Top Financial Lessons Learned From 2022

m mmmm. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are doing a fun episode that's a little out of character with our normal format, so that we can cover the top four financial stories of and talk about what they've taught us, the bigger lessons we can take away, and how this has been another really unique year for your finances. And so I'm very excited to kind of I've into something a little unique over here on the show. We

love reflecting back. We love learning from the past to help inform the future. What's that saying. If we don't understand history, we're bound to repeat it. I butchered itad but you know what I mean. And one of the lessons we're going to learn is that history does repeat itself and there's not a lot you can do to keep that from happening. And so to know what to do and how to prepare is a big part of being financially responsible. There's no one size fits all approach.

Every year brings its own unique challenges, and we have to pivot for those unique challenges. Uh And we don't typically cover financial news on the show, so it's gonna be a nice little, uh fresh take on financial news from a friends style, dipping our toes into it. Well, we'll see how it goes. And speaking of seeing how it goes learning new things, this show is brought to

us by learning our lesson. For some of us, it takes many mistakes, lectures, even punishment like standing in the corner getting our mouths washed out with soap to finally learn our lesson. Anyone still did we did? We really learn it? While others just need to watch their siblings do all the dumb stuff and then choose the opposite

whichever category you fall into. We've got another opportunity to learn some lessons and make some different choices, but this one doesn't involve soaper spankings, and it promises to be relatively fun. It's the one week spending Megover. This is happening January too through six. The second to the six, we're hosting a free one week challenge it's going to have daily live lessons of private Facebook community uns of extra freebes plans, looking back at the past, looking towards

the future. How can you do values based spending without all the guilt anyhow? It's all free. January two through six, Frugal Friends Podcast dot com, slash makeover. Go there, sign up, transform your spending, learn your lesson. Yes, and if you're hearing this episode during or after January two through six, do not fret. There will be a replay so you can still get all the goodness that we are going through. Or maybe you're out of town that week, don't fret.

Still go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash makeover to participate in what you can and there will be a replay because we want everyone to have the opportunity to take part in this spending makeover, to really really get into values based spending and really build a foundation for it. So we're very, very excited to help you do that. All right, So we don't have anything really to compare this episode two, so um Goldie just threw

some interview episodes up in here. So if you like Frugal Friends, if you like this episode and you're and you're wanting to hear more from us, uh, then check out episode to seven, We've Got Money in Life Lessons from a Hospice Doctor with Jordan Grummitt. I think that one actually is a pretty appropriate one. He Jordan's is a hospice doctor and has a really great perspective on especially financial independence. He's more in that space and I

just loved his balance approach to it. And then we also have episode two oh nine Financial Adulting with Ashley fine Stein GIRs Lee, and that one's also a really good one that has a lot of current events in her interview and in her book so by the same name, Financial Adulting. So those are two great episodes to queue up after this one. But you may need a breather after this episode because it's all going to be way

too real. Yeah, every So every episode we we do, we we figure that it's going to be relevant for maybe half the audience. Half the audience will be into it right now, and the other half may not be. Another episode of our two sixty nine other episodes could be right for you. We're all living today. If you're listening to this, you are alive today, and so we are all going we're all going through this together today and we there's gonna be no scare tactics in this episode.

It's all going to be hope, encouragement strategy for the future, and that's what our goal is. So okay, okay, I gotta do a quick pivot over here. Then. Okay. That was more of a reminder for Jill and for you was scared tactics only. Okay, okay, okay. So let's start with our four biggest financial lessons from Kick It Off, Jill. Okay. This first article comes from Yahoo Yahoo News, you know the one. It's titled why is inflation still so high right now? And when can we expect it to finally stop?

