The Rachel Cruze Show - How Minimalist Living Can Help You Pay Off Debt

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

Stephanie and Taylor Shivers were pretty much drowning in debt. Between student loans, medical bills and living expenses, they owed $142,000—which would take them 25 to 30 years to pay off. The happiest of moments in their lives were paired with an undercurrent of fear, anxiety and hopelessness related to debt. You can imagine, right? So, Stephanie and Taylor took a big step of faith: They sold their house. Talk about radical! In this episode, you’ll hear how debt affected their marriage on a practical and an emotional level—and if their plan of selling their home to pay off as much debt as possible worked. Aren’t you dying to know how it went? Plus, some of my favorite guests ever are on this episode. The Minimalists are here! Our messages are so similar, and during our conversation we talk about why stuff doesn’t equal happiness and how to make room for what really matters.  Who set the standard of living in America today anyway? Who decided that you must have a garage with two cars in it, a house filled with all the latest and greatest technology, a home just for vacations, and a closet full of new, trendy clothes? I’m getting mad again just thinking about it! So in this episode, we’ll challenge the status quo. Learn more about Financial Peace University Meet with a Financial Coach Connect with The Minimalists Read the show notes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have to do something. We can't just sit here with this mountain of dead. Taylor and Stephanie Shivers did something so radical that I cannot wait for you to hear their story. My card got declined at a fast food restaurant one day. We didn't know what we were going to do. The minimalists are here. How might my life be better with less? Everything that we have in our lives, it serves a purpose or it brings us joy.

All right, you guys, I can't believe it. But this is the very first episode of the Rachel Cruz Show podcast. Oh, my gosh. I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. But here we are. And I am so pumped about this podcast because I have fallen in love with podcasts. And I know those of you out there that listen, you're washing dishes. You're driving to and from work.

Like you may not be able to watch the Rachel Cruz show on YouTube or Facebook, but you can listen to a podcast. And so what I'm going to do with this podcast, is take some clips from the Rachel Cruz show, but give you guys some more of my thoughts around it because these segments are great and we only have a limited amount of time on the show. And so I really wanted to give you guys, again, a deeper dive into this. So first up, we're some guests that were on the show and their names are Taylor and Stephanie Shivers. And you guys, they are incredible.

Like the things they've done in their life to get to the point that they're at, which you'll hear about in a second. It's just remarkable. and they did something so radical that I cannot wait for you to hear their story. So here is Taylor and Stephanie Shivers. So we met in college. We had a class trip that we took to Chicago. She randomly popped up behind the seat and said, I know you have a girlfriend, but you have really pretty eyes and then disappeared.

So that's kind of how the story started. Within six months of being married, My card got declined at a fast food restaurant one day for lunch. We didn't know what we were going to do because we just were spending everything. I chose to go to two private schools for my bachelor's and my master's degree, and my parents owned a farm and just couldn't afford to pay for that. So when you signed up for student loans, I'm just curious. Like, what was your thought as you're going into?

Did you have any idea of the repercussions later in life? Yeah, so I didn't really have. knowledge about what that meant to have student loans at 18 years old. And even up until, gosh, I was probably 25 or 26, I didn't really know what that meant for us, that eventually I'd have to pay that back. So we lived off of student loans from the time I was in undergrad until I graduated with my master's. That was how we survived when we first got married, because I had to take out a an additional loan for living expenses. And I work part-time and we were poor when we were first married. Okay, guys, I just want to pause right there because one thing when it comes to debts,

and I'm guilty of this sometimes when I'm teaching about debt and how to get out and how to stay away and all that, is I focus on the financial side, right? So like, debt steals your income. And so it's hard to build wealth. It's hard to be successful financially when you have debt and your income is going out to payment. So there's a math side, a tactical money side of debt. But what they talked about was so true. And it's something people don't talk about a lot, that debt not only takes away from your financial state, but it takes away from your emotional state. If you heard him say that my card was declined, I mean, the embarrassment, the sadness, the shock of like, wait, what? My fast food, like it's not like he was out paying.

