Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob and Linda Lotich

Anytime we can clear the fluff, the better, and Bob and Linda are perfect people to talk to about that. Yeah, so this isn't going to be a really good episode. Some really high level stuff. So just like the idea of practicing money with simplicity, but also really practical stuff that you can implement today. Um, including a one category

budget that I'm kind of obsessed with. Very interesting. Have not heard this concept on our show before, although it won't be out of nowhere either, so keep listening in for more of that. Mm hmm. But first, our sponsors two episodes a week. Most of life is complicated, We're keeping it simple. Y'all already know this. We're doing two

episodes a week. We got nothing else to sell to you other than just keep tuning in Tuesday, Friday, Tuesday Friday, keep it going, keep it simple, keep it keep it fresh, keep it fun, keep it frugal, keep it friends. If you're not happy, email us and we'll give you a refund invested you'll send right back too. Yeah. I like saying that behind the scenes, but I thought i'd give it a try on the air, and uh, I like it just as much. It made me uncomfortable, and that's

how you know. Yeah. Uh so this is a This is an episode not just about simplicity, but also about um, generosity and purpose. Uh And so if you love the idea of those things, then a few other episodes you can queue up to play after this um our episode with Jordan Grummit about money and life lessons from a hospice doctor um episode to seven, That one's really really great, um Jordan is amazing, and then episode to twenty one,

Your Generosity, Purpose and Eternal Economy with Derek Kinney. We talked a little bit about Derek in the interview because are there's so much alignment with what we're all doing, and both Bob and Linda and Derek are all amazing people. So we love to have amazing people on and introduce you to amazing people that are doing amazing things. Uh So, if you like that, just subscribe to the podcast and keep listening to all two episodes every week, episodes a week, baby,

and sometimes we're on YouTube. Yeah, but let's get into the interview. Yeah. So, UM, Bob and Linda Lodick are the founders of seed time dot com and they're the host of the seed Time Money podcast. UM and they have been doing this. Bob specifically is a personal finance coach who's been doing who's been coaching people and writing about personal finance for about fifteen years. UM. And so they do it mostly in the Christian in faith based space, but all of their wisdom flows over to no matter um,

what faith you practice. And they are amazing givers. They are amazing savers, amazing earners. Just you'll hear what I mean by all of this in the interview. But they have a mass. Bob has amassed all of his lessons of UM learning personal finance and coaching it for the past fifteen years into his new book, Simple Money, Rich Life, and you will hear like wisdom nuggets from his wife

Linda throughout the book. Who um they describe her. He's like a certified personal financial finance coach and she's a certified um money spender, and so you'll hear her wisdom throughout the book as well, making sure the book remains attainable no matter how much background you have in personal finance. So we had a really great interview with them, and we are so excited to share it with you. Let's do it, Bob, Linda, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.

We briefed you slightly, and I think that we've sufficiently freaked you out for how in hence today is going to be Uh, so glad that you're still on the call. We're still here. We're excited, and we're looking forward to all the curve balls you can throw. It's it's not just curveballs, it's yelling. It's but it'll be fun. It'll be fun yelling all day by three kids. So I'm prepared. I feel ready good. Oh perfect, Those kids. Kids are good for something, right, They are all right, So let's

jump in. I you there's so much we could talk to you guys about. But um, thankfully you've distilled so much of it into um, your new book, Simple Money, Rich Life, that we have a good guide for where we want to go. Um, but I would really love to know. Like, so the personal finance space, especially in like the Christian literature field, it's kind of saturated, So like, why did you write Simple Money, Rich Life? And how

is it different from what's already out there? Yeah, I think for us, our approach is um while it's saturated, I think our approach is different In a lot of ways. We lead with a grace field approach. I think towards money that um, you know, he isn't always seen. And yeah, in some ways this book is written to Bob, you know, fifteen years ago, and in some ways it's written to me fifteen years ago, and me being someone who has

absolutely no introduction into finance and not knowing anything about it. Like, we have it super simple so that I can understand it because there's so many people and people have made it so complicated for so long that people like me, like a young girl in her twenties, I was like, oh, I'm just not smart enough to figure this out. And

that's just not true. It's not accurate. And so Bob kind of has walked me through so much that it just was like I didn't know I needed to know this, And I'm like, it feels like people who don't like money books or who don't read money books can get a lot out of this and not feel stupid the whole time. Do you know what I mean? Yeah? So, I mean, so that's part of it. But the simplicity component,

it's not elementary, but it is simple, you know. I think it was Einstein who said, like, if you can't explain it simple, you don't understand it well enough, you know what I mean? And so I conslute an accusation to a lot of you know, highbrow personal finance stuff that's out there. But anyway, so that's part of it.

