Escape Living Paycheck To Paycheck #073

putting towards those goals that you have set. And so today, yeah, I'm excited that we're gonna be able to step back a little bit more to talk through how to take those steps to get a little bit of financial margin in your life. Yeah, Matt, I know there are a lot of people living in a scenario where they're living paycheck to paycheck. It hurts my heart to hear about that, and I'm looking forward to hopefully providing some from those

practical solutions. Real quick, though, I wanted to mention there was an article posted in our Facebook group by Heather and the article she posted was called is it an expensive bike or inexpensive Transportation? And I thought it was super helpful in kind of reframing the conversation around riding bikes.

And we've talked about this before on the show, but that article in particularly was just a really good example of how cheap riding a bike can be, even an expensive bike, when you're comparing it to normal car transportation and how expensive that gets. Yeah, it's just a great example of how just thinking about something from a different perspective can completely change how you view the value of

that thing. And you mentioned expensive bike, and it's true, the guy that wrote that article has like an eight thousand dollar bike, which is crazy expensive. That's crazy expensive, way more expensive than anything that we would even dream of owning. But again, when you put it in the context of transportation, and he had the numbers up for how much it would cost him to operate a basic Honda Civic and the fact is it's almost impossible to operate a vehicle like that as a small reasonable vehicle

for less than six thousand dollars every year. And so you know, by no means are we advocating and saying, yeah, you should go out and buy an eight thousand dollar bike. There are lots of affordable alternatives to that where you can get an electric bike for much cheaper that would allow you to replace the vehicle. But just that sort of paradigm shift by thinking about the bike not as just a nice bike or even as an affordable bike,

but viewing it as a replacement to transportation. We recently talked about secondary costs, and the secondary costs associated with owning a vehicle are huge. Yeah, there's an article that's on our site that I wrote about insurance and if you can even just reduce the amount of miles that you drive every year to less than most insurance companies will give you a pretty big discount for being a

low mileage driver. Other insurance companies are starting to charge by the mile, which means if you drive very, very little, you could save a lot of money on your insurance costs. And so if you can step up your bike usage and lower how much you're driving, yeah, it can be an alternative form of transportation to you and then save you money on your car costs every month. And be sure to check out electric bike review dot com as

well if you're looking at electric bikes. The guy that runs that site has got tons of reviews on there. And be sure to check out his top rated section where he reviews different styles of bikes, and that's where you'll be able to find, you know, like a roadbike versus a hybrid or a city commuter. And in most of those options, he has a nicer expensive option, but

then a really affordable one. And dude, a lot of the ones that come in that are really affordable that he loves our rat bikes and that's what you own, the rat Wagon. Yeah. Rad has this awesome direct to consumer business model and they've made electric bikes so much less cost prohibitive. I've seen so many people riding RAD bikes more recently around town just because they've lowered the price and the barrier to entry into hopping on a bike.

And so I'm just seeing people ride around town more frequently on bikes, and a lot of that is electric bikes, which is super cool. It's fun to see. Well. In quick shout out to to Heather because she works for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, which is an awesome Atlanta nonprofit and they promote bike safety, bike awareness, basically just trying to make biking in Atlanta better. Yeah. So, if you're into biking and you're wanting it to be safer in your city. Be sure to look up your organization and

seriously consider supporting them most definitely, my friend. All right, let's mention the beer that we're gonna have on the show today. We're drinking Roast Beast by Modern Methods Brewing Company. And that's beast, not beef, right right, So it reminds me of Whoville. Uh, the who's carved the roast beast, that's what That's what this must be named after. Uh. And listener Krista was kind enough to send us this

beer in crowlor form out of Cleveland, Ohio. And the coolest thing about this beer, Matt and Krista sent us some info on this is that this brewery is located in David Grohl Alley. So Dave Dave Girl, who's a famous musician, the frontman for the Foo Fighters, drummer for Nirvana as well. Yea originally yeah, so apparently this this brewery is located right in this alley that's named after

world famous Dave Gross that's kind of cool. Yeah, And technically they call this a groller, not a crowler, so it's it's a groller. And did you ever listen to Food Fighters back in the day. Obviously, Nirvana is kind of a staple. But Food Fighters, man, you know, not really. I know they were super popular, but I wasn't cool enough. I don't think did. I was looking back over their discography and I forgot how much I love them. The

