educating ourselves, which is also possible. We can educate ourselves, we can learn more. The things that are scary can become not so scary.
One hundred percent. And if you feel overwhelmed with all the things that you don't know, I always tell people just start with one thing. Start with what is the one thing that would make the biggest difference in your life right now. Maybe that is understanding your budget, maybe that's understanding your spending, maybe it is getting started with investing. But what is the number one thing that you need to learn about you know, right away? And it doesn't
have to be all at once. Doing it all at once can just be a really great recipe for you to do nothing because there's so much information out there. I actually had this happened last week and a coaching call.
So I have a lazy community where we're all lazy investors and there's a coaching that happens, and one of the lazy investors was like, you know, I just signed up for a bunch of emails, a bunch of newsletters, and suddenly I'm feeling really overwhelmed because every single one has a different opinion and they're They're sending me like a million different articles all the time, and I'm like, that's so amazing that you were excited enough to sign up for a newsletter. But I'm going to tell you
is focus on one thing at a time. You already bought this course, finish this course, and then go, you know, dedicate yourself to one newsletter or dedicate yourself to just learning more about bonds or whatever it is. But if you try to absorb it all, all of it all at once, I mean, there's so much in the personal finance space, so much I don't even know all this stuff in the personal finance site. I feel like almost every day I get a message where somebody's like, have
you seen this? And I'm like, I've never seen that before. I don't know what that is. Because there's so much out there. But what I will tell you is what you need to know in order to be six sucessful. It is not all of what is out there. It's a very small amount that you actually need to know in order to be successful with your finances. So start with one thing. And there's creators out there that are there to help you. There's podcasts like this that are
here to help you. But yes, I love emphasizing the self education because I think it's the most important thing.
Thank you so much for that permission to just not have to absorb all of it and be an expert on all of it. But you can be an expert on yourself and what you need to do to get at the life that you want to have.
And that's huge. And there's no better person to be an expert at your personal finances than you. You are the best person for it.
Do you know what also is not scary and is the one thing that I want to focus on every week, and it's full of permission. It's did you get just dowek?
That's right, It's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage.
Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Buff bills, Buffalo bills, bill clon, this is the bill of the week.
Hey friends, my name is Allison. I'm from West Plains, Missouri, and about a year and a half ago, my teenage son had an er visit that resulted in a bill of over seven thousand dollars and I was able to, through paperwork and things like that, get that reduced down to a little over fifteen hundred and I just made the last payment on that today. So that's my bill of the week.
Wooo. Heck yes, Allison, I was waiting for it. Once I heard seven thousand, I was like, I hope she negotiated that down, because oh that's awful.
Yeah, Alison, First of all, I hope your son's okay. That sounds like a scary thing. Glad you got him to care. But then this is always the thing that happens afterwards, is the bills that come. You know, in the moment, at least for me, I have that thought go through my head when something medically scary happens, of.
Oh no, what's the bill going to be like?
But at the end of the day, it's like, no, we got to get you there, we got to get care.
We'll deal with that later.
And then the later comes and you get hit with this massive bill that many times our insurance doesn't cover or only covers in part, and we've got to pay so much out of pocket, which is why we've got that emergency fund. But also it's why we have those negotiation skills and that understanding that this is not the final say, there is room here. There's probably mistakes made on that bill. There's probably room to negotiate, and you did it. And that is massive to go from seven
thousand to fifteen hundred. If we saw that kind of savings in any other category of life, this is incredible, which also highlights an issue with our medical approach in the US. But this is not what this Bill of the Week is for. I'm just really celebratory with you, Allison, in what you did here caring for your son but also making sure that you are not paying a cent more than you needed to for his medical care.
Yeah, tell us your secrets, Allison, once you do.
Seriously, it's amazing.
Is quite something and it probably took you a decent amount of work, but it can be done. And thank you for that reminder. Anyone facing a medical bill far and beyond what should be or what you can afford, there is wiggle room. We also did. I will high here an episode with doctor Vergie. I forget what number it is, I can put it in the show notes, but she walks us through how to negotiate your medical bills.
Really incredible one.
So thanks Allison, and thank you all for all of the bills.
You keep submitting.
If you have a bill that you want to submit, if it is about just bringing down and negotiating those medical bills, if you are a person named Bill, if you know someone named Bill, you got a story about finding bills on the side of the road.
I love that.
With a person named Bill on the side of the road with bills in his pocket, that'd be great. Visit Rugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for lighting around.
I don't think I would ever get used to that. It's like this demon comes out from her up there. She is just like so pleasant. Oh yeah, if you want to submit a bill to the week polightly round.
Oh my gosh, that's it's it's.
My therapeutic intervention throughout the week.
She says as she holds her throat coat tea exactly all right, So.
In this vulnerability round. Thanks Goldie for the question what's the best financial perk of being a single woman? She specified for Jill that you missed the most love Chloe, go first, what do you got?
I mean, my mine is you get to do whatever the heck you want at any time, without you know, discussing it or thinking about it. And granted, it depends on what stage in a relationship you're in, you know, obviously, if you're early in dating, you don't have to discuss your finances with somebody necessarily. But it's like, only thinking about myself, only thinking about what I'm want to do, how I want to spend my money is glorious. It's wonderful.
