Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt, and this is a Friday Flight Leftover Turkey edition.
Joel's Favorite Leftovers. Was it last week that you were just singing the praises of how we all need to be eating more turkey? Turkey's underrated? Was it as good Joel as you imagined it? I don't know, because we're pre recording this, Mack, because of course we didn't record on actual Thanksgiving Day. We'll tell you what with our respective families doing all the things that you do and I didn't need, I'll tell you that that's a crime
against humanity. You know Fenra, the one of the regulatory bodies. Oh yeah, have you seen the ad for the girl who is thinking about investing in meat based tofu company? Look it up. It's basically calling attention to some of the things that we get distracted by and we think, oh, maybe well we should invest in this company. And it's sort of like her conscience. It's sort of like what's the movie with the girlth of feelings and picks are
oh oh inside out? Yeah yeah, it's sort of like inside out and she's got all these different versions of herself. She's trying to convince herself to invest in this meat based tofu company, or maybe it's a Tofu meat base. I don't know. But one of the questions was like does this even check out? And they say that, it's like, oh yeah, maybe not. That's exactly what I thought of, because yeah, that's when it comes investing. That's one of the things you need to consider is how logical is
it to begin with? But no, okay, so we are doing this is a special episode. This is a special Friday flight, and we wanted to call special attention basically to thankfulness and some of the different things that listeners in particular that they have been able to achieve with their money, right, and not everyone that was at least what I was really to hear. A lot of folks shared just some of the listener money wins, some of the things they were able to accomplish over the year,
which we love to hear. But specifically, I think this is a great episode after Thanksgiving as we are all expressing some things to basically really focus in on the different things that we're able to do in our lives with the money that we've been able to set aside with the fact that we no longer have this debt that's hanging over our head. Right, what you're doing for my life? What is it doing for you? And how can I express gratitude? Because yeah, yeah, what are the larger,
more important things in life? Because money is just a tool, it's not And we don't want people to think about how much money they have set aside in their nest egg as like a score, like a high like a scoreboard. Basically, it's less about that external keeping of score and more for you what you're able to achieve with that money, connecting it to real life.
It's less of like I'm thankful for twenty two percent returns in my you know, in my four oh one k or something like that. It is more where the rubber meets the road, which is like, man, there were a lot of great ones that we're looking forward to sharing with you. We requested them on Facebook and on Instagram and we just had a ton of great responses
from listeners. So who are grateful for the ways that money has and smart money management has impacted their lives and allowed them to live really the life they want to live, not just like hey, I didn't a million dollars to my net worth which feels seven digits.
Baby, Yeah, that's part of it.
Like, I don't want to say that that's dumb, because tracking your net worth matters, and it is okay to be grateful. Hey, my net worth grew this year. That's that's pretty cool. But there are other, I think ways where where money hits the things that matter, and a lot of listeners share stuff like that.
Makes me think. I think.
I think I'm most grateful for from this past year in terms of money, is Matt that we were able to take a big trunk of time off this summer. I don't know if listeners remember that. Yeah, we had some replays there for like four weeks.
Or something like that.
We were gone and it was nice. Not because it's so good. I don't like recording the podcast with you, or I don't like what we do. I love what we do, but it was nice to get that break. It was nice to travel with the fam, and that's one of those things that money really touches. Our ability to do that and not have flop sweat the whole time be like, oh, okay.
Had you ever done that in your entire life, your entire working career up until this past time.
I had taken one long trip. It was it was very very early in my career. It's funny, after I left and I quit my job, they laid off a bunch of people, like pretty quickly after anyway. But I took like three months of three throw trip. You were like twenties, like twenty two two, Okay, Yeah, Like that's.
The kind of thing you do very early on before you have early responsibilities, before your prefrontal cortex. It's fully that's right, Yeah, that's right. Pretty sure yours didn't fully close up until you were twenty five. It was at least twenty five. That was definitely the case with me. But yeah, but within your actual working career, when you had responsibilities and goals and financial goals and things that you were trying to achieve in your life. Right, Similarly,
I'd never done something like that. And on a similar note, I'll say I'm thankful for our ability, not yes, that was awesome over the summer, for sure, but even something as simple as the week this episode comes out. We recorded this last week, and the ability to take this entire Thanksgiving week off man, So thankful for that, to
be able to spend time again with families. Kids aren't in school, so to be able to spend some of that quality time with even with them, not even doing the Thanksgiving stuff, but even just some of the some of the stuff sometimes you forget, right, like with daylight savings having changed, Like I was just talking to my little dude yesterday, It's like, man, it stinks because now if there's something going on at school, by the time you get home, it's already dark outside. We can't go
outside through the frisbee. That's something that we can do on a Monday, on a Tuesday before traveling off to see family. You know, we got a lot to be thankful for.
Yeah, absolutely, all right, So shall we get into the listener list you and to kick it off with Sarah?
Sure? All right.
So Sarah wrote in she said, I'm grateful for the savings that I have while I'm furloughed by the government. And so she wrote this, of course, while the government was shut down like a week.
And a half ago or something like that.
And Sarah, I'm so glad you were prepared for the longest government shut down in history. There was so much anxiety map for so many folks over the course of the shutdown.
It was like six weeks.
Think about being an inner traffic controller called into work and not getting paid. That's gonna be frustrating, like I would be. I'd have a tough time with that, And especially at this point, given how our politicians tend to act in these situations, there's just no other reasonable way forward. I don't think for government workers, or really for anyone. We want all how the money listeners to be prepared
with liquid cash and a bare bones budget. Those two things simultaneously could be a big help if tough times come along. So Sarah, I'm so glad you didn't have to worry and fret. And then that's what a great thing to be thankful for.
