More Money Podcast - 344 How to Cut Costs with Minimal Effort and Little Sacrifice - Gordon Stein

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

I’ve been getting inundated with questions about how to save money amidst higher grocery bills, interest rates, and the expectations of a recession next year. Luckily, I have a return guest on the show whose all about sharing practical tips, or rather recipes, to help you save money with minimal effort and sacrifice. Gordon Stein, who you may remember from episode 222, is back on the show to talk about the newest edition of his book, Cashflow Cookbook. Gordon Stein is an international keynote speaker, blogger, personal finance expert, and author of Cashflow Cookbook: $2 Million of Financial Freedom in 60 Easy Recipes. He’s on a mission to help improve people’s financial wellness without making them give up the things they love in order to save a buck.  In today’s episode, Gordon is sharing what spurred him to write an American edition of his book and why he thinks it’s more important to track your wealth rather than your budget. I also ask him to share some practical and easy steps we can take right now to help reduce our household bills without giving up the things we love. For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/344 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Lulu, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 344. And we have a repeat guest on the show and a very timely topic. I'm really excited to have this guest back on the show to talk about, you know, how to cut expenses and make this, you know, situation we're in with the high cost of everything and rising interest rates and inflation. How do we make it work? And what can we actionably do with our own budgets? And I'm talking about Gordon Stein. He is back on the show. You may remember him from when he was on the show for episode 222. That was back in, oh gosh, looking at the date, it always makes me have a panic attack. It was January 15th, 2020.

Right before the world went a bit left. We had no idea what was coming, did we? No, we didn't. It was in the before times. So he was on the show back then to talk about some really great and smart money-saving strategies. And he's back on the show to talk about that again. But he also has a new book. So you may remember he launched his book, Cashflow Cookbook, back when he was on the show. Well, he now has an updated version of that for Canadians, but also has created a US edition. So if you're listening and you're from the US, you can find Cashflow Cookbook for Americans. Because even though there's lots of similarities, things are still different because we're different countries. So you definitely want to check that out. And I will be giving away a copy of his book. So make sure to, well, I'm going to share more details at the end of this

episode so you can find out how to enter to win. But in case you aren't familiar with Gordon, maybe you didn't get a chance yet to listen to episode 222. He is an international keynote speaker. He's a blogger, personal finance expert, and of course, author and he delivers transformational talks that help people crush their number one stress, their finances and he is on a mission to improve financial wellness and help his audience regain focus, balance and joy in their lives. And Gordon combines his trademark wit and storytelling style to speak with employee and association groups, financial advisors, and the media about a breakthrough path to financial wellness with no risk, minimal effort, minimal sacrifice,

and no budgeting. Though, you know, I do like a good budget, I will say. And in his spare time, he's also an avid sailor, aging downhill ski racer, and not yet great or even good guitar player. He's the one who told me that. I'm not saying this. This is his words, not mine. So we have a lot to talk about and a lot of great tips and pieces of advice for you in this episode. So I can't wait to get to this interview. But before I do, here's just a few words about this podcast season's sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by Desjardins. Does your financial institution share your values? Because Desjardins is about more than just money. They are on a mission to enrich people's lives and improve the economic and social

well-being of Canadians everywhere. Desjardins' main goal as a cooperative is to support its members and make a positive impact on their communities by providing exceptional customer care, offering a variety of financial services, and above all, listening to its members. They've also been at the forefront of sustainable investing as one of the first financial institutions to offer responsible investment portfolios. To learn more about Desjardins and how they're a cooperative making a difference, visit Desjardins.com. Welcome, Gordon, back to the More Money Podcast. I'm so excited to have you back on.

I took a little look. I'm like, when was the last time you were on? And I'm like, oh, gosh, we sure didn't know what was coming. You came on, I think it was January gosh, we sure didn't know what was coming. You were, uh, came on, um, I think it was January, the middle of January, 2020. And then things kind of took a turn that we sure, sure didn't expect. I'm pretty sure. Oh, crazy. Well, it's great to be on with you, Jessica. I actually got married on February the 14th and the world literally evaporated about two weeks later. Oh my gosh. So I guess no honeymoon right after the wedding.

We're still waiting. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So a lot has happened in the past two years. And I loved having you on the first time to talk about your book, Cashflow Cookbook, and really talk about how can people do some really strategic things to save more money. and i'm so glad to have you back on now that you have a u.s version and an updated canadian version because i feel like well the world has changed significantly and i feel like with the world that we're currently in high interest rates high inflation rising costs i have never gotten more like i feel like like in 2020 and 2021 everyone just wanted to talk about crypto nfts investing how do I build wealth now everyone's their mindsets are their their kind of needs and

concerns are shifting a lot to be like how do I you know improve my cash flow because everything is so much more expensive my mortgage is more expensive the grocery store is more expensive how do I cut back and in a way that doesn't feel like I'm just living and eating noodle soup every day, basically. So it's an interesting time. So I'm so glad to have you back on because you really know your stuff when it comes to literally cash flow. That is the name of your book. So welcome back. First things first, I want to kind of just talk about your new book. So you launched Cashflow Cookbook a few years back. Why did you want to create a US version? Well, since we last chatted, or I guess right around that time, I've actually moved to the US.

