Financial Audit - 33-Year-Old Won’t Stop Fighting With Me

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

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Hi, this is Colby, like the cheese. I'm 33. I'm based at of Fort Worth, Texas, and this is Financial Audit. Thanks for coming down to Austin. What do you do in Fort Worth for a living? I'm a machinist. Okay, very cool. What do you bring in with that on a yearly basis? About $55,000, between $50, $55,000, depending on overtime, things like that. Now, I know from just a brief conversation we had before this, you know, or in a marriage situation, but the finances are not fully intertwined, but we do probably have a household income. What is the overall household income, or is that the only income? Household income, I would say, truthfully, it kind of varies.

You know, at this point, we haven't been together long enough with a steady income to really make that basis. How long have you guys been together? We've been together for about four years. Oh, okay. But the income is married, getting married, and then having a baby and, you know, and COVID, it really hasn't been a steady, you know, solid situation. Because at one point she was shut down, I was still working because I was, what is that?

I guess considered essential. Oh, yeah. I was considered essential. So I was still working. So that steady income was there, hers wasn't. And then we got married, then before we know we're pregnant. And then now there's a baby here. Yeah.

So now it's about time to start getting back to it. But at this point, we're kind of just. planning on my income, taking it over, and then whatever we can do to alleviate some of that and maybe speed this process up along the way. Yeah. We'll add that back in. What do you think the household income is? If I had to say, I mean, we could say safely maybe 100,000 total.

So it doubles. Maybe. 55. That's like. 55 is you? Then another 45? Maybe so. Very good.

That's if she's going back. Well, I. I mean, doubling an income, regardless of whatever that number is, is an immediate increase. I mean, that's fantastic. Sure. So, $100,000. Cool. So post-tax income for the household, probably like $75,000.

Maybe. Now there's a child tax deduction you can do and different things. Oh, haven't seen it yet. She was born in January. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm at this point. forward though. Self-employment taxes are technically killing both of us. Yes, I bet. Oh, you're a contractor. Okay. Well, I'm not. My taxes just end up going a lot towards a self-employment tax,

you know, with hers on things we paid for her. You mean just the money you have? Okay. Yeah, I see. Okay. Gotcha. So maybe we're looking at more like $70,000 a year because that self-employment tax does suck. So, well, tell me if this feels about right then. Five thousand eight hundred bucks a month. I'd say so maybe I don't know I guess I tend to try to shoot towards the lesser sides of things I've always done that in my life I try to shoot you know well it feels right what do you think you guys have at the end of a month in terms of money coming in after money set aside for taxes and everything I mean I'd say 45 you know maybe 25 that's what I if I were but if I were trying to say that estimate myself I believe I'd say 45 25 you 5 you know and if I had something extra than that then I'm lucky, but I prefer to shoot on the lower side being that some of it is, it's unknown. You know, she works for herself. She's, you know, there's things that customers cancel. There's not always a set thing.

So that's where it's kind of, I tend to shoot on the lower side of things and then try to end up with extra. So you said it's like chaos and stuff. What is this financial situation? Walk us through it. What are we looking at today? Nothing. I have a steady job. I do, you know, I have a career that I've been at with six years, you know,

steady income. It's just really about us combining now with a child and trying to be more financially stable in the long run and also trying to be in a point where we can have some fun now too in a responsible manner. Sure. You know, I'm not a very good budget or the, I can budget. The thing is I, you know, pigeonhole money away. Like I get cash, you know, whether I sell something, you know, I've had several

motorcycles and things. sold those off instruments. I'm a musician. You know, I sell those. I keep money and I will save that and then end up buying things with that or, you know, what about like today's debts and stuff? Today sits, I just try to pay them off with my credit card. I mean, I use my credit card, pay them off with my normal income.

And then some of the cash that I have pigeonholed I've put towards that, like alone this trip, I put it on my credit card, but also the money was also, I actually have saved this money since we got married that we're going to use for fun. This is kind of a fun trip. We're staying here for a few days. So at this point, you know, I'm using that money to cover this expense that I've been sitting on for several years. How much money is left after the trip in that bucket that you have? That little fun. I mean, that was literally just like a one gift from our wedding.

that was $500 gift. So it's going to be gone? Yes, that one will. So, but there are debts, though, at least from the email that I received. And I don't know if I have statements on them fully, but what are your debts look like today? I have my credit card that I, I, did you pay that off every month, though? No, I have one credit card that I don't. That's my chase card.

What's the balance on that? That at this point is just over 2,000. Where do you think your score is today then, zero out of 10? I'd say my financial score would probably be a five. You know, I know that I'm not in the best position, but at the same time, I do feel like I have some relatively healthy habits and some unhealthy habits that are being shaped into more healthy habits. I want to take a brief moment to thank today's episode sponsor, Rocket Money.

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Visit rocketmoney.com forward slash Caleb today. And didn't you say like a window debt of some kind or something like that? We just purchased windows for our house and we finance those out, which that's part of the things that I guess why she's here for certain questions. You know, like at one point we remodeled our house. Okay. Well, I covered a lot of it. And then at one point she covered the appliances. So she paid the appliance bill.

This is something like that that we're believing that she's probably going to take care of. You know, so that's kind of why I was asking. We're kind of planning on trying to take care of the household myself with my income and my financial situation and hers be added into it later on just to help out. That might be making it more complex than it needs to be, but we can definitely talk about that. What's owed on these windows? We just purchased them. It's 11,500. Okay.

11,500. Which is, I know it sounds crazy. but it's definitely a good investment for the house. Why? Being in Texas with the AC, you could actually feel the heat radiating through my old house. Do you think the financing of it made sense though? What's the interest? I do.

That's 9% it is. Oh. This is where we have certain plans on things that my family's done things to pay off things. Like at that point, we were going to apply for a 0% credit card, pay that off with a credit card, and then just pay the payments that we want to on that credit card. Was that what you're going to do? That was our plan, yeah. We haven't done it yet.

What's your credit score? My credit score is 821. 821? Yes. Wow, very good. Yes. Okay. Then that's a play.

But why didn't you just buy them with that a 0% credit card? Because I haven't, I don't have that one yet. Why did you get it? We had time. I haven't even had it to start making the payments on the windows yet. Yeah. What's the minimum with the payment on those windows? $164. Cool. What's the interest on the chase? The interest on chase? I'm sorry, I don't know. I'll have to see it. I believe it's 25 on my... I'll have to see it. If you know you can go get a 0% interest credit card, if that's how you prefer to go about it, why are we sitting on 25% interest death? Because I've been... This is actually part of...