And then the other part is just, you know, God's just done a really crazy thing in our lives, and we want an opportunity to share our journey as an inspiration to other people of you know how when he gets involved in your finances, it becomes a game cheeter, a very very different thing. It is unfortunate what you're saying, that there's not much out there that is simple and full of race and that lack of shame peace, You would hope that you would find that in what has

become maybe a complicated topic or an overwhelming topic. So I'm so glad that you're in this space, and especially coming from the perspective of what would I have wanted to know fifteen years ago? I think that's a great place for any educator, influence, or person in any expert space to to say, well, what would have been helpful

for me fifteen years ago, and let's start there. Those are the resources that I want, yeah, because I mean we're not exempt, like we were the ones that it was like we were stumbling around trying to figure this out and we were absolute message absolute. It's like, and I think a lot of people fall into that category. I think it's very rare to find someone whose parents taught them how to manage their money growing up, or

you know, found it from another resource. And so if we were in that and the majority falls into that, why would be why would we be ashamed or making people feel ashamed of themselves for not ever learning something and they're trying to learn it as an adult, Like why should we be Why why should we feel weird about it? Why don't we just go okay? I'm just gonna learn about this. It's like everything else, you know,

and ultimately we're all drawn to simplicity. No matter where we found ourselves in our understanding or knowledge, we all end up either beginning or coming back to this point of Okay, let's just simplify it. So to that point obviously, that's that's the main part of your title, Simple Money, Rich Life. And and to speak to specifically that simple part, you outline this four part formula that you use to in order to find financial freedom. Can you walk us

through that formula? Yeah, So it comes from a John Wesley old preacher from a couple years ago. He had this quote that I've always loved where he said, I earn as much money as I can, which is pretty funny here in pre sure say that like intentionally I earned as much money as I can. But the reason he did that, and he goes on to say, I save or I reduce my expenses as much as I can, and I do both of those things so that I

can give as much as I can. And so he saw his purpose on earth, as you know, through speaking and writing, like his two natural gifts that he had, he could impact the world through those, but then as he earned money from those, he could take that money and then again impact the world again in another way. And I don't know, it's we always resonated with me and Um, that kind of became the foundation of the book. And so we broke the book up in the four

different parts. So we have this section all dedicated to earning and using your God given talents to advance your career, advance your business, help and serve people better. And typically the money follows that, and the other part, UM really like the frugality component, the reducing expenses, the spending money wisely,

all this part becomes the safe part. Then we just talked about how we've grown who love giving and it's become one of our favorite things that we do when we both kind of came from, I think, having a background of having bad influences in terms of giving and having lots of negative experiences. So we've learned to make that fun. And then the fourth part is about enjoying it, enjoying the money that we have, enjoying spending not feeling guilty about it. Yeah, And is enjoying earning the process

of earning money and then enjoying giving too. Yeah. That's amazing. It reminds me we had Derrek Kinney on a few months ago and also kind of yeah, kind of like I wasn't super familiar with him, but like opened my eyes to the joy of like earning to give and like earning to kind of further whatever your passions are.

So like, you may not have as much time in your adult life as you did when you were in your like late teens, early twenties, but you can just channel that and you can still have like these passions and these desires to lens and give back, but you can do it in a different way, a way that's more appropriate for where you are in life, and that can make earning enjoyable. And I just I love that you're reiterated, like reiterating that concept in this like fresh

way too. Yeah. I know, I love Derek. He's a good guy. We um. Yeah, we we have a whole a whole lot in common what we're trying to communicate. It aligns so much with what we talk about as well related to frugality, in that being a good steward of all of our resources, and that good stewardship doesn't just mean being stingy. It never means that actually hoarding or just doing something because it's cheap, but steward ing

it well. And a lot of times that means investing our time, energy resources wisely, for generosity, for enjoyment, for our own futures, and when we do it well, none of the need to be neglected. And I love that message of what you're saying. It's not just so that I can just give to everybody else and I can come across as a martyr. Or it's not just so that I can live my best life, or it's not

just so that I can hoard all this money. It's these collective goals that can happen simultaneously as I grow my skill set and I'm focused on earning more so that I can invest more. You know, you quote John Wesley. I think it was Spider Man's father who said, with with great power comes great responsibity. Wee girl, it was his uncle. Oh, it's fine, it's fine, I've got you fellow nerds here for you, his father figure who was his father figure. No matter who said it, it's this

message of invest well. If you've been given in something, a skill set, money, all of it be a good steward of it and and see how we can give back and enjoy life. I love those things simultaneously. Yeah,