I mean, the overall lesson to be learned is that inflation is not controlled, so bummer, we can't control it. Were manipulated. It's like one of those things that happens to us. But don't worry, there is hope in the midst of it. Some of the highlights from this article is just as we look back over the last thirty years from two th nineteen, the annual average annual inflation rate was two point five percent. So if you've definitely

felt the pinch this last year. Uh, yeah, because it really increased a ton and we saw it peak at nine point one percent in July. The good news is is that it is easing off. It has slightly eased for the second month in a row, reaching a point three percent in August. Still really high, way higher than the average, right for the last thirty years. But yeah, the that is the lowest figure though that we've seen in four months. So we're not going to get into

all the different things that drive inflation. You could read the article further if you want to know you want to take a deeper dive on inflation. We're not economists, although it's like it's a short read and you can easily understand it. But I think at the end of the day, what we're all still gonna wonder is, Okay, if I can't control inflation, it's going to happen. Sometimes it dips, sometimes it rises. What can I do? Where is the hope? Where is my control and influence in this?

And I think that's another good reminder for us to be considering a diversify investment portfolio, so thinking about some long term solutions knowing that there's going to be some unpredictable uncontrollable ebbs and flows. This is another reason why we highly advocate, regardless of your income or wealth status, to start young. So if you're listening to this and your twenties, fantastic. If in your thirties, that's great too.

Others of you, there's still more tips to be had, but you don't have to have a lot of money in order to invest and do well with your money, make wise choices, and this is one of those reasons we're seeing it right now because sometimes it gets really really tight and it causes all of us to freak out about our investments, about our gas bill, about groceries, and so starting starting young, even if it's starting small, diversifying your portfolio, those are going to be some of

the things that are like at protection hedge around us so that we can kind of weather some of these storms a little bit more. And if you do want to learn a little bit more about recession proofing your finances, we had a really great, like amazing, super eye opening for me at least interview with Megan Rebuse. That's episode two, So if you also want to take a deeper dive into that great episode, great tips, There so much good stuff on inflation from her. Yeah, some more just tangible tips.

You all already know this, but connected to this idea of inflation, we can be focusing on our emergency fund. If we're wondering what's the best most wise decision that I can make with my money that's going to help me in this regard, fully fund your emergency fund. We all know that's going to be different for everybody. Some of us it's three months worth of living expenses, some at six. Some it's are deductible for our medical insurance. Whatever it is. You make that a priority, get your

emergency fund fully funded. Next is to pay off as many credit cards as possible. Typically, your credit cards are going to be your highest interest rate loans essentially, so if you've got if you've got unpaid credit cards that is accruing massive levels of interest, you're going to be kind to yourself, kind to your wallet if you focus on paying off the highest interest rate credit card first and just keep tackling from there and then just continuing to get creative all of the This is where all

of the other Frugal Friends podcast episodes come in handy of how do I make wise choices be intentional spend around my values, save invest well, just get creative in the ways that you can do well and weather the storms of inflation. Yeah, and it's also important to note that in prices are not inflating at eight percent every month. This is a year over year increase, so it's not as bad as the news outlets might make it seem

to be. So we're seeing but it's still extremely high. Right. Um, we're seeing like a point four percent to point eight percent month over month increase, which is still crazy. Um. We usually you want to see the point to or or less, so it's still like double what you want to see, but it is it is slowing down, so I know that it's it's getting better. And just take the short term tips and the long term tips. That's really all we can do with the lemons we've been given.

So alright, So our second lesson of this year in a news story coming from Kiplinger, and it's eight facts you need to know about bear markets. And the lesson here is bear markets still exists. They are still, Yes, they are. It's that you're doomed to repeat history if you don't learn from it. Bear markets are are a psyche. Their cyclical bear and bowl markets are cyclical, so you can't always avoid bear markets just by by knowing what has happened in the past. But for you know, for

better for worse, we learn. We have always learned a lot and implemented new laws and regulations so that we learn from the things from past bear markets. So a bear market, if you're unsure, it's when they take a broad market index like the SMP five hundred and they use that as a benchmark, and when that fall or more from its peak than we are in a bear market. And the average happened around every five years, and the average drop decline is actually about thirty three percent for

a bear market. And before this bear market that we are in currently, we had not seen one for eleven years. Eleven years, so the average bear market lasts about nine to ten months. And we've only been in this one since June. I know, it feels like we've been in one for three years, not the case. Um, we have been in this current bear market since June, so we're about six months in. So you're I mean, you're gonna