Thanks, yours too. What does rap stand for anyway? To me, it's the remarkably advanced vehicle. Really? To me, it's the runway approved vehicle for its amazing style. What about remarkably adaptable vehicle because of its versatile cargo space? Or really admired vehicle? Oh, or really awesome vehicle. It really is the recreational activity vehicle. The stylish 2026 Toyota RAP 4 Limited. What's your Rav for? Problem. I want to be able to use this credit card in the way that you talk about on your podcast. Being a good credit card person. And I'm pretty good about that on most of everything else. This one credit card in the past few years is the only thing that I've been.

I've ever let get like that. Oh, it's the highest it ever got. To not be a credit card person. That's why I've got it paid back down from six grand to now two grand. That's good. Plus, I have, you know, I can make these payments. It's just about being also budgeting is another reason why I'm here, you know. Yeah.

What's it going to, what's going to, what's going from, you know, take it to $2,000 to $1,000 back up to $6,000, though, again? Just a little bit more discipline. You know, that was what it took. Well, how did you get there in the first place, though? Why are we there now? I was just making some irresponsible choices too many of them at once. Some of them were larger. And, you know, some of them things like some of them are things that, you know,

you can't use cash for anymore. You know, there's certain things that, you know, she gets paid in cash. You know, like I say, you know, I try to keep cash around. You know, my family gives me cash for birthday or whatever. I try to keep that. Yeah, but what prevented you from, you know, pan off the card when you purchase those things immediately then. I'm just trying to figure out the root cause that got us into the $6,000, which you

gotten down to two, which is awesome. I'm very happy about. But what got us there to prevent us from doing it in the future? Because none of this conversation matters if we go there again. No, honestly, it's just about maintenance of a mental state. You know, there's just irresponsible decisions that you make, especially whenever you're having a child. It was just kind of a whirlwind.

What were some of the things, what were some of the decisions that led that you know, equaled up to $6,000 what were some of the irresponsible purchases? I mean, relative, some of them can be groceries, you know, the thing is it's more about discipline on certain things, man. You know, I, we tend to go out and eat a lot. That's one thing that our family falls back on for, you know,

relatively good times. So money can be wasted on going out to eat. We also try to make plans to eat at home. The problem is, is sometimes those plans fall through. Yeah. You know, those are the decisions that I, know I've made in the past that got me into a relatively irresponsible decision. But that, as far as that got $6,000 was like, that's the part where it's like I was itching.

Like, this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. And that's the part where it's like, okay, I know I got up there. But at the same time, like, I had a relatively easy situation to get it out. I just wasn't doing it correctly. Does that make sense? I was making too many irresponsible decisions and not using my resources correctly to get to finance those decisions. Okay.

You know, it's gotten a little bit better about that. I've just tried to be a little bit more disciplined, you know. Things have gotten a little bit easier with the situation, calm down. Sure. You know. And then more stuff, the car, isn't there a car? Yes. I do have a truck.

I have a truck payment. Okay. What is this balance left on this? 39,000. That's a lot of money. It is. That is one of my must, I feel like honestly that's a mistake that I made, but it was kind of a weird situation. Yeah.

So I literally, we got in a wreck the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in a truck that I loved and was, I had a great, you know, only had two years left to pay on it. It was awesome. And then in the middle of having my child in the hospital, they called me and said, hey, guess what? We're actually not fixing this. It's totaled. And I only had a week and a half left in my. rental. So we went looking for a new one. And I overpaid for what I got. It just was a, it was a good deal for the truck that I got. It's just at the time. I mean, it was a very stressful time. I literally just had a child trying to find a truck. And I do need a truck because we do pull some trailers and things. Not too much. I didn't have to have me. One of the rare few that has a truck and actually needs the truck. Yes. And you know what I expect that. You know, I honestly, it's a little bit bougie. I will say. Okay. You went overboard on which.

I also do have another plan for that as well. I would like to sell that back in a few years and semi-downgrade because I'll keep it nice. It has very low miles. I'll keep it nice and clean and sell it back and get something maybe a year to a little bit older with a different engine that I prefer. It's more simple that, you know. What's the minimum monthly payment on this for now, though? That's 625. It's a high payment.

Yes, I hate it. Term length? Seven years. I did. I made it go so I could get my payment. My dude. I know, man. What's the interest rate?

7%, 6.7. 6.75, I believe. And with depreciation and everything, that may as well be like 10%. I know. Oh, that's stupid seven years. Okay. Okay. Any other debts?

I don't believe so. What about household debts? Well, we have a medical debt. How much? From the child. That should, well, that's what we're trying to find out, truthfully, with insurance. We don't know. We don't know yet.

It hasn't been fully. Yeah, because there's benefits through my job. There's, you know, I'll have to end up paying certain amounts for my deductible. Certain amounts of the deductible are covered. It's kind of a crapshoot through insurance. Do you have an estimate of what you might think in my land? Well, I'm going to have to pay probably about $10,000, but $6,000 of that should be given back to me. That's part of the benefits.

So about $4,000. You know. Kill me. Yeah. I know. Okay. Our insurance is amazing. Household debts? Like from your wife? Any other debts? I mean, she has her vehicle that she pays for.

What is it? A Kia Soul. Well, what's the debt? I don't know. Yeah. 24,000? No, no, no, no. Sorry. $2,400. Oh, $2,400.

What's your minimum monthly payment? Uh, three, or interest rate? Uh, I think, like, on it in like, in eight. 8% with a 331 minimum monthly payment. Now it's almost done. So most of it's going towards principal either anyway. Any other household debt because everything is combined now. It's our house.

Right, right, right. The house, that's right. Which is you guys got a cheap house or you a ton of money down. Cheap house, man. I bought it. I bought it at a good time. I paid a good price for it. I got really lucky.

Yeah, you did. Yes. It's like $54,000 left or something like that. 50,000? Should be a little less than that. I don't know. Honestly, I got a fine. I bought it at 70,000.

I refinanced it a few years later. I had a 40-year note at first refinanced it to a 15-year-old. You did a 40-year? Here, we got to get you into the microphone. Sorry, man. It's okay. I'm slouching. It's easy for me to get off-track.

So when I first bought it, I was 23. I bought it at 40-year-note. Yes. Wow. So I refinanced it a few years later to a 15-year note. So my mortgage was $750. I refinanced it. My mortgage went up to $7.70.

But the thing is, is I always have paid at least $800, if not $8.50 to cover escrow and things like that. Right. That makes sense. So I pay it off a little bit earlier than what it's supposed to be. So what was the purchase price of this house? $70,000. And we have $52,000 left on it with a $798 minimum monthly payment. And the interest rate, I bet I bet you refinanced at a great rate, didn't you?

I did. I got lucky. I'm having trouble finding the interest rate. Do you know it off the top of your head? I'm sorry, I don't. Those are some of the things that I... It's probably what, three, four or something like that? I apologize.