And I think there's kind of this. There's two sides of this where it's like either you just work, work, work, and you just are miserable and you just get it done and do the thing that you're supposed to do, or this this there's this side of like, well I just don't feel like it, so I'm not gonna do it type of thing. And really I feel like both

are completely out of balance. And it's a it's an invitation from the Lord saying, hey, I've given you these things that come easy to you, that are that come more difficulty or with more difficulty to others, and you can take those things and use them to bless others, have fun while you're doing it, enjoy it. And it's it's you're actually giving to others. And I don't know why it's so hard to see it that way. I think, you know, my upbringing, I remember my dad was like,

you're just gonna work. You're gonna work, work, work, you know, and it caused me to go, well, I just don't like it. I don't want to, so I would pull away from that, whereas it's neither of those, Like there's something in the middle of God going hey, we do you want to join me in doing this thing that you really enjoy that this other person doesn't and will bless them a ton? You know? Yeah, I think ultimately

there's a balance here that I I love that. I think we've discovered financially that um, the proper place of giving, the proper place of spending time earning. You know that they're just the balance of all this stuff. There's a there's sweet spot, you know if I like, you have a then diagram like right in the middle where you can have this really balanced, healthy life and really enjoy life to the fullest. And that's what we're after, you know, yeah,

I love something like in the radical middle. You see the radical middle all the time because everyone lives in these extremes of work work work, or like don't work at all yellow. But there, I mean, life is in the middle. It's and people that doesn't go viral on Instagram or TikTok, the radical health does that go viral? Um, But it's where the joy is. It's where the sustainable

joy is. I think, well, it's standing out to me that that is where the less complicated lifestyle exists, where there's the convergence of what I enjoy with what the need is around me, where my need and skill set could like all these different points that are converging, and that ven diagram that you're describing, that shaded area. And I think life can get more complicated when we are doing the things that are not joyful or within our

skill set and and aren't producing the money. But you're kind of encouraging us to find this joy filled, purposeful point that is life giving earns us money and provides to those around us. I mean, gosh, yes, if we could all find that now amazing. Yeah, that's the goal, you know, And we talked about this in the book. But like, this isn't like for me, this took many years to get out of being a job that I hated, that it was soul sucking and it was just terrible.

This wasn't a oh I'm gonna do that tomorrow, everything perfect. It took me a long time, and I think it takes a lot of people a long time. But but I guess my encouragement is for anybody in that situation, like it's worth the fight that don't don't stop trying, um, because even though it might take a long time, UM, it's worth it when you get into that spot. Like I remember another Einstein quote he said, uh, and I

love this. This has stuck with me so long. He said, when you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, um, or if you judge a fish by his ability country, he'll spend his whole life thinking that he's stupid. And and I think we have so much of that going on our society, where we're all uniquely gifted to do different things, but we have a system, whatever education system or work system or whatever, that tries to fit us all into the square holes or these

round holes or whatever. And and there's something really unique and special about when you get in line with your natural gifts and use them where it's just like everything just starts amplifying. It's like you're on roller skates going downhill with the wind of your back, you know, versus trying to climate tree as a fish, you know, or

whatever the analogy is. And so that's what I'm encouraging people just to continue to chase after yeah, because that is the hardest part I think I am and I have a several friends and one husband who are currently trying to figure out what is that for me like now, because it can change too and so it's really hard and it's not something that can be done overnight. Takes a lot of reflection, intentional reflection to figure out, like what what are my skills and gifts, What are the

ones that I enjoy doing? What are the ones that can make me money? Or maybe if I don't think they can make me money, how can I get creative and brains storm? So this is like a process that I think, even if you're not actively looking for new work, that it's it's very much worth always being aware of in yourself for the day when it comes that maybe your desires do change, because that happens to so many

people I know too. Like we're getting to this point in my life where friends are like switching careers and it was not because the one they chose, or maybe it was I don't know, maybe they made a wrong decision, But like I think for the most part, it's not because they made a wrong decision, is just because they've grown and they've I don't want to say like evolved, but like just changed as we all do, so, yeah, it's it's definitely a novel idea to do what you

love and get paid for it. But it's an idea that takes work. And I think we're all like living proof that if you do the work, you can find that for sure. Yeah, and I mean and we all know that there's never been a better time in the history of the world to be able to do that, to be able to take your unique passion and turn it into an income. Like I was just on a YouTube channel the other day. I was our toil was messed up, and I was trying to like YouTube a

how to fix the thing or whatever. Found some dude who's a plumber who had six million YouTube subscribers, and I was I was talking to somebody else about him. I'm like, listen, six million YouTube subscribers, even decent ads on there. I promise you this guy is making way more from making YouTube videos than he is from his plumbing profession, you know. And so it's like there's so many different ways, and I think that's what's exciting because

fifty years ago we didn't have this many options. It's like you could have a gifting to do something, and it's like, well, that's great and you can still use to serve people, but you probably need to make money from it, and um so I'm excited about the time that we live in just that. Again, while it's not easy, while um yeah, it's not a simple path or a really simple thing to do, uh, it is worth chasing, you know. Yeah. And I know you talked more abo about this in your book, like how to Find Your