be probably seen this for a little while longer. We're maybe the nearing the end of it, maybe midway who knows, who knows, But as inflation starts to slow down, we could see ourselves get out of a bear market. But you're you're there, it happens, right, Wow? Is that the hope? Is that the hope you're dangling in front of me? We could that it will end be out of the bear market. Statistically, bowl markets last way, way longer than bear markets. But we're in one right now, and it's

nothing to be scared of. I love this quote from the Kiplinger article. It says, most importantly, a patient, long term investor who is diversified in accordance with his or her age, stage in life and risk tolerance, cannot only wait out a bear market, but profit from it. Remember the market can be miserable at times, but it's long term trend is always up and to the right. Remember that the market is miserable right now, but it's long term trend is always up into the right over decades.

We're always going up into the right if you look at it over the decades. So our tips for weathering this bear market invest invest if you can, because the market is on sale and we are, I mean, we're pretty much I probably mid mid bear I would say, I do not speculate. I only look at data. Uh, and it's showing we're probably about mid bear. So you probably have you know, a good three or four months of stocks being on sale. We'll see, I don't know

if it's a hit rock bottom. It's looking like it has. It is looking like it's going up. But again we could see there's always this like we hit rock bottom, then we go up a little bit and we go down a little more. So that's always a case that has happened frequently in the past as well. So if you can invest start that rath I r You have like three days to start a rath BYRRA to make

it count for two. So do it now, pull over to the side of the road and start one on your phone so that you can get that get this extra year because you can invest in into your roth ey A. You cannot start. To the best of my knowledge, there might be loopholes. You cannot start a two roth I r A in but you can't invest in it up till April unless you have a time travel machine. Unless you have a time travel with me, in which case you should use it more wisely than just going

back to there are other tips for you. You can email me if you want those. For those of us that don't have a time machine, start a rath eyr A today and if you can, if you are prepared for those tips that we covered back in you know, preparing for inflation, then then this is the time to do it. And choose diversified index funds. That's a second tip. You want to be as diversified as possible because it's not just granted, it's not just US stocks that are down.

It's also international, but sometimes they tend to flip. So if US is down, international maybe a little more up, YadA YadA. But if you're in like a total stock market index, you're gonna get a little bit of everything. So like right now, you know when when stocks are down, golds a little up and stuff like that, get diversified and you can easily do that with four or less index funds. And then the third tip, probably the most important, it's just don't look at your investments. Don't look put

money in there and do not look. Uh. This is not the same tip that we give with your transactions in your budgeting. You should be looking at those. Don't look at your investments. It will just make you sad. And don't be sad. You have your whole life out of you. Yeah, pretend you're playing hide and seek and just keep counting m yes and not looking, covering up your eyes, waiting for time to pass. We'll tell you when you can look. No, we we won't tell you.

We are not financial advisors. You look when it's when you feel like it's the right time for you. But um, probably not. In a in a bear market is probably not the right time. Okay. Our next lesson learned comes from CNBC. This article is titled high mortgage rates, tight supply and economic uncertainty. Here's what's happening with the home prices. So we you won't do like the fear tactics, but CNBC might. Yeah, yeah, I like that. The actual u r L is just like what's happening with home prices.

That's so that's the short. That's the short title, what's happening? What the world is going on? I wish it's also said yikes, uh, well, yikes, what's happening. Ultimately, the lesson learned here is housing crash is not coming. If this is our parents were hoping for that, yet I was hoping for it not gonna lie. I'm like, yeah, when this thing crashes, I'm swooping in. I'm sweeping it all up, swooping and sweeping. There won't be any of that. They'll

be sitting and waiting and I don't know. I guess renovating the home. I do happening. Yeah. Oh, so here's some of the highlights from the article. A few bullet points for you is that even with increasing mortgage rates, home prices in our August we're still thirteen point five percent higher than August of one, and roughly forty percent

higher than they were in two thousand nineteen. So, like, you are right if you're thinking, my goodness, this, like it's changed so much in three years, Yeah, it has. Chances are it's not gonna It's not gonna fall drastically. Yeah, chances are if you were not living under a rock,