I don't want to lie to you. I know it's honestly a good rate. I did it at a good time. The only thing I didn't necessarily purchase at the great time was that truck. That's okay. Now, let's check the value of this thing. This will not... Your address will not be...

This is getting cut. locally. Oh, I did get an appraisal. I know the relatively... Oh, you got an appraisal. When did you get the appraisal? The beginning of this year came through with our taxes and stuff. It appraised for $223,000. Well, even with your debts, you're not worth as positive because of that. So that's great. So good job. It should be worth a little bit more, maybe potentially. I don't know. Beginning of the year, I mean, we definitely kind of had a bit of a dipage. And at least in Austin, we flatline started to go back up a little. But I don't know about in your area. But there's a few things I've done to it. I feel like.

actually to increase the value, like remodeled the kitchen, remodeled some bathrooms, now the windows. You know, a few things. I'm like, okay. Sure. Maybe if it's the dip, it's even with that, I believe. Okay, cool. Now, let's get through your cards. We have an Exxon mobile card.

Yes. You, again, you pay off these cards. Yes. Most of them. Most of them, except for that stupid death one. It's stupid 25% stupid. $365 of purchases on this thing. And it's just gas.

She spent a lot on gas. I do. and wash and wax Oh that's Sometimes I buy the car wash with it It saves a couple Finnings with it I always wondered who did those

I do every once in a while I give them to her Do you want the statement back? No Okay I just brought that for you on here Well at least now we know your gas It's going to be 6365 Yeah

Put that in the budget in the future About that Well I'm sure there's more as a household Because we're using Both of your incomes for that as well So same card for both Right Very cool

Yes she doesn't drive very much at all She drives the key of soul And like let's just save you the gas as well And we know how much we use as a household Freedom card So this is Yes that's the chase card The chase card?

Yes That's the only one Well I have a chase credit card That's it But this is the one that you're holding the balance on Yes This is the one We're being confused

Because you paid it off No no no No But then you put two No No no no What I see was the beginning balance $5,929 and you paid $5,950

then you made purchases of $2,000. I should have got it down to just $1,000 and then I've now made a purchase of just over $1,000. That is not what I've seen on the statement with my dude, and then we lost $20 of interest with a new balance of $2,000. Let's see. So we're going here and we know we have a car that we're trying to pay off and this conversation has been relatively positive so far,

but then you're going to kill me. You're going to absolutely murder me right now with Taco Bell, Taco Bell and some king thing and Big Daddy and Chipotle and the king thing and Texas, Brazil and gnome fairy pottery. Yes, that's a gift. Badger. Yeah, gift yourself not having interest rate payments. And Scarborough Fair and Taco Bell and Tommy's Express and the best hot dog. Was it the best hot dog?

Yes. And a liquor shop, very necessary. Everyone trying to pay off that. Come on. Fish, City, Grill and Fort Worth. Zoom. Well, honestly, this is where I'm trying to, you know, this is a part of it. $600 loss in interest this year so far.

Well, I do understand. This is a part of where I'm trying to get to be able to use my credit card as well. You know, there's going to be purchases on it that I want to be able to pay off at the end of the month. This is why I like, this is why the one credit debit card I've partnered with is the FIS card, because it just works in a good way to help people that are less disciplined to be more disciplined because, yes, you charge it on the credit card, but what it does is it automatically pays it off with the debit card. the moment you purchase it. So it's a perfect way to help build credit. I mean, you don't need to build credit. You have awesome credit.

Right. Because they love you in your debt. But, yeah. Also, you should hit subscribe. I forgot to mention that already. So if you forgive me for forgetting to mention it this late in the video, you should definitely hit the subscriber trying to get to $750,000 subscribers. Definitely.

Definitely. I helped you get to $500, that's for sure. Thank you, sir. You're welcome, bud. I appreciate it. Hey, man, I honestly want to say that. I do know that some of these are irresponsible to decisions and those are things that I'm trying to tighten down and also, you know, be able to

use this in the right way. You know, there are certain things on here that, yes, of course, you don't want to see on there to be debt, but they are going to be purchases of the month, you know, every once in a while, you know, a liquor store is not everything that you're going to see every month, but every once in a while, that's what I'm going to use it for. Okay. But when we have a balance we're trying to pay off, why? Why is the liquor store?

Why is the best hot dog in the world more important than getting rid of something that's taking money from you through interest. Because those are things that I haven't been able to pay this off to use for yet. You know, like, say I had no balance, okay? Okay. Now I use this credit card for this best hot dog. Then at the end of the month, I pay that balance off. There's no interest.

But that's not where you are, though. Well, that's where I'm trying to get to. I know that I'm not. But in order to get there, you don't do that while you're trying to get there, right? You should see the statements from before. Okay. That's where I'm talking about. I know that there are some irresponsible to.

If a serial killer only murdered one person this month instead of two, I'm not going to give him my handshake and a slap on the back. You know, there's a different when you have a credit score of 820 and you're using a credit card. We can celebrate that. That's what I'm saying. But the credit score rewards a lot of debts, right? Right. So if you want to get to the point where you're trying to get to, and I want you to be a credit card person, credit card is fun. I love it.

But what's wrong with using that credit card like that. That's what I'm wondering. Because you have the balance that you're losing interest on. Well, once that payment, once that payment, once. Yes, but you're not there right now. the difference. Well, there's also a plan to get there. Well, you have plans for everything. I'm here. And so what's the plan for this? What's the plan for this? Well, there's certain cash that I have alleviated to go towards this that I'm trying to pay off. Like, let alone that $500 payment that's cash just from fun. Like that was specifically for fun. And $500 of this balance of this balance is for that. Well, on this balance, we didn't have the Austin stuff on here. And the $500 is supposed to go to paying for what you're doing these next few days.

Right. Well, that's supposed to go towards the hotel. I stayed at the hotel. Okay, so that's not going to the $2,000, though. That's going to the more you're spending. Well, that's what I already paid for the hotel. Okay. I just, I want to make sure we are on the same page. The reason it's not okay to do this now is because you have a multi-thousand-dollar balance

that you're losing interest rate of $600 this year so far, we're only halfway through the year. If we are losing $600 on it, it doesn't make sense to be stealing that spending now because it's making it slower to get to the point where you don't have a balance. Once you get to a point where you're always paying off the balance, That's fine. But even still, is that the best thing we want to be doing

in a situation where we have a disgusting car debt, a disgusting truck debt, a windows thing that we're trying to pay off, and the medical debts that we don't know that we're going to have

the $4,000 is ready to pay that? I believe so. I think you do too. But in that situation where you have those other debts, does it make sense to be going to Chipotle and all that stuff?

Sometimes, man. That's the thing is when you have a child, there's certain times that it is. And that's where I've said it. That kid does not eat Chipole. You would not believe it. Six months old?