Way and like the digital online making money safe. But there's something else in the book that I want you to expound on. Can you tell us about the one category budget because that sounds great. Yeah, so it sounds controversial and we love I'm sure absolutely anything budgeting earlated is controversial. Yeah. So this was birth out of really

me just kind of studying the principle. You know, so if anybody doesn't know this whole idea that the results or eight percent the results are driven from of the work. And so you'll find this everywhere all throughout business. So like if you go to Amazon's website, they will find that eight percent of the revenues are generated from the

products there. They remember reading a gym owner who kind of concluded that basically eight percent of the results you get in the gym are done or received from of the time actually spent exercising. And so I began looking through all this in our students UM, and I was wondering, I wonder if this idea, this concept would apply to budgeting anyway, ended up finding that same kind of pattern where basically eighty percent of money that we can save by budgeting can be attributed back to one or two

categories for most people. And so out of that, because you know, like you guys have probably encountered, a lot of people are like, I don't want to budget. I'm not gonna budget, blah blah blah, I'm just never gonna do it, bubba. You know, they think it's too complicated, things, too hard, all these different things. And so we decided to start talking to those people, like, all right, what if we just had one category that you had to budget, and what if we told you'd get eighty percent of

the results just from doing this one category. And people's eyes perked up and everybody's interested. You know, it's like, yes, I want eighty percent results with just the work. And so so that's how this was born. And essentially what it involves is just identifying, UM, what that one category is that you typically over spend on it that you struggle to rein in your spending. And you know, it's no surprise that for most people it's food related, but

it also might be hobby related. It might be whatever. If we're making Amazon dot Com its own category, like it could be that um for party years. It might be buying alcohol in the weekends, like whatever the thing is. But but where's that one category where you just have a hard time reining it in? You're like, I want to spend three a month and this, but every month it's and then identifying that and then putting walls in place,

um in order to keep you from doing that. And so we can dive into that, you may get into the nuts and bolts. Yes, we're here to share. We're here to share. There's lots of good in the book. But we're here to share. We're not gonna I'm here to here tool that's all right. So we'll use grocery savings or grocery as an example. So this is probably our one category story. Yeah, this is a tough one generally,

and so let's just use an example. Say that we decide we realize our groceries is our one categories struggling on and we say, all right, we want to spend five a month under groceries. We think that's realistic. That we keep finding that we're spending six because we just go over because we just don't be walls in place. And so there's a couple of options of how we can handle this. So one option would be literally go to the grocery store at the beginning of the month

when we get paid by a five gift card. As soon as we get paid, and that's all we buy groceries with for the entire month, Like that's the only way we do it. And it's like and so having a little bit of a wall to bump up against versus just a credit card where there's no wall and we just you know, keep on spending. Another option would be for the cash lovers, it could be the same thing, like literally, go take out five hud dollars cash allah the envelope system, throw it near walllet and that's the

only way you buy groceries. And another approach, which I think is what we tend to opt towards, is actually opening a separate checking account and again specifically for the purposes of groceries and so. And you can do this by literally getting a separate debit card account right groceries on it or whatever, and that's the only card that you used to buy groceries. And so obviously this cannot

prevent you from spending more than that. But it's amazing how these little walls, just that little amount of friction that you put in place, can slow you down and just force you to hit the brakes and help you get closer to that goal of what you're shooting for and force you to consider, how how can I stay within these boundary lines, these these bumpers when I'm when

I'm bowling from my groceries. Yeah, and we did this, like in the beginning of our marriage, we had forty five dollars a week to feed the two of us, and it was like, okay, how are we going to do this? But we we put our grocer we did our grocery grocery budget on a separate debit card, and that was how we bought things. And then it was like, once it's gone, we either have to figure out where else it's going to come from, you know, fast for a couple of days, Hey, we can we can live

for a full week without it. What is it? One week about water, two weeks without food. Yeah, inter minute fasting. It's like a real diet. Yeah, that people do. I love the gift card idea, doing like maybe the different weeks on gift cards. It's definitely. I've never been a like, never been a fan at least for myself of like the cash system, just because I don't like carrying so much cash. Yeah, but the gift card seems like a really great alternative to really give yourself a hard stop.

And like, the great thing about these these like like barriers and these walls is that you can like lower them over time once you build a habit of like getting once you get better, you could like, Okay, you're not getting the gift cards every week, You're doing it on the debit card or or whatever, which is so it's great. Yeah, I say the thing that I this is particularly ful for someone who doesn't have any budget, has no desire to budget. I tried budgeting before. I

hate that. Like it's just a good on ramp. It's easy, it's quick, and it's like and once you start seeing results, like you start saving two hundreds a month by doing this all right, Okay, I see there's something here. Maybe I can take the next step in. You know, although I am a huge fan of budgeting, but I never was before I married Bob. I was like, this is stupid. It's not gonna work. You're trying to put me in