you already know that. If you were, though, welcome. Yeah, mortgage rates hit a twenty year high, spiking over fifty percent in six months, and so yeah, the article goes through a lot of that, having to do with the pandemic and some of the boom that we saw there. But then we've also just continued to see this up into the right trend that we don't necessarily love. With the housing market, the sharp rise in mortgage rates over the past several months has made housing more expensive for

anyone needing alone. And while that has some buyers pulling back and some sellers lowering what they're asking for, strong demand and tight supplies are supporting the prices. So as long as you've got that there, you're not going to see a sharp decline. It's so low, like the demand or the supply is still so low. Yeah, there is about three months of supply in the existing home market, which is about half of what is considered a balance market. So we would need so so much more supply to

see a bit of a decrease in that. Hopefully we're not going to see like a crazy spike from here, but I don't think we're going to see and everything is pointing to we're not going to see a massive drop we and and of course this is compounded by the interest rates that we saw the peak of seven percent interest rates, which meant one in eight renters could

afford to buy a medium priced home. In contrast, nearly one in three renter could afford to buy a medium priced home just a year earlier when rates were three percent. So I mean, there's so many things kind of stacked against here, but we are seeing that dip a little bit too, easing up, not going back to what we saw pre but becoming a little bit more reasonable, but still not not going to see a crash. So okay, the hope. What can we do here? Because some of

this is drastically outside of our control. What are you going to do about three months worth of supply in the existing home market? Uh? I don't know. Maybe no, no swooping sweeping, that's not going to happen. But if you are buying, if you are in the market right now, I think certainly putting down as little as possible is

can be a decent idea. Of course, you're gonna have to look at your personal finances, and we did do an episode specifically on home buying in a really hot market, so if this is you, feel free to take that

deeper dive with that episode. But putting down as little as possible can help you to have some more cash on hand, and then calculating the cost benefit analysis of buying points to reduce your interest rate instead of putting down a larger down payment, it could be advantageous to purchase some of those points for a lower, lower interest rate for you and then calculate all of your costs in the home buying process while keeping refinancing in mind.

If you get a high interest rate we're talking kind of that between five to seven percent, plan to refinance in the next two to three years. So keep that in mind as you purchase your home, the reality that in a few years, hopefully you'll be able to get a better interest rate on your home and you can plan to refinance in that time and then have a better rate for the duration of your mortgage. Yeah, and

that was episode to nineteen, the home buying Tips. Yeah, I mean, home prices are dropping a little bit, not as much as would make it like enticing to buy even with these high rates. But but no that I mean they'll go down. They will hopefully. Gosh, I can't say anything will happen, they should maybe, um So, so it's probable that in two to three years you can

refinance out of that really high rate. It just makes it it's just harder to qualify for a mortgage because of how high rates are right now and how high the prices are. But if you can get a house that's less expensive than it was earlier this year with the higher rate, if you can still qualify and you want to get in, do it, because then you can refinance. You can't change the price of your home once you buy it. So if you can get in and the payment is in your threshold of what you can afford,

do it. And no, you can refinance in two to three years. I mean, you can refinance in as few as six months, honestly, but I think you know it's safe to say within three years, I think we'll see a positive shift in interest rates. And by positive I mean a negative yes minus less less yes less lest jan I'm excited for this next. Take Tony over here, Hot,

Take Tony, call me hot, Take Tony. So our last one may not be the biggest story of the year, but is probably the biggest in the finance world right now. And that's the story of f t X. And this is coming from There were so many art goes to choose from, but I went with this one from Investipedia because I really like Investopedia. It's called the Collapse of f t X. What went wrong with the crypto exchange.

And if you are not familiar with crypto, you might think that because crypto exchange is such a generic name for a fintech, you might just think that the entire cryptocurrency market has just collapsed. This is false. Not all of crypto has collapsed. But there are some things and not even actually crypto related, to be learned from this story. So the crypto exchange, it's just like an exchange. It's a when I say fintech, it's a it's a financial startup.