But I'm doing a lot of talking in both US and Canada, working with wealth advisors, helping their clients free up more cash flows, speaking at money conferences, all that kind of thing. And so when I moved to the US, I thought there's obvious need for a US edition of Cashflow Cookbook. And when I did that, it became a total rewrite. So it was about three months to take all of the content, refresh it all, rethink it all, because frankly, so much has changed. And there are even things that I discovered in coming to the U.S. that got me thinking about new ideas for a Canadian book. So the new U.S. book and the new Canadian book, what's different now is the book is now in two parts. And the first half of it, we follow this couple, Eric and Keisha, and they make this series of financial discoveries. And they go from a world

of living paycheck to paycheck, having a good life, lots of vacations and things to do with their kids and lovely home. But they move into a world where they're able to add another million and a half to their wealth at retirement. And to your earlier point, minimal effort, minimal sacrifice. We gave the book to some focus group readers. They all said the same thing. They said, I can't believe that adds a million and a half to their wealth. And the second thing they said is, but this is so easy. So that said, hey, the book's really on track to help people. Well, I guess that's, I mean, that sounds like it'll, for lots of people hearing this, like, oh, that's exactly what I want. Everyone wants minimal effort. They don't want to really

change their lifestyle too much. So how is that possible to be able to shift your wealth building potential so drastically just by making a few changes? What kind of changes are we talking about? Well, let's go back half a step. So if you look at most personal finance authors, it's all about you need to give up the things that you love and you need to budget carefully. I mean, if you say to your spouse, let's spend the weekend budgeting carefully. You know, I don't think that's a marriage enhancement technique. So, you know,

the idea is how do you do that? And people want to start in with the things that they love. Well, let's give up our Starbucks coffee. Let's give up our glass of wine. Let's, you know, give up our vacations. And I think that's a bad place to start. That's like up our glass of wine. Let's, you know, give up our vacations. And I think that's a bad place to start. That's like a cold shower. But there's so many things when I wrote Cashflow Cookbook, I discovered where you can give these things up. It's minimal effort, minimal sacrifice. You know, example, we bought a 1938 home here in Cleveland, Ohio, that we renovated. And for that first year, dropped both the gas bill and the electric bill by 50%, 5-0. So what did we give up? Nothing. We'd up about $200 a month, easy changes to make. So the whole point of cashflow cookbook, it's not going after the things that you love at

all. In fact, I'm not even a fan of traditional budgeting. I think the thing to do is to go after those dozen or so monthly bills. And there's some hidden ones in particular that we'll talk about. And you free up cash on those things, you know, but then if you're going to go to an Eagles concert, go get great seats. I bought a couple of kayaks, you know, I bought beautiful ones. I've got, I don't know, how many thousand dollars of guitars behind me. Do the things you love, and that's what's important. But these other more mundane expenses, there's so many great ways to slash those costs. So give us some examples of some of these. So just actually going back to how you were able to kind of free up $200 per month with your home, how were you able to do that specifically?

Well, there's a few things that were interesting. We took a look at the electricity bill as an example, and we found out that we had some roof heaters that were running all the time. So those only need to be on in the coldest of winter days. So that was a pretty easy change to make. We had an antiquated dishwasher. We got a new energy efficient one. That one's interesting because it saves both gas to heat the hot water,

electricity to run the dishwasher, and the water consumption drops by about 90%. So that was a three banger right there. And then the other thing that was interesting was a little peek around up in the attic, there was almost no insulation up there, maybe an inch or two. And that should be more like a couple of feet. So, you know, one time spend of about $600, you know, got up there, my wife and I did a quick insulation job, not hard to do. But those changes, suddenly the home was so much more comfortable, it made a big difference. Another one along the same lines, discovered that we have three doors that go from our home to the garage from three different parts of the house, which is unusual. But one of them had a gap that was about three quarters of an inch by 30 inches.

So that's the same as a six inch hole in the wall of the house. I was surprised that it's been there, I'm sure, since the beginning of the house. But a little peek around the house looking for some weather stripping. None of these are difficult. They're all homeowner doable. And it makes a massive difference, you know, than things like a setback thermostat. Yeah, I feel like that's one tip I've heard a lot is to make sure that your home is more energy efficient.

How do you know what to, like, did you hire someone to take a look at things? Or do you just, you know, being a homeowner yourself for so many years, you kind of knew what to look at? I'm a new homeowner. So I'm asking for some tips for myself, because I'm, we're looking and we've experienced one winter so far, this is our first summer. And we're trying to kind of take notes of things that we think may or may not need an upgrade or change to kind of be more energy efficient. But where would you start looking for these types of things? Yeah, You know, I'm one of the few professional engineer, personal finance writers and speakers, so I come by it honestly. But in the book, I detail exactly how to do it. So from an energy efficiency perspective in a home, the first place to start is always infiltration. In other words,

are there gaps around windows, doors, you know, a stick and a piece of Christmas tinsel, some lit incense or your fingers and wherever you've got a door or window that's leaking air, that's really a big priority because you can change the number of air changes an hour that the house sees and that'll make a huge difference. Things like a fireplace damper not closing properly. So doors, windows, things like fireplace dampers, and anything else that's letting air in and out of the home, that's a great place to start. And the cost of doing that might be $100 or $200, even if you had a professional do some sealing. Yeah.

Okay. That's great. That's great. So besides homeowners, because there's renters listening and they probably don't really care too, too much about that. Or, you know, maybe it's included in the rent or whatnot. What are some other kind of, I feel like, things that people may, you know, miss out or don't even think about that could have a big kind of bang for their buck, so to speak? I think one of the most interesting ones, and to be honest, it's one I didn't even think about in the first seven printings of Cashflow Cookbook. I didn't understand it until

I came to the US. I went to get a credit card here, and I got turned down for a credit card. So it just gave me a lower credit one. I went to a $300 card. I have to leave $330 on deposit. So this idea of credit score, most people don't look at it. They don't know what their score is. They don't even think about it. But what's remarkable is it can swing interest costs on the loan by 70%. It can swing car insurance and home insurance by 30% to 50%. So taking a moment, taking a look at your credit score, you can get it for free now.