Absolutely, And so I think what I'm going to do here too, is that some listeners didn't say necessarily why they are thankful for the things that they mentioned. But like in her case, I'm sure it was stressed, right. It wasn't frustration of not getting paid, but stress and being afraid that, oh my gosh, we might have to go into debt. Like we don't normally spend on our credit cards, We normally don't carry a balance from month
to month. And this was an instance, with a shutdown that literally would have actually rolled into that statement, and so the ability to avoid that kind of stress, Oh my gosh it maybe she would have been even tempted to take on another job, and that's not something that she had to do because of the fact she was able to tap her emergency fund. Greg wrote getting to do a monthly budget with my spouse number two hundred and five tonight. We started back in September of two
thousand and eight and we haven't missed one yet. I specifically, I really love this and I want to highlight the fact a man after your own heart. Yes, well, and he said that he gets to do this like getting to do a monthly budget. What that tells me is that he like, why is he pumped that he's able to do that well? Because he gets to work as
a team with his wife. The fact that they have a shared vision, the fact that they probably have shared goals, and to be able to have such great communication like that with your partner, that is amazing. Like, I'm thankful for my wife that I'm able to do something really
similar where we are. It's a more collaborative sort of approach to our finances as opposed to one feeling like all they want to do is spend and the other one feeling like all they want to do is save, right, Like, which I know that's the dynamic with some folks, but being able to talk about that by planning out with a budget, that's huge, I think.
I think it also just shows that consistency is clutch, right, and doing something with regularity over a long period of time, like you're gonna get where you're trying to go. And if you're like you're doing it halfway here and there and you're like, eh, maybe we'll meet this month, maybe we won't, you're just not going to have that focus really matters. And so I'm sure that Greg, having done this for seventeen years, that's gonna Yeah, that's gonna.
Make a big difference in his ability to achieve those goals with his spouse. Compounding budgeting returns, Yeah that's not really a thing, but I'm sure that's what he's experienced.
Like, yeah, exactly, all right. Carly said, we needed a bigger house, but we lived in a high cost of living area. So we sold our house, paid off what little debt we had, and moved to another state where the cost of living is cheaper, and we got our dream fixer upper. We're debt free, and we cut our insurance premiums by fifty percent by my husband taking a different job.
Dude, this is such a baller move, right, like doing something that extreme. I mean, generally speaking, Americans are moving for opportunity at a lower rate than the historical average. But it can just be such a great way to massively shift your personal finances. And in large part because oftentimes we think of just moving the money around the margins as how it is we can save money and
get ahead. But I think it's worth considering something like this, something more drastic, because it can be just so substantive in allowing you to eradicate debt and just live the life you want. So Carly way to be debt free
while still finding a way to own your own home too. Right, the fact that they were able to find a fixer upper, there's something about creating the the kind of home that you want to live in as well, which reading between the lines here a little bit, but it sounds like she was able to do that.
I think it's just so easy to assume that you have to keep doing things the way you've been doing them. You're like, oh, well, this is the city we live in and this is the hand we've been dealt. And Carly and her family are like, now we can make
a really big different decision. And guess what, They've got a lot less debt now they have they could probably have a lot more optionality, I would assume in the coming years for the work they want to do, if they want to work at all, which is which is really cool.
So yeah, well I wanted to mention this as well. Her stated thankfulness she was thankful for was the bigger house, right, But why is she thankful for that bigger house? And again, I'm want to continue to maybe read into this more than maybe I should. But I'm assuming maybe they've got a growing family. Maybe they've got a bunch of kids and the kids were shared bedrooms and or meet or just even the ability to have a bigger place, to be able to host your family, to host friends, the
ability to expand your social network. Some these are all reasons to be able to move somewhere where you can have a bigger house a little bit more. Maybe, or maybe they're not into having friends and family over. But maybe they're really they're hardcore entrepreneurs and they want to both have offices in their own home and the ability to I don't know, launch things like that out of there. There are so many different reasons why having a bigger
place could lead to a higher standard of living for someone. Specifically, if the.
Choice was well, let's add onto the home where we currently are, that could be incredibly expensive right in, especially in a high cost of living area, you might be in debt for that renovation for many, many, many years to come, and that puts you in a precarious spot where you have to keep working maybe more hours than you want, to keep communing in a way that you weren't down with, and so making a complete lifestyle change like this. It's not for everyone, but I'm glad that
Carly and her family did it. Sounds like it was for them.
I think it's Yeah, it's great for folks to hear that something like that is possible. Actually, Brian over on Instagram he said something similar. He basically described how they or he cut to the bone. He invested super aggressively years of hard work and preparation in order to achieve his dream of being a first time homeowner and I'm not going to read into this one. Maybe sometimes you just want to, oh need the tea leaves, Matt. Sometimes
you just want to own your own place. Yeah, sometimes you want to be able to control your destiny a little bit more than you otherwise would be able to if you were just renting. So and the props to you, Brian.
So we've talked about how renting is cheaper and almost everywhere in the country right now than buying. But I will say too, I had some friends recently who are renters and their landlord was selling the house and they had to leave, And so that is the downside of renting.
If you really really want to stay somewhere and put down roots in the community, that is a good reason to buy, even if it's not like the smartest money move at this exact moment in time and people find themselves there's that kind of clock the stick and like, I want to own my own home and that makes sense too. So Brian, glad you were able to pull that off.