Color in the Shape and I'm freaking rocked. It had so many great songs on there, Monkey Wrench, I know the song man, but I'm sorry, we just can't connect on this level right now. I'm not saying I dig them like today, but it definitely makes me want to go back and listen to some of that awesome, you know, late nineties rock. Well, I did like some late nineties rock. And even if we can't kind of bond over Food Fighters, well,

we can bond over this beer. So thank you Christa, and we'll kind of let you guys know what we think about this speer at the end of the show. All right, Joel, onto the topic at hand. Today. We're talking about how to escape living paycheck to paycheck, and honestly, a large swath of Americans wouldn't be able to pay their bills if they missed a paycheck. And you know, we saw this evidence earlier this year with the government shutdown.

How there are tons of government employees who are in that very situation, you know, when you're living paycheck to paycheck. The idea of even setting aside extra money every month is honestly laughable, Like, how are you supposed to set financial goals? How are they supposed to be attainable when every single dollar is going to go towards just staying afloat. Yeah, Matt, and I feel like, honestly, some of the advice that gets targeted towards people who are living paycheck to paycheck.

First off, there are a lot of predatory companies that like to leach on the people that are the most vulnerable in our society, and we're gonna kind of talk about that more later in the episode. But so much of the advice that that is mentioned for people living paycheck to paycheck is is kind of cheap and not not very thorough. And so, based on some recent listener emails, we felt like this was a subject that we needed

to tackle. We needed to tackle it well, because, like you said, this is a problem for a huge percentage of Americans, and we want the people living paycheck to paycheck to be able to find some of that margin so that some of our other episodes can be really helpful, so that they can start gaining ground when it to saving, when it comes to investing for the future, and just have the confidence that they're going to be able to meet financial challenges that arise, because it happens for all

of us. Unexpected expenses pop up, whether it's a car breakdown or an HVAC system that goes kaplui, that happens, and so you and I'm at we were empathetic to the plight that many people in this country face. And so many people are in a position like this, often through through very little fault of their own. Sometimes it's a personal circumstance or a family member having an issue

where you have to help out. It turns out six of bankruptcies happen because of unexpected medical bills, and often those medical bills arose out of an issue that kind of popped up out of nowhere. But I do think at the same time, there are some practical steps that we can lay out that can help people who are who do find themselves in that situation get a leg up and start making changes. And so that's what this

episode is all about. And the thing is if this is your situation, right, this is the boat that you're in, keep in mind that this won't change overnight. Getting your finances in order is going to take time. It's going to take intentionality. And high earners aren't immune to living paycheck to pycheck either. Right, It's not just those that are living at the poverty line. You can have a huge income, but if your expenses are just as huge,

you are by definition living paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, Matt, I feel like there are a lot of stories of people that make six figures are close to it, who are are living paycheck to paycheck. So you're right, it's not just people living below or near you know, the poverty line. It's a huge percentage of Americans across the income spectrum. Okay, So in order to get out of that cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, what needs to happen is that you need to create some financial margin.

And what that means is there's just some room. There are literal dollars between what you make your income and the expenses that you have every month or every two weeks. And so the first steps in order to transition you away from living paycheck to paycheck are. The first thing that we're gonna cover is tracking your spending. Knowing where your money is going every month is going to be the very first step in knowing how to reroute towards savings. Joel,

