The Importance of Accountability & Finding Your People

at that threshold. Yes, So whether you're listening to this in one or two, we want to start off this year with a really important conversation that I don't think a lot of of financial podcast talk about because it's kind of like finance adjacent, and that's accountability groups and partnership and really community as a whole and the role

it plays in your finances. We love to talk about goal setting and changes we're going to make in the new year, but we don't often consider what are the specific ways that I'm going to be able to stick to those? And accountability groups, partners people who are in your corner is so so important for that. So this is, oh, we hope going to be so beneficial for all of you, whether you've got financial goals or otherwise heading into the

new year. This is relevant absolutely if you have New Year's resolutions, you definitely want to stick around for this entire episode. The first our sponsors the Financial Freedom Mentorship. How amazing does this sound? Club BFS has rebranded to the Financial Freedom Mentorship. We've still got a literation in there, it's just more complete with what's actually happening in over there. So it's a mentorship program where we will be with you on your journey from wherever you are starting to

your first six figures of net worth. In this group, you will get multiple q and a's and trainings with us Jen and Jill and guest experts every month, as well as a space to create accountability groups where you can support each other while doing super fun challenges. If you feel like you need support in this extremely foundational part of your financial journey, then check out the mentorship at Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash f f M

right now to learn more. Because doors close on January second, Yes, so we hope to see every everybody in there. We have so many great things coming to you this year in that program, and it's going to make reaching a six figure net worth a lot more fun and manageable and not feel so alone. So this episode is also brought to you by making friends in your thirties. Making friends in your twenties is much easier than your thirties, And if you don't believe me, then you're still in

your twenties. It's hard when your college friends have moved away or have too many kids, and your co workers or fellow moms aren't on the same path as you. There comes a point in your life where you have to stop trying to be cool and start asking the hard questions like will you be my close friend? Making friends in your thirties. Acquaintances are everywhere, but you need real friends beautiful, right, beautiful, painful and ways horrible. And I know we have a lot of listeners and they're

like forties and fifties and even six season. I can hear them in my mind like saying, yeah, wait till you're my age. So I think it's important to understand this concept early and be intentional in creating community that's right for the season that you're in, Because all friends are great, but some friends are here for a season, and some relationships aren't just for fun. Some relationships are meant to still be fun, but are meant to make you a better person. And sometimes we have to be

intentional in creating relationships around a shared goal. And so that is the heart behind what we were talking about today. Good segue, Jen, And when you do find a really good friend that you want to stick around for a long long time, start a podcast with them. And if you get nothing else out of this episode, that's the real no get that we want you to take away. Yeah, so then they have to stick around, you have to talk with them weekly. It's like built in accountability. Yes, decision.

I really, I really don't think that's a bad idea. Honestly. I think you could like host like a fifteen minute podcast every week with your like accountability check ins, and I think people would get value out of that no matter who you are. So that's just that's a side note, Yeah, a little side hustle tip. Yes. So the first article that we have today is from Mission dot org and it's by David Burkis. It's you are not the average of the five people you surround yourself with. What do

you think of this one? Jill? Controversial, super interesting, of course, they go on to explain that the reason that you're not just the sum of the five people is because you're it's more than that, you are actually the sum of the friends of those five people, and the friends

of friends of those five people. So really cool, unique perspective brought here, which is definitely relevant to what we're talking about when it comes to accountability and getting at certain goals and achieving the things that we want to achieve in our lives. And really interesting research that they reference to support what they're saying here. I found this article a while ago when I was writing the second edition of No Spend Challenge Guide, which is out now,

and I found it. It's so interesting. We talked about it in our live trainings, and I'm so glad we're finally getting to talk about it on the show, because it was it was a shocking like the studies that he is referencing are there's multiple and they're really interesting because we've probably all heard the quote like you're average of the five people you spend the most time with, and that's attributed to Jim Run And then there's also a variation this is show me your friends and I'll

show you your future. But to find out that it's not just the people around you, but it's actually the people around them too, it was shocking, but it made a lot of sense because I see people on my news feed on Facebook, I see what they share. I see friends of friends like on there, and I see that on Instagram as well. I see who they share, and I am affected in some small way by those