for a $150 meal, like at a fast food restaurant, his card was declined. And so you feel that. And that happened to one of my friends. Her card was declined when we were all out to dinner and like the embarrassment on her face or the fear of seeing a stack of bills on the counter and knowing that you may not have the money to pay for them. The level of survival, like Steph used that word. We, we lived off of our student loans just to survive. And that emotion, people do not take into account when they are like, oh, I'm just going to go and sign up for this credit card. It's not a big deal. Oh, I'll just take out loans for school because that's what everyone does. You can't be a student without a student loan. And they think on the logical side that it's okay, but they don't think

about the heart and the emotional side. And that's what debt does, you guys, is it steals your sleep at night. It steals your emotional capacity to live life. It puts you in survival mode. And I don't want that for you. Like, I don't want you to just survive. I want you to thrive in your life in every aspect. and debt steals those things from us. And so you're going to hear more of that in their story, but I did want to pause just to insert that and to think about debt not on a logical side, but also the emotional side.

So we called my parents, and they bought us a Financial Peace University kit. And did you guys start budgeting more together after Financial Peace University? It took me a while still to kind of get into it because we just weren't talking about everything. And I wanted to talk about debt, and she didn't want to. And so that was something that I was really digging into and trying to figure out by myself how we could get through it. And I would try and present it to Steph. And she just

brick wall. Just know. I don't want to know the number. Because why? Because it was so overwhelming. It was so overwhelming. And I'm the type that I want to achieve. And I was afraid, like, I just didn't see an end. I didn't see an end. And if I can't see an end, then I don't even want to know what it is. I just didn't want to know the number. And there was a lot of shame associated with that amount for me. I felt stuck and like we couldn't make any progress through the mountain that we had before us. And that's where I really felt debilitated. We just, we couldn't get on the same page with gigantic pile of debt that we were like looking at paying off for 30 years.

So you guys shifted, though, the conversation obviously. And so when that shift happened, it really was a cause because of your daughter being in the hospital, right? So tell me a little bit about that. Well, Annabel got really sick to the point where she was struggling to breathe. Which is so terrifying in ways. Yes, it was awful. And how old was she? She was 15 months, I believe.

Ended up being a three-night stay in the Vanderbilt ICU. And so that racked up about $5,000 worth of medical debt that brought our total to $142. Honestly, in the hospital, even though I was obviously very present with my daughter, in the back of my mind, I was still thinking, oh no, I know this is going to be an expense and we already have this huge amount of debt. And I remember specifically asking the nurses, we may need some kind of scholarship for this because I'm not sure that we can afford to. to be here, although obviously I knew we had to stay. So that was also at the time just extremely overwhelming, and the whole part of Annabel being in the hospital was scary. I mean, it was just a scary time for us.

All of these things were happening, and we had started the discussion at that point of selling the house. Just came to the point where we were like, we have to do something. Okay. hold the phone, everyone. She just glossed over that. But I don't know if you heard. Yeah, mm-hmm. She said, that's when we decided we needed to sell our house. Yep, this couple sold their house to get out of debt. And we're going to hear all about that in just a second.

But I did want to just stop because even when I hear it, I'm like, oh, my gosh, what? And back when they were talking about that their daughter's situation in the hospital caused them to do this radical move in their life. Number one, that is what debt does again, you guys, when you're in debt, when you're in a financial hole and you don't have an emergency fund, you don't have savings, then a situation like that ends up being a crisis in your life. Not only a health crisis with your own child in the hospital, but then the financial crisis on top of that, and it just magnifies the situation versus if you could imagine the same couple who had no payments, had an emergency fund, then all their emotional energy could go to just,

the child in the hospital. And at that point, it becomes, yeah, still a very scary situation as a parent, but it becomes almost more of an inconvenience financially and not a crisis. And so setting yourself up well for life, because life is going to happen, there's going to be job losses, there's going to be health-related issues. There's going to be things that come up that you don't expect and to be set up well. And so we're going to talk again more about that on this podcast, but I did want to just insert that and let you guys know, number one, this couple sold their house, and number two, we got to get our crap together to make sure that when stuff like this happens, that we are set up to win when it comes to our finances.