I know personally you love using Mint. Yeah, Matt, I love using Mint. I hook up all my accounts to it, and it helps me track my spending all in one place. I love going there in order to get quick overviews of my budget. But then also I literally have every single transaction spelled out, and I can see every single incoming and outgoing financial transaction at the same time, all in one place, and and that's what I love about Mint. So it's also free, which is really nice. You can

download the app or go to the website. So at least for me, that's the best tool that I use to track my finances. It's nice to be able to kind of automate some aspects of your life, right, But at the same time, it's not necessary. Tracking your expenses isn't something that requires hard thinking or decision making, Like tracking your expenses is very different than budgeting. It's just looking at where your money is going and just keeping up with it a little bit. So as long as

you just keep receipts, you can ease the track you're spending. Uh. If you don't have a smartphone, by chance, keep up with your receipts, list amount on paper. That is tracking

your expenses. Yeah. And I think the reason that we say tracking your expenses is the first step towards building some financial margin in your life is because if you don't know where your money is going, it can kind of take on wings at at different times in your life and you might spend five bucks here, ten bucks there, and typically if you're not tracking your spending, you just forget about those purchases. You don't remember that they even happened. And you want to be able to look the cold,

hard dead facts right in the face. And that's why tracking your spending is the first step that you have to take if you want to kind of end that vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, and just as you start making progress, it's good to see where you've been, because it's fun to track your progress as you improve, which leads us to our next step, which is setting goals. And so ask yourself, what is it that you want aspiring towards specific goals can be incredibly helpful.

Knowing your why behind money will help you to get through those tough times of austerity. Which is a funny word to use because, like typically austerity is like a political or economic term where a government will either cut spending or raise taxes, And when it comes to you, like on a personal level, those are the exact same things essentially that you have to do. You have to either increase your income or most likely cut expenses. Those are your two largest levels that you can pull in

order to make change in your personal finances. Yeah, Matt, and our whole show is kind of based around living or rich life. Now, we're big fans of people prioritizing saving and investing, but at the same time not depriving themselves of things that are meaningful. But I gotta say, if you are in the position of living paycheck to paycheck, the idea of austerity is an important one to consider for the time being. You might need to make some short term sacrifices so that you can achieve the goals

of achieving margin in your life. I'll tell you what, Matt. From everyone that I've heard that's gotten out of the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, They actually have an emergency fund, they have the financial means when they encounter an unexpected expense. The sort of mental freedom that they gain because of that is so much greater than the

pain of the austerity that they had to endure. I think that's important to note and knowing that that is your goal, that's your light at the end of the tunnel. That's sort of freedom to meet those unexpected situations that come up. That is going to help you to actually

get through those times where you're cutting back ruthlessly. That's right. Gel. So, like we said, cutting expenses, uh and earning more like those are the main levers that are going to allow you to get out of that cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, and we're going to dive into the specifics on how you can do that. Right after the break, our buddy, we're back and let's talk about cutting expenses. We already kind of mentioned tracking your spending and how

that's the first thing you need to do. It's hard to know what to cut unless you have been tracking and you actually know where the money is going. And then the idea is to ruthlessly unnecessary expenses. We had an episode earlier episode thirteen on cutting your monthly bills, and that's particularly powerful when we're talking about recurring expenses. We also did an episode about monthly cell phone bills.

Matt I just talked to a friend that took action on that and he signed up for Sprints one year free service plan. Oh is that that deal? Like if you transferred over specifically from Verizon, right, yeah, but and it's from other cell phone providers as well, you can get the deal. So so it's worth noting that there are major savings to be had if you will only take the steps and cutting your monthly bills. The recurring bills that show up every single month are going to

be huge in upping that margin in your life. Let's first now talk about some big steps that you can take, drastic steps. It is more effective to focus on these bigger winds when it comes to cutting your expenses sometimes than focusing on just like all the tiny little things that you think might make a difference, right like the latte every day. You hear that mentioned all the time. If you can tackle the biggest expenses in your life, you're gonna be able to take much bigger steps towards

creating margin in your life. You know, if your leases up, consider moving into a smaller and cheaper place, or maybe even consider moving in with family. If you have a car payment that's killing you, consider selling that car. Go ahead and take that loss. You know, drive a beater instead. We're focusing on these bigger things because housing, transportation, and food for the average American takes up seventy of your budget.

So if you can focus on those three things, you know, like we already covered housing, we did transportation, food, you know, stop eating out like that is the most expensive way to feed yourself is if you go out to a restaurant every day, but focus on the bulk of where you're spending your money first in order to see the largest gains. Yeah, Matt, those are huge. Often times for people those feel like fixed immovable costs, but they're not.