people as well. And even if they don't know them, if they are you know, influencers or celebrities that my friends follow or admire and share, I am affected by those people as well. So the more friends I have that are into reality TV, the more I'll be into it and stuff like that. So it's just super interesting. Yes, And so they talk about the research that they're talking

about here. There's there was a major study done on this breadth of social influence that we're talking about here, where two people, Christakis and Fowler, examined a data set from the framing Ham Heart study. So turns out, and this is this is accurate for a lot of research studies, is that it often they might be studying one thing in particular, but the data that they collect can be

useful in studying other types of correlations. So because this framing Ham heart study was conducted over such a long period of time and so much data was collected on a variety of things, these two individuals were able to utilize that data set to look at things outside of what the initial study was even looking at originally, which was arts. It was a heart study, but again so much data was collected on that, and what they were

finding was one thing that they site is smoking. How you are more likely to smoke or think that smoking is an all right acceptable norm to participate in. If not just your friends smoke, but if the friends of their friends smoke, it something about it. It increases likelihood by ten to twenty. Yeah, so they found that if your friend smokes, then you're six more likely to be

a smoker, which obviously makes sense. But they found even if your friend doesn't smoke and their friends smokes, there's still a more likelihood that you are not like talking to to you specifically, but a subject would be a smoker. And so the last one is if it's a friend of a friend, the likelihood is eleven percent more. And so they did the same study on happiness to the

researchers found that Obviously, happy friends make you happier. But if your friend of a friend of a friend is happy with their life, then the subject you have a six percent greater likelihood of being happy yourself. And so six percent doesn't seem like a lot, but it says considering that other studies suggest if uh, if I gave you a dollar raise that would only trigger about a two percent increase in happiness, that six percent seems significant.

It's true. Wow, yeah, so I like how they reference. It can go both ways, right, whether beneficial influence or non beneficial influence. As far as you know, maybe overall health goes this can be accurate And so well, I don't want to set up a whole here's how you should live your life. Cut out everybody who's friends of friends of friends are making bad decisions. But it is worth looking at the larger community that you're involved in. That it isn't just those in your immediate network that

bear influence on you. It's a much wider network than even that. So I think so much can be taken from this and just our understanding of how do we engage in the world around us, what leads to the decisions that we make. Again, whether beneficial or not beneficial. And I think in some ways too, there's a flip side to this to recognize the influence that we are having on people can be a motivator for the decisions and intentionality that we are experiencing in our life. To know,

I'm not just affecting those in my immediate circle. I'm affecting their friends of friends of friends. Right, it goes both directions. So I think it's a really interesting study from multiple perspectives. Yeah, so I was interested in why this happens, and so the author of this article said that it appears to be that the researchers said it appears to be norms. Uh So, if your friend is a smoker, or a friend of a friend is a smoker, that changes your perception of what is acceptable to be

part of the greater community. So I think back of on like a caveman times and and one of our like core needs is to be part of the larger group to protect ourselves. And so we're going to do the least amount we need to do in order to be accepted by the group at large. That's kind of like our primal instinct. And so if we can, if we have a bad habit and we can still be accepted by the group even if that group doesn't share the habit, then we won't have any motivation to change

the habit. And so this one talks a lot about like smoking and happiness, but we can kind of translate that to like over consumption. So if we are shopping every weekend, if we are impulse buying all the time online, you name it, whatever you believe is your limiting habit. If you can do that and still be accepted by your group, then you have really no immediate motivation to change. And so that's why I think this is super interesting because we don't often think about our like caveman instincts.

That's a there's a better word for that, I know, time, okay, yeah, belonging and how we seek for that, and what are our motivating factors and how does our community help or inhibit the things that we actually want to see in our lives. I like the questions that they ask within this article of you know, where do you sit inside of the larger network of your social community? And you know, I'm not saying take a deep, creepy dive into everybody's social media to see like who are their friends of

friends of friends. But I think too it could It could mean even just changing or adding one person in your life who is healthy and aimed at similar at least aimed at health, aimed at similar goals. You're not just being influenced by that one person, but whoever their network is, and if they are in a beneficial place, chances are they're also surrounded by others who are aimed