So here is the rest of their story, which is just absolutely incredible. We have to do something. We can't just sit here with this mountain of debt. Yes. Okay, so the discussion of selling the house came up, which is, like, A, amazing of what you guys did. But it's extreme. But talk about the benefits of it. I mean, talk about, like, okay, when you first had the house,

idea. I know one of you was not on board, right? You weren't, right? Because it was so extreme in your minds? Or what was it? Yeah. So the first time she asked the question, she asked, do you want to sell the house and move to an apartment? You're like, and no? No, absolutely not. Because you have two kids at this point. Yes, yes. So we were, we just didn't even talk about it. I shut it down. That's not even something we're going to talk about. A couple months later, We were looking at how we were going to debt snowball this thing and what could we sell? What do we do?

She came to me and presented, this is how much debt we have. We looked online, like, we might have this much equity in our house. What if we sold our house, used all of that equity to attack the debt, that would leave us with like $35,000 in debt? We could snowball that quickly. And then what if we would have? rented a house or rented a town home. And that presentation of the question was what got me on board.

At that point, we decided to meet with a financial coach at Ramsey Solutions, whom we had met with before. And there were two things that we really took away from that meeting with her. The first thing was that if we were presented or we were given an inheritance of $100,000, what would we do with that money. Would you buy a new house or would you put that $100,000 towards your debt? And instantly, Taylor and I both said, we'd pay off our debt. No questions asked. And she looked at us and she was like, I think you know what you're going to do. And the other thing that she said was that this was radical. And she liked radical. And Jesus was radical. So we should live our lives like Jesus. And I have always carried that word radical with us throughout this whole process.

So when it came to actually selling it, I'm just curious, did it sell quickly? Yeah. He's like, yes. Yeah. We were under contract in 30 hours for 5,000 above asking. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so when that happens, you get the offer, and you're like, okay, we're about to sell our house emotionally. Like, is that sad for you?

Because I always think about moving out of the house that you brought your babies home to. Is that the same place? And it's like all these memories and you know you're about to do this amazing step, but it's an emotional thing to sell your home. So how was it? Were you guys just like gung-ho about it or what? We had to find a place to live. Yeah.

We didn't have anything lined up. I had an emotional moment after we accepted the offer. Yes. But it was a moment because I knew just what the ending would look like. And I knew at that point that we just had so many confirmations of peace throughout that process that that's exactly what we were supposed to do. Okay. So what have been like the biggest changes so far?

Well, on March 7th, we walked out with a check of over $100,000. And that was incredible for a while. We just like would check our bank account and be like, oh, my gosh, this is awesome. We have this. We have it. There's probably, we'll never have it again. But more, maybe it will. So we paid off a substantial amount.

We completely paid off Annabelle's medical bill. Wow. Which was over $4,000. And then we paid off how much in student loans now? probably $100,000 in student loans. We've paid off $105,000 total. Okay, so I have to ask, was it worth it? Absolutely.

100%. And the relief you felt is it everything you thought it would be? I think it's been more... Yeah, we were looking at 20, 30 years of being debt-free, and now we should be totally debt-free within a couple of years. I feel hopeful and encouraged, inspired, and I'm just so... excited for the legacy that hopefully we'll have within our kids to go from where we were to where we are now and to know that we'll be debt-free within two years so that we can

take trips with our kids and set them up for success when they go to college because our goal is for them to go to college and pay for that without any debt and that just feels amazing. I mean, absolutely incredible. I'm not kidding you. The amount of sacrifice you did and just to think of how quickly you're going to get out of debt and your kids' lives, I mean, everything around it. It's really, it's really a decision that not a lot of people want to make because they're scared and probably intimidated by the idea. And you guys stepped into that even with a little bit of fear and maybe even a little bit of and you did it.