And especially if you're living paycheck to paycheck and you want to change that cycle, that are often ways that you can change the makeup of those bigger monthly bills in your life. At minimum, it's something that you should start thinking about and creating an action plan for. Maybe taking on a roommate is an ideal, but you know what, maybe that's the step you have to take for the

time being. Yeah, for a short period of time. You're not saying that you have to always do this, but if if you know that, like man, if I do this for six months or a year, like, think about the kind of margin like that that would give you. Yeah. Completely, And Matt, you did kind of mention getting a latte every day, and that is something that I feel like a lot of financial experts quote unquote say stop drinking the latte and you'll be able to save this and

such more for a retirement. And I understand where they're coming from. I feel like for a lot of people that's not necessarily helpful. But if you are living paycheck to paycheck, a lot of people living in that vicious cycle, they feel like when they do something positive, they owe themselves kind of like a little reward, and those rewards can be costly over time, whether it is a latte

or eating out. We mentioned the word austerity earlier. I think it is important if you are living a life that is paycheck to paycheck, you have to forego some of those even sort of rewards for the time being because they can kind of mess you up on your way towards gaining that bit of margin in your life,

which is so important. Yeah, sometimes it's key just to kind of go cold turkey, Like it requires you to completely jar yourself off the normal patterns and the habits that you have in order to completely reframe the way that you are thinking about your expenses. It's like a prize fighter doing some training, right. Oh, I know all about that, do you? Okay, Yeah, of course you do. No, don't really, but they're not eating donuts ever, Like one donut throws them off their game if they've got a

fight coming up in two weeks. And so the same way, you need to kind of take on the focus of a prize fighter where those things are completely anathema to what you're trying to achieve. And Joel, like you mentioned, those small things do add up, and so now is the time to kind of feel like that last of your expenses. Uh, there are ways to just reduce those expenses, like with your insurance shop it around, if you're making

purchases that are non necessity items. We've talked about this recently, but consider putting a period of time where you're gonna make yourself weight, Like consider waiting thirty days if you know that you are prone to making purchases on a whim and receiving it in two days or less. Cut that Amazon Prime membership if you know that that's causing

you to stumble again. The whole idea is to kind of jar your habits and to kind of get you off that path that got you to where you didn't have any financial margin in your life to begin with. Another major step you need to take is to keep tracking those expenses. And it sounds weird, right We just talked about tracking expenses, but being able to note your progress is helpful, and the only way that you can

do that is by continued tracking. And so even if you kind of came up with a list of what you've been spending in order to kind of get get a handle on your situation, continued tracking helps provide you the encouragement to see that changes are being made. It makes things tangible. And another way to kind of help make that tangible is by creating charts and graphs that

helped track that progress. And so Katie and our Facebook group posted a picture of a bar graph that she'd kind of created to track her own progress on paying off debts and saving up an emergency fund and I thought, man, that is so helpful. It's his visual that she gets to look at every day and at the same time kind of physically color in those bars to track her progress. What a cool way to make your progress tangible. It's so much better than just looking at numbers on a screen. Yeah,

like you said, she's doing it by hand. This isn't you know, some fancy graph or chart like that you're gonna do on your computer, but just written out on a piece of paper. Like it does not have to be complicated or fancy at all in order to feel the results of what you're accomplishing. And that's the reward, right. I feel like people are tempted to spend money in little ways here and there to reward themselves. The real reward is that tangible feeling that you get by tracking

your progress. And another step in going down the path of cutting your expenses joal is to make sure you engage your support system, and by that I mean friends. You and I we love talking about money. We've done an episode on why you need to talk about money with your friends and family. But the fact is it

is it's not easy. It can be really hard. To be vulnerable when it comes to your finances, when it comes to talking about scaling back your expenses, but it is so incredibly important to get your friends on board when you have that support system around you, and to know also that you have friends that are working towards

similar goals that you are. You know, we've also mentioned this in that same episode where we talked about talking about money with your friends and family, but creating a friend group or a tribe who in essence are keeping you accountable and who also want to see you succeed. Yeah, and if you need online encouragement, join our how to Money Facebook group. Really, the idea of cutting back spending less, it's a it's a really simple idea, and so that's why we tried to kind of go through some of