at health and well being. And so even making small changes or additions to our community can mean an astronomical impact on you know, what we're choosing with our lives. Absolutely so. And the the last thing I'll say about this one is that I actually went and tried to read the original study and it is long, and I do not recommend you trying the same, but I think

so even more than this article. The study actually focuses on the people's efforts to quit smoking, so not just them being a smokers, but like, how many people do you kind of need around you in order to like quit smoking? And it was the same. I don't remember the numbers, but it was the same. They saw the

same thing. So if people around them were trying to quit smoking, they quit much faster and much earlier than if the people around them weren't try and quit smoking, even amidst all of the media online that was trying to frame smoking as unhealthy because remember like then, I can't remember the nineties or two thems, I don't, I don't remember, but there was so much on the internet and the TV and the radio about how smoking is

bad and you should stop. So everybody was hearing this, but it was the people who were surrounded by other people who were quitting. Those are the ones that were most likely and that was far more powerful than just hearing the information. So take that too. It's not that you may need more information to work better, but you need like more people in your life doing the actions in order to get better. Amazing gen Yeah, I don't have anything to add other than yes, that would take

away for sure. Doesn't have much to do with how much more you read or see propaganda about the thing. You need people in your corner supporting Gosh. If that's not a reason for accountability, absolutely. Our next article, and it is a perfect segue into that, is from ink and it is five steps to an effective accountability partnership and two things to never do and so I think this can be really relevant if you're going into a relationship to just be accountability partners, and I think that's

totally fine. I don't think your best friends need to be your accountability partners. I don't think that they're your core group can be everything for you. Sometimes in a season, we need relationships for uh singular purpose and that's okay and that's healthy. You have permission to do so. So these can be for those, you know, intentional relationships, but

it can also just be a gauge for relationships in general. Nice. Yeah, with this article, I like how they delineate between some of the differences as it relates to the types of accountability relationships we might find ourselves in. So I just want to do a quick run through that before we talk about the five tips. They mentioned partnerships, coaches, and groups, and so some differences for each one of these that might be more or less helpful depending on where you're at.

So they they suggest that partnerships are most helpful when you have a very specific goal in mind and you are very clear on what needs to be done to reach that goal. So partnerships meaning just you and another person right that that is a partnership just two people versus having a coach. So you could have an accountability coach, which there's not necessarily reciprocity with that accountability. The coach is kind of just tracking you and your progress. A

coach could provide increased consistency. Right, A partnership or a group might have more chances of not sticking with it or canceling last minute meetings versus a coach who you're probably paying them to be a coach to you, and so there's more more increased consistency probably, And coaches typically provide resources to you, whether it's books or charts or templates or whatever. Right, there's something that you're paying them for.

It's their expertise and their resources, but again it's not reciprocal. And then you've got groups, which is, as it sounds, more people you and let's say two or three other people. And the article recommends that this is really great for people who might be in a similar stage or community or with aligned goals. You're all kind of aiming at something similar. So let's say you might have an accountability group around fitness or an accountability group around finances, as

you name it. But that would be a really good useful space for a group if you've got a similar topic that you want accountability on. Yeah, I know a lot of financial coaches and they are definitely not cheap. They're more affordable than financial advisors. They do different things, and yeah, I think having Honestly, I think having that reciprocity is super important to the journey because I when I started my blog while I was paying off debt, it was that like feeling that I was giving back

that kept me motivated and wanted. It made me want to do more so that I could give back more, and for me that was super important. So I'm sure I'm not alone in that, and I wasn't even getting anything out of it. I just wanted to help more people with what I had learned. And so I think that reciprocity in relationships, in in partner ships is super valuable. You are not just there to take, you are not entitled, but you are there to give as well. I agree.