Okay, you guys, is that not just crazy? And some of you are thinking, like, that is crazy awesome. Some of you are thinking, that's crazy weird. That's weird. Who would sell their house to get out of debt? Well, let me tell you this. It is weird. Yep, that's weird. That is so weird. But you know what? Normal is in our country today. Normal is broke. When you look at all the statistics, 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Close to 90% of America cannot cover a $1,000 emergency with cash. That's normal. If that's normal, put me on the weirdest side of the scale, ever, like all the time, all day, every day, hallelujah, amen, praise Jesus. Like, I will be weird.

That is totally fine with me. And so for them, you guys, yeah, they're weird, but normal is broke. And so you're going to have to do some weird stuff. When you want to get out of debt, I don't always recommend selling your house. I mean, props to them, I think it's amazing. And depending on your situation and what you decide, yeah, sometimes that's right. That's the right decision for you. Not everyone has to do that.

But you're going to look weird. You're going to make sacrifices in your life. You're going to get on an extra job. You're going to work overtime. You're going to do some things that are weird in our culture. Oh, you're not just going to go and, you know, travel through Europe and just really enjoy life. Nope, not for that season. You're not.

You're going to be weird and you're going to be working a lot and sacrificing a lot. But that's what you do to get ahead. We say all the time at Ramsey Solutions. If you live like no one else, later you get to live and give like no one else. You get to be in a position financially where you have no payment. and not only does that change your presence and actually give you control over your life again, but it also totally changes your future for the good. And so props to them, if I can just give a little Taylor and Stephanie, because they are

absolutely incredible. And for those of you out there, I just want to encourage you that your story may not look just like theirs, but gosh, the end of your journey when it comes to debt is possible. and just be weird, be weird. The minimalists are coming up next, and I'll tell you a little backstory. I watched their documentary, gosh, I think it was probably last year, and I, like, just became obsessed. It, like, motivated me to get stuff out of my life and minimize, you know, all the decisions I had to make on things that just were pointless.

And they just really, again, kind of gave me this fire under me. Again, remember that stuff does not make you happy. And in America, we bought this lie that the bigger. the better, the more stuff you have, the happier you're going to be. And that's a lie, a total lie. And so these guests, I mean, I wish you were there, like, when we met because they even said to me, like, Rachel, we're huggers the very first time. And they hugged our whole crew, like, all the camera guys, all, like, the producers, everyone on the Rachel Crewe show, they, like, went around and hugged everyone genuinely. I mean, some of the nicest guys in the world. So I'm really excited for

you to hear all that they're doing. So here are the minimalists. So for those people that have not seen the documentary or even heard of you guys, just explain what is a minimalist and how did you guys get into all of this? Well, the thing with minimalism, the way I describe it is minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life's most important things, which actually aren't things at all. Ryan and I both grew up in Dayton, Ohio. We were really poor and we thought the reason we were unhappy growing up is we didn't have any money. And so when I went out, when I was 18, I got that entry-level corporate job, and I spent the next dozen years sort of climbing the corporate ladder. And I'll tell you, by my late 20s, I was living the American dream. I had the six-figure salary, the luxury cars.

And there was nothing inherently wrong with the stuff, but I wasn't fulfilled. I wasn't happy because, of course, I made good money, but I spent even better money. And so I, along with the American Dream, came the American debt. and I was just consumed with almost half a million dollars worth of debt at my peak or I guess my nadir at the low point. And I didn't feel like I had control of my time, my resources, my own life. I realized I was focused on the wrong stuff. I was focused on success and achievement.