Man.
Let's get to another one from Cassie in who said my fiance needed a vehicle after his died. A looked at used anew but the costs were used was minim in savings, and I've been saving up for a bit. Now I was able to purchase a new twenty twenty five vehicle and pay it off in less than three months, and I'm back to being debt free.
I like it, Dang, I like it so much.
Yeah, Like this is the exact opposite of like the seven year loans that you and I've been talking about three months.
Yeah. Yeah, Well, what this points to is the fact that this is something that Cassian saved up for, yes, and they had a goal of like they knew it sounded like they knew that this is something that was on the horizon, right, And so there's such a difference in getting this massive car loan that feels like it's completely out of control, that's just dragging you behind it and you're just constantly trying to catch up to it, as opposed to you being at the helm, like you
being at the wheel of the ship and deciding where it is your dollars are going to go. Like, that's the difference here, and that's that's just what looking ahead and having a proper plan allows you to do. Agree. I love that so much.
I think that's totally a win. Something to be grateful for. Nicole said, we saved three hundred bucks a month for three years for a trip to Finland.
We went on.
We flew business class, and we didn't worry about money the entire trip, and that's fancy. Still never flown business class someday, maybe before finding this podcast, we would have just charged it and worried about it when we got home. Thank you for the life changing advice.
This is this is so similar to Cassie and right, like this is kind of a although yeah, I mean yeah, I would say this is very similar. It's knowing that this is something that's on the horizon, preparing for it. In one case, one might feel a little bit more necessary your transportation, but I'm also going to say that a brand new way to get yourself around isn't you know,
quote unquote necessary thing. In the same way that someone would say that, well, travel's not necessary, but I don't know, to Nicole, she might say, yeah, well now this is important. And that's the thing, like, whatever it is, if something's important to you, make sure that you are socking the dollars away to in order to achieve that goal.
And I feel like it contributes to the enjoyment of the trip.
One.
There's something about planning ahead for a long period of time, like looking forward to a trip for is one of the We've talked to Scott Kay's about this is one of the best parts of the trip. You get to plan and think about it and like be like, oh man, that's coming up. That's how I feel about concerts, Matt. I've got a few concerts on the book for next year and I'm like, can't wait for that thing. I'm
so stoked. And the same thing is true of trips and for planning, and then on the back end there is just none of that angst or anxiety being like.
Oh man, how much do we owe? How much do we spend? Do we overdo it?
Knowing that you have the money set aside is clutch as opposed to yeah, putting that on credit cards, getting stuck with a twenty two percent interest rate on nothing. Yeah, the trip costs me even more than financially. It's just even it's gonna cost you even more.
Let's be honest.
Traveling with Scandinavia ain't cheap because I think even like a happy meal, there's like twenty two dollars or something. Yeah, you think you think food prices are bad here in the US, guys, you just hold on, Okay, Sarah wrote cash following my daughter's first three semesters of college and having more available in savings.
For upcoming semesters. I think this is awesome the fact that this is a goal of your Sarah, this was something that you wanted to achieve, and I'm so glad that you were able to achieve that. I think there's a beautiful thing. And I think also simultaneously making sure that you are encouraging your daughter to maybe find ways to lower the cost of school, right like applying for scholarships, an on campus job, becoming an ra, different things like that.
These are already conversations I've already started with my seventh grader. She's like, Okay, how much does college cost? How do scholarships work? They just give you that money. I'm like, yeah, yeah, this is how this works. You have to earn it, like you know, just give it to you for free. So I mean, I was like, sometimes there are scholarships out there and you got to write an essay, but if very few people know about it, there's not a whole lot of competition. So you could get that one
year after year. Just helping our kids to understand how scholarships work. I think that's a good conversation to have. I did work study when I was at school. I was also an RA.
I don't think I was a good ra MAP, but I was an RA and I still got like the thousands of dollars credit towards housing, So it was nice. It was worth the effort. Although I don't know if they liked having me or not, but I did it all right. So Isabella on Instagram said, I'm thankful for the good relationship we have with our landlord because they're now allowing us to lease month to month without any
rent increase. This is going to allow us to have patience when we begin searching to buy a home next year. We're not going to feel rushed and we can wait for the right home when it comes. I'm very glad we switched from a large apartment complex to a nice little lady who owns a few properties.
Love it.
We talk about mom and pop landlords regularly and not they are not all created equal. I want to stress that just because it's a small local landlord does not mean they are going to be awesome or easy to work with or repair things in a timely manner. But if you can find a good one, like think of if you're a tenant, think of like, I'm interviewing this person as much as they're interviewing me. Do I want to live in their house? Do I think they're trustworthy?
Do I think they're going to take care of things that If not, I'm consider opting dude move somewhere else or thinking about a different place to live. But that's that's really cool that Isabella was able to have that a personal enough relationship where she could ask for these things and make it of a beneficial win win. She's going to stay in the home longer, but it allows her the opportunity to shop over a longer period of time.
Yeah, exactly. That flexibility, man Like, that is hard. It's hard to quantify that flexibility and the options that is going to give Isabella, right, like the ability to be patient while looking for a home that she wants to buy, as opposed to feeling a bit rush and feeling like, Okay, well we're going to do this thing that it might end up. You know, if you're a bit rush, maybe you don't make the best decision from a numbers and not even not only numbers, but even from a lifestyle standpoint.