I think that there's space for coaches, and there's times in our lives when we when we want an expert, you know, helping us through that process. But for me personally, I do better when there is that back and forth and there doesn't feel like this hierarchy because of course, even when you're in partnerships or groups, there's somebody who has done well in one area but might need help in another, and you might do really well in one area but need help in another, and so yeah, there's

that reciprocity again. So absolutely all right, So let's go through all five of these steps to ensuring successful accountability relationships. The first one is know what you need. Accountability has to be tied to specific outcomes. We can't reach our destination if we don't know where we are going. So for us, we focus on the financial accountability aspect, so we we all want to get to a certain place

in our finances. But even then, different people are at different parts of the journey, and you can still have a successful accountability relationship with someone who is on a different place, whether it is beyond or behind you. You can still benefit from having that external sounding board, that third party. Um, I mean, Jill, we were just having a conversation before we recorded where you were like being like the sounding board and the you know, third party

between me and my head. You were the third in this partnership. Sometimes there's a third party so like, that's so healthy, Like to have somebody hearing our thoughts who's outside of our head Like that in itself is just healthy.

So you have to but you first you have to know your financial goals before you get into because they need to know what you're you know, what you're true north is, what you're deeper, yes is so they can be like an accurate sounding board, right, because otherwise you could just end up adopting somebody else's goals or ideas on what's important to be focusing on next. So that is really something that has to come from inside of you. It doesn't mean that there's not room for tweaking, making

it more realistic, you name it. But you have to know what area do I really need to focus in on, how do I want that to look, and then get into accountability with somebody or a group of people. The second tip on here is to make it a priority.

We all know this, but implementation can be tough. But I really love what they're highlighting here that when you're in an accountability relationship, again, it's a two way street, so it is not just about you, and so it's really important to establish and honor the structure of what that accountability relationship is looking like. Even if you're in a group, if one member is not making it a priority,

the entire group is going to feel it. And that's not to bring shame on anybody who just might not be able to make the commitment. But then we have to be realistic about that of can we make this commitment or maybe is is this not where my priorities are and I don't need to be a part of this accountability partnership or group right now, so making it a priority. I will add on to this just a

little activity that can help in identifying priorities. I'm sure many people are familiar with this exercise where you get a container and then gather up some big rocks, like I would say three to five large rocks, some smaller pebbles, and water, and consider what you want each of those elements to represent. What do you have currently in your life?

What are the big rocks? It may not be accurate, but you might want to identify right now, Actually the big rocks in my life are family, my relationship with so and so, this goal you name it, And then

what are the pebbles? What are the lesser priorities in my life, and then what gets filled in around it, which would be the water, and keeping that out as a visual representation and even the list of what did you identify were the big rocks those go into the container first, what were the pebbles that fill in the container around it? And then the water being the least priority, right and if all the water doesn't fit, then okay,

it can flow over the side and be gone. And having this as a visual reminder can help when we're talking about priority. So that's just my little side tip exercise for identifying what are your priorities right now and how can we stick with them with some visual reminders. I love that. That's cute. I've never heard of that before. All right, well, there you go. Yeah, that's cool. Alright. So the third one is to use a custom tracking system.

So for this author, for their own accountability partnerships and for their clients, they have established their own like daily worksheet, weekly worksheet, and quarterly goal setting worksheet. I don't necessarily think you have to develop your own systems and worksheets, but what you can do is you can get them

and you can track them, customize the tracking words. So I am this huge proponent of always customizing your financial goals, your financial journey, everything you do, because when you customize it, when you take the initiative to do something different and do it intentionally for an intentional reason, you're more likely to stick with it versus if you're just doing somebody else's plan that they've laid out and you can't do

it to their standards, so you give up. So a huge proponent of of whatever you can customize, customize it as long as you're customizing it in a way that leads to growth. And that's that classic do what works for you. There is freedom in this process, but with the goal of growth and reaching goals that we set for ourselves. Yeah, and I kind of I kind of glossed over the tracking system part of this one, but it is super important to have a way to track

your progress. And if you are sharing a tracking system with your partner or your group, and you can have that visual guidance, that visual reminder, just like Jill was saying, it can be really powerful and and something we learned from j Aimes clear in his book Atomic Habits. It's okay if you miss one day, but make it your goal to never miss two. In a row. So if you do have a visual reminder, try not to break the streak, but if you do, don't break it twice beautiful.