And I actually had a first moment of being like, wow, I have to think about other people now. I don't know if it was the first moment. It's happened probably
a few times. I have been planning and purchasing a home in Tucson, and I kind of just like decided that I wanted to buy a home in Tucson a couple of weeks ago, probably about a month ago, and I didn't really discuss it with my boyfriend at all before, just being like, I'm gonna do this and not that, not that I have to ask permission, not that he has necessarily any determining say so on the matter, but just bringing him into the conversation, especially because we are,
you know, we are focusing on building a life together. It's like, oh, I should have like talked to you a little bit. Like nothing has happened. I haven't purchased anything, but it's like I should at least get your thoughts on it.
I forgot.
I'm like, and so you know, we did. We did talk about it this week, and it wasn't It wasn't an issue necessarily. It was just this moment of like, oh, someone else to consider, someone else to consider. I can't just like go buy a property in Tucson and like expect him to move in with me. You know, I have to communicate with him. I have to see, hey, what do you think about this idea? What you know, what do you want to do for our future? And
it's so funny because I can teach that. I can explain to people why it's hard getting their you know, partner on the financial pages them because they're not talking to them about what their dreams are. But in my head, I'm like, well, I thought we already talked about this, like obviously I'm just going to buy a property. So it is. I will say that was easier as a single person, for sure. What about you, Joe, what is something that you missed the most.
Well, we were joking before we record that I I have been.
Married like my whole adult.
Wild we really got we got two opposite ends of it. Because how old are you?
Okay?
How old am I? I'm I think I'm thirty four. Okay, I got married.
Twenty three years old.
You're a baby, was a baby. I made a great decision, Like he is really great. I look back now though, thinking, holy smokes, that almost.
Was like the worst decision of my life.
I was twenty three, I had I actually I was not even done undergrad college. I mean I had like taken my time with it, but I finished out my senior year of college married.
That's insane.
It's insane, Chloe.
I might don't recommend it for most people, No, but it worked out for you.
I'm about to be thirty two, and I'm like, I cannot imagine having been married for the last ten years. Granted who I would have picked at twenty two, just because I'm such a different person. Now, Oh my god, that would have been a disaster. We would have been exactly.
Exactly.
Oh see it. I'm so shocked by it that I'm throwing my geode coaster.
I'm not.
I'm not out here saying everyone should get married at that young, young baby infancy age. It worked for me.
I am so glad with my choice, but.
I really, I wholeheartedly recognized that that was a big old risk and it could have gone super sideways very quickly.
It didn't. He's awesome.
So glad we celebrate eleven years this month, next month, whatever month it is.
I don't know. We made it.
But but all that to say, like I laugh at this question, I left it in, but I can't separate my singleness just from infancy. Like for me, anything that I would say more so has to do with the age that I was before being married than it has to do with being quote unquote single. Like I would say, oh, lack of responsibility, But that is not a result of being single.
That's the result of being like twenty one. I was twenty one.
When I was a single woman, and I had very little responsibility.
Yeah, And that's the thing too, is like as a single woman living alone, you would almost have more responsibility. So yeah, that's a good cause. It's like, you know, you're doing all of it by yourself. And granted, I
don't know if it's more responsibility or not. I mean it's always like moments where I'm like moving or hanging something up or doing something that like I would pull the boyfriend card for now that I couldn't do then that I'd have to like hire somebody or I'd have to get help or wait for my dad to visit or something like that.
So yeah, yeah, well there it is everyone. That's my vulnerability for you. Thanks so much for listening. Many of you know that we have a membership for our listeners who are paying off debt. Of course, other people with other types of financial goals are in there too, but we're doing monthly money challenges because we love gamifying things,
we love making things fun. And there's also accountability group, So for those who are having trouble finding people who you can talk about finances with and feel seen and heard, this is an awesome safe space that's super fun. And we want to congratulate one of our members for a huge win. Andrea C. I don't know why I struggled with that so much. It's a very beautiful name and very readable. Andrea C. Home loan interest rate win. She said, just got off the phone with my bank regarding our
current interest rate. Not sure about the US, but here in Australia, interest rates are rising pretty much every month since last July. Ready, with all my research on rates and offers elsewhere, I was able to knock two point two six percent sent PA off of our variable home loan interest rate. I can hardly believe it, and yet also feeling guilty and kicking myself that I didn't.
Do it sooner. Woo Andrea.
First of all, I'm just so thrilled to have a listener in Australia. John and I joke that we need to do just a tour. We probably only have like three or four listeners in Australia, but just a reason to go there visit Andrea. But this is awesome.
I mean when we mayn find ways.
To cut housing expenses, living expenses, these big heavy hitter expenses that can really add up long term.
Well done.
I know that this takes work, but you really made a huge dent in that home loan, so I'm bring with you.