up frocks and tell me what to do. So if you have a problem budgeting, you come talk to me. I will one hundred percent convince you that this is the best way to live. I really like, I really am like this is this is life changing and so so good. When done those guarantee, Linda, you're gonna have a lot of people coming your way. They want they want your We're for real. Yeah, I love it because I think what you're describing is getting at some of

the root of the budgeting issues. It's not as if by having a one category budget you're saying you're not paying all the other bills. It's just that usually that's not necessarily what people struggle with. It's the discretionary categories, but not just finding the little petty categories, but the

big ones. Where is your biggest issue? Which aligns a lot with I know Jen talks a lot about the one thing, having one goal at a time, So focusing on the biggest barrier and how to overcome some of the difficulties that you're facing with some very real, tangible tools, which does make it sounds so simple, versus, Okay, sit down and do this, this and that. You need to have twenty five different categories and and maybe that works for some people, but if it's not, then here you go.

Here's a really simple pathway of what's your biggest issue. Let's focus on that. We don't have to worry about the rest of it exactly, which which is so hard. Like that was me. I started with the twenty categories and the big old budget, and then I could just never stick to it and to hear something like I wish I had heard about the one category budget when I was starting out, because there's so much freedom in that. It's not saying we're disregarding everything. It's saying that we're

working on the the biggest stressor the biggest struggle. We're just gonna work. We're gonna work on that one first, and then we're gonna worry about the ones that are caught like that are costing you a little less than that, and then a little less than that one. There's so much freedom in that well and that word you just said the biggest stressor like that is one of the reasons I love having a budget is because I do

not feel stressed out anymore. I was stressed out all the time, and now I'm like, I know exactly what's what and I can I can just see everything so clearly that I'm not stressed out anymore. I mean, it's just it's it's the greatest thing. So for the people who are listening right now and experiencing this kind of epiphany of yes, simplicity is the way to go, and I want that and I want to find this purpose filled thing I can put my hands to that might

produce some generosity. What are some of the first steps someone could take in designing that life experiencing that reality. Yeah, so the step that I think comes before this one category budget for like all prefaces by saying, I've spent a lot of time around money nerds, and I just didn't think that this was a thing. I just thought all I thought everyone did this just like brushing your

teeth or whatever. But I've come to realize that's not the case, and this that this and I'm referring to is actually paying attention to where your money is going, okay, And so what I mean by that is there's so many people now I've come to understand, who just spend money and don't know where it's going, like and it just like every single month the money comes in, money

goes out. It's like I don't really know until I can't pay my credit card at the end of months, like oh shoot, you know, and that kind of like chadic money lifestyle, which is so foreign to me. But you know, so the first step out of it, the first step out of that is paying attention, okay. And so this is the uh if you've ever been to um nutritionists and they say start a food journal and write down every single thing that you eat. And I've done this before, and literally, as soon as you start

writing down, you start eating better. You don't have to try to eat better, you just automatically eat better because you're writing it down and you're paying attention to what you're putting in your body. And it's the exact same thing with our money, you know, like, um, we have to be paying attention to where it's going, you know. So you can do this right down everything you spend like plenty of us have done those exercises in the past, and it works like you spend less money when you're

writing everything down. But for people who don't want to write everything down, because I'm not someone who wants to do that, Like, there are tools like mint dot com or personal capital that you can use in a way where you can actually identify, you know, in about ten minutes time, going to plug in some information ten minutes time, you can see exactly where your money is going for the last three months and you can quickly identify because so many people think, oh, I spent fives on groceries

every month, like they think that, but they have no idea and then they get in there and they find out it's seven or fifty hours every single month. It's like, man, I hear this over and over and over and over again, and uh and so that will growing food away, you know what I mean. So it's like just the whole mindset is like they don't understand where it's going, and

then they start putting the pieces together. And what I love about it is it just it gives you information because if you're like, well, that's actually just not going to change I'm just not willing to change that part of my lifestyle. Then it's just good information to have, Okay, So then maybe I should look at other things and how can I make the allowance for that to be

my lifestyle? You know what I mean? Well, yeah, And one example of this, we're working with a couple kind of in a coaching capacity, and they said, um, really really dire situation. They are ready to move out of their house because things are just too tight and they couldn't afford the home that they were in, and so they were talking to us as kind of a last ditch thing of we need to move out of our house.