Number four on here is to prioritize your goal setting activities. So they reference that it is excellent to have goals, but actually executing on those goals is what's going to matter long term. And so for accountability to work, we actually have to have activities around how we are setting and achieving these goals. So actual tactical ways that will lead to outcomes in some strategized ways is going to

be the secret to goal setting and goal achieving. So making sure that within our accountability partnerships and groups that we actually have activities, steps, strategies around how we're going about this, and that we're meeting and talking about the activities that we're doing in order to achieve those goals. Yeah, for us, we love challenges. We think a really great way to structure a partnership or group is around doing a shared challenge because it's not it also breaks up

the monotony of doing something for a long time. It takes a long time to pay off debt, it takes a long time to build a six figure net worth, and if you can do things along that journey that break up the monotony, you have a far higher likelihood

of staying engaged and sticking with it. So we you know, like no spend challenge, pantry challenge, core values budgeting, all kinds of challenges and doing those things with a group keep you sticking with it, keep you sticking with the challenge, so that the end you've kind of like turbocharged your month or something to get to your ultimate goal faster. So it's like a win win, uh, And yeah, and you get to prioritize one thing at a time too.

When you're doing a challenge that's focused on one thing, then you don't get so overwhelmed by all of the things that you could be doing. And it just provides such a great guide and makes it fun and gamifies that. There's so many reasons why that's a good activity around goal setting. Yeah. The fifth one in what to do is to choose your partner or group wisely making sure it works for you. And so there are a lot of different kinds of people doing different kinds of things,

all ultimately trying to get to financial freedom. But even that looks different for a lot of different people. So you really you have to choose people who are of similar interest they are as committed as you are, you've got similar values, can be available when you're available. Um, And that's like, I don't want to harp on it, but that was kind of our when we launched Club

BFF six months ago. That's what we wanted to provide, Like, because if you listen to Frugal Friends, somebody else who listens to Frugal Friends is going to pretty similar goals and values and like interests. Like, we find that our listeners are generally cool people. You know, We've cool fun yeah, And so I mean I don't want to rag on other people's podcast listeners, but they're just like not as cool as you, you know, And so we wanted to

bring you together. I mean, this is an immunity in and of itself, for sure, there's so much more to be said about that. But and even within what is now financial freedom mentorship, we've got the opportunity to meet other people, right, Like, you've got similar folks within the group. But then beyond that, we didn't want to just pair people up and assign them, but rather recognizing this very real factor that it's got to be a good fit.

We have to choose who are smaller group of accountability people are going to be and so we'll provide the platform for it, but we're not going to tell you exactly who you have to meet with every week. Absolutely, and I think having somebody in person, If you could have somebody in person that you could meet with physically, that's ideal. That's first like, if you could do that, do that. If that's not working, then here's an alternative.

So like in financial freedom mentorship, that's our idea behind it. And you never know, you could meet somebody and then convince them to move to where you live like Jen did with me. It would take a podcast and roughly two and a half years of podcasting, and so start now your podcast now if you want to have a journey like every message, Yeah, it's a secondary message of

the show. Podcast. Well, let's talk about pitfalls. Sometimes it can go really great, but sometimes there's pitfalls along the way. And so you've heard me talk about priorities. One of the biggest pitfalls in accountability groups not going well is d prioritizing your accountability partnership or group. So we know that life can happen right, and it can interrupt our momentum. Things can happen within our circumstances. Some that's inside of

our control, some that's outside of our control. But the key here is to be honest along the way with your group or with your partner. Otherwise, trying to fake it, trying to be be in act like you're invested when you're not actually invested, can leave to resentment in your partnerships or groups. People will see it. People will pick up on whether or not you're doing the thing or you're not doing the thing. So again, if we're if we want accountability and we want to be a part

of that, the pitfall is de prioritizing it. If you really want that, we need to have ways to stick with it and then to be honest and recognize when it has no longer become a priority, when it's no longer a big rock in our bucket, but a pebble or even water within our bucket. But we've got to be realistic when that happens and make shifts along the way. Yeah, and that's not a failure or a bad thing. There

are seasons for every partnership. It's okay for a partnership to end if it's out of its season, and that's totally okay. You have to be honest with yourself and be a good steward of your time and know what your monthly and quarterly goals are. And if something is has moved from a quarterly goal and the next quarter it's not in there, then maybe you just take some

time off from that partnership. That's totally okay. So the next one second way to ruin your accountability group or partnership is to bring judgment and lack of empathy to your accountability structure. I think this is the number one rule that we would say is leave your judgment at the door and bring as much empathy to the pot luck as possible. A friend he's saying recently had an accountability experience. She had said a deadline to complete a large,