Yeah, I was going to say. No, but that's where I'm saying that there's some is the discipline that I'm trying to get better at. And I do understand that some of these should not be made,

but it's the trying to meet in the middle of that. You know, I'm not, that's a thing. Why does there have to be a middle ground between doing really good and really bad? I would rather just do really good. I just,

there's an honest part about myself that knows, look, if I were to smoke cigarettes, I couldn't quit cold turkey. I need to alleviate it and slow down. I don't smoke cigarettes, but this is the same thing. That kind of sounds like excuses, though. Relatively it can be.

The thing is, I'm making excuses and getting it done at the same time. Glizzies or interest. Glissies or interest? It depends. You know, that's where I try. There's a certain amount. Where am I going to purchase from otherwise when I'm not? You know, I plan on transferring this.

Why do you have to purchase somewhere? I mean, I have to buy things. You don't have to buy these things. Not all of them, but certain, you know, there's a lot of things on here that are good purchases as well. Yes, but I didn't name them. I didn't, I wasn't upset about them. Well, the only ones I talked about were the ones that are bad. There's, okay, there's nothing on here that would be bad. So the majority are pink lines and the pink lines are bullshit.

They were not necessary spending. You don't have to spend that. No, I'm good with going to Lowe's. You probably had to go to Lowe's. the Austin and the you know doing Walmart is usually a grocery store and H.E.B. That's okay. Parking lot. Fortunately, we have to pay for parking.

But our country is designed around cars and Walgreens and HB. I didn't complain about those. But the other ones are stupid and not necessary right now. That's where I feel like there are some of them that look like that you said are stupid like Nome and Ferry. Those are something that was, I had to purchase the credit card because the full cash amount wasn't there. What am I going to purchase with when I'm out in Scarborough Fair? Dude, if you don't have the full cash amount, you can't afford it.

I mean, but if I, just because I don't carry it with me doesn't mean it don't have. Oh, you mean, no, okay. That's what I'm saying. Wait, did you not have a debit card? I do. I haven't. This is where I'm trying to shape. You know, this is where, like, I understand that I don't make the best decisions.

I'm trying to shape them. That's where I don't necessarily want to be put down for the previous decisions. I'm not putting down, but I am trying to call out what's bull-and-what you don't need to do. Well, I don't feel like I'm. I don't feel like I'm necessarily disagreeing with it. It's all of it's bullshit. I just disagree with you that not all of it has to be there. You know,

there's going to be a certain amount of bullshit happens in life. And I feel like that's where a safety net comes. That's where, hey, 30% of your fund. Okay, well, maybe you don't present all of your 30% on your phone. No, it's fine, but that's when you're out of bad debt. You're not out of bad debt. I mean, I don't feel like a ton of my debt is horrible, you know? No, there's okay debts and we can talk about those, but you do have.

some bad debt. I feel you're trying to jump steps. You're trying to get to the point where you're able to fall to 30, 20. Honestly, I just feel like this $2,000 is relatively small comparatively to what I'm trying to pay off. You know, in the beginning of this year, it was over $6,000. I just had to actually take the chunks out and pay it. No, but why not have the $2,000 be $0?

That's what I'm working on. You're just in the middle of it. But you're not working on it as hard as you should be because we're doing, again, Taco Bell, Talk about King, Big Daddy Chipotle, King, Texas, the Grill. and Gnome and Bad Badger and Scarborough Fair and Taco Bell and Tommy Express and Best Hot Dog, Liquor, Fish City Grill, and the zoo. Not allowed to go to the zoo. It's not about not being able to go to the zoo. It's about priorities.

You are prioritizing fun over just getting to a situation where your life is better for the future. I don't feel like I'm prioritizing fun. I feel like it is involved with it. You chose by swiping the card, you prioritize fun. That's not a priority. I mean, I feel like... But you chose it. If I can make the payment, I don't feel like it's full of priority.

If I can't make the payment, if I... Why is interest accruing on it then? If you can fully make the payment, why is interest accruing on? I feel like I overprioritize too many things before. I feel like some of this is going to be normal stuff that is mixed in. You know, that's why I'm trying to actually figure this out with you. And a lot of this is without, you know, a certain part of income that we don't include. You know what I mean?

Like some of this is food and things like this for us. Some of this was honestly just good morale for different parts of work. Like Big Daddy's donuts. You know, and I know that doesn't sound. That's like, why are you spending $30 at donuts? Well, because I want to, I'm trying to take and help boost morale at work on some things, you know. And I don't necessarily. Why don't you boost the morale of your future instead, though?

Because that is my future. I work there. And if I'm unpleasant there, then that's, I have no future. You need donuts to work? Not necessarily. but I need to feel pleasant. That's where part of this is that, you know. That's a cold.

Yes. There's a lot of people cope with a lot of things. You talk to a lot of people about going to vape shops, going to this, going to that. A lot of mine is unnecessary food, which I discussed in the beginning. Yeah. I said that. You know, that's a part of our coping that my family does, that we spend time together doing food.

Yeah. Fish City Grill, going to the zoo, going to these things. Yes, they are coping methodisms, but I'm also spending time with my family doing it. No, of course, but we can have lots of, I understand that it's relatively irresponsible to pay a certain amount of interest for that fund, and I'm working on that. I just, you know, I feel like there's certain amounts of these that, yes, they'll slow down and, yeah, I'm trying to not go to Chipotle. We're going to HUB and we're trying to plan out meals better, freeze this meat and use it later on in the week. Sometimes I fail at that, and that's where these pink things are involved.

But you can't discredit somebody for being better as well. You know, there's certain parts of this. No, no, I'm not trying to shame you for that or anything, but we're living on two different planets when we're just determining what is good in this situation. I want you guys to spend time together. We can do that in parks and picnics, the same meal that you would eat for dinner. We can pack up who we can take to a park and stuff. Like, it doesn't have to be Chipotle.

It doesn't have to be a zoo. But you did hit something that was very important that I'm glad you acknowledge that it's a cope, fundamentally cope. What I would rather deal with that in a mental health. health way in something other than these avenues that are digging us, you know, preventing us from fully digging out of the hole as quick as we should have. Right. And that's where I feel like that's part of my learning process.

Another reason why I'm here. You know, I understand that it's hard to get out of that as fast as I could, but doesn't mean I'm not doing it. You can't, you know, that's a part of, I guess, of positive reinforcement that I'm better at than negative reinforcement. Well, no, no, no, you're never going to make it if you're going slow. Well, if I'm going slow, to make it. me, I'm still not going to make it.

You know, at the beginning of this year, I had over $6,000 on that card. Now I've got $2,000 with several, you know, payments in plan. You know, of course, it sucks to get rid of some of the cash that I've pigeonholed away for fun, but I've already had the fun. So now I'll get rid of it. I'll make the payment and then I'll be happy Mr. Caleb credit card guy. You know what I mean? I hope we'll see. It's not living there right now, but we're talking in circles.