But I think that just buys her more time to keep an eye on rates because they might be dropping. We have seen them drop, but we'll see if they continue to. There's more opportunity out there for buyers to get a deal if you continue to wait. I mean, especially if you can take some of the emotion out of it. And I think having some flexibility, being able to rent months and months, that is one great way to remove some of that emotion out of this decision.
There's no like ticking timeline where we got to make it up. We got to be out of here by you know, the end of January. So if we don't have a place that we have to sign another lease or something like that, that'd be so stressful. So the fact that you have kind of no fixed end timeline, you really can be picky about the place you want and wait for the right spot to open up. And it's getting you more time to save in the meantime as well. So Kesley done, Isabella, are we got more
of your grateful money wins this year? We get to that and more right after this.
All right, man, we are back for the break and normally on a Friday flight. Right after that, right after that break is when we get to the ludicrous headline of the week, which we're not going to do this week against the spirit of this episode. Yeah exactly. So, uh, we've only got good news for folks today, so we'll keep moving. Let's hear from Arden and this isn't a voice minimum, I'm just gonna read it, but she wrote, I'm thankful that I chose to pay off all my
student loans. All my classmates are still six figures in debt. Holy cow. Okay, so maybe this is a ludicrous headline. All my classmates are still six figures in debt, and now I get to stay at home with my daughter. Best gift I ever gave myself. Dude, Oh my gosh. This like these are the bigger, more meaningful aspects of life that we're trying to connect some of these smart savvy money moves to right like this makes me because it again, it's not about the money. It's about what
that money then allows you to do. How we are able to wield our finances to achieve whatever ends it is that we want to achieve, and it's hard to not think of For me at least, I'm thinking of the Harvard Longitudinal Happiness Study. I think it's been going on for eighty five years now, and the number one factor the researchers attribute to the people who are participating in that study that contributes to their health and their
happiness is the quality of their close relationships. And when she says that she gets to stay at home with her daughter, I mean, that's the you're hitting the nail on the head when it comes to maybe if you find a better best friend, you'll be happier. Matt Well, I mean that's why our job is so it's so awesome, dude, Like,
like we have a very close relationship. The ability for us to like somehow support our families and do something that we enjoy doing while also deepening our personal relationship means we're going to be happy and healthy. That's right, That's right guaranteed. Otherwise I want my money back.
Yeah, I think if you're looking at we often talk about like productive money goals and things you want to achieve when it comes to like saving and investing. But then that's what I love about this episode is you get to see people say, like I did grade at that and now I have optionality and I have used it to make a decision that is not productive.
Actually it's stepping back from a financial standpoint. That's right. It's not productive, but it is.
Productive for like my happiness and living the life I want to live. And that's like the balance we're always trying to strike you and I as individuals, and then we're talking about constantly on the show as well, because money touches all these areas of our life. Carl on Instagram he was similarly thankful, He said, because he made incredible progress at his work. Not only is he maxing out retirementcount so he's being very productive. He said, he
did that for the first time. But he gets to manage his own hours and spend more time with his family, so he's getting kick the best in both worlds this year.
Yeah, hard to beat that. Sarah wrote, I'm thankful for the brand new implementation of universal early childcare in my state of New Mexico. Not only does it relieve a lot of financial stress for our family and countless others, but it also prompted us to move our kiddo to a daycare closer to home, which is saving us an hour and a half of rush hour driving each day. When when and man, this is first of all policy matters. It certainly impacts individuals on a personal level. But I
think it's just cool. I'm really enjoying focusing on the quality life aspect of our episode today. An hour and a half every single day that you're not spending in the car and stressful bumper to bumper trap. I'm just assuming. Yeah, I can hear the horns honking in the background of uh, what is it of Sarah posting? And what does that do? Like?
That gives you more time to be able to sit, not all of you in seats facing forward on the highway and traffic, but at home, facing each other, engaging, engaging with your kiddo, making meals together, eating healthier meals, saving money by cooking as opposed to picking up some fast casual to go.
I see one downside here, though, what's that less time to listen to podcasts? Oh that's true, Sarah. I hope you're still able to listen to the podcast you love. But I'm just kidding, Like, I would much rather ditch your commute and listen to less stuff. So I'm glad that's been good for you. What a wonderful thing to be thankful for. Yeah, Carrie said, I'm thankful for having a roommate so that I can save and put away more money every month to bump up my emergency fund. Said,
I'm also thankful for how to Money podcast. I listened to every one of them. Thank you, carriously appreciate that she might listen to you to the show's forced to listen to us. I don't know, but Carrie, thank you for listening. And roommates can be clutch. One of my friends, Matt, he lives in a four bedroom house with four total people with one bathroom. He told me to save money. Four guys in one house, one bathroom, and I was like, oh, that's tough. But then I went back to la the
twenty five. I think he's in his late twenties. Okay, oh, late twenties, late twenties. Yeah, yeah, but that was about the time I was getting tired of that sort of living situation. But at that sacrifice, it means more monthly margin, it means allowing you to be able to make more progress with your money goals. Carry I just want to say, keep beef enough that E fund and Yeah, live in the roommate life, especially if you have good ones, can be a wonderful thing and then maybe someday you can
get out of it. But you're gonna have the savings to be able to do that when you're ready.
Yeah, it's a win win, right, because not only are you attacking some of these that is allowing you to attack some of these other financial goals that you undoubtedly have, but it's putting you in social contact with other people. When our society today we are becoming more adamized and jolistic, and again pointing to the fact that hopefully these are, like Joel said, good roommates and you're not like fighting about I don't know who left the toilet seat up or I don't know.