There's a ton of them. There's so many. It's a financial startup where you could exchange different cryptocurrencies. Another one actually central to the stories called binance, So there are's, there are others out there. This has nothing to do with the actual like like bitcoin or theory um or the cryptocurrencies. Crypto Exchange was just a crypto exchange, a very very unique name for what it is, just like finance. And what had happened was this is give it to

us straight, Tony. So it started on Twitter, Well it didn't start on Twitter. It started it started when a and actually a cryptocurrency site found some shortcomings to f t X is the short name I guess for the crypto Exchange, even though their coin is ftt so I'm not acent sure why it's f t X, but I digress.

So they found out I think it was coin base some where, and they wrote a story, like a pretty scathing story on crypto Exchange, and finance, who's actually a major investor, is a competitor but also major investor, made some comments and then the CEO of the crypto exchange got all his panties in a bunch and he started being rude on Twitter, and that was his downfall because then finance was like, I'm pulling out all my steak in this exchange, and that uncovered even more to teach

them a lesson kind of yeah, punishment. But here's the thing that uncovered that the CEOs other business, which was a hedge fund, was actually taking money from the crypto Exchange without the permission of the investors, and so it was essentially a Ponzi scheme. And this was all uncovered over the series of this This article was the catalyst for it. This was all uncovered over a series of ten days. And so what it's what this is teaching us not is that crypto is the enemy Crypto is

not the enemy. I mean, blockchain is going to be a really important part of banking in the future in whatever way that looks like, I don't know, but it is like a really it will be an important technology to some extent. What I think that this should teach us is that a you should be prioritizing your retirement investments first. Crypto is something you play with right now, and it should make up no more than it's right now.

It's about one percent of the currency market, so it should make up no more than one percent of your portfolio if you want to have some kind of marker, so prioritize your retirement savings first. That way, if you had money in f t X or any other cryptocurrency exchange, you are not suffering from this. Second is also again don't view crypto as the enemy. Crypto was not the enemy. It was the new shiny thing. And that's actually the real lesson of this whole story is don't rely on

the next new shiny thing. The next new shiny thing is not going to save you. Long term consistency in investing and long term consistency in intentional spending and earning. Those are the unsexy solutions to your problems long term, and that's it. The next new shiny thing is not your savior. So that's the real lesson in this I know, I know, Hot take Downy over boring Bob. At least it's not boring Bill never. But Crypto was not the enemy in this story. It was the mismanagement of this company.

And so that brings us to our third tip. Due diligence is always worth the time and hassle. So whether you are buying a home, whether you are investing for a retirement, whether you are listening to a podcast and the host says something that you're like, well, I don't know of cryptos not the enemy. You do your own due diligence because it's always worth the time. It's always worth the inconvenience. The reason so many people lost money in f t X and they weren't on the public market,

it was all um, you know, private investors. They lost so much money because they wanted to be on the cutting edge of the next new shiny thing, and so they just put money in and they just played on their Super Bowl ads. Do you remember these. F t X was the one that had like Crypto Super Bowl ads this year was them. They were that they were the ones. Yeah, so they were huge this year in the crypto space. They were huge and everyone was throwing money at them because on the outside it looks like

everything was working. But as soon as by so funny twist in the story, the CEO got rude and then all this was the stock plummeted once Finance took their their steak out and then Finance was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna come save you by buying you out, which was a funny thing because FTX did that in like January and February bailed out a lot of crypto companies and was kind of hailed as a savior almost of crypto and uh, Finance was going to do that to

them until they did their due diligence and found out that the owner was using money for private stuff, funneling it to a different company off the books, like the accounting was obscene, so binance. It was so bad Finance decided to not buy so due diligence always worth the hassle and investors would have lost a lot less money had they done some due diligence, slow and steady, when's the race. It's fun to play with new things, and

that's all fine and good too. But like you're also okay if you just do like the traditional slow and steady due diligence and to be afraid of new technologies and new things. We shouldn't be afraid. We should embrace them to the extent that we can afford to embrace them cautiously. Always do your due diligence. Wow. Thanks Tony for joining us on the show today. We could listen to you forever talk about all of the hot takes. So thanks for my new podcast, Crypto Chicks. Thanks for

enlightening us on a little bit of the background. It it felt like the highlights and the reels that I needed without all the other fluff. And you know what else we've got as our next segment we had Tony, But up next is the Bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.