Do you have any ideas? And so I had them do this exercise of literally going in I think it was personal capital when and sign up there to confirm what they suspect they or what they were telling me, because I asked them, I'm like, how much do you guys spend eating out each month? And I said two hundreds, about two hundreds every month. They went into this exercise and I sent them an email two weeks later and

they said, well, we were kind of wrong. We actually spent eight hundred dollars a month eating out and I'm like, that's such great information because now you can decide, like if you really want to eat like you can do that, but you need to move, or if you just want to eat at home a little bit more like you can probably stay in your house. And so it was so empowering for them to actually know what was happening. And so that's what I think so many people are

missing out on. Yes, I am so glad that you said that, because it's not a it's not a like there's no one right way to do it. If you value eating out or if you value something and you want to keep spending on it, like, there's no like shame, and that having the information is just meant to empower you. It's not meant to shame you, but it does empower you to make the informed decisions. So like maybe I'm a foodie and I enjoy my food, but I don't need as big of an apartment. I can downsize, Like

there's no shame or built in that. That's a beautiful realization. And you're making values based choices, like but we're can we're like conditioned to think there's one right way to do it, and it's always cutting you're eating out budget or it's always cutting clothes or YadA yadda whatever. But yeah, no, I'm very I'm so glad that you like you positioned it that way, because I think it does make people nervous to like check what they're spending because they think

then they have to change it like completely. I that as a first step too, because like you're highlighting, it's very possible that we could assume we know what the biggest issue is and where we need to cut spending, and we could be totally off. Like in this example, they almost moved because they thought housing was the thing that was the biggest barrier, and in reality it was

it was eating out. So before we jumped to that very awesome, simple one category budget, we've got to know you've got to be aware take inventory to then actually know where's the most acute pain point that you actually want to rain in. Yeah, exactly, speaking of no one right way, a variety of ways to make something real, good, enjoyable, relevant. I am really pretty biased on this way though. The bill of the week, 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 bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. I told you we would yell at you, but it wouldn't be at you, would just be in your direction. So Bob and Linda, every week we invite either our listeners or our guests

to share with us their bill of the week. And UM, you've had about a half hour to come up with yours, and we would love to hear what you've come up with. I got a bill, So Bill, I'm gonna give you the full backstory in this. I had a millionaire mentor who was a guitar teacher of mine, UM, jazz guitar teacher who taught me to play jazz guitar and I and he just did this. He was a retired school teacher, um, but he retired a multimillionaire, didn't start investing until he

was nearly forty. And he was teaching the guitar lessons just for fun because he liked doing it. And I remember asking him, how did you get so wealthy? Like what did you do? Like I don't how do I learn this, you know, because I was young twenties and really curious, and he's like, all right, i'll take you aside. I'll show you everything, I'll teach you everything. So he went ahead and just um took me aside and just told me everything he did, had done, and how he

had succeeded financially. And I'm like, this is really really interesting. Two things he said outside of the investing things. I learned a whole lot about investing from him, But two things he said were really interesting. He said, most Americans destroy their financial future with basically two categories. Um, one is eating out and the other one is the amount of money that we spend on cars or transportation as

a whole. And he staid, of most Americans just cut back in those two areas, like could easily retire millionaires. And that always stuck with me, you know, I've always kept that in mind. But anyway, wrapping all this up, his name isn't actually Bill, but I refer to him as Bill quite often because um, yeah, I referred him as Bill in the book. I referred to him as Bill anytime I'm talking publicly about him, because, um, he's kind of a private guy and so I don't want

to keep out his real name, your literal Bill. You created Bill? Who created you? Oh? Man? So meta? What como Bill? The fictitious Bill millionaire mentor taught you to play jazz guitar and spoke about eating out in transportation. So many elements to this one. It was a complex bill, and you came up with it so quickly. I had. As soon as he said Bill, he was ready to go. Man, hilarious. Respect that and and and Bill is in the book and now tied it up with a nice little bow

and everything. Yeah, we got it. We got a tip in there, We've got a book reference. We got Budget America's Budget Killers. Thanks Bill, what a good one. We didn't know we were in for. But you do know that the actual bills people named Bill, or bills based on people are our favorites. So they are you? Really?

You really hit hit it there. If you all listening want to submit your bill, if it's about someone whose name is not Bill, you but you've named them Bill to protect their identity, or you know anything else related to Bill, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for we make our own sound effects on this show blow budget about you space spending, and it's not on the sound effect on sound effects. Sound effects. Al right, So in

the lightning round, we all get a bit vulnerable. Um, we've got one question and we will all answer and ten turns. So, Bob and Linda, what is the worst money advice you've ever heard? I got? I get a really good one. Okay, I knew you. I thought you would. It's really funny that. So it's I'll try to tell stories quickly as possible. It's an exact lightning anyway. So I'm in the sauna at my gym. I know you're going to tell three or four months ago. It's just

the best I've ever heard. The best bad advice. You don't have to speed it up. Let's sauna advice is uh. And I'm in there, and anybody who's been in a sauna, or at least guys saunas uh. You get in there and it's kind of like an elevator. It's like, all right, do we talk or do we just sitting here in silence even though we're close to each other and sweating, and like, what do we do? I type of thing.