the nuances of it. So oftentimes, when people struggling who are living paycheck to paycheck are told just to spend less, it feels like a very simplistic solution, and so that's why, you know, Matt and I tried to go through kind

of some of the specifics here. The idea of spending less is simple, but it's not always easy in reality, and so taking some of the steps that we mentioned can create some better habits in your life, leading to change, and it can also help take some of the emotion out of those decisions that cause you to spend money on a whim. Yeah, Joe, and I like that you mentioned emotions, you know, and habits, right, because when you're used to doing something, just being told the knowledge and

how to do something doesn't make it easy. Even though the ideas are simple, it does not make it easy because you're used to doing something like emotionally, it's really hard to do and it's really difficult to break habits that are long standing. So now that we've talked about expenses that we can cut, let's talk now about different ways that you can earn more money. Yeah, Matt, So, if you are gainfully employed, earning more money where you already work is going to be the most effective way

to increase your income. Sometimes it just means asking for a raise if you've been there for a while, if you've been a good employee. Other Times it means asking for and taking non more responsibility, maybe a managerial role, maybe working a different shift, but anything you can do to prove your worth to your current employer and to seek increased pay where you currently are, that's gonna be

your quickest route to earning more. However, if you can't earn more money in your current job, look to side hustles. In episode thirt or four, we talked about just great side hustles that you can scale and turn into legit businesses. But right now, when you're in this position of living paycheck to paycheck, even a side gig can help you to overcome that cycle, and you want to take all

that money and bank it. Yeah, man, I feel like a side gig, as opposed to a side hustle, can actually be more beneficial for someone living paycheck to paycheck, And we kind of clarified this in that episode, right, But sometimes you just need more income in your life right now, and that's the case if you're living paycheck to paycheck. But the key is if you do take on a side gig and make some more money to begin to fund your emergency fund, to begin to bank

that money. The easier thing is to let that money come into your account and let it flow right back out, but that's not going to help you get out of the vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, Joel and some examples of this is you can take online surveys which are pretty quick and painless. Donating plasma a little less quick, a little less painless. We joked about doing this on a previous episode. You've done this before. Yeah,

I donated plasma in college. Yeah, and it pays pretty well. Yeah. I think I made about seventy or eighty bucks a week when I would do it twice in a week. We had a listener reach out. I forget exactly how much they were making in a year, but somewhere near like thirty dollars a year to donate plasma. Basically it was covering their annual vacations that that he was taking with his family, which is totally admirable. But then other options you can lift. You can uber selling extra stuff

on eBay. Again, these are things that you're doing right now just to stop the bleeding. You're trying to find ways to give yourself a little bit of margins so that you can essentially resume your normal life and find ways to maintain some financial standing that is more sustainable in something that you can do more on a regular basis, Like, these aren't things that most folks will be able to

continue to do long term. But again that's okay. Just like with Joel mentioned as far as like having a roommate, you probably don't want to have a roommate for the rest of your life. It's not sustainable necessarily. Maybe it is for you, but for the time being having a roommate, you know what, that's a great way to reduce expenses. Having these side gigs that are bringing in extra money

is an awesome way to get an income boost. So we've talked a bunch about practical stuff, Matt, but you know what, so much of money is psychological, and it's no different if you're living paycheck to paycheck. It's really helpful to find little tricks that can motivate you psychologically. And so some people have found that having two separate accounts.

Let's say you have direct deposit through your employer, depositing most of it into one account that you spend money out of, and the other one into an account that is used just for savings. I know our friend Grant, when he was first starting to get his money act together, he took this route, and you know what he did. He actually asked a trusted friend to change the password of his savings account so that he couldn't get into it no matter what if you wanted to, he couldn't.