Look it up. See if there's any errors in the report. And if it's not optimal, make those changes to get it optimal. And that's a really stealth one. Again, if you improve your credit score, what are you giving up exactly? Absolutely nothing, right? So that's another great one worth a peek. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. I feel like especially now as you know, people are well, I've been talking a lot about interest rates and borrowing these days, and it's gotten so much more expensive. And it probably will continue to be expensive for a little while yet. But that is one way to kind of reduce your costs, the better your score, the better kind of the, the rate in terms of any kind of, you know, loan that you get. So that's definitely an easy thing. And like you said, whether you're in Canada or the US, you can get your credit score and credit report for free. And that should be something that I always kind of try to remind people of do like with your credit report at least once per year, because I feel like you know, time goes fast

and most people won't check up more often than that once per year could be a real lifesaver. And I think that's something that most of us forget to do, basically. Yeah, there's so many things. Another one that's really interesting, people talk a lot about gas prices, and they are nothing short of extortionate these days. And very simply, you can actually reverse, believe it or not, the gas price rises that we've seen in the last while. And that's a simple one, just comes down to driving habits. And, you know, you often hear this thing about, you know, drive more gently on the accelerator,

accelerate slower, drive a little slower on the highway. You hear these things, but does it actually work? Does it actually make a difference? So in the book, I cite an interesting Edmund study where they said, do the tips actually work? And what they found is that by deploying just a handful of these different safer and more comfortable driving tips, you can lower your gas consumption by 35%. And I thought, gee, that's really crazy. So then I thought, you know what? I had to do a drive from Cleveland to Toronto for a speaking engagement. I thought, well, why don't I try it?

So I spent, you know, a half an hour at three different speeds and a full half an hour on a very flat road to really try it out and see what the difference was. And indeed, the difference was over 30%. Changing the speeds as you go from, you know, looking at 100 kilometers an hour, 110, 120, and I tried some different ones. It really is dramatic. So there's a simple way to save. And the other thing with the work from home now i really think people want to take a look at how far can you push it you know if you're working from home you know two days a week can you do three days a week and take a minute to look at what your actual costs of commuting are they're pretty big particularly if you're in for example the

toronto area you've got highway 407 bills, you've got gas repair, depreciation. It's a big, big deal. Not to mention, you know, commutes in Toronto now are pretty routinely an hour each way. You know, can you get another day out of that? Can you carpool with somebody? These are things people don't really think about as money saving. They always go to, what do I have to give up? Why give anything up?

Yeah, I mean, getting an extra day to give up? I give anything up. Yeah. I mean, getting an extra day to work at home sounds like you're gaining something. And I feel like now is still like a really good time to ask your employer about that because, you know, they're trying to keep their employees happy. And there's, you know, so much proof of how much money you can save by working from home from, you know, the past couple of years because we've all been having to work from home. And there's been so many reports of people having saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars just by eliminating that really long commute. And also then you gain a lot of time and then you can do something maybe productive or profitable

with that time as well. Well, that's it. And so when I set up the book, it's broken into six sections. So we talk about savings on housing, transportation, food,. I mean, that is the most expensive way possible to change your money. So, you know, that's the worst. Significantly better would be through a bank. And better still is some of these discounted foreign exchange houses where you can get it dramatically cheaper. Just for fun, in Cashflow Cookbook, I took those actual live prices from three of those institutions and swapped from euros to Canadian dollars and back three or four times.

And in the worst case, you end up with about half as much money as you began. And in the best case, you end up with about 94% of the money that you started with. So there's another example now for some people. Maybe they're getting foreign stock options. They're traveling a lot. They've got a child who's studying overseas or something, it can be quite material. If it's just $50 here and there, they're not going to make a big difference. But it really is dependent on everyone's individual situation. And to go through in a structured way and look at all these expenses and get some great direction on how to lower all of them, just makes a lot of sense. In total, in the book, I found $13,000 of monthly savings ideas.

So for most people, there's $1,000 available there. And yeah, like we've kind of talked about, and this is what I feel like I'm so glad that I had to kind of struggle with money in my 20s, being broke and trying to find any way I could save a dollar because it made so much of with money in my 20s being broke and trying to find any way I could save a dollar because it made so much of a difference in my life. When you build those habits and then you do them for a long time, then they're there for good. Like I was just talking to a friend of mine who, you know, we kind of do similar things and we're just talking about some of the kind of frugal things that we still do, even though we don't necessarily to do like just to save a buck or two or even when I'm at the grocery store

and we can talk about that because I'm sure lots of people want to know how to save money on groceries I will still there's certain things where sometimes I'm like I don't know if this actually makes sense because sometimes I'm like oh yeah I'll splurge on a Starbucks but then if I go to the grocery store and something's 20 cents more I'm like I'm gonna get the thing that's 20 cents you know I don't know what that is but is, but clearly that is something ingrained in my head from all these years of trying to find the cheapest food at the grocery store. But it's one of those things where it's like, I don't even think about it. It is like a muscle memory thing almost. I don't even think of like, oh, I'd rather have this. So it's one of those things you start and then you keep doing

it and then it just becomes second nature. But yeah, going back to food, because I know that is a big thing that people are dealing with. I mean, I've read so many news stories of people that are struggling so much financially with their cash flow because everything is so much up. They've had to really kind of change their buying patterns and even, you know, cut out, you know, meat entirely and things like that. Let's talk about, you know, how to save at the grocery store. Are there some certain things? I just read actually last night, this article from the Toronto Star that was comparing different grocery store chains. And this is something that I'm like, you know what, I probably, this is probably a way that I could save money. I know I could. You know, there's obviously like kind of the higher end grocery stores, there's obviously like kind of the higher end grocery stores, and there's kind of the discount grocery stores. And then of course, there's like the, the store brand labels, and then the kind of brand name labels and all that

kind of stuff. I'm always pretty good at always doing kind of whatever the store label is, because I, you can't tell the difference, honestly. But it's one of those things where it's like, I do like a good, nice grocery store experience. But I know I'm paying for that. I really should do a comparison to be like, if I went to a No Frills or a Walmart compared to, well, Loblaws or Sobeys, how much money would I save? But anyways, you're the expert. What are some of the things that when you were doing research for the book you found would be something that people should take a look at? Well, I'm all about minimal effort, minimal sacrifice. So, you know, you see these articles about, you know, comparing the coupons and the flyers and driving to five grocery stores. I just, I get exhausted when I read those things.