That's really where this thing called minimalism entered my life. Yeah, for me, you know, it's interesting. If you were to have told my 18-year-old self, what my 28-year-old self was going to have, I would have been so excited. And when I was 28, I found myself questioning. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, had a lot of discontent. I was depressed. And I remember seeing Josh, he had a major shift in the way he was living his life. And I sat him down one day and I was like, dude, what is going on with you? Why are you so happy? And that's what he, why are you so happy? What is happening? What is going on? And he was like,

He introduced me to this thing called minimalism. So Josh and I, we came up with this crazy idea called a packing party, where we decided to pack all my belongings as if I were moving, and then I would unpack only the items I needed over the next three weeks. So Josh came over, and he literally helped me box up everything, my clothes, my kitchen wear. You weren't moving. No.

This is just the exercise. Just pretending. The idea was, is if I packed up all this stuff, and I really, really missed it. And I really, really wanted to put everything. everything back out, I could totally unpack it and put everything back in its place. But of course, after three weeks, I had a completely different perspective on my life, a completely different perspective on my things. And I remember going to Josh and I was like, man, this is a really,

this is a really cool story. There might be some people out there who could benefit from this story. So, you know, we went and did what any two 30-year-old dudes would do. We started a blog. That's right. That's really where the Minimalists.com started. It was with that 21-day packing party story. So good. Okay, that's just, that's such a brilliant idea, because I even think, because I'm a confession, I have not done the complete minimalist lifestyle. But I, but even when you say that, I'm like, even my bathroom sink right now, like I'm thinking about it underneath, I'm like, if I took out all the lotions and the eye, right, all this stuff and put it in a box to see for three weeks, what do I

actually use out of that? You guys. I mean, it's probably like what? Like, four things. Like, It's just, I'm feeling convicted right now as you're talking about all this. Because it is, that's such a smart way to think about it. It really is. And I love this concept that you guys live out so well, that stuff, it doesn't fulfill you, right? And I think we all know that. And the contentment piece of that foundation of your heart is so huge in this process. So someone that's hearing this, what's like the first couple of things that they need to do to do?

If you do want to simplify your life, the first thing you have to do is not an action. We'll get to the action in a second. The first thing you need to do is ask yourself a question. And that question is, how might my life be better with less? And by asking that question, you start to identify what the benefits of simplifying are. Because for me, initially, it was finances. I knew my finances were out of control. I needed to simplify my life so I could regain control my finances.

But then I uncovered all these other benefits. Like, well, I made more time for creativity and the people in my life and improved health. And so what are the benefits for you? And understanding that won't just give you the how to, but it'll give you the why to. Why am I simplified my life? From there, I think it's important to start small. Just start somewhere. We have something on our website called the 30-day minimalism game.

And so here's how it works. You partner up with someone, a friend, a family member, a coworker. At the beginning of the month, you each decide on the first day, we're both going to get rid of one item. Second day of the month, two items. Third day of the month, three items. So it starts off really easy. It gets you that momentum you need.

But by the middle of the month, starts to get more difficult. Day 15, you're like, I have to get rid of 15. I'm going to say 20 items. Right? Well, during February. Just turning it. Just funny. Well, okay, so by day 20, you're like, I have to get rid of 20 items today.

And then tomorrow I have to get rid of 21 items. Whoever goes the longest between you and your friend, you win. But if you both make it to the end of the month, you both won because you've gotten her of about 500 items. It's a really good start. Okay, so I'm just curious personally. I'm like, okay, so like, what does your house look like now? Like, where y'all live, your closet? Like, what's your life look like?

If you were to walk into our home, it's not like you would jump up and say, oh my goodness, minimalist must live here. Yes, yes. You probably would just look at our house and say, you know, whoever lives here, they're pretty tidy. And that's because everything that we have on our lives, it serves a purpose or it brings us joy. Everything else is gone.

That's so great. So fun. We've got a washer and dryer and, you know, we still like to use hot water. Right, right, right, totally. So there's kind of the, I'm guessing, I'm assuming there's a range to be a minimalist. there's like the crazy extreme that you're like, you know, we laughed about this, but like a fork and a spoon in one plate.

Right, or it's just like something like here. And then some people, they're like, okay, I like the idea, but I would rather be like minimalist-ish. Like I don't want to dive in all the way. Can you go 50-50 on this lifestyle? We can determine what is appropriate in our lives. And I think everything that we own fits in one of three categories. It's either essential. And we all have the same basic essentials.