complex task, something she had never accomplished before. That's great, make those big, audacious goals, and she didn't make the deadline, and the response from her group members was unsupportive and judgmental, and her inability to meet the deadline was due to lack of efforts. So there's a there's a difference between like holding somebody accountable versus shaming them for not meeting a big goal. We want to feel freedom to set

these bigger goals, even if we may. I set big goals all the time, and Jill has to be like, Okay, our real goals half of that, So she's not keeping me down, she's just like keeping grounded. So there you have to are you the person who makes like outrageous goals? Are you the person that doesn't make big enough goals?

You have to figure out which one of those people you are, and your group members have to know and y'll have to be empathetic with each other and know what kind of people y'all are and serve that and be that accountability because an accountability partnership is not just I call you when I'm about to make an impulse by a t J Max so that you talked me off the ledge Like, that's not it. It's sharing in vulnerability. It's vulnerable be with protection so that we are not

exploited but we can grow. Yeah, there is such a line to tow here, because I think some cultures of accountability groups can find themselves in that space. And I

don't think that anyone truly means malice. But when we do get into this space of well, I don't want to enable you and you asked for me to tow the line and push and prod, then yeah, sometimes it can form this culture of no failure allowed, or you can't enter into this space unless you've accomplished X, Y Z, And then what that just ultimately leads to is no one shows up anymore because gosh, if I've not reached

this goal, how's that going to be received? So there definitely is a keeping a pulse on what is the culture that we're creating with this partnership or with this group where we are going to push one another, but not so far as to where there is shame and condemnation and zero acceptance of failure, and that that is

attention to hold I think. But even yeah, keeping each other accountable on that of what where is there going to just be grace and freedom and permission for one another while we ask each other the hard questions well said? Do you know what else is well said? That doesn't require much tension, That I never need accountability to take. Oh, it is always that comes naturally. Yes, that's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you

paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bills of the week. Hi for gool friends. This is Emily from Aeca, New York calling us my bill of the week. Uh, this week, my age dog right out one of his descriptions, so

I need to call my vet and get a new script. Unfortunately, this is one of his pills that is a controlled substance, so I have to call the vet, go down to get a physical script, and then bring that to the pharmacy myself. And instead of receiving a callback from the vet saying that my script was ready, I got a text from the pharmacy saying that my script was ready. I went down there thinking there's no way this is real. Usually I have to jump through so many hoops to

get this for scription. Still, but it was real. My vet brought the script to the pharmacy, not only saving me time, but they also got me a better price. So the prescription that I just picked up was about fifteen dollars cheaper than I normally pay and it's a monthly prescription, so I'm saving fifteen dollars a month. And I didn't have to go down to the BET to pick up the script and deliver it to the pharmacy. So they saved me time and money, which is not

something you usually get with your bet. I freaking love my bet so much and I'm so excited. I had a call and tell you, guys, and so with the money that I'm saving that, I'm going to pay it forward to my BET and bring them in some treats next week when I have to go in for vaccines for my cat and my dug. So I just wanted to call and tell you, guys, don't I love my bet and I'm saving money and I'm gonna put that money towards something positive and that's within my value. Thank

you so much, Love you guys, Spice. I love that you ended that with like putting it towards something that aligns with your values. It's like you did the homework, you knew the assignment, and you didn't so proud. Oh, I'm so excited with you celebrating the savings of time and money and then how you're choosing generosity with what you're saving. I know, I love gratitude. That's so so amazing. Month that has nothing to sneeze at, that's excellent. I mean,

especially if the prescription keeps your dog from sneezing. I don't know what it's for. I don't know what controlled substances keep you from sneezing, but it's nothing to sneeze at to sneeze. Thank you so much for leaving that bill. If you want to submit your bill of the week, whether you saved money or you saved time and money, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and leave us your bill. And now it's time for lightening bound.