That's a lot of work, you know. I think it's way too much work. I think step one is you find, you know, a good grocery store that you're comfortable with. It's an experience like anything else. But get their loyalty card. That can make a huge difference. And it's a no-brainer. You're going to be shopping there every week or more usually. So get the grocery store loyalty card. For me, where I am, that's about, I think it was $1,600 last year. Our grocery store here shows you the running total with the loyalty card saved you. So there's a no-brainer one to start. 10 minutes at the customer service desk, sign up. Most houses waste something like 30 to 40% of the groceries that they buy. So, you know, great to save 10 cents here and 15 cents there, but hang on, let me understand this. We're wasting 30 or 40% of our groceries. Why don't we start there? So

even if you just have a little family huddle a couple times a week you know what's on what's on the best before date and let's combine that into something there's lots of ways you can see or find recipes for hey i've got you know an onion and i've got you know uh chicken breast and a half and i've got something else you can always make a stir fry let me tell you there's always a stir fry at the end of the week. You make a stir fry. So not reducing the waste thing is a really big thing. And I'll give you a really silly example. Not that this one's going to change anyone's budget, but I like these protein shakes. I'll make one every day and I've got my own little recipe with some almond milk, the black chia seeds, spinach in there. And then I'll do some frozen fruit or frozen banana, something like

that. Um, and then it goes in the blender. So for literally years, I would get spinach. You get a fresh pack of spinach and you kept like that stuff goes bad. You can never, I've never, I've never used an entire container of spinach before. It's bad. Believe me, I try. And then you're just eating spinach and you're just like, I don't want it. Yeah. And then once it starts to get a little funky, you got to get rid of it. But it barely makes it through a week. So then I had this brainwave after literally years of making these shakes. Why don't I get frozen spinach? So I just get the bag of frozen spinach.

I reach in and grab it. It's a smoothie anyway. You'll want it cold. I don't waste anything. And the frozen spinach is one-seventh the price of fresh spinach. So, again, this is not, you know, I mean, how much am I saving with this? You know, is it $5 a week? It's not a big deal.

But it's this concept. It's the muscle memory. And you just get a little slicker on each of these things. And, you know, there's a little bit of a kind of hoarding up when you get a good deal. So when the vitamins go on sale, two for one is pretty typical. You know, if you're doing multivitamins or whatever. So all of these things, it's just a handful of these habits make a big difference. And if you do some quick math, if you can reduce your food wastage from 40% to 10%, well, there's a 30% savings on your grocery bill. That's a massive amount of money for most families. And typically, if you go a little bit healthier, reduce your meat consumption, get in some whole grains and more vegetables and

all these things. And the other one we didn't talk about is frozen food. We touched on it with the shakes, but it is a dramatic difference. Anything that you want, think about getting it frozen instead of fresh. There's a great way to chop, probably 20% of your bill can get chopped by two thirds. Yeah. No, 100%. I want to get your take on this. I was talking to friends over the summer and we're talking about ways to save at the grocery store. And one of the things that you do, which sounds kind of counterintuitive, but they said it actually works for them. And it was largely because they realized there was so much food waste. Or when you're at the grocery store physically, and even if you have a list, there's going to be something that you add to the cart, add to the cart.

They now instead use Instacart and order things from Costco that they know that they'll always get like, you know, chicken breast and stuff and frozen stuff. And then even from like the grocery store. So they kind of pre-plan their meals, order it that way. Even though there is that, you know, obviously expense of using Instacart, they say they actually have less food waste and save more money like that because there's less impulse spending. Is that kind of something that something people could consider or what's your take on that? Yeah, no, I think that's worthwhile. And if you're sort of savvy on it, sometimes you can reduce the cost of the grocery delivery. So I think it could be a good one. And again, it frees up some time. So you're focusing on buying those things that you want. And the age old advice, the other one we didn't talk about is prepared foods. You know, I'm getting more and more health conscious as the years click by. And it's frightening how much sugar, preservatives, all of these things that are in there. And cooking is actually fun. You know, making your own meals, you get the hang of it,

you start learning more and more things. And you know what's going into it because you made it. So there's a big opportunity there. The other one that's related to that is packing a lunch, you know. And it seems like, you know, really, am I going to pack a lunch? The numbers are really quite remarkable for most people, even if you could pack, you know, let's say three lunches a week, you know, a savings of about $10. Typically, you got some healthier stuff. That's a quarter million dollars over your career. That's really quite material. You know, we're in a place right now where only a quarter of boomers think that they're on track to retire, and only 12% of Gen Xers think that they're on track for retirement. So you think about this quarter of a million dollars by packing a lunch, that's a huge story.

I'm curious. I've been seeing a lot online, mainly from younger people like Gen Zs and millennials on social media, kind of poking fun of the idea of like the latte factor, like, oh, cut out your your latte. That's going to make you a millionaire. The reason you can't afford a home, you know, is because you buy takeout coffee. But a lot of what we've talked about are kind of things like cut out this little thing and that like the i still believe in the latte factor not so much the actual lattes because i feel like i've also had the host of or uh the author of the latte factor and it's not about the lattes it's about the idea of kind of compounding spending and that's kind of what we're discussing it's not about the actual thing that you cut it's about how can you cut out things like you've kind of mentioned at the top of the show that aren't really you know things that bring you joy or that really bring value to your life, but

are easily, you know, things that you can get rid of, but that if they stuck in your budget, they kept on, you know, creeping up, they would compound into like, you know, a good chunk of change. And that's kind of, I think the, the real important takeaway is it's not about, you know, yeah, pack lunch. Everyone's heard that before. But like you said, yeah, everyone's heard it before, probably because it works. You know, like it's not like I can't tell you how many times I've told people it's like