That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi, Jen and Jill. My name is Katherine and I'm from Boston. I'm so excited about this bill because I've anticipate hated calling in to share this for quite some time. So I graduated college this past Mayo and was finishing school with twenty seven thousand dollars in student loans. They were all private and didn't qualify

for the federal loan repayment program. I had made the decision when I was going into my senior year so a little over a year ago, that I was going to pay off my loans as fast as possible, starting the month after graduation. So in June, fast forward to now in October, I just made my final student loan payment. The best part was while I worked to pay off the twenty seven thousand dollars in the past five months, I was able to max out my four oh one

K and roth ira at the same time. To ensure I was still investing in my future, I put quite a bit of my savings towards debt, and most of my income from my two jobs went to debt payoff and retirement. Since I continued to live at home with minimal expenses. Shout out to my mom and Dad, your podcast has been so so instrumental in me getting to this place. And I'm so thrilled an ecstatic to be debt free at twenty two years old. So yeah, that's my bill of the week. Thanks for all you do.

Oh Catherine, Catherine, you twenty two year old, amazing person. I was trying to come up with like some some animal, but you're just You're an amazing person, twenty two year old. You're an amazing animal, beast of a debt payoff finance wisdom connoisseur. This is incredible to have a plan before even graduating, and and people aren't wrong to come up with a plan after graduation and getting all the bills

in order and figuring out what to pay off. But my goodness, were you ahead of the curve to be thinking about it before you even graduated, then implement on that plan pay it off so quickly and while also maxing out your furrow. Okay, rath ire A, you are

set up, Catherine, well done. And fun fact, Katherine actually shared her story with us for our YouTube series Debt Free Stories, So starting soon you're gonna be able to see season one of Debt Free Stories and Catherine's story is one of those, and so we're very excited you'll get to hear a little bit more of her story, her background, and in hopes that will be an inspiration to you if you see yourself in a similar space.

But we have we have a lot of debt free stories from a lot of different people, all relatable stories, I think, and Katherine is one of those. So thank you, Catherine. Well done, Catherine. If you all listening, have a story about a bill that you paid off, if you're twenty two and just slaying out there, or if you just like met a bill or you know a bill. I mean, we'll take it all. Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for round

all right, So our vulnerable portion of the show. What was the hardest financial lesson you had to learn in two So gosh, I gotta weed. I gotta weed through them all thinking to all the difficulties I think for me, and this is a lesson I'm still learning. I don't know that I have learned it. It's not like a past tense thing. It's a present tense and ongoing. I feel I'm learning the same lesson I can't do it all all at wants. And this is tough for me

because I am also doing better financially. Eric and I as a household are making more money. We have more understanding of finances and how to use them wisely, how to spend wisely, how to save, how to invest, and so I think sometimes it can frustrate me that even with all that knowledge, I still can't and and increased income, I still can't do it all, Like there's still always gonna be like the next thing or something that is a really great idea to do with my money, But

I can't do it all. I can't cash flow renovations, wall fully funding every single sinking fund, wall maxing out or raw I ra a wall all investing in all these other different types of portfolios like I just can't. It's not endless for me. I'm not independently wealthy like that. So I think the ongoing lesson of continuing to prioritize, like, okay,

but what's most important now? What is going to be the mile marker that's gonna help me to know when when do I need to shift so that I don't get so swept up in one goal that I lose sight of another goal. But yeah, how to really kind of hone in on the priorities, but then also keep a pulse on when is it time to shift into the next thing that's going to be the best decision with my money. Yeah, I think that's like a ongoing thing for me. I think I I was, that's always

going to be something I deal with too. So I'm I'm with you. And now if you're there, you're you're in good company. Yes, there is permission though because of that, like you can't it's not like, oh I need to learn this lesson and do better and do all the things. Like the lesson is you can't do all of the things. So prioritize what's going to be best and most responsible for you right now, and then keep reevaluating and making shifts. Yes,