So today we're gonna do something new and we're gonna get vulnerable. That's not new, something brands someone unique. We're going to share how accountability has helped us personally in our journeys to financial freedom, which we both I think we both feel like we have reached. I don't know. I won't put that on you, Jill, but I feel like you have. Yeah, look at me, look at me over here, I just got many splits installed with all my financial freedom. Oh for sure, I feel those of

us who live in Florida. Those are air conditionings. Air conditionings. All my European friends know exactly what's happening over here. I bet people in the North do too. Probably there's no central Maybe it's definitely no no central a C heat, window units, baseboard heat. I mean, well, yeah, it's it's not super common to do many splits, I think, but it's becoming more and more common in the US, but Asian countries, European countries, many splits are quite common. I

apologize for my ignorance. That's okay, you'll get there. Thank you. Any vulnerability, vulnerability, tell me about it, be there with me. Oh yes, financial freedom okay. So what has accountability afforded us personally? I think in so many ways. I would say I've got accountability across a variety of spheres. I think with you, Jen and with what we've built with Frugal Friends, I have so much more financial accountability than

ever before through the podcast. I think it took a big uptick when we did start our Financial Rita Mentorship Club BFF previously, just even more knowing that there's gonna be people checking in with me, knowing that I'm going to be talking about finances and someone's going to be asking me the hard questions has helped me, And I know I've referenced this plenty of times, but I think it fits here just me starting a roth I rara and thinking about retirement that never would have been on

my radar if it hadn't have been for what I would consider to be like a partnership, not just a business partnership, but I think accountability partnership with you financially, that that's massive and I'm going to experience the long term effects of that in what did we set it for twenty fifty three, I'll be so grateful for this

accountability and what it's afforded me. And then I think accountability within the mental health space that is my day job and my my partnerships and groups that happened there, and then the accountability that I experience within my marriage, just so many different places. What I will say ultimately is it keeps me in check knowing that people know some of the decisions that I'm making, whether or not

I'm making beneficial, healthy decisions or non beneficial decisions. And sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it, but ultimately it is leading to goodness. Yes, I love that. I'm I want you to remember me. Even if in thirty years, like we don't speak to each other. Don't say that doesn't happen. But even still, if that happens for some reason, I still want you to look back at our relationship

and say I'm thankful for that. Yeah, yeah, whatever transpires between us, Jen, you are the reason that I have a retirement investment account. So that's one of the greatest achievements of my life. I love that. That is a top three for sure. So I think for me, I will echo that this show has been a great form

of accountability. I think all the way back to starting my blog and kind of joining the personal finance community, I think I've seen it go too far in which, like people, some people are okay sharing everything they spend on the internet on Instagram and everything they make, which may or not may not be healthy. And I'm not

necessarily one of those people. But I do love sharing with you guys the times that I do well and the times that I don't do well, so that we can share in that up and down of the journey and know that you the people you've follow on Instagram and the podcasters you listen to are not perfect, and I want to be the first one to tell you that. I want you to learn that from me. We've gotten, We've gotten inside look at some of these folks and ourselves to know that I sometimes feel like the worst.

I feel like I might be like the worst one out there, but I I it's definitely given me accountability to to be better for sure. Um, I think with like my accountability partnership, I think Travis and I have such a strong financial partnership, like while we were paying off debt, having a live in accountability partner is top tier, highly recommend highly h and everything else would come would be second best to that empathy for those who don't have that currently, and yes, and they're I do believe

it is hard. I mean not just financially like income wise, but it is harder to pay off debt when you are single or don't have somebody who's on board who you're sharing like income with. It is significantly harder. And don't let anybody tell you that it's not. Yeah, I think so. I wouldn't have been motivated to pay off my debt or even started to pay off my debt

without him. His encouragement and support, and so I think that's been the most significant one in my life, which I think speaks to the research that we talked about, right those who are your or in your immediate circle, but then even beyond that, So of course it's going to be difficult if you don't have somebody in your immediate circle who has, you know, a similar goal, much

less all the others around you. And so that I wonder I'm going on a tangent here, but you know, if you don't have a partner who's on board, then it becomes even more important to surround yourself with people who are on board with you, because that that not only will help influence you and motivate you, but that could mean back door influence your partner right to go, If that's the understanding that that research is providing, that you're going to influence them by who you're surrounded by.