So I'm going to move forward to. There's not another credit card, right? We talked about the Exxon. I have, I mean, I have, let's see, Lowe's in a Home Depot car, but I don't use them. I purchase something on them and then I'll pay that off just to keep the line of credits open. Yeah, like small, like a couple bucks a month or something? No, like I pay them relatively right off. No, no, but like the spending, just like a couple bucks a month or like what?

Every few months I might buy something. Okay, you know, just enough to keep them from closing out. Now, checking account, $4,000 in here. awesome. Not much happens in here. This is transferring things back and forth. Right. This is where all my bills basically get taken right out of that from my checking. Yeah, for sure. And that's okay. This, this home equity thing, it says what's in there? Is this like your independent and the ECU were just actually some balances that I kept in different branches that I had. So this is a balance that you have access to of 2000?

Yes, that in EECU. Okay, so we have $2,165.79. It's zero cents. Okay, sir. Yeah, yeah. This, I mean, I'm glad you have it saved, but come on. Let's move this over to my boy. You can put your money where I put my money so far,

where you get at least like 4.3% interest and sign-up bonuses. If you do this plus the direct deposits, dude, I think you would get, you get like up to $250. with allergy and pickasone, contrail the gardener. And the ganador is Paradee extra-fueira. To alleviate the picasson

of the eyes for allergy, act more rapidly and super clarity and flownays at 1 at 24 hours. Parade. Adelante.

For free and bonuses. Just moving that over and then you'd at least be keeping up with where inflation came in last month. And then, yeah, you're only a,

you're a little under, well, you're definitely, you're a full point under where they are here at the 3.18%. But I am glad to see we have an additional $2,148 in this one.

So this is good. We're getting like $4,500, close to. And then 0.01% and a chase savings of additional $3,000. Now does all this money exist or has this gone anywhere else still? No, that's all there. Those are those three accounts. Yes. The only things that really get used all the time are my Chase credit card, the Exxon for Gas,

and then my chase checking, which my bills come out of. Yeah. I don't use a debit card. I don't really, you know, I use a check for my mortgage. So that is a check out of there But otherwise it's all just There's no reoccurming Dumb payments I guess out of there

Sure To 25,000 dollars in your retirement account A little bit more than that now I guess that was Like what 30? It's like 20 yeah about it 29 I think it is Definitely a little behind for 33 Not terribly but a little behind

Well I am very happy with your situation To the house and the equity that has been built In this house from when you bought it And then likely getting to a lower interest rate and then just, yeah, the equity that's in that house now. So that's really good. And then what you have invested in here, similar stuff to what I have invested in general, just split across different small cap, mid-cap, large-cap, international,

and some few bonds as well. So that's all chill. What I would do, we have savings. And this is an easy win to me because you're literally losing money on it. You have 7,338 in savings. I'd pay off the card $2,000. Take that down to $5,000. Now I would do that.

I would do that while you're sitting there, honestly, but you can do what you want to do, but that's what you should do. Well, I have some cash that I prefer to use that on, you know, and maybe move that somewhere. Wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I sit.

I have some cash that I keep pigeonholed that I try to, I would prefer to use to pay off the credit card. Well, why not just, paid off with the savings and then put the cash back into the savings. It's the same thing. It's just, yeah. I'm a small town guy, man. Once it's on there digital, I would prefer to move it digital to the cash.

I prefer just to take up to the bank to pay on what I'm paying. Yeah, but you are losing interest on it. So I would rather, let's just pay it off today and then just replace it or just with the cash. Because it's mathematically the same thing in the end. I understand psychologically for you. It feels different and I do respect that and understand that. but um do i lose any more interest by the next payment date i mean at this point it's the next payment

date is so close instead of just making well there's two thousand bucks on there so you will get hit with interest but um you're i mean you're also losing money by two of these accounts sitting in no interest funds so i'd at least move them either into the one you had a three percent or so i at the 4.3 uh link in the description below and um yeah you know i but i would pay it off because again, at the 25% interest right down there, no matter where that money's being held. If it was in the S&P 500 based on historical results, you're still losing by 15% having the $2,000 on the credit card.

So I would absolutely cut that from the savings. Drain the one, that's like $2,165 with no interest, paid off, consolidate the savings into one, and then boom, good. How much is in your wife's retirement? I don't know, man. Okay, so pretty similar, 35,000. So we're behind as a two-person household, but that's okay.

We're going to start amping that up because you're going to get rid of that credit card. We're going to follow a budget, and then you guys are going to live an awesome life in terms of investing. So please just pay that credit card off today and then replenish. Let's figure out your emergency fund. So, okay, well, we didn't mention anything about my savings bonds. I know those are silly, but... Oh, well, how much you have? About 1,700 in those as well.

Over, okay, cool. Some of those, I believe there's a few of them that still actually have to mature. A few of them aren't. Yeah. So, do you know when they fully mature? I thought I sent that as well. Not fully. I believe I sent that on the email.

Okay. I could take a look back. Gas 365 in the budget. Then we have, with the mortgage, 798. I usually pay over. that to cover escrow. Okay, for sure. Oh, wait, that's escrow is not included in that?

I cover more just to make sure I don't owe anything. Sometimes I potentially get some back. And especially with our tax. I just, and I prefer to pay it off early if not. Okay, we're going to say $7.98, though. We're just getting minimum monthly payments. Then for the two cars, $625 plus 331, $9.56, because this is household.

We're doing household. What do you think utilities, internet? So gas electric internet, what does that all come out to? I see, it was all included. It should be, let's see. Well, so internet is one thing that she takes care of as well. Okay, well, now we're going to get to a better situation where everything's... So I believe that goes around 220 bucks.

That's both of our cell phones and internet. Okay. You know, that's one that she takes care of. And part of that is for her work phone as well. Oh, interesting. Okay, so $220 for electricity gas and internet? no, $220 for our phones and internet. Then gas.

I mean, I have the statement. Would you mind if I look? It's about the same. Is it a checking? Yes. Yeah, we can just look at that for these then. Yeah, these are all what come out of there every month on that. I can tell you which one.

Yeah, sure. They are if you'd like. So let's see. Let's see. GXU Energy. That's our electricity. How much is that? 221.

So about 200. 20 books. Okay. Then we have our Atmos Energy. That is our gas. That's 3882. Cool. So total of 479 for phone and utilities and Internet and stuff like that.

Cool. Now, car insurances for both of you. Yes. I pay every six months. That was actually one big payment out of my, actually, this. I guess it was. How much? It's like $780, I believe it is.

Divided by 6, 130, and then what's your car insurance? Okay, so 253 a month to account for. Okay. It's on here. It should be on. It was on my last statement. I believe it was on my last. Okay.