So I'm sitting in there. There was a guy in there, and we're both kind of doing that, like let's just be quiet, look at our phones, not talk whatever. And and as I'm sitting in the next to him, he just starts like grunting, like yeah, you know, like one of these it's literally just me and him and did this little box. And so I'm like, he definitely wants my attention. Um, so I'll bite, Okay, what's going on? Like this tells you the type of person he is, right,

I'm so it's everything I want. Normally, when I want attention, I just grunt yea. So he just grunting, high fiving himself more or less, and so I'm like, all right, what's going on? What are you so excited about? He's like, oh, I just made five in two minutes. And I'm like, okay, great, tell me more. Like you know, I'm just kind of like going along with it. And he anyway tells me how he's got some day trading thing or whatever and he's just making money whatever hand or fist instantly something.

And actually, for anybody's really interested, this was during the whole um game, stop saying for anybody who's following all that, um and uh so it was during that whole thing. So that's the first part. And then as we're sitting there, young kid comes in. So this this guy, I don't know, it's probably needs thirties or something. Then a young kid

comes in, probably young twenties. So that was the three of us sitting in there, and somehow my grunting friend and then this young kids started kind of talking, and grunting guy asked the kid, what do you do for work? He's like, oh, I deliver pizzas or something. Trying to pay a whole bunch of dad. And then guy says, oh, that's stupid, man, don't waste your time paying off the desert. File bankruptcy, like make it go away, and then like it just goes on from there. But it's pretty much

like file bankruptcy. You'll make it go away and then start day trading stocks with me and whatever. Any year you're gonna be rich. I was sitting there like ready to expand to leave so that he could be like, don't do what he said. Whatever you do, don't take that advice. But it was definitely like it's like, how can I get this recorded and get this on Instagram somehow like this is just too unbelievable, like it was, Yeah, just absolutely unbelievable. But the worst advice I've heard so

far file bankruptcy and day trade with me. You do just want to follow those people? Almost romance, I got the answer to your problems. I'm sweating in a song on grunting. You should follow me, day trade with me, day trade, give it all up in day trade with me. Oh gosh, Oh my gosh. I wish I had a story that was that great. Again, you had this one. You had like thirty seconds to come up with it, not even and yours is already ready to go. Oh my gosh. So mine is that like money managers no

better than you. So just like give your money to a money manager and let them handle it. And that was given to me by several people, and I almost did it, Like I got as close as like the

meeting in the office. They're they're reviewing like investment options of which there are like three or four, like only three or like I think it was four option like things that you can choose from, and like I I was just looking at this list of all these fees, like very few options or customization, and I was like, is this the way people do it? Um. I was like, this feels like I didn't think this is what this would be like. But they're just so confident, like so

confident that they know what they're doing. And yeah. I went to YouTube after that meeting and I was like, is this how people do it? And so then I was I actually this and this is before personal finance, like before I got into this world. And I found like a video of actually Paula pant and Joe sulci Hi of them talking about Index Fence. I was like, oh my gosh, this sounds more like what I thought it would be and that I like, and it's a lot less expensive than what this guy is selling me.

And so I called the guy. I was like, hey, you can like manage my husband's portfolio, but like I'm gonna go out where. He's like, we actually don't do that. We manage as a couple. And I was like, okay, then we're both heading out. So yeah, and I was I just I thought, that's what you did, that's how you invest. You give your money to a person and they do it for you. UM. And I have since learned that that that is wrong, but they don't know

better than than you. Yeah, you can make your own decisions. What about you, Linda? Do you have any steam room or ice backstory? No, I don't have anything that's that good. But I do think some of the worst advice is you should get it, you deserve it, as that just

gets told. That's just I think that's an excuse for people to just be foolish with their money, and it's you just don't deserve it, Like we're living in a pretty blessed life and we don't really deserve other stuff because we worked hard one day or I don't think most people need to hear that. I mean, Jill might need to from whatever that is true, but most people, most people don't need to hear that. They need to hear like it's okay to like not let money burn

a hole in your pocket. Yeah, mind similar to that, Linda. Kind of this idea of yolo. I don't even know if people say that anymore you only live once. Kids past your own adults are saying it they as kids, but still living in that. I think this idea that it always is the last and and this concept of oh, in one year from now, are you going to look back and even miss that five hundred dollars, and it's like, well,

maybe not, I won't necessarily remember that. But if that's the mindset that I'm going through life with and I'm just blowing five dollars on this vacation five hundred dollars on that gadget, eventually that's going to make a big hole in the bucket. I think if I've planned for it, and this is something I really want to do, then that's great. I can have the freedom to spend it. But this kind of constant over rolling over of oh I won't miss it two years from now, that won't matter.