And I thought that was kind of an interesting tactic. Obviously, make sure you give that to an incredibly trusted friend, exactly right. Yeah, but I love that idea of setting up kind of a separate account. It's like a forced method of savings where you don't even see it, you don't even think about it. If not even seeing a portion of your paycheck is what it takes to kind of get the ball rolling. Do that, and it all comes down to you as an individual, like and then

there's acorns. A lot of people love that it automatically rounds up and pushes that portion towards a savings account. If you think that would work for you when it comes to saving, that that would resonate with you, Like give that a shot. And on the other end of the spectrum, when it comes to expenses, if you know that you're a spender, try switching over to cash, you know, like going from apps on one end to to cash

on the other end. Like having something tangible, like we said earlier, when it comes to graphs, like you really feel it. And so when you're spending money and you're actually handing over those cash bills the green stuff. Yeah, like you can really feel that and you don't want to part with that. So if you're gonna go out for a beer with some friends, like paying in cash, that might very well be a way that can keep you at only having a beer versus buying several beers.

So just know yourself, no, you're spending patterns in your habits, and try to use the different tactics and tools that would work for you. Good stuff, Matt, And it turns out there are a lot of free resources to help people that are in cashtrap situations. Let's talk about those right after the break alright, So we are talking about

escaping living paycheck to paycheck. You know, the goal is to end that cycle, and even saving up one thousand dollars and paying off high interest debt will allow you to stop the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. You want to have some financial margin in your life. Uh, you can even call it an emergency fund, it doesn't really matter. But again, like the goal is to just end that cycle. And we just covered some of those direct steps that you can take in order to cut your expenses. Or

to find ways to earn some more money. But Matt, there are some massive pitfalls that people living paycheck to paycheck often stumble into. There are a lot of nefarious businesses that claim to offer help, but they're actually hurting. I'm specifically talking about companies that offer title loans and payday loans. And it sounds like a solution to someone who is living paycheck to paycheck, that getting that quick money is going to be the solution to their problems.

But ultimately, the way that these predatory loans work they charge interest rates of often close to three repayment terms are often incredibly quick, and if you are unable to pay that money back in short order, you're rolled into another loan and you owe even more money. And so anyone that's living paycheck to paycheck out there listening to this episode, I just plead with you to completely avoid

those guys. There are a lot of bad situations to be found in, but there's not much worse than being subject to the terms of a payday loan Eduel, And you know there's alternatives as well, earning like earning without the g just earning. They allow you to get your paycheck early without fees and without interests as well. And so you know, that's a decent stop gap, right, Like, if you're in a position where you need that cash, it's certainly better than the alternatives of going to a

payday lender or getting a title loan. However, know that this isn't a long term solution, right, It's not sustainable. However, if you are in a situation like this, though, yeah, it can be a decent stop gap. Yeah, normally, Matt, I don't think you and I would say, access your

paycheck early, take your funds now, and spend away. But if you are in a position where you're living paycheck to paycheck, so many people they take out a payday loan or a tidle loan, and they find their financial situation to be much much worse on the back end. And so a company like Earning providing free access to your pay today as opposed to going to a paida lender and getting charged in outrageous interest rate, Man, that's

just so much better. And let's talk about, Matt, some of the other free resources that people have access to, and also once to kind of clear up some some of the stigmas that surround some of these, in particular government resources that people have. I think there can often be shame surrounding taking those, but the ones we're gonna cover here are completely open to you to use for your benefit and and don't feel any shame in that.

The great thing is someday, once you have that margin in your life, once your finances are back on solid footing, you can pay it forward in other ways to other people. So if you're in a tough spot, consider some of these free resources you want to get started. Yeah, I mean, let's talk about student loans and so in particular, if you have a federal student loan, get into an income

based repayment plan or apply for forbearance. So if you're living paycheck to paycheck, if you're underwater when it comes to your finances, these different plans and terms will allow you to get, you know, get a little more breathing room when it comes to your finances. So, if you're student loan payment is weighing you down and you feel like you're barely above water, looked to an income based for payment plan. And if it's other kinds of debt that make you feel like you can barely keep your

head above water, you're just treading water right now. Well, another free resource that you should take advantage of is to visit a local chapter of the n f c C. The NFCC is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. They have local chapters all over the country, and the great thing about the n f c C is that they are one of the few above board places that you can turn to get free debt counseling. Counselors of the NFCC can also help you create a debt management plan.