And what other minimum monthly payments do we have to deal with? I do have, I have a couple. reoccurring things that do want up on my credit card, you know, that you're going to hate. What? I have one that is PlayStation premium that I pay for the year, 60 bucks.

Can you get closer to the mic, please? I pay PlayStation Premium that I pay for the year, 60 bucks. I don't play a ton of games, but every once in a while I download free games, I feel like the amount of games that I'll download throughout the year equals out over $60. I don't buy video games and things like that, really.

So I have that. that that's 60 bucks a year and then I do have vinyl me please that's a record subscription oh vinyl subscription I do really enjoy that that's a 140 dollars every three months oh okay in order for you to survive is 2,851 a month that's what you guys need to survive well actually no sorry we did not do food we need to put food in the budget uh food in the budget the budget, both of you with the baby and everything like that, we're going to do about 600. Okay.

No, with the, yeah, because for food. Okay. This is all groceries, all groceries. Diapers and things. Diapers, we're doing the next category. Total paper, diapers, all this stuff in order to keep the home running. About 300 we'll do because I know diapers can be expensive. Expensive.

Yeah. Yeah, those baby shower diapers just ran out. Shout out to all those baby shower diaper people. 3,751 in order to keep life running. Now, that's a very expensive needs. If you say you bring in $4,500, $25 a month, it means your needs category is 82% of your income. That's crazy. If we get rid of the two cars, that brings us closer to like 70, 65%, that's good.

That's where we need to get to because right now all your money is going to needs. That's why we're behind in retirement because we don't have enough money to put towards retirement. So we don't have a fully funded emergency fund. Because, by the way, a fully funded emergency fund would be $3,751 times that by six would be $22,500. $1,6. What do you have in savings? I have about... Okay, 9,000. She has $9,000. You have $1,700.

Because you can pull from the bonds if you need to. We're paying off the card, so I'm getting rid of $2,000 of it. So total is $15,000. So, you know, so I've got to get another $10,000 to have a fully funded emergency fund. You pay off the credit card. What I would do, and this is where I don't think you guys are going to agree with this. You're going to pull from the $9,000 in savings

and going to pay off that $2,400 of cars just because it's good to just have paid for cars in general. Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Comfort in it's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to

claim. We'll direct at storesotails.com. We're going to, with the kit, since this is a kid, I want to leave at least a two-month emergency fund, $7,502. From your now combined savings of 15,000 hours, because this is combined, we should open a joint checking account. All the money should go in there, and then paying for things should go out of there. So we can understand what the household budget is. So everything's going into a joint checking account. $15,000.

And by the way, may as well do that with your high yield as well for your emergency fund and stuff like that. So $15,000 take out, well, we know the math, but take out $7,500. You have $7,500 left. And you're minuscing from $7,500, $2,400 to pay off her car. And then you have $5,000 left.

Where does the $5,000 go with your death car, stupid $625 payment with the insurance included on on top of that, with the expensive gas included on top of that, with it being seven years of chaos and pain and suffering of that death debt, you're putting the $5,000 towards it. And then aggressively on a monthly basis, without her minimum monthly payment, you should have about $2,500 left on a minimum monthly payment. you'll have $34,000 of that car to pay off. See, I don't plan on having that car for all this.

So we're planning on payments of a car that I don't plan on keeping. Well, that doesn't. That's a part where. That doesn't matter because right now you're losing the interest on it and the minimum of the payments are insane. If we pay off the car and then you end up selling it, you get the money back anyway. So right now we're just choosing the mathematical win. My truck? Yeah.

Okay. And it just, it takes just a year. year and two months to pay off that. That's if you follow my budget. And then you go, I'm having no confidence in this conversation, unfortunately. Yeah, there's some, because there's certain parts of it that I feel like are, I wish there were a way, you know, I don't know, I wish there was a way to somewhat meet in the middle of it.

You know what I mean? Okay. Because there's, I feel like there's a part of real life that, you know, yeah, there's going to be mistakes that are made. This has to be perfect. Follow this budget perfect. Oh. I understand there's parts of it that, you know what?

I don't want to lie to you and say that, yes, I can do that. There's certain parts I always want to, you know, be realistic about, you know, and there's certain things that. The reason I don't like that, and I am going to cut you off, but the reason I don't like that is you're preemptively creating excuses for yourself, which is giving you room, giving you room to get off track. Let's get on track. We have the emergency fund. I mean, trains have breaks. One second. If you want to use from your food budget, a little bit of that going out to eat, that's fine.

As long as food, which should be groceries, but as long as food. food never goes above $600. If $100 of that is eating out on a monthly basis, okay, that is your choice. But in the budget I laid out is the budget that gets you to having a two-month emergency fund paying off her car, paying off your car in 14 months, and then building up a fully funded emergency fund and probably in additional, you know, say about three to six months. And then you guys are in a place of, that's like the baseline. That's where you want to get, like if you think I have a chart, like all the

this is red and bad and all this is greening good, that's you getting in the middle gray of starting financial stability, have a fully funded emergency fund without bad debts. And mind you, I'm actually good with putting the windows on a zero percent credit card and then paying that minimum monthly payment until it's paid off as long as it never goes to the point where interest is accrued. See, at this point, we actually wanted to say pay that off before even then. I guess a big part of the problem is what I feel like you're more of your frustration is there are certain things that I guess you don't like that are plans that aren't you know like there's I alone I have a motorcycle I'm going to sell have there certain instruments that I plan on selling

that I plan on using that cash to do that so instead of taking my cash you know or her cash for paying certain things off I have the same plan to pay them off as you do it's just instead of taking the money that's I don't touch that I know it's safe I have something else in plan you know That's where I guess I feel mixed with it. I had the same plan to try to pay some of this off. I just feel like you're mad. You don't have the same plan. I'm going the extreme plan because after I learned everything I could,

and there's always more to learn about personal finances and I was in a bad place, I went extreme to pay it off. And I want others to because now I see what it's like on the other side and it's so much better than elongating things. The extra things that you have to sell, that doesn't change the situation. That doesn't change the plan. what it does is it makes it go quicker because you would follow the same exact plan except you would sell those things that you were going to sell anyway and throw it at the debt but it's still the same plan that just gets you there quicker instead of a year and a half

to get a fully funded emergency fund or whatever it might be maybe it's a year instead because we sold some things that's awesome I guess I just part of it man is a I know there's part of it that's a comfortability factor you know there's a lot of coping things that you're dealing with and I feel like this is I'm trying to take that on it's just you know It's about winning that battle, you know, a little bit slowly that, yes, there's a cost to winning this battle or losing the battle. And I feel like that's where the mixture is. You know, I've lost that battle for a few years and made me irresponsible decisions. Yeah. It got me $6,000 deep.