I've had someone both. Back in my day, I had had some good ones. I had some not some good ones. Yeah, you know who you are. If you're listening.
Do any of your previous roommates listen to the podcast. I don't know, but we'll find out. I don't know. I don't know either. I stay in decent touch with them, but we don't often talk about the podcast. Listen to each other podcast. Yeah, but so I'm just pointing out that Carrie, this is from a social standpoint social health, this is a win as well. But you know, I
want to encourage folks out there as well. The reason I asked about the age thing is because, Yeah, like you said, this typically like an early twenties, mid twenties sort of move. I had friends who were married couples who chose to or one couple said well, we're going to buy this house. It's gonna be a bit tight, and they had another couple friend of theirs, and this family or the couple who was buying the house knew that they were most definitely gonna have kids. They do
have a lot of kids. They have six kids. But like they sort of got the house that they knew that they would be able to grow into, and which also meant that mortgage payment early on was maybe a little bit tighter. It constrained their budget a bit more than they would have liked to have seen. And so they brought on another couple and they were able to successfully coexist to live together in a way where they had their privacy. They're on sort of separate sides of
the house. Perhaps they would take turns cooking. It's I don't know. It makes me think of friends a little bit, where it's just sort of like we're growing up, but we're still kind of kids. I like that. I like unique living situations. I think that's super cool man.
And you can find a way to love it, at least for a certain period of time, even if it's not like that's what I want to do forever.
Give it a shot. Yeah, yeah, it's worth giving a shot. I wouldn't count on that working out if that is the only way that you can afford a house like that.
When I bought my first house, I had a roommate in it. I could afford the mortgage by myself. I didn't want to, like, I want to be able to save more money, and so the roommate was a clutch move to help me like build up you know, that beef up my savings that I had to plait on the down payment.
That was Yeah, that was more of the whip cream, was more of the cherry on top as opposed to, no, this is necessary in order for this to work. But yeah, that's a super sort of frugal approach. And I think those frugal habits are going to give Carrie more options in the future as well. I think that's actually what so a user on Instagram Frugal Family Focus. I think that's what she was getting at when she listed all
the sacrifices that she made in her younger years. So she she basically she was like, I'm thankful for twenty one year old me who cut Internet at home in order to say or in order to pay more on my student loans. I'm thankful for twenty eight year old me for being able to have a baby for free because I understood the ins and outs of my health insurance.
I'm thankful for thirty five year old me who paid cash for a used car even though I had a great salary and the ability to buy brand new all for the ability to have more options and to call your own shots later in life.
Those are all real sacrifices, yes, meaningful sacrifices that most people take. For cutting Internet, like who does that?
You know?
And it doesn't have internet? That is just a normal necessity of human life, And it's like is it and is that what your goal is? And especially with smartphones now, maybe you don't need home to pay for both the smartphone service and home internet service if you have a decent hotspot or something like that. Yeah, like those are questions that are worth considering. And what else is it allowing you to do with the money that you save if you choose to make a different decision.
It's good to be weird in this way. And that's like maybe that's another Should weird be synonymous synonymous with frugal, right, because like if it's something that everyone does, then it's like, you don't call it frugal. Yeah, but frugality there's a connotation there of it being weird, the fact that someone does something in order to save money. But yeah, I think it's good to be weird.
Why they made TV shows about coupon clipping moms and stuff like that because it was weird.
I like that crowd. You know.
It makes you think of my conversation with Hope from Under the Media not too long ago on the podcast that is Well Worth listening to never made more than forty thousand dollars on average over the course of decades, and people would be like, that's weird. But she's like so open to sharing the weirdness, and I love it. Jacqueline said, we are a two income home living off of one income. Amazing, also rare, and also kind of weird.
I want to see more folks attempting this though, because like, if you start handling money like this when you get married, even though it's tough, it's so tough to live on just one income, it can allow you to make choices that other couples can't because they're totally dependent on both incomes, and at some point, through diligent investing of a whole salary, neither of.
You will need to work. Jacqueline.
So, I think this is so admirable, and I know not everyone can do it, but what a cool goal to strive for, and what a way to really set yourself up for success by being able to thrust big big bucks towards other money, say, and investing goals.
That you have. Heck yeah, it reminds me of a white coat investor of living gosh, what is it basically living like a resident? Living like a resident, because oftentimes like they're no longer a resident, because when you're a resident, that's when you're doing all the weird frugal roommate stuff.
That kind of sounds weird when I say that, Actually but like like you you're officially a doctor and you're starting to rake in the money and then like, no, I need to live like one like they feel like they've sacrificed for so long and then they immediately take out, you know, just a massive car note, spend way more than they ever have as opposed to holding if you can just hold off on that a little bit more and not get carried away essentially with all the different payments,
where you're constantly behind the wave as opposed to just riding that wave right right, that's a good way to put it. You want that interest to be working for you, not to where it feels like you're constantly trying to trying to catch up to it. Gary, he wrote, I'm thankful to have a wife that has the same values and vision when it comes to experience, experiences and personal finance. We just paid off our mortgage while at the same
time prioritizing experiences and family along the way. We have no regrets on spending on what's important to us, ignoring the Joneses and media. Did we already get to This is similar to is it Greg? Similar to Greg as far as like thankful for his wife man, but well, I love.