definitely what about for you John? For me? So, we bought another house in May and it was probably so we spent basically from January to May looking for something, and uh, it was just hard. It was a hard season. And so I learned I don't want to be a real estate investor. And that's that's hard. I mean, real estate investing is a great way to diversify your investments and power. You know, if if that's you and you

love it. I hated it and I hated everything about it, and uh I really wanted it to just be over all. The time I actually had by the end of it had to be like, you do this without me, Travis, I can't. I cannot participate in thisscribing from this strong I am unsubscribing. Oh, I mean, you did do it in historically one of the worst times. And so if you're looking for a house in this market, I empathize with you, and I also don't envy you because I

did it and I would not go back. And so if you're unsure if this is the right time for you to buy, I'm never going to tell you to venture out in this market. I'm also not gonna tell you be scared of it, because we did it, we made it happen, and it's working for us. So it's this is such a unique time that it is, and it is so dependent on what your gut says. It's so dependent on you and what you feel, your intuition, your gut, and you really have to listen to what

your capacity is. And so that was a big thing for me is that I will not be becoming the real estate mogul that I had once thought maybe I would be. And that is me listening to me. Yeah, that's okay. You discover and learn things about yourself along the way. This will still be a great thing for you all financially, and you just know you might not be collecting more properties right right, And that's uh. Some people love it and some people don't. And uh, I

just also gotta ad for where we're at. Of homes are being bought by um investors and Florida is not slowing down in the way the rest of the country is with the home buying stuff. So it is still horrible here and it's it just left a bad taste in my mouth for many investors in this area too. I don't want to be like them. I don't want to contribute to the problem in the city. But I also I am thankful I get to be a landlord that actually lives in this city because that's what we need.

And so at one point it's it's on one hand, I don't want to be the person I don't. I have a bad taste in my mouth for now, And on the other hand, like I'm glad i am because our tenants have been thankful to have a landlord that lives ten minutes away instead of one that lives in New York. So yeah, yeah, it's learned. Yes, so yeah, thank you so much for listening. Um, we want to reiterate instead of sharing a win or review, we just

want to reiterate that we have a free challenge coming up. Okay, and we just want to remind you that if you haven't already, go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash

Makeover and sign up for this one week challenge. There's gonna be daily live lessons delivered in a pop up Facebook community and to your inbox, so you will get the same thing, just a replay to your inbox, So don't worry if you don't have Facebook and they're they're recorded live during the day, so some people will't even be able to be there anyway, so you're gonna get it no matter where you are, even if you're listening to this. After the six there will be a replay.

And the goal of this challenge is that in days or less, you will have a clear picture of your past spending, specifically from the past ninety days that will help you figure out your values based spending a foundation for that, and then you can implement a plan to improve your spending in that aligns with those values. And that's what we're going to do over this week. Um you're gonna leave with a plan for your spending that

makes you feel happy not guilty. So if that is something that you want to do, you want to spend well instead of not spending at all or spending too much, then go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash makeover. Definitely before by January second, but even if it's after January, sewod still go. Let's do it. See you in January and see you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirian Jen Do I see the sparkly uh banner?

Anything behind you? So this I hung up with tape and I was like, I wonder if it will just work with tape. It doesn't. It fell down as you can see, but it is uh. The plan is for it to go on either side and it was up for a day. Now I have to like really figure out how to put it up there. Did it look amazing? It looked amazing? Yes, Okay, when we figure out how to put it up. Then we record in front of it, and whoever is still listening to us now can know

what we're talking about. To see it in our Debt Free Stories recordings, because it's up for those. Okay, yeah, so we're recording this a little bit before. It's just a recording. Is a weird time warp. It's like we have a time machine, but we don't. We just have delayed publishing. Cannot use it to win the lottery in two thousand seventeen or to invest in the highest yield stocks. But we can wow you with our movie magic. So catch it stall in the studio January. I'll tell you

right now when Debt Free Stories premieres. It premieres January nine, Yes, man, right after the makeover. Yes, January nine. Stay tuned, Okay, see then,