That's my irresponsible, the most irresponsible. I made a bad decision on a truck, not the most irresponsible decision. I had to buy a truck, you know. That's, I feel like I, you know what I mean? my most irresponsible amounts of decisions only amounted to $6,000 of debt in an amount of time where we went through a pandemic. And I had a child. You know, I had a wreck with a vehicle. You know, I did make irresponsible decisions.

But then I feel like within the past, you know, a certain amount of time while adding more, you know, more, I guess, I guess things that I have to. pay for with included insurance for a family. You know, it's like within the past two years, my insurance payment went from $40 a month to over $200 a paycheck. You know what I mean? So I'm paying then a 200. I don't see how that impacts our plan, though. I really don't because part of it is trying to figure these things out on mine.

That's part of why I really necessarily didn't want to include her with this stuff. We don't necessarily know how heavy she's going to go back to work. Sure. That's why I didn't want to include her necessarily. And we use the more conservative income based on that. Because we think it might be 5,000 something, but we use 4,525 at their money that was set aside for taxes. So I definitely do get that. The reason why I lay out something so stringent and why I don't like the room for excuses and delays is because I want what I believe is best for y'all.

And what I believe is best for y'all is being on the other side of the hill as quick as possible because any amount of time that is being left, any amount of time that is being taken away from the remainder of your years to be able to save off retirement is taking away time to take advantage of compound growth. You've already lost the best decade of your life for compound growth. You guys are approaching the middle of the second best decade. The quicker we get to the point where we can start investing more and more and more, the better with where the interest rate on the cars are and where the interest rate, especially on the Chase's credit card, where the interest straight on the windows before refinance on a different credit card are, they don't even

come close to beating what the stock market does on average in terms of, uh, the stock market doesn't beat them. So paying them off is a better return. So that's why we do them as quick as possible. And then you start investing things out. I guess the part that I guess I want what's best for you. I apologize. I guess it's the part that I get.

I was looking more forward was, you know, maybe it's a little bit more advice to where I could consolidate certain other things to make my money work for me while I, worked hard on myself to pay this off in its own. That's, you know what I mean? Like, I wanted to try to take care of my debt, my credit card debt. Yeah. And in its own irresponsible manner.

Like, I feel like that was irresponsible money. Yeah. The credit card debt. So I wanted to take that onto myself and use that out of my fund money that I gain with whatever I do. You know, I make certain payments as a month, you know, to keep to pay it down that I, there's a normal payment. But there's also things that I wanted to tackle this outside of necessarily what's on, you know, paper or in the digital world.

Does that make sense? It does. Part of it is trying to get past that mentality of what causes this. You know how you speak about that a lot on your podcast. What caused it? Yes, absolutely. And I feel like just before here, or I've been dealing with before here what has caused it and I'm working on fixing it. Well, I recommend therapy for everyone.

Take advantage of your health insurance. Another thing that is. So that's one part of the problems that I'm trying to fix this is, man, at this point, my deductible is not even covering me. My wife and my baby is gone, and that's going to cost them $6,000 each before I meet it. So this is, I'm unhappy with parts of my, you know, this. I should say the plan I said is going to take a little longer because I forgot about the medical bill that will come up. So an additional $4,000 will take care of that. That's where I didn't want to bring her stuff in.

into it because it's important though her savings was a part of it that was going to go towards that outside of my bills okay but it's no longer my hers though it's it's ours so this comes together the thing is is that all of what we can do to survive i've been taking care of at this point the only thing that she takes care of outside of us to survive besides her car payment stuff i think you're not getting from me the answer that you want i think you want to hear a certain answer instead of the answer that I'm giving. What answer do you believe I'm wanting? I'm not 100% sure.

You mentioned the different consolidations and wanting to keep things separate, but we can't give the consolidations, we can definitely talk about that, but we can't give a full, concise picture of what the situation is and what we should do to get out of it if we don't know what it is as a household. If it's just you and just seeing things just your finances, then we're putting together a plan that might not even make sense. Well, that's where there were things I wish that we would have omitted into what we considered mine and what we considered hers.

You know, it's part of our plan. Why is it not ours, though? Why is it not ours? Just because of the plan of how we plan to take care of them. So you want to do your plan? You want to do your plan. It's our plan. I wanted you to help me with my part of this stuff.

You wanted me to do your plan. Potentially. Okay. Which is cool. I'm totally cool with that. But one second. One thing is confusing is because I've taken, I feel like this whole household, I have taken. care of before we were married, then we married.

We never fully combined and now this is where, okay, I'm still taking care of the full of household and I don't want to use her combination of any of the money because we haven't yet. I would like to figure out the budget for me to be able to take care of our household minus few of her things that she can take care of on her own. You know, there's a few things that are separate that she takes care of on her own. Car payment will be gone soon, so that's a kind of a thing like, you know, she She does take care of my phone bill on, that's one of her bills.

It's hard to explain, I guess. No, no, no, I understand what you're saying. I'm sorry for if it feels like I'm being combative or anything. I'm just trying to figure out the way that works for both of us, you know. It's not being combative. It's less being open-minded. Right. Definitely.

On both sides, though, I feel like I really would like to try to help to do something that we can, I want to try to do something that is. Why is personal finance in terms of what? okay there's a big there's a big mental part of it man there's a there's a money has been I don't know why you think it has to be a compromise though it doesn't the I I laid so what I lay out here is a plan that I would follow because it's a plan similar to what I followed based on everything I learned about personal finances a compromise me giving a compromise outside of that is me then saying a plan that I would not follow the one I laid out is the plan I would follow

saying anything else doesn't make sense to come from me well I guess there's parts of it that I feel like the compromise are parts of you saying yes, that could potentially be a good idea. And then some of it that might, oh yes, I agree that's a good idea. Okay. You know, like with you saying that you agree with me paying off the windows on that credit card. It can work. That's where I feel like that's part of our compromise. You know, with me as well, where I talk about the consolidations, I have these bank accounts that have a couple thousands of dollars in there sitting doing nothing. That's where I was more talking about maybe consolidating, putting into it with something else like your SO-Fi, link in the description.

I'm just kidding. But no, I just, something that can work for people is, boom, sell the card, get something cheaper. And you could save up and get that in cash. You could do the minimum monthly payments to tell your card is paid off because it's mostly going to principal. Again, I just think it's safer and better in terms of risk management to just get rid of that depending on the income situation, especially with a more flux income.