To like ignoring everything else. This is kind of what we're getting at with living a weirder life, like being okay with being different, and it just feels like, well, everyone else is on social media, I guess I should be. Or everyone else is buying a new car, like a fifty thousand dollars new car. I guess that's normal and I should partake. And it's like, no question the normal things that people are doing, because those normal choices are the things that lead to copious amounts of debt, and
that why people are leading incredibly stressed out lives. So if you can be abnormal, ignore what Gary said, the Joneses and the media's right, and love a different life, I think that's a beautiful way to go.
Dude. That's the worst thing about social media, because literally
the social media is the Joneses on media, right. And so like the fact that because before in this I don't want to turn into a giant like social media critique, but before like you were just surrounded by the people that you were surrounded by, like the people who you saw at work, which okay, yeah, these are folks that probably make similar amounts of money that you do, or you're surrounded by your neighbors, right, these are oh, these are all houses that are about built around the same
part of the century. They all cost about the same amount. We tend to run in circles where we're surrounded by folks that have, you know, for the more or less the same amount of income is as us. That's not the case with social media, right, Like, you might be following somebody who lives like across the country, who like
goes to Lake Tahoe every weekend or something. It's just like that's a totally different lifestyle and you have no idea what their actual finances look like if you were to peel you know, pull back the cover.
We talked about a while back, the influencers who rent like a seat on a private plane that's sitting on a tarmac so they can take selfies stupid to make it look like they're living a lot of self that they're not actually living. They're not actually going anywhere on that plane. But you certainly feel left out when you see their instapic and it feels like they're on some epic vacation that they didn't actually take.
And so you're right, man, I think it's like the saddest thing, right, Like you might be able to fool your followers, but like there's no way. I don't know. Maybe you are fooling yourself into thinking that you've got it made, but like you're not actually on that flight, and that there's so much self delusion that's picked into that.
Even just seeing the pictures of like Jeff Bezos on his yacht or something like that, like we just didn't We weren't as aware of what the wealthy elites were up to, and now we can be hyper aware because there's like people covering that beat on social media, and like I'm not saying that, like whatever your political beliefs is, just focusing less on those people is probably a better thing for your own sanity and personal health.
Everyone likes to keep up with the Bezos and the elon angeel actually was it was a couple of weeks ago Blue Origin landed its first reusable rock. Was that true? It landed like on the barge in the middle of the ocean. I don't know. All I saw. Was it so happy that that happened, because I feel like finally caught up. It's just some competition for SpaceX, Like I don't know, Elon kind of got distracted by politics this
year and kind of went off the deep end. So his ability to get back to doing what he does best, which is being innovative and a forward thinker. I think that's a good thing for the world.
Right, Okay, give counter or do you like Elon being involved in politics. I just think that the mission to Mars and the rich guys with rockets, it doesn't do it for me. I think it could lead to other advances that could benefit that's probably society. It's not that I want to live on Mars. I'm like, how bad would it have to get here, on this beautiful blue marble out in the middle of the galaxy for me to want to move to this cold oxygen lists I sare on waste land of the planet. I saw the
Martian I know what it's like. There's terrible, That's right. It's like the scariest thing ever. Like I'm interested, one thing goes wrong and you're you're dead, you know, like as opposed to hear yeah, a lot of things have to go wrong.
Before that's true, before you're dead. It makes me think about like a yeah, or just one thing. So people who swim this is such a weird tangent. But people who swim. I've always been like, you know, I'm not really into water sports because like you hit your head on something and then you're underwater and it's a bad thing. Whereas if you, let's say your mountain biking, you hit your head right, like you crash into a tree. Yeah, you get knocked out. Okay, you're just laying there on
your on the trail. You're not like instantly drowning. That's the thing about water sports, your chance of survival. Yeah, exactly, That's how I think. So there's no surprise I'm not super interested in moving to Mars.
Literally, listen to an interview this week with someone and we'll get back to a problem who dove head first in the water and ended up paralyzed a quadriplegic for her entire life. An inspiring conversation. Maybe we'll think to in the show notes. But it's one of those things like you're right, yeah, water sports they can not be great. All right, while we're on a tangent, maybe we'll hit up a few ads. We'll be right back with more of your thankfulness right after this.
All right, we are back. We'll make sure to not take any more tangents any We want to respect the listener's time, and they're here to hear about how folks are thankful and not about rich boys in their rockets. Yes, although you got satellites being launched, there's an actual tangible good that's happening. Also taking payloads to space man. That's yeah, that's important to that's true. Okay, let's get back to it. So space lasers and stuff.
Rob says, thanks to the wisdom of the show, I broke up with Edward Jones and moved to Schwab because of my strict savings for the past few years. I retired in July at fifty five, and I learned from How to Money that I can invest my HSA money and I put it in boot. Finally, I'm going to hire a fiduciary who was wrecked amended by wealth Ramp after hearing Joel's interview with Pam. Oh my goodness, Rob did it all this year.
So well done. Rob. You're saving money.
You're don't have to work anymore because you've clawed back some of those insane fees that you were paying to the person who is managing your money. You've put a ton of hard work into making retirement at fifty five a reality.
So well done. And by the way, for others out there who are thinking, gosh, it is time for us to look at chatting with an advisor. Go to howtmoney dot com forward slash advisor because we have partnered with wealth Ramp, which offers access to advisors who have been very well vetted. These are fee only fiduciaries. And yeah,
it's worth checking out. On a related retirement note, Joel there, here's one from Peter who wrote learning to Spend Money as I move into retirement thirteenth month of three days a week, fully remote, and I've got eleven more to go. Man, I love that you are testing out retirement ahead of time. You're testing the waters the think going from just all to nothing on the on the workfront, it can be
a really hard, sort of whiplashy like adjustment. And man, there are a lot of early retirees out there who you know, they can't wait to get another job. And I think it's because they haven't thought what it would be like to.