money management really isn't rocket science. But I feel like just like any other kind of vehicle, like, you know, fitness is like, how can I lose weight? It's like, well, you got to eat better and you got to work out like that is kind of it. Sure. There's some other kind of techniques and stuff, you know, fitness is like, how can I lose weight? It's like, well, you got to eat better and you got to work out. Like that is kind of it. Sure. There's some other kind of techniques and stuff, but it's actually pretty simple. But people are always kind of looking for, I think, an easy way. And there really isn't. I mean, this is pretty easy, but I think people want something instant. I think that's exactly, I mean, it really is easy. You know, a cashflow cookbook, there's a whole, there's 60 different recipe ideas,

plus the ideas in the story at the beginning. And when you read any of them, you go, well, I can do that. That's not hard. You know, the latte one is interesting because people say, oh, come on, stop. You know, so I spent $5 on a coffee. And you know what? If you spend $5 on a coffee, yeah, that's going to have no impact whatsoever. But I did an interesting But I had an interesting situation

when I was working in the corporate world. And there's a woman I worked with, and she would come to a morning meeting with her Starbucks, Vontae, Grande, whatever it was, probably $5 or $6. And then we had a second project. So I was in another meeting with her every day. We were tracking this project at 11 o'clock. And there she'd be with another one, a big one. So I was in another meeting with her every day. We were tracking this project at 11 o'clock and there she'd be with another one, big one. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Then a couple of times I was, went by her desk. I wasn't stalking her, I promise. And she had, you know, a bag of chips and a, you know, can of pop on her desk, which she got from the vending machine. And so I thought, gee, that's kind of interesting. Just for fun, I did the math.

It adds up to $330 a month. A month? A month. Wow. If you do the math, right? So two lattes and the chips and pop from the machine. You don't think of it that way. And I was telling a friend of mine who owns a Honda dealership,

and he said, get me her number. And I said, what do you mean get you her number? He says, I could get her into a Civic for that. And it's just a fun way of thinking about it. You know, here's a whole car lease payment on an economy car for what she's spending on, you know, Starbucks and Chips and Pop. And the completely crazy part of the story, in our coffee room was a coffee machine right there provided by the company. And the crazy thing was, it was a Starbucks coffee machine with the whole premise that, you know, the coffee's every bit as good as what you get at a Starbucks. And that's where I got my coffee every day.

Oh, yeah. I always got the free coffee at the office. There's no, you know, sometimes I'd splurge, but usually I'd leave those for like the social interactions, like, oh, go with a coworker or something like that. But, oh, yeah. I mean, if it's free, it's free. I love a free thing. Who doesn't like free? Well, that's it.

And then, you know, you think about if you do a little bit of math with the future value factor on these things, $330 a month is massive. If you think about $400 a month over a 40-year career gets you an incremental million dollars. So this is pretty close to that. If you did that over the whole course of your career, you know, the chips and the pop and the two coffees, that's a million dollars you're missing out on. It's real money. And you're really trading, like when you think about it, you're spending money at work likely, I mean, I remember this, you're likely spending this money at work because maybe you're not having the best time at work. So you want to treat yourself. But then it's kind of counterintuitive because it's like, well, you're going to have to continue to work because you're not maybe earning

as much as you could if, you know, you're kind of stuck at work. So it's one of those things you just got to kind of think about. It's like, is this really worth it? Are you actually, you know, spending money that it could do something better for for you could lead you to maybe a better job with the higher, you know, salary or, you know, go back to school or something with that money. I don't know. I feel like a lot of people listening are probably thinking, yeah, these all sound really easy. And, you know, actual things I can do. But the hardest part is starting the hardest part is actually changing your habits. I mean, I always kind of talk about on the podcast that, you know, just like me and everybody else, I am one of those kind of yo yo persons where where it's like sometimes I get really into eating healthy and workout and then I'll take a long break and then, you know, back and forth, back and forth. And I'm on that bandwagon once again.

That's life. But is there a way, like what's the best way for someone to start doing this and to make these things stick so they last? Yeah, I think, you know, the marketers are so good at gamifying us into buying all the time. You know, I've worked for some big companies, you know, we're doing functional MRIs to figure out which marketing slogans excite the brain to make you want to buy. The science is unbelievable. In-store sensors, tracking your pathway through the store. It just keeps going and going.

But, you know, as the human on the other side of this thing, we're guided by millions of years of evolutionary biology. We can't resist this stuff. So to try and have a monthly budget, I think it's just way too hard for people. I think what's better is do this thing where we, you know, I call it broil a bill, keeping up with the cooking puns, you'd expect nothing less. So let's broil a bill. And then right away, rather than leaving it sloshing around in the checking account, I talk about savor the savings. So let's get that put away. Let's get that money to our wealth advisor. You know, you free up something from your car insurance. We didn't even talk about that, but lots of ways to lower all of these bills. I detail the whole thing in the book. Give that money to your wealth advisor advisor or if debt's your issue,

right away commit that to pre-authorized checking, lowering that debt. So that's the first couple of steps. And then I think what really changes people's headspace is they start to track their wealth. It's more important, I think, than tracking a monthly budget. So it's very simple.

What do you own? House, you know, RSP, you know, RSP, whatever all you have minus what you owe, HELOCs, mortgages, credit cards, and all that. And you subtract the two and that's your wealth. It's just that simple. So if you do that, and I like the idea of tracking it every month

because now it starts to change your headspace. And if you're part of a couple, the two of you sitting down and saying, okay, listen, this is interesting. Look at our wealth went up. And that really changes your headspace. Then it gets you thinking about lots of things. So you're going to go back and you're going to start with all those kind of non-discretionary things.

You know, your prescription drugs, the, you know, the mortgage, the HELOC, the whatever it is, you're buying groceries, all these kinds of things, gas for your car. And can you get a little bit more clever? And then you start to see the results happening and they don't happen in a linear way. They accelerate over time. So as that debt gets paid down and you're freeing up more cash, so you're giving more of that to your wealth advisor, then this thing just takes off. And then you get the motivation. You know, it's a little bit like if you're working out and exercising. Wow, you feel better, you got more energy. You look in the mirror, you're less appalled than you used to be. See that jawline coming back? That's what I'm waiting for.