We're all wearing clothes right now. Right, right. We need housing. We need food. We have the same essentials. And then we have the non-essentials, things that we could probably do without, but they truly add value to our life. They augment our experience of life.

They amplify our life. And then we have this third category. And that category is junk. Most of the stuff that we own is junk that gets in the way of the more meaningful experiences in our life. Well, we went into our Facebook community, and people love you there in my Facebook community. So we have some questions from people for you guys to answer. Okay. Brianna asked,

can being a minimalist help save you money and become debt-free. I know for me that was one of my biggest drivers behind getting into minimalism. So I'll tell you, the first thing that I did when I started going down this road is I took my, you know, brand new, nice, you know, Toyota, Salera, you know, real nice, brand new car, just a couple years old. I traded that in for 2004 Toyota Corolla that had no car payment. and I still have that card today. So that's for me how I really appreciate what minimalism has helped me do when it comes

to my finances. I am officially, I was officially debt-free back in 2015. I love it. And I certainly owe minimalism a lot of credit for that. Absolutely. So good. Okay, the next question is from Emily. She asks, my husband and I like to think of ourselves as minimalists.

I think one thing that we struggle with, though, is do you buy quality, like expensive things, or do you buy cheap? I think the terms minimalist and the term frugal are very similar but they're also different. You think of a minimalist, we think of some guy

living in a cave with no possessions or something. In fact, I tend to own really high quality items. I own far fewer items. It's the weird paradox of minimalism for me is I get far more value from the few items I own

than if they were watered down by 300,000 other items that were sort of getting in the way, right? I mean, wouldn't you rather have one pair of really nice pants is going to last you for two years as opposed to 10 pairs of pants that'll last you for a month each? Right. So good. Absolutely.

Katie asks, what's the very first small step you recommend to anyone that wants to move toward minimalism? Man, I think starting with that question, how might my life be better with less? That's definitely, you're going to get the leverage by getting to the why of that question. But ultimately, I mean, you know, there is the packing party approach. if someone is extreme. The 30-day minimalism game, I mean, that is huge. Josh talked about that earlier. That is amazing.

All you have to do is find someone else who wants to encourage you to minimize and wants to minimize themselves and you could have a lot of fun with it. There's a lot of little small steps you can kind of... So good. I'm sensing another Chad and Diana challenge.

Uh-oh. Date Night Challenge to the Minimalism Challenge. So we'll see if that happens. Okay, Nancy asks how to part with stuff when spouse wants to keep it because we might need it for when if. Well, I think ultimately, in order to get a spouse or a friend or anyone else on board with this, you really have to show them the benefits.

I mean, you know, if Josh had come to me and said, hey, Ryan, you know what, your life's a mess. You need minimalism. I probably wouldn't have reacted so excitedly towards that. But by seeing the changes that Josh made, it made me want to ask him that question. What are you doing different with your life? life, you seem pretty happy. But ultimately by, you know, just kind of living the example and showing the benefits of it, that's really how you get someone to make a move with their stuff. You can't force anyone in any of that. Totally. Okay, last question. Lauren asks how to be a

minimalist with children. I'm actually very intrigued. Well, me not having any kids, it's very easy for me to project my advice onto others. I do like to use this one example. We were at an event where one of the people who showed up, they were talking about what they do with their child. The example that they gave is, you know, their five-year-old, six-year-old would come home from school. And of course they got, you know, a piece of art that they've made that they're very, very proud of.

And they would go to their parent, oh, can I put this on the refrigerator? And the mom was like, yes, you absolutely can put this on the refrigerator. So as they're walking over, like, it's already covered with, you know, other art projects. just the whole refrigerator door. Yeah. And they'll say, now you get to choose which one you want to replace this with.