Enter into retirement without having maybe a purpose. Three months in, they're like freaking out.
A little bit.
I think I can get my old job back and I can't get as good of a job. Should I just like go drive for Uber on the side, just because they miss interpersonal contact and so that yeah, I lost their community.
Who maybe they Yeah they formed that around yeah, around work.
I like testing it out and I like winding it down slowly instead of going from all to nothing. So I think that's shows a lot of wisdom on Peter's part.
Yeah. Well, okay, so we're specifically talking about easing into retirement, but let's not forget So the first thing he said was learning to spend money as I move into retirement. And I'm going to read between the lines there a little bit and address the fact that it can be really weird to go. Maybe we've used weird too much. It can be a jolt to go from save safe, save, invest, invest, invest your entire life to now, oh man, getting into retirement.
I'm making less money now, or maybe I'm fully in retirement. What does it look like to draw down on those investments. There's like a total shift.
If it's a total uh, this is with your brain reverse uh course of course changed.
It's like it's like mirror mode in Mario kart right, all it's literally backwards. Oh my gosh, it feels completely like you are in bizarro bizarro world.
It's foreign, and it's the opposite of what you've been told for many decades, and then the opposite of the accult behavior you've been exhibiting for any decade.
But it's so important to do because if you well, first of all, hopefully you weren't neglecting the most important thing relationships along the way. But let's just say, if you don't spend this money while you are in retirement, you're going to be left with a whole lot of regret at the end of your life, right, because you're you're saying potentially, I mean, using it effectively, right, So yeah, you're you're I mean, And that's just do you get to a ripe old age where you're able to look
back on I don't know, I don't want to. I don't want to go too negative here, but learning to spend your money as you enter into retirement you obviously don't want to get get to spending with it, but it's important to lay out a plan and how it is that you want to live those those later decades.
At all I know is nobody gets a prize for having the most money in their four one k when they die, Like that is not that that is not a contest that I want to win. That's that's usually to me. Some of those are some of the saddest headlines. So I love that Peter is kind of working through that, figuring out how to spend as he moves into retirement.
This is the perfect time to start really thinking about not just draw down strategy, but finding ways to actually be able to use the assets that you've built up to live the life that you're They would they would bring joy.
Uh. Toy on that note says, I'm thankful for being able to balance saving aggressively for retirement while still living my life now, which is the goal.
Like this is the the craft beerquivalent thing that we talk about all the time, right, It is yes, saving aggressively, It is yes thinking about your future, buying optionality with the savings and investments that you're making, but also being able to enjoy your life now and prioritizing the things that matter and so many of those things don't have to be terribly expensive. But ye, you want balance all the way through. That's the way I think about it, Matt.
Sometimes it requires front loading the sacrifice a bit on the front end, but yeah, the goal is to be able to do both simultaneously. It's not always easy, but it is. I think it's like a pendulum, its swinging right. Sometimes you're a little bit further in one direction than the other, but always kind of trying to push back towards that center.
Is a good way to think about it. Yeah, and typically over time you are able to kind of find more of that balance. Chelsea simply wrote buying a car with no loan, which I love because and she didn't say why or why she's thinking for that, but of course it means that she is going to be able to put more towards retirement. She's going to have more margin in her life, more savings, which are all very boring. So some fun things no car debt hanging over your head.
Some fun things though, like the ability to go on a vacation, to be able to go out with your friends, to be able to invest in relationships to those who matter the most around you, Like these are all amazing reasons to not have a car payment. Yeah, so I'm super proud of you, Chelsea.
All Right, let's move on to Nina, who says, twenty twenty five was a big year for us. We sold our home for more than double what we paid, and we moved closer to family before having our first child together in September.
I love it. What can you say about that besides congratulations? We want a blessing. How awesome, But it feels good to sell your home for a lot more than you paid, but then moving closer to family when you start having kids like that's uh, she's playing like three D chess right there, because that's crazy, like a fox. Well, and you are. I mean, it's not all about money, but you're going to be able to save some money some
free babysitting out there. And this is a assuming you just have one kid like this, there's multiples here.
We know what Now what high school kiddo's charge for babysitting? And it ain't cheap.
It's not cheap.
I mean, I think a lot of those kids are charging at least fifteen summer charging twenty bucks an hour. And so if you live close enough to folks, we're not paying that to write our eldest daughter.
When she's babysitting her siblings. Well, I'll tell you that. That's what's nice.
You and I have finally gotten to the point where our oldest can watch for a whole lot less than that, but for a while. Then when they're young, like you don't have that luxury, so having your parents close by. Oh the other thing on babysitting too, which we've mentioned on the show before, maat, but it's been a while, swapping with somebodies of yours and so like that's what we did for how many years do we do the date night swap?
Like almost a decade in eleven years? Yeah, yeah, so.
Swapping back and forth where you'd come over to my house after we put the kids down in it's a way to go out. Yeah, you're paying for the meal or the movie whatever you're doing, but you're at least not paying for babysitting on top of it.
Heck, yeah, how much how much are you paying? Selling?
By the way, per hour? We have a set rate, No we don't. It's usually depends and athough we should probably be a.