Reducing the number of chins, all that sort of thing. So then you get your own intrinsic motivation. Then once all that's done,. So then you get your own intrinsic motivation. Then once all that's done, then I would start looking at some of the discretionary things. Hey, can we get a little, but again, don't give things up. Just get a little bit smarter on things, you know? Yeah, you don't have to be extreme. I think that's like the key thing that I've learned too. I used to, looking back at some of the things that I used to do and how I kind of budgeted. I was a bit too extreme,

probably just because I was getting into the world of personal finance and wanted to try new things. But it's really about balance. It is about like you need to treat yourself. You do need to treat yourself. You need to like be able to go out with friends. You can't just say no to everything until you've reached a certain number. You want to be able to cut back so you can free up cash flow, which we're talking about. But then also have enough so you can still enjoy the present moment. You need to enjoy the small little things that don't have to be expensive to quite honestly, just make life a little bit more enjoyable. But yeah, no, I completely agree. I mean, that's exactly literally what I've been doing for the past almost six years with my husband is not only like we do have a budget just to organize

everything, we track our spending so we know exactly where things went. And that's how we can kind of have a chat about like, oh, we forgot about that um but the net worth part is that source of motivation that we get um and i think the other key thing too is when you're doing your net worth uh statement is like i like to categorize things in your your liquid assets your investment assets your you know uh personal assets and then um your short and uh long-term liabilities that's i find really helpful, especially during right now where the markets are really down because then, I mean, our net worth has been on the decline since January. But we can take a look at the categories and be like, why is it on the decline? Oh, it's our investment portfolio. So that's not us. That's the market.

We're just going to hang tight and wait for that to recover. But then you can look at your savings and other kind of things and your debts to be like, it's but every other area is actually on the the up. So that's really key, because I think sometimes if you just see that number, you're like, oh, my gosh, our net worth is going down, this isn't working. It could be something that's beyond your control, like the movements of the stock market. Yeah, but even if you know, even in that case, you could be aggressively paying down debt. If you're paying down debt, which is a lovely thing to do is interest rates rise. Now, you're still going to see that net worth going up. People sometimes, wealth as I call it, people sometimes say, well, we really can't do this because our wealth is

actually negative. Well, all the more reason to do it. How do you get out of that negative and move to a positive? That's not terrible. It doesn't mean it doesn't work. It just means, hey, it's negative right now. Maybe you just graduated. You've got a lot of student loans or whatever. So the good news is you can really pour your resources into that, get that debt paid down, start to bring yourself up to that zero point, and you've got an opportunity to grow. There's an interesting stat I read that 62% of Americans retire with less than $10,000. So when we think about these things, like we're talking about bringing out lunch, something like that can typically add about a quarter of a million dollars to your wealth at retirement, bringing lunch. You know, 62% of Americans retiring with

less than $10,000. I believe the average in both Canada and the US is about $200,000. So everything that we've talked about today gives you an opportunity to retire with five or 10 times the amount of the average Canadian or American. That's a really big deal. You know, is that worth taking the time? And, you know, sometimes I've had audiences

when I talk about Cashflow Cookbook and they say, gosh, you know, how long does it take to do all this? Because I just don't have any time. I'm so strapped. And I remind them that on average, we watch 20 hours of television a week, 20 hours. So I would estimate for most people to go through the book, run through all these recipes. A lot of them are going to say, hey, it doesn't fit me. That's not applicable. There's going to, I will guarantee there's going to be five, six, seven, or eight of them that you're going to say, whoa, didn't think about that.

You're going to apply them. You're going to find another thousand dollars. And I would say to do the entire thing might take a person 10 hours. So, you know, my ask is. An hour a week, 10 weeks or whatever, you know. Right. It's a half a week's worth of television. I think we can do that.

Record the shows. Yeah. Yeah. They're not going anywhere. Those shows will still be there. Yeah. No, it's so true. I mean, I use that excuse too.

I'm like, I'm too busy. I'm too busy. It's like, there's time. You just, similar to like, there is money. You just have to find it. There's time. You just have to kind of make it work. You need to find it and just free it up.

But yeah, it's like when, I always like to tell people, because I feel like sometimes we have a hard time. There's been like studies that show this. we have a hard time picturing ourselves in the future, to understand like how doing something today, even such a small thing, like, you know, making your lunch can have a huge impact in the future. But now, you know, as I get older, I totally see that more. I'm like, Oh, the things I did in my 20s, I can see the, you know, the rewards now that I experienced in my 30s. But I always kind of tell people, I think there's one, there is an app or there's something where you can kind of actually make a photo of yourself of what you

would look older. And I think that actually helps. There's like that study that did that. But also, I always just try to think of yourself in a few different ways. Like there's past, you know, Jessica, there's present Jessica, there's future Jessica. Don't you want to, as kind of like your own personal caregiver, want to take care of future you? So I kind of like thinking about things like that, where it's like, if you don't really care about yourself, or, you know, you know, don't think it's important today, don't you want to take care of this person that is important in the future? That's, I don't know, there's a couple different ways you can kind of think about it to frame it. So it will maybe kind of hit home a little bit

or even thinking about someone that you know you need to take care of in the future. Don't you want to be in a good financial spot so you can take better care of your aging parents or something like that or your children? Well, it's funny. I was doing a speaking engagement and I had a question from an audience member

and they said, geez, some of these things as examples, you've talked about, you know, that compounding effect over 40 years. And this person said, you know, I mean, you know, 40 years from now, really? And I said, well, how old are you? And he said, I'm 20. And I said, well, 40 years from now, you're going to be 60. He says, yeah. I said, well, I am 60. And I can tell you that I'm still alive.

I'm still moving around. It's not the end of the road at 60. Hopefully, I've got another 40 years to go. And you know what? I really appreciate all those things that the younger Gordon did to free up the cash and invest wisely to give me some comfort at this stage of the game. And he kind of went, oh, yeah, good point. Right? And, you know, people often say, well, older people sometimes say, well, this is great, but I don't have 10 or 20 years on my runway.