There are a lot of people out there who will promise that they can work with the with your lenders, with the people that you owe money to in order to negotiate you lower interest rates or even partial forgiveness of your debt. Most of those people are lying. But the NFCC, well that's legit. They offer real help. And so if you suffer from overwhelming debt, visiting your local NFCC affiliate. That's one of the free resources that you

need to hit up right away. Yeah, man, And you know, if you are just in a really tough position, look to your local community and just different nonprofits. There are temporary shelters and food banks for those who have immediate needs. Look to Salvation Army and check out United Ways two and one like that is just an incredible resource that's just set up across the country that can provide you with different resources, whether it be counseling or shelter or jobs.

There are all sorts of programs that you can look into that might be provided in your local city. And you know what state and federal government resources are available for you in really difficult times as well. You can apply for SNAP benefits, which are also known as food stamps, Medicaid, subsidized housing, low income home energy assistance. If you're having trouble paying the heating and cooling bills for your home, there are lots of low income home energy assistance programs.

There's also a welfare s s I you know, we have matt and Georgia. We have something called peach Care and I've heard of it. Yeah, yeah, we have a friend whose kids are on there. If you are under a certain income threshold, your state might offer free healthcare for your kids. So if you're worried about doctors bills piling up based on having to take your kids to the doctor, look into applying for state provided health benefits will put links to all of these resources in the

show notes. Just remember, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, hopefully, hopping on one of these programs is just a temporary boon to your finances so that you can get things under control and eventually you're back on your own two feet financially speaking. All right, Joe, let's go ahead and take it back now to the beer. We want to thank Krista in Ohio for donating most Beast by Modern Methods to the show today. And this is an oatmeal stout, And because I know that, I feel like it does

taste like Founders Breakfast stout. It's got that same sort of roasty ode flavors going on, maybe a little bit lighter in body. I feel like it switches around in my mouth a little bit, just a little bit lighter than a normal oatmeal stout. Yeah, I feel like this reminds me of a dry Irish stout, which is a specific style, but it's got oats in it, which totally kind of combines those flavors of an American stout and Irish sed out Guinness, isn't that technically a dry Irish doubt?

It is? Yeah, Yeah, it's probably the most well known. Right, this was definitely on another playing field than Guinness. Though this was a really good beer. I felt like an interesting style. I love the name because who doesn't love the grinch Man? Right that Yeah, so carved that roast beast. We just had some roast beast tonight. Thank you to Christoph for sending this beer over. Yeah, as we finalize Winner, basically like we're kind of moving into spring, it's a

nice beer to kind of be done with all that. Yeah, nail in the cough and take that Winner, all right, Matt, Let's get to our final thoughts on the topic of escaping living paycheck to paycheck. There are a lot of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. It's tough out there, but you know what, you can overcome that cycle of living paycheck to paycheck by making some of the changes that we talked about in this episode. I think tracking your

expenses and then cutting unnecessary expenses is huge. It can't be overstated how effective that can be on the bigger level of housing in cars, and on that smaller level of eating out and buying those little rewards. Any expenditures that you can cut out of your life get you started on the right track and creating financial margin like that is the only way to get out of that cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. So you talked about expenses and now earning more money like that is the

only other way to widen that gap. And so look for ways that you can increase your your regular income by taking on additional responsibilities and asking for a raise at work. But at the same time, don't be afraid to take on a side gig for the time being in order to earn some extra money that you can dedicate to these immediate financial goals. Yeah, and don't be ashamed or afraid to take advantage of the free resources

at your disposal. Whether it's student loans or other kinds of debt that have you barely able to breathe financially, there are free resources at your disposal. Yeah, it certainly doesn't hurt to see if you qualify, So check those out, So, Joel, I think that's gonna be it. Man. Thanks everyone for listening to this episode. All those links that we just mentioned will have those up in our show notes at

how some money dot com. Be sure to check those out. Yeah, and if you're digging this podcast, you found it helpful. We'd appreciate your five star review on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button while you're there. And if you think we've got room for improvement, drop us a line at how to money dot com slash do better, all right, Joel, So, until next time, best friends Out, Best Friends Out,