Little more formal about that. Six bucks an hour. That's what we do. That sounds reasonable. Yeah, that's what I've get. So basically, like a solid date night she's basically earning like a twenty and so I also did the mouth on that. I'm like, okay, wait a minute, holy col how many how much money are we gonna end up paying? It's a thousand bucks. It's about one thousand bucks a
year just in babysitting from us. Good for her, which I feel like that's big enough to make a serious impact on her ability to be able to steward that money well and figure out what it is that she wants to buy. But it's not so much that it feels like a ridiculous amount of money out of our piet. I mean, it's a lot of money, but that's assuming we go on a date night at least once a week,
you know, for the for the entire year. But we'll see an anonymous user posted grateful for my wife and new house that I just bought and our little bundle of joy due in May able to afford due to my new rays at work. Dude, again, there's a lot of thanks thankfulness here, coming back to family and some of these things that her a bit more in life.
So I love that. Actually. On the note of babies and growing your family, John Over on Instagram, he said that they are expecting their baby girl in the spring as well. They didn't go into debt, they didn't once touch their six month emergency fund. They even saved a little bit for a retirement, not nearly, not quickly as they not as much as they were prior to going all in on in Vitro. So they were doing this
is not cheap. Ivf man so expensive. But they were able to do that and grow their family without negatively impacting their finances in a serious way.
Isn't that so cool? Yeah, that's yeah, I'm super pumped for you, John. I'll share al win from my older sister who just moved. They bought a house kind of further out in the country. They wanted some acres and she got a raise like simultaneous with this move, and so it's just like there's that Oh man, it's just freed up. We're making a big decision. And it's nice to be like have extra income when you're taking on, when you're biting off a new financial responsibilities.
So sounds like yeah and.
Yeah, a raise of work is just such allows people to then more income coming in make smart moves.
Uh.
Jasmine wrote, I'm grateful that I was able to pick up four classes at two universities as an adjunct next semester. That would give my income a big bump to help afford college tuition for my oldest kid who's heading off to college in August.
Big steps.
Yeah, nicely done, Professor Jasmine.
I'm just imagining.
Jasmine over here, Matt wearing like a tweed coat with the elbow patches and maybe even a pipe hanging out of her mouth.
I don't know, Yeah, professor, still do that or is that just an antiquated Nope, Nope, they do in the classical education world. Okay, that's awesome. I love that you're wanting to make college more affordable for your sounds like your first kid who's going off to college, And man, that's such a tough nut to crack. As I think about, like, we're not that far from that, Like as we were
just talking about babysitting money. When I did the math, I like I did it often to the teenage yeers, and that's like five years yeah, of doing that, and we're gonna have to figure out like the balance to strike between wanting to set them up financially, because on one hand, you want to remove like as many of the financial
obstacles from their path as possible. But is that more important or is it more important to prepare them to be able to handle not only the financial obstacles in their life, but all the obstacles that are gonna come their way as they venture off into adulthood. And that's something that Yeah, stay tuned, folks, because we don't have that one figured out, to be honest, Like I tend to waffle. I tend to go back and forth where
we're with us as what we're learning. Yeah, because I tend to want to say set more aside at points in the year, but then at other points in the year, I'm thinking, well, I don't it's not even necessary. And are they even gonna go off to higher education? Maybe I don't. I don't know, Like it's tough to know what the future holds. So yeah, you kind of have to balance all those priorities. It is.
But I'm glad that Jasmine was able to pick up those additional classes so that she can help.
At two universities. Yeah, it's a little tougher to bounce back and forth like that.
That's right, it is, Yeah, probably, But it sounds like Jasmine is the kind of person who can do it all. So which is what's really neat Matt. I just I love celebrating money wins with listeners. I think it is yeah, like and just to be like, hey, not even just be like I crushed it this year, but be like, man, I'm so fortunate, so blessed, and there's just a lot to really be thankful for. These are all great things.
Like people, there's a lot of intentionality and hard work behind a lot behind a lot of things that we're shared on today's episode. But also I think just this recognition that, like, there are all sorts of things that could have happened to us and that could have prevented us from reaching some of these goals, so we should be thankful at the same time while also kind of working hard to achieve those things.
Heck. Yeah, Well, normally after a long hour longer episode like this, we are talking about our beer, but I don't think we were actually even planning planning we're going that long like we have on this episode. But we hope everyone who's listening has enjoyed maybe a quick little break away from your family, and I'll get back in there, get back in the throng.
I think turkey is almost better the next day because you got to put it on like a role right, So I'm really looking forward.
To leftovers as you can smear some of that cranberry sauce on there to to juice it up a little bit thing, right, like dip it in some gravy.
Even actual favorite a little bit of aju is what's your absolute favorite.
Thing that you don't Thanksgiving? I mean, honestly, is like a smoke turkey dipped in some nice gravy. Like it's tough to beat that little little best of both worlds. One of my daughters has gotten into baking recently, though, and we were planning on her baking her famous lemon pie.
She made it over the summer fourth of July and we couldn't believe how stinking good it was, so there have been multiple votes to get her to even though a lemon pie isn't like a really it does sound more like a summer it does a pie right like the fall pies. And we're like, you got your pumpkins, you got your pecan or the peacans like they say down in the South. But so I don't know, we'll see how the lemon feels in the fall, but I'm
certainly looking forward to that too. Yeah, what about you? Sorry, Yeah, you love mashed potatoes, that's your favorite side. Yeah? Probably you smush it down with the supers sprout, create the pool with the Gravyes and Gravey in there. Classic. I mean, I can, We'll flat down at no time. I love creating a little volcano as a kid.
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and we'll see you back here with a fresh ask count of money episode.
Yep, on Monday, you know it. So until next time, best Friends Out and best Friends Out.