I'm 60. I'm retiring in five years. But you know what? When you retire, you don't take every penny that you have and liquidate it and spend it all that first year. You need money for your 70s and for your 80s and increasingly for your 90s. So actually, if you're a 60-year-old investor, you really do probably have 30 years of investing horizon, even though you'll be dissaving at that point. So all the things we're talking about, they're important for 20-year-olds, you know, because they've got this extra long

compounding. They're critical for the 35 and 40-year-olds and their peak spending years and, you know, babies and houses and strollers and all the rest of it, furniture, what have you. And then when you get older, you want to lower that burn rate heading into retirement, but you want to do it without giving anything up. So I think all of those things are possible. Yeah, it's applicable in literally every age. I think that's another thing people have a hard time realizing. Once you retire, it's not the end. It's not like the final destination. It's like you continue to live and you'll continue to live for decades. And you're always going to be trying to find a way. How can I stretch this now fixed income?

You're always going to want to look for that. So all these things will be applicable from now until the future. I know there's so many more things that we could chat about, but obviously all these kind of recipes that you've shared are in your book. And now there's a U.S. version. There's a Canadian version. Where can people find more information about Cashflow Cookbook and also find out what you're up to? Follow you. Yeah, sure. So you can go to cashflowcookbook.com. Things got a little quiet there while I was

building the US edition. It probably will again. So you can subscribe and I don't sell anyone's email to the Russians. I don't do any spamming or anything. Hope not, yeah. It's just the blog posts as they come out and you can handle what's going on. Social media at Cashflow Cookbook, other than on Twitter where they were a little stingy on the letters. So it's Cashflow Cook BK on Twitter. And the book, the US edition and the Canadian edition

of Cashflow Cookbook, both available on Amazon all around the world. So lots there. And, you know, I do a lot of speaking engagements. I work with wealth advisors. So speak at the money show, all kinds of these engagements. If you're interested in having me speak to your organization, happy to do that. And for the wealth advisors out there, you know, let's help your clients grab more cash flow for investment and build and grow your business as well. So I'd love to help out people in any way I can. Amazing. Well, once again, it was so nice having you on the show again, Gordon, after, you know, a few interesting years.

I feel like this, what we kind of chatted about what's in your book has never been more relevant and important. So I appreciate you coming back on the show. A real pleasure to be here. Thanks so much, Jessica. And that was episode 344 with Gordon Stein. Make sure to check him out and check out his books. You can find more info at cashflowcookbook.com. And you can find him on Twitter and Instagram. Well, Twitter, you can find him at CashflowCookBK. And on Instagram, you can find him at CashflowCookbook. He's also on Facebook under CashflowCookbook. And you can also, you know, connect with him on LinkedIn under his name, Gordon Stein. I will, of course, make this very easy for you and just include all these links

in the show notes for this episode. All you have to do is go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 344 for all of that. And like I mentioned, I am also going to be giving away a copy of his book, The Canadian Edition. So I will share more details in a hot second and also some very exciting news. I've been waiting very, very long time to share with you. So do not go away. Just a few words I want to share about this season's podcast sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by Desjardins. Do you feel valued at your financial institution? Because Desjardins is on a mission to enrich the lives of Canadians, help build stronger communities and educate its members so they can confidently reach their financial goals. Not only do they offer one-of-a-kind customer care and offer a variety of financial services to fit your needs, as a cooperative, they put their members first. So if you're looking for

an institution that's making an impact, look no further than Desjardins. To learn more about Desjardins and how they're making a difference, visit Desjardins.com. All right, first and foremost, if you want to enter to win a copy of his book or also, you know, a bunch of other books that I'm giving away, make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest where I'm giving away a copy of Cashflow Cookbook, the latest Canadian edition. Also, I'm giving away a copy of Dump Your Degree by Zakiya Akareli, Untying the Knot by Kelly Lavallee, Seen, Heard, and Paid by Alan Henry, The Bogle Effect by Eric Valtunis, and Becoming Superwoman by Nicole Lavin. All of these authors have been guests on the show

of this season, and I've got a few more authors coming on the show. So I will be giving away some more books. So you can just, you know, frequently look at jessicamorehouse.com slash contest. You can also find that link if you just go to the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 344. All right, so what was the kind of exciting news that I teased earlier? Honestly, this is something that I wanted to kind of share earlier, but I didn't want to jinx it because I've done that before. It just puts too much pressure on me, quite honestly. I feel like, honestly, I've been for the month of October a bit quiet, not on the podcast. Obviously, I'm here every week, but on social media and just like haven't

been doing, you know, as much publicly. And the reason why is because I've been, you know, nose in the textbooks, hidden in my basement in my pajamas, studying my butt off for yet another financial exam. So I don't know if I shared this on the podcast. If I did, it was maybe just a quick little mention because it's not something I'm proud of. But last August, so August 2021, I took the exam for financial planning two through the Canadian Securities Institute. It is one of the several courses that I've had to take and pass exams of in order to eventually become a CFP. It's a long road.

And I failed. And that was a big hit to the ego. Definitely humbled me. Made me remember, hey, you got to study harder next time. And so it's taken me, yeah, over a year to get back on the, you know, on the horse, so to speak, and try again. I mean, part of it wasn't so much that I didn't want to take it. It's just, you know, it's hard to find the time to square out, like really a good chunk of time just to focus on studying when you're also, you know, running a business and living your life. So I made sure October and it kind of all worked out because October work-wise, it was actually pretty slow. I just dedicated the entire month to studying. Like, and it kind of all worked out because October work-wise, it was actually pretty slow. I just dedicated the entire month to studying. I don't know how to express this, but if you've ever

studied for a really intense exam, you know what it's like. I couldn't focus. I just put all of my time and energy into doing this one thing because you only get three tries. And so this is my second try. And I'm like, gosh, I really want to mess this up again. I really just want because it's just like, gosh, if I fail, then I have to, you know, then there's another delay and all this kind of stuff. So I really wanted to pass this. And I did. And I did.