M all right, well that's a whole other podcast episode, but absolutely that one day. But I also I want to say, just because it's harder if you're single, you don't have that live in accountability partner, or if your partners like anti budget, it doesn't mean it cannot be done I want you to remember that I don't know that it is harder, but you can still do it. Like the length of time that it takes you to do it does not matter. In the long run, that

doesn't matter. So we take a little longer, but stick with it. Anyways, Thank you so much for listening, and thank you for being a part of our community, being a part of the reason why we have gained financial freedom. It is definitely thinks in part to you, for sure. So we're so thankful for you and your friendship is

not just for a season. It's long term, baby, It's long term, yes, um, And so thank you for leaving your kind reviews on Apple podcasts like this one from co oh God that I don't want to talk about. The flashbacks that that name gives me is an invisible children joke that Jill will Jill will get but probably no one else listening. Well, uh, it says love it listening is like sitting down for lunch with your best girl friends and talking about frugal living. Love how you

all discussed debt from different perspectives instead of just one method. Well, thank you, and I love that you associate us with lunchtime. That's absolutely my favorite lunch, just associating us with food in general. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode on Instagram, we're adding you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away fifty dollars for you to

spend in the Frugal Friends shop. Yes, and that has all those workbooks with the challenges. So if you have a friend that you want to do a challenge with, definitely get on up in there for the challenge workbooks that you can have something to do together. Keep leaving us reviews wherever you listen to podcasts, send the screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com. Uh, and don't forget to tag us on social We do see it in our d m s. See you next week.

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirian. Yeah, I'm so excited about financial freedom and mentorship related to accountability. M hmm,

I I love this is something we have created. The thing I wish was available when I was paying off debt, and it took us years to figure out what that would be like, what would be worth paying for honestly, like, when finances are so tight and you don't have a lot to spare, what's going to be something that's going to amplify the limited resources you have to work with?

And and this is it. It was fun. I mean, I'm so glad that our episodes are not commercials and that's intentional, but it was fun for me to look at all of the tips that were listed out in that second article. In my life's like, oh, this is what financial freedom mentorship provides. Reciprocity groups, being able to pick who your best fit is, challenges, fun, accountability, prioritizing it just like had all of the things yeah, like I mean the things yeah, we've been doing since July,

but like we're all intentionally designed. So it's like that. It's like you could just do it on your own and just like get a workbook. That's kind of the cheapest option. And that's great. If you have somebody like that, you know already that you could do that with cool

do that. If you don't, then you've got financial freedom mentorship where you also not only have the accountability, but you get the twice monthly Q and as with us and like our guest experts that we bring in and then if you need more than that, you could hire a financial coach, which is not us. We don't do financial coaching, but that's kind of more the one on one if you like really need some you know, intense stuff for a season. But I think that is the

thing like a coach should be for. I mean, I would hope less than a year, even less than six months should get you over a hump. If that's what you need for coaching. It's usually about three months and most most people that I know charge at least six hundred dollars for three months of coaching. Yeah, but the more long term and I love what we've established in our mentorship program with the goal of seeing all of

our members up until their net six figures worth. Network of six figures, I love, love, love that goal and you know, maybe beyond but I think anybody who's in that debt payoff just wrapping up debt payoff into the investment stages kind of considering next steps. That is our listenership. And I love that if if you engage in this mentorship program, that's our goal to see you get to that point. Yeah, I mean I felt like I had whiplash when we finished paying off debt and I didn't

know what to go. Where did you? I had no one to turn to. There was nothing for me anymore because there was all this support and all this stuff on the internet about what to do, you know, to pay off debt, to save money, earn more and stuff. But so I needed like motivation and accountability on the journey. Like I didn't need to know what to do. I just needed like support while I was doing it. And I actually needed even more support when I was done

and had to transition. I had to figure out for myself, Okay, what are my next steps? Do I want to listen to what this person is telling me or is there something else? Like And that's where I found the personal finance podcast world was around that time, and it was so helpful. But to have had a trusted expert like to ask questions to whenever, like, oh my gosh, I could have saved myself a lot of time and heartache. Look at us, we're so jazzed about this topic. We're

like creating an additional episode. Probably should probably we're just we're just so excited. But I mean, yeah, second doors closed, Happy New Year. I love you guys,