Two years from now, that won't matter. But continuing to say that's just to myself, like this is, that's not going to be helpful long term. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. So now we've just given everybody the Bear and Stained Bears for girl Friends experience what not to do? Yeah, some good bad advice on the FORR girl Friends podcast today. So, Bob Linda, we've talked a lot about your book. Where can people find that and find more from you? Yeah? So yeah, I mean I'm assuming they still sell it

an Amazon. Last I checked, it's still up there, should we will find anywhere still exist? Yeah, simple money Bridge Live. We uh were on Instagram at seed Time see d T I M E. And that's our website as well, seed time dot com and um yeah, come say hi. We'd love to hang out. Yeah, and send a great podcast if you want to hear about budgeting. And we're podcasters as well, seed Time Money Podcast. Um all the stuff, love well everywhere, correcting, bad advice check out check out

the local sauna. See what the financial vice they are doling out in there. Let us know what things are being here, things for simplifying things for us. Appreciate it. It's been fun. What a dynamic duo. They are so enjoyable to chat with. And I love the attainable again simple. I know we keep using that term, but it really is not just on brand for them, but lived out, practiced, preached and makes this whole thing sounds so much more exciting to engage with when we can keep it simple

and we can find a life that's enjoyable and life giving. Yeah, and so much of I mean obviously earn ing, earning a living doing what you love seems to be a dream for a lot of people. But I think they do a great job in the book of maybe giving low barrier to entry ways that maybe you can start your own thing, but also that it doesn't have to be your own thing. That you can be living your your passion. You can be happy at work doing a

nine to five, working for someone else. There is a spectrum of ways that you can earn well, be happy, save well, give well, and enjoy life. And so I just I love that they are not just giving a step by step here's what to do, but just kind of an introduction to all of it with like simple frameworks and in different seasons of my life, I know, and there's permission for everyone else to find this. Different things are important. Sometimes it's the flexibility that's life giving.

Sometimes it's the earning that I'm really excited about. Sometimes it's the actual task or job. So we can find ourselves wherever on that spectrum. But I think ultimately that that permission to not have to just drudge our way through it, but be able to find where those convergences are something that I enjoy, where the with a job that needs to be done, and if we're not finding ourselves in that currently, that's okay. But also to know that there's space and room to go after that as

we discover and learn more and more about ourselves. Yeah, so thank you so much for listening. Many of you know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. Um to Naya, she says. My partner spring a leak in his house. Because we're long hall truck drivers, the problem

became a bigger problem quickly. Insurance deductibles quotes contractors the whole nine yards and only five days home to handle it all. So the plumber found the problem, but it was not an easy fix, and they quote us five thousand dollars. I pointed out the plumber clearly did not do their job when called out in April because it was the same company, uh and didn't do what he built us for and they should have found the same problem.

So he took the entire price we had already paid and deducted it as a credit towards the work we needed to have done, which dropped the bill from five thousand to forty three hundred. So congratulations tonight for taking that initiative, pushing back a little and getting that discount that you deserved. Agreed, that's a big dent to remove about six eighty off the bill. It's not taking advantage of him, he still got paid, but recognizing the job

that should have happened negotiating it lower. Well done, So thanks for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club. See what we've got coming up next, See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian. What were we recently talking about? More? Frugal fails have been surfacing in our conversations. I mean they always come. I mean they're a normal part of when you get creative.

Sometimes you fail creatively. So true. So that's like a normal part of my life, failing creatively, failing creatively humorously trying to laugh at it. Yeah, what did you fail at? Did you fail at something I did? I just told you the story and we were laughing. What the heck? We laughed about it. We were laughing and laughing. I think it was some sort of medical thing. Well, this is not helpful, and I have no idea to tell

you what I laughed at so hard today. So, um, we're going to this conference next week with some good friends, um not chill, and we need to highlight that. Yeah. One of my good friends, Alison, she we were all looking at our profiles on this conference app and we're looking at some people had just ridiculous like you could put what your title is, like your your company and

your title. So I'm co host Frugal Friends podcast and one guy was tried to add me and his his actual like he had his his hand like social handles, and his title was influencer fo k, Instagram, sixty k, TikTok, seventeen k LinkedIn. That was he just all of his numbers were his title. And so we were laughing slightly about that, and Allison's like, oh, I don't even know if I put a title, And so we looked to see what her title was and she just put her

email addressing for her title. And I was like and and she's, I mean, she is somebody that you She she would not want to give her email address out willy nilly because everyone will be emailing her. And I was like, girl, you have just given everyone, all of these people your email. That's amazing I laughed a lot

at that. I love how much like these simple forms where you would think this is cut and dry, first name, last name, title company, and people are going to know how to fill it out, and you just get such a variety of answers and the information people want to give or don't want to give. Right. Some is done on purpose and is a creative fail, and then some things are just a fail. She's like, I think I just auto input everything, so I guess after your name,

her phone just thought she wanted her email. That's true, Yeah, if you just press enter. Yeah, she didn't take her email off. And but I laughed, probably a little more than I should, because I was like, you're going to get so many emails from people you don't want to hear from. At least it's better than phone calls. I'd rather have my email than my phone number. Oh really, I'm too scared to call people bowl, so I'll give my phone number out. It's