And it's I'm still kind of like realizing that happened because, you know, you also get into your head. You're like, OK, if you don't pass is okay, we're gonna do this is this, I not that I was planning to fail, but because I'd already failed once, I'm like, I want to make sure that I had a game plan. And so when I passed, it was almost like, Oh, my gosh, I did it. Now what? Because I couldn't really, I don't know about you. But when I get really tunnel vision about something, especially something that's like there's a lot of pressure to do, I just can't see forward after that. I'm like, all I can focus on is passing this thing. Everything after that, I'll think about later.

But if I, you know, put my mind and think about the future, I just can't do it. So yeah, anyways, this is all to say that I took it again and I passed. So A, I'm a real person and I am not perfect and I fail things. But B, you know, it's okay to fail because you can try again or you can try something different. Failure is part of life and it shouldn't be like, oh, this is a sign that I'm just not good at this. No, it was a sign that I rushed it. And I know I did. I rushed taking the actual exam.

I know I should have taken more time to look over my answers. And also, I just didn't probably study as hard as I could. So I studied real hard. And I actually did the best on this exam compared to any other financial exam I've done in the past. So that just goes to show that sometimes you just got to you know, brush yourself off and get back on that horse. And yeah, so this means I've have, well, depending on what path I want to go, and I'm kind of leaning towards towards more one path, in case you don't know, in Canada, if you want to become, you know, a financial planner, there's kind of two routes

you can take, you can become a qualified associate financial planner, there's kind of two routes you can take. You can become a qualified associate financial planner. It used to be considered a CFP level one, and then there was CFP level two. Now there's just CFP. So QAFP or there was the CFP, much more difficult to do the CFP route. So I think I might, you can do the QAFP first, and then you can bridge it over to the CFP. You still have to do some more coursework and some exams and stuff like that. But I just feel like I really want to be able to tell people, not only am I an accredited financial counselor, which I'm really proud of, I'm also, you know, a financial planner. That's just something I think, especially being a woman in finance, and also someone who's been in this, you know, a financial planner. That's just something I think, especially being a woman in finance,

and also someone who's been in this, you know, kind of financial content creator space for over a decade. And I don't know if like younger or, you know, newer, you know, financial influencers feel like this. But I mean, when I started, I got questioned all the time about, you know, what I my knowledge, my expertise, my experience. And so that's what's really propelled me and motivated me to get a bunch of accreditations and certifications. Also, passing this test gives me another certificate, which is exciting. So I now also have, I've got like four certificates so far, I've got my, you know, AFCC, I've got my certificate for passing the Canadian securities course, I got the certificate, financial services advice, and passing FP2 gives me the certificate for

what is it called advanced financial advice, I think. Anyways, it just makes me feel good to be able to put that in a frame and put it in my office and be like, you did that. You did that. So just wanted to share that with you and hopefully, you know, can give you some motivation or, you know, just, you know, to help you whatever you're working on. If you feel really defeated, if you feel like, oh gosh, this is just so hard, I could never do it. Just keep trying. Don't give up, right? Like that's like the best thing that I've ever learned in my life is failing and trying again and then succeeding. There's actually, it feels almost better sometimes to fail something, not to encourage people to fail, but sometimes you just like appreciate that success even more because you know how hard you had to work to get there. So that's my little motivational speech.

Welcome to my, or thank you for listening to my TED Talk. So that's the big thing I've been working on. Now that that is done, though, I did just honestly register for another course. Basically, if I'm going to do the QAFP route, I've got one other supplemental course, and then there's an ethics course, and then I have to study for the QAFP exam. And in that, there's also a program that I might sign up to because it's it helps you study and you know, improve your rate of passing. So I've got more stuff going on. But I'm hoping to get a few maybe this next little is a much smaller course to do. I'm hoping to get it done before the end of the year. But my brain is still a little bit like,

oh, gosh, whiplash or something like that. Gosh, my brain hurts from just all that studying and no cards and whatnot. Anyway, so that's what I've been working on. But now that that's done, I'm going to really focus on finishing all the video tutorials for all my new budget spreadsheets. I do currently have that the budget spreadsheet for if you're an employee, and you're an individual spreadsheet for if you're an employee and you're an individual or if you're a couple and you're both employees. It is available on my website. Now, I did make the decision to not make it free anymore. I've been giving away the spreadsheet for free for years and years and years. And currently, the older version is still available in my free

resource library. I'm just not going to update those spreadsheets, but you can still get that for free. But for the new updated version, because honestly, I spent a very long time building these. I also spent a lot of money working with an expert to develop these. It makes sense that I am going to be charging for them because it took a lot of time and effort. They're not that expensive, 29 bucks Canadian or whatever. And so you can find them on my shop page, but I will be also pushing out the other spreadsheets that are for more specific situations.

Like if you're an employee with a side hustle or if you're self-employed and stuff like that. So those are coming, but you can find that first one that is available on my website, jessicamoorehouse.com slash shop is where you can find all of that. And what else am I working on? find that first one that is available on my website, jessicamoorehouse.com slash shop is where you can find all of that. And what else am I working on? Gosh, I can't think that far. Like,

honestly, my mind is still like kind of reeling from what happened this or last week. So that's I think that's all I got to share with you. Also, I've been rambling for a long time just talking about myself, my exam. So thanks for listening to that. I, of course, have a couple more episodes for this season. I can't believe we're already in November. How did that happen? So next week, you're going to want to listen to this. I feel like I did mention this episode. But next week, I've got Myron Ginnick on the show. He is from Evermore ETFs. So we're going to be talking about target date funds, target date ETFs. It is similar to an asset allocation ETF, a bit different, a very exciting, interesting episode on a different type of

investing, but still passive investing, which is great. So you're definitely going to want to check out next week's episode. But that is it for me. Thank you so much for listening. A big shout out to my podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And I will see you back here next Wednesday. Have a good rest of your week and weekend. See you next Wednesday. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.