But that is an option. There is the option of consolidating. the windows and Chase card into a 0% finance and then doing minimum monthly payments until they're paid off and figure out what that minimum monthly payment looks like in order to get to the point where it's paid off before interest is accrued. Those are ways to do it. I would not do that, though. I would not do that because I'm putting myself in your shoes and knowing me over there,

just based on what I've demonstrated on going out to eat and all these stuff and all this stuff, it doesn't show the discipline and mentality necessary to fully achieve that finesse of that financial situation, of that financial plan. Yeah, sure, let's get there. But I can't in good conscience say that if you're not there now. If you were here six months from now and you had that finesse, then we'd be having a different conversation, but we're not. So as someone who cares about you, I can't in good conscience. I appreciate that. Well, so can I ask you one question?

Yeah, of course. If I would have come here right now with this exact situation and I had already used my cash to pay that credit card off, it really just was more of a timing thing. Let's say I paid that credit card off, had no credit card payment. And let's just say I had no credit card payment at this point. You know, you saw these purchases, but I had no credit card payment. How different of a conversation is that? I think in that situation, you would have at least showed that you were more of a credit card to card person than you've demonstrated now. We would still want to attack the bad debts like the truck.

Right. Because obviously that doesn't affect that debt, but it would have at least demonstrated that you recognize the horridness of the 25% interest rate. Right. But obviously, that's not where we are. But, I mean, I do, I feel, I mean, I guess it's, I felt both horrible and, okay about what I came in here with at first because I see so many of your podcast that so many people either spend so much more than they make and are so far in ridiculous debt that there's you know several year plan of paying off just yes the scary part or people that make

ridiculous amounts of money that still have ridiculous amounts of debt I'm just like whoa you know I feel like at my point I got scared and worried because it's $6,000. It was ridiculous to me, yet still I've attacked it and brought it down to where it could be. So I'm trying to. No, the fact is your debt's not even close to as bad as, like, many that we have on here. And you're already in a better place because you have great equity position in your house. So your overall score is going to be higher when it comes to, you know, the score that I give out.

Right. It's just following the plan to get to where I would like you to be to live that financially better life quicker. And I think the plan I laid out is the low. way to do that quicker. But, you know, however you choose to go about it is whatever you choose and then the life that comes from that is, you know, the life that you deal with. But that's, this is what I think you should do. Right.

I honestly, I agree with that. I totally agree with you that this would be the most amount of discipline that I can have. If I'm going to be honest with myself, I do know that there's a amount of discipline that I don't have. I will shoot for that. will I mess up probably on some amounts but I'll also work hard to make them yourself we all know messes ups are going to happen when people vocalize it though it's a preemptive excuse it's allowing that I'm kind of I feel like I try to be the opposite man I try

to say that hey all this bad stuff will happen and then hopefully it doesn't and then when it doesn't I get off in the better you know it's kind of like my weird reverse way of optimist pessimism you know I think about it's almost like being prepared for the bad stuff to happen kind of but then it doesn't and you're okay okay the 5,500 would you feel come be would you all feel comfortable living off of that 5,500 yeah probably so 5,500 so that would be 66,000 dollars a year which if there's any employment opportunities out there for free to let me know I would much rather be dealing with some people at this point if we could get you to 1.75 million dollars by retirement in today's money

that is where we need to get you to in order to be able to withdraw that amount of money. What age is that? Well, when do you want to retire? It depends. It really depends, man. Retirement looks at this point, that's one reason why I'm here. Retirement looks farther and farther away from that. That's why we want to get out of this as quick as we can so we can start investing.

But I get it. I get it. Let's say, I will try as hard as I can. I'm not saying I won't. I just, Okay, let's just for the sake of, okay, you go about it your way, it takes a little longer. Let's just pretend two years before a fully put an emergency fund, all that stuff. Okay.

And then you all invest as a household for 30 years. If we want to get to a million dollars in today's money following the average inflation in average return of the stock market, with the initial amount of the $65,000 you already have, let's say it goes up to $75,000. thousand hours over the next couple years just through the other things that are invested. Compounding and contributing on a monthly basis. I forgot about one. It's embarrassing.

Okay. Well, before we get to that, I mean, this is so, this shows what's necessary for compound growth. Like, you would need to start investing $1,700 bucks a month. to get to that point, taking an account inflation and the average stock market return. To get to 1.75?

In today's money. By what time? 65. 65. That shows the quicker we get out of this, the more time you could take advantage of. Now, you can stretch that to, you know, maybe we retire at 70. And, of course, Social Security potentially, I don't know how reliable that is by then. At this point, my best option would be try to find better employment.

man, it's just about breaking into a different. Dude, you guys make $100,000 a year and you have a great mortgage with that. So that is not the main issue. That is seriously not the root of the cause. But if you guys stretch it to $70,150 a month will get you to there. Of course, what that would actually look like is close to $4 million, but that's not what it would feel like in today's money. It would feel like in today's money about $1.75 million.

So do you understand the dire thing? It's 65, right? That's 70 in that case, but yes. Okay, but yes. So that's where I'm at. I think we've had a good conversation about this. I think you know where I stand. I think I know where you stand,

but do you have any other questions or things you wanted to talk about? Let's see. Oh, I did. I had so I forgot about some other investments in Robin Hood. I just let sit. Oh, okay. It's just been sitting in there. It's not very much.

How much? A little over a thousand bucks, of course, as well. I would just pull that out and put it towards the truck. I really would. And one thing I would really, really, really think about and have a good long conversation about, maybe see family therapist about it a few times. Combine everything. No more hers, no more mine.

It's overcomplicating it. Have a combined household income. Have a combined household debts. Have combined household goals. Have a combined household. It's worth it. Definitely. Anything else?

Not yet, I guess. Not that I think of, man. Well, you're someone I definitely really want to follow up with. I appreciate it. We're going to have the conversation because you're fun to talk to. You guys are very cool. I'm excited to see how this kid grows up. Definitely.

And then we'll see where you end up going from here, yeah? Definitely. I think so, man. I'd love to be able to follow up and maybe come back again. Let's do it. Something like that, man. I appreciate it. Sounds good.

All right. For Colby, like the cheese, his hammer financial score, you know, I think he was actually pretty close to what he thought. I know it was a little more competitive because I think he wanted me to agree with him. I wanted him to agree with me. And we may have not met that middle ground that was fully desired. But for my hammer financial score for Kobe, like the cheese, spending in a budget, we know part of that conversation.

Come on. spending all that money when the balance is on the 25% interest rate credit card. One out of ten. Debt, certainly not the worst. Three out of ten. Retirement, it's okay, a little behind, but six out of ten. Emergency fund, certainly not where it needs to be, but not the worst either. Four out of ten.

Real estate, happy with that equity position. And we even talked about afterwards potential rental properties in the future. That would get them to a ten out of ten. But for now, seven out of ten, really, it's a special. vending in the debt that brings them down hammer financial score four out of ten check out the resources linked in the description below things like a very high-yield savings account investing just five dollars in acorns using my link and you get an additional five dollars for free and other resources that i either use or would use in specific situations and don't forget

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