Oh, that's good. And we will go over and we will get rid of this so we're not, you know, having a bunch of clutter in our lives. So that's what they do. They'll pick the one that they want to come off the fridge. They put the new one up. Then they go over and they might, you know, scan it or take a picture of the work and then, you know, toss it in the trash.

Sure. But I thought that was a cool approach. That is good. Well, honestly, kid craft stuff. And like Amelia comes home from like preschool. and it's just a crayon that's this. I'm like, and you'll never remember that. Unless there's like a picture or like a handprint or a foot.

Right. I mean, like very small things to keep. Kids crafts, they're sweet. But, yeah. I think it's important to realize that minimalism is not about deprivation. And we need to especially keep that in mind with our kids. I know with Ella, at first, you know, she's five now. But when she was really little, I'm like, oh, you're going to be a minimalist

and you can play with sticks and stones and that's it. And I'm like, what am I trying to do here? Like, no, she gets a lot of value from the toys that she has. So having a big crate of toys that she really enjoys is great. Now, she's not going to get more value if I got her tin crates of toys. They're actually going to start getting in the way, just like us. We just have our own toys as adults, right? And so with her, I've realized once she's done with a toy, the thing that one is still in her is she's no longer getting value from it,

but some other kid can. So let's go donate that together. I love that. And letting her realize the benefit of giving as well. All right, you guys. Well, that was so great. Thank you so, so much for being on. I so appreciate you guys and your advice and your wisdom and everything.

Likewise. Thank you for everything that you do. Oh, thanks. Thanks for having us. It's been fun. Oh, you guys, were they not just awesome? I'm like this whole mindset of minimalist. And like I said, in the show, it's still true to this day.

I'm not a true minimalist. I haven't, like, gotten rid of, like, all my stuff after I had them on. I was so motivated. I was like, I'm going to do the minimalist game. And I called it the minimalist challenge. I actually forgot the name of it. So I called it the wrong name, the minimalist challenge. So I went on my Instagram and I was like, guys, if you want to do this with me, I'm doing it in September. And so I have like literally hundreds of people on Instagram that are doing it with me. And we did the hashtag RC Minimalist Challenge. And we always tagged the minimalist in because I wanted them to know what we were all doing. But I did this. And I'm like,

actually in the middle of it right now, if you want to know. And it has been the craziest thing. It really has. Like, I first was super motivated. So I, like, got a ton of stuff. I actually started under my bathroom sink. Like, I told them I was, that's the first place I was convicted. And so I cleaned out all of that. I cleaned out my whole closet. And even my, like, linen closet, I mean, I had stuff in there. I mean, I probably, when I say I haven't looked at it in two years, I hadn't looked at in two years. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I cleaned out all this stuff. And so now I'm in the middle of the month, and I was doing it for a week because I'm traveling this week. So I had to kind of catch up a little bit.

And it was so interesting. We cleaned out our guest closet, Winston and I did, the girls, Amelia, who's three, and Caroline, who's one. We just put them in our guest room, close the door, so they were running around. And we were taking, like, stuff out of our guest room closet that we had just stuffed in there. And one of them was a black huge trash bag. And I'm like, what is this? So I get it out, and it's dusty. Like, it's disgusting, right?

I'm like, everything in it was just dusty and gross. But I started taking it out. And it was my, it was probably, I mean, oh, God, you guys, maybe 12 pairs of my shoes from college from like 10 years ago. And I was looking at it. I was like, oh, my God, Winston. Like, I remember wearing some of these shoes, like, on dates with Winston. Like, it was so funny.

And I was like, where did this come from? Like, what made me 10 years ago put this stuff in a black trash bag and stick it in a closet somewhere. And it got me thinking because I was like, why did I do that? Why didn't I just send that stuff to Goodwill 10 years ago? Like, what made me really think that I was going to go up in this closet, unpack a trash bag and wear a pair of shoes out of it that were not in my closet? Like, what was it? And it was so weird because it kind of made me like really think through that stuff does give you this weird security that's not real. Like it's not real. I'm like, and me keeping that stuff was kind of like this, okay, well, it's there just in case.