Two point two six percent is nothing to snuff at. So that's that's pretty awesome. And it's interesting too to hear because I think in a lot of countries the variable interest rate is pretty normal where you don't really necessarily have an option for a fixed strate, and even if you do have an option for a fixed it's only for a set period of time, like in Canada, and I don't remember how long the fixed rate is. It's like I think every five years you have to
refinance and get the new interest rate. And so it is interesting to see how it's done in other countries. But congratulations, that's that's gonna be a lot of savings. So hopefully, hopefully that helps you out.
Thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out this membership where Andrea is there, she's in Australia, So if you just want an Australian friend and where we also have all kinds of courses, interviews, challenges, so much more. Head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to check it out. Also sign up for Chloe's free investing course that's exciting.
Yeah lazy investing course Wait, no, lazyinvestingclass dot com. Hey, l heyome.
Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Gosh, there's so many things to say here.
Yeah, it's interesting talking through it and just being like, I mean, you already kind of know that all the money tips for a single person is the same. You know, it's just a little bit more. It's like you might have saved a little bit more, you might have to do a little bit more. But I also read this book called All the Single Ladies. I can't remember who
it's by, but All the Single Ladies. If you listen to this podcast episode and you're like, I'm not feeling great about being single anymore, you should read the book All the Single Ladies. Because after reading that book, it was just kind of talking about all the political implications of single women in the United States, and it made me feel so powerful as a single woman, and it
also just made me want to be single forever. So, yeah, if you're like at a point in your life where're like, I'm tired of being single, or I feel like I don't have as much power as I should, or or you know, I am not happy with my lot, I think read that book because it's a very it's a very like f Yeah, girl power, Single Ladies book for.
Sure of that.
Sometimes I imagine what would my alternative life be like if I had chosen not to get married as a child.
I wasn't a.
Minor I was super glow, super close.
Though. Oh my gosh, did you guys meet in college?
He didn't go to college. I mean we met college age obviously. I mean our whole story. I will say, by the day we got from the day we met to the day we got married, it was one year.
It was really fast and furious, holy crass, as.
Young zealous people do, just like you do this thing.
But it's also kind of congres went with who we are.
I mean, we've lived in these together, We've traveled together, moved together, base together.
Osh, way too much information. I can't believe that just came out of your mouth. We've bathed together.
Like I you know, like when you talk about like young friends, like, oh yeah, like we were child and friends.
We used to take that together.
Oh my god, that's hilarious.
Yeah, I feel like it was nuts.
Yeah, I mean you're you're it worked out. So it's like, yeah, do you have a lot of skeptics?
Surprisingly, no, which is also concern.
You're like interesting, I'm like, that's concerning you.
That's the thing.
I think people were equally shocked, but also like this thing might like work and be good. I think everyone saw how like equally kind of not. So we were and like, yeah, this makes sense for most people. I wouldn't recommend this, but you guys will probably be all right.
Yeah.
Even my dad.
Who was like my dad had this thing like, you you should date for five years. You need to date for five years before you get married. Like that's that was what he said. I mean, because that's what he and my mom did. But you should date for five years. And then we I was like six to seven months into dating Eric, and my dad literally said to me, uh, when are you guys gonna get married?
You to get married already?
Wow?
So yeah, it was like, oh, look.
Love, Yeah got that butterflies still eleven years later, I know, that's crazy. That's great though. I mean, it's like the lucky ones. It happens to. Like I had friends up in Milwaukee who kind of a I mean, they were significantly older, they were like late twenties, early thirties, and they met on the first date they were talking about getting married, and six months later they were married and
had bought a house together. And so it's like sometimes it does work, but a lot of the times, you know, there's no reason to rush, but sometimes it works, you know, And you just now trust yourself.
Except for We're in Love with Love is Blind, where everything is so urgent and rush and sometimes it works out.
I mean it does. They've had I mean this this episode or this season, they had the most. I think, get married, So it'll be interesting to see. I think Brett and Tiffany are lifers.
Who was the very first one that feels nostalgic Laura Lauren Cameron Cameron, They got us through the very beginning stages of COVID. Yeah, And I think that's honestly why his Blind is so popular, because it feels like this comforting, nostalgic, weird thing. Now, Yeah, I think, why are we obsessed with like get married, get to the altar and see speaks.
I think it's more at least for me. I know, the show is obviously obsessed with marriage, and I think it really highlights just our culture's obsession with marriage. Yeah, as like a defining point of like a successful relationship, even though I think you can absolutely have a successful relationship without marriage. And I you know, even I love Dan Savage would always talk about how like even short
term relationships can still be successful relationships. It's like it doesn't have to last forever in order for it to be deemed a successful relationship. But that's not really the general consensus.
For me.
The reason I think I'm so I love the show so much is I just love looking inside of other people's relationships, you know, because it's not like we get to see that on an intimate level and any other format, and you get to see that the same problems you're having or the things that you think look perfect on Instagram and that relationship has it all figured out. When you look inside of a relationship, you know, it's clear
that we are all struggling with similar things. And then on the flip side, and probably the less healthy side, is you can see problems that you're like, oh, thank god I don't have that issue, and it makes it feel better about yourself. You're like, oh, okay, I'm doing better than I thought.
There you go to feel better about yourself.
Watch Love is Blind and read all the single ladies and follow Chloe on Instagram.
I know that's the