And the minimalist always say that. They say, just in case is like a cuss word. It's like a cuss phrase because that's why people keep so much crap around. I was like, well, just in case. But it was so weird for me. And I thought, I got to just get rid of it. So it was like this whole trash bag of stuff. I kept one of my sorority t-shirts from college.

Hashtag Cuyomaga. Hashtag, all the things. But I kept one of them because I was like, I got to just keep it for sentimental reasons. But that whole trash bag, I was like, I'm going to just, I have to throw away half the stuff because it was all gross. And then I gave the other stuff away. But it was, it was like one of the most freeing parts of the week for me because it was stuff that was tucked away from the past that I thought was going to give me some safety, some weird safety 10 years ago. And I just let it go. And it was just so freeing. I know that sounds so crazy and weird,

but it's true. There's something about letting go of your stuff to say, okay, this stuff is not going to define me. This stuff is not going to bring me security. And I'm going to get rid of it. And so it just felt great. And now the closet is like beautifully organized. And it looks so much better. your life just feels better when crap is gone. So the minimalist game, do it. You guys, do it, do it, do it, do it, because it works. It encourages me to just continue on this path of reminding myself that stuff is not going to make me happy. It is not going to fulfill me. Yes, stuff can be fun, but it's not going to fulfill me. Growing up, my dad would always say, it's okay to have some nice stuff. Just don't let your nice stuff have you. And it can have you by going into debts. And it also can

have you that when you think your identity or your happiness is tied to a thing. And we're all guilty of it. Like I've even said it. I'm like, oh, if I could just have that jacket, I'd be happy. Or if I could just have a new car, I'd be happy. And like they said earlier, I love it because they're like, it's not about deprivation. It's okay to still have a nice car. It's okay to get that jacket. But what are you tying to that? I was listening actually to my friend's podcast, Annie F. Downs, and she was interviewing Samantha Ponder, Sam Ponder, and she's a, um, Oh, God, I'm terrible at sports, you guys. She does NFL Sunday countdown.

She was on college game day. Sam Ponder was. And so she told Annie that she was doing a couple of things in her life. And one of those things that she did is they got rid of 75% of their stuff. Includes toys from the kids, clothes, everything. Because she made the point, which I thought was so spot on, especially as we're talking about minimalism. She said, I took so much time to make decisions that were not important.

like standing in my closet, how many times I stood in my closet and thought, what am I going to wear? Versus having just 10 things and it's your 10 favorite shirts and you just grab it and go, right? Or your kids. I do this to my girls. I'm so guilty of it. Being a girl mom, I'm like, it's dressing like little girls and it's so fun. And so I have so many baby clothes. And I'm like, yeah, it's fun totally. But how many times am I packing for a trip with them or how many times am I standing in their closets thinking, what are they going to wear today? And it's just not important decisions. And so I just thought that mindset was so great. Just a great filter to think through. And the minimalist are just incredible. So make sure you follow them what they're doing because it's just more encouragement on getting rid of stuff, especially those of you getting out of debt, get rid of some stuff.

Sell it and get money to pay off debt. It's so great. All right, you guys. Well, that's the end of my first podcast. I can't believe it. So if you've not checked out the Rachel Cruz Show, it is on Facebook and YouTube. Make sure to check it out because there's going to be. stuff on that show that we're not doing on the podcast. But then vice versa. There's stuff on this

podcast that people that watch the show aren't going to hear. So make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel so you can check out that show. And I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I am. Make sure to subscribe to my podcast. Like, I have a podcast. I never thought this would happen. If you really want to know, like, the depths of my heart, I hate hearing my voice on audio, probably like a lot of you, like when you hear your voice on a voicemail and you're like, oh, do I sound like that? That's totally how I feel. And so podcasts always made me a little nervous. But I just finished my first one and I kind of love it. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again, make sure to tune in to all we're doing on the Rachel Cruz show on YouTube and also here

on the podcast. So I hope you guys have an incredible day. And remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.