The Rachel Cruze Show - Spending, Saving and Investing: What You Need to Know

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Does stressing over money ever keep you up at night? Let’s be real—taking control of your money is hard! Make your money journey a little easier with fun conversations about spending, saving and investing.          In this episode, you’ll hear: Five spending habits you need to break TODAY How to save $1,000 on your cell phone plan with George Kamel What you should do with your retirement funds Zander Insurance: https://www.zanderins.com/term-life-insurance/instant-quotes?utm_campaign=rachel-cruze-show&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=&utm_term= Ramsey+: https://bit.ly/3EoHI3V Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And your in-laws did this right? Didn't they switch and saved? I did it for them because I was so frustrated. I know. I was trying to earn some brownie points. Let's be honest. Great. But it was over the holidays and I was like, you know what?

They had some tight margin in their budget. And I was like, I think we could free up some margin by freeing up some money from the cell phone plan and their TV bills. And so I worked on this and I ended up saving them. This is not a joke. $3,100 per year. Oh my gosh, George? On those two bills alone.

I know. I was very impressed with myself. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Rachel Crewe Show podcast. I'm so glad that you're here. Well, in this episode, we'll dive into what you need to know about saving, spending, and investing. You'll hear a conversation that I had with Ramsey personality, George Camel, on ways to save on your cell phone plan. It's a great conversation. I cannot wait for you to hear it. So many great ideas. I'm also going to take a question from Sheena on if it's a good idea to invest while working through baby, step two. But first, let's talk through five spending habits you need to break today.

Take a listen. Okay, when it comes to money, we all have habits. You do things that you don't even really think through because it's just all you know. But examining those habits to know what habits are helping me when it comes to my money and helping me win, and what happens are costing me a lot of money because I don't even realize this is what I'm spending money on. So spending habits are huge, you guys, and you have to really look at what you're doing. And so I would really encourage you guys, especially those of you that are getting out of debt, getting your emergency fund in place, Baby Sups 1 through 3, that you change and you really buckle down on your spending habits, because the less you spend and the more money that goes to debt and an emergency

fund, the faster you're going to get control of your money. Now, Babysubs 4, 4, 5, 6, and 7, you can be a little bit more, you know, enjoy some more of your money. because you've walked through and already set down this really firm financial foundation, which is awesome. But we all need to look at our spending habits. So let's walk through five spending habits that I see that are not so great, especially if you're on baby steps, one through three. Number one, spending on convenience.

This is a hard one because I know life is just go, go, go. And sometimes you're like, oh, it's just so convenient to get this order to the house or just go through the drive-thru, you know, what happens is, though, you end up paying for all this convenience. It is more money going out and less money going towards debt or towards your emergency fund. So there are delivery conveniences, you know, like food and shopping, but you're going to realize you get extra fees,

you've got a tip. Some services, you have to pay a yearly subscription to the app, possibly. So there's lots of extra fees there. The average American spend $60,7,000. $7 a week on delivery and gets delivery two and a half times per week. It is so easy. I know like groceries, this is one thing for me that I started during the pandemic and one that I haven't quite stopped yet.

But again, those of you on babysat's four and beyonds, you can kind of loosen up the budget and maybe pay for some of the conveniences, but you pay for it. Like I look at mine and I'm like, yeah, it's convenient to have my grocery show up. but again, I'm paying a pretty great tip for that. I'm paying sometimes a delivery charge if the dollar amount isn't to the free delivery, and then I'm paying for my app. Like, I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot.

And again, if it's in your budget and you can do it, that's great. But those of you, early on in the baby steps, cut it out. Another convenience is things like if you're going to a nice restaurant or hotel, valet parking versus self-parking. This is a tough one. Winston I, we went on two trips this summer. We did valet on one trip. We pulled up to the hotel, and they were like, do you want valet?

And we're like, yeah, it's great. It was just us. I'm like, yeah, sure. And then we go and get the bill at the end of the trip. And what they paid per night, we didn't even ask. So on us. I was like, oh, my gosh. And we didn't even use the rental car.

Like, we basically stayed in the hotel area. And I was like, oh, we paid for three nights. And it was just so silly. So then we went again with the girls the next month. We went to Florida. And they were like valet. And I was like, we are self-parking. And we're going to live.

lug our suitcases up to the hotel. We are not paying. We're not paying for ballet. No, it's so crazy. But again, it's convenience, but you pay for it. Yep. The more sacrifices you make, the faster you can get that financial foundation built. Number two, spending on impulse.

Okay, we all know it, guys. We all know impulse buying. It's a thing. It's an absolute thing. And Americans spend over $2,100 a year on just kind of impulse buying, right? Whether it's food or clothes. some people even impulse on buying a car. This is hard because you're not having a plan.

Like you're just doing what feels good in the moment. And if you think about it, just take what you would normally just spend on impulse. And if you invested that $2,100 from age 35 to 65, at least $600,000, by the time you're 65. So number three, spending without a plan. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. And again, this is for no matter what babysit you're on.

you need it to be living on a plan, which is a budget. And I know it kind of sounds like, oh, Rachel. But this is something that is so, so key. This is a bad spending habit that people have is they don't have a plan. They're not being intentional with where their money goes. And so many people say once they start budgeting, they feel like they got a raise because they realized, wow, all this money was just leaving, and I didn't even realize it.

And again, it is hard work to budget, but it is so worth it. Now, having to use life insurance is not one of the things that we ever want to plan for, but you guys, having it will take so much stress off of you because you know your family will be taken care of if the worst happens to you. And that's why I recommend that you connect with my friends at Zander to get a quote for term life insurance. So Zander does all the shopping at all the top companies to get you the best rate and the best coverage based on your family's needs.

So just make sure that you have a policy that is 10 to 12 times your annual income. And what ends up happening is it's very affordable. You're going to see and be like, wow, it's really not that much money. And it's going to give you such peace of mind. So click the link in the description to get a rate that works for your family. All right. The number four, bad spending habits that people have is not tracking expenses. So we just talked about budgeting.

And budgeting gives you control of your money. you know exactly where every single dollar is going. But that really only works to the point that you know what every single dollar you have, where it is going, which means you have to track transactions. And you can do this old school by just keeping receipts. You can do this by looking at your bank statement online and saying, okay, this is where our money's going

and looking at your numbers. But the easiest, the easiest way is every dollar. Every dollar makes it so simple, you guys. This app is amazing. and when I say that I look at it every day, I'm not kidding, I look at it every day. It is so nice because it does all the math for you and those transactions that we're talking about.

It connects to your bank account. So they come in and you can just drag and drop them. So it's like, okay, my Costco line item, Costco comes. So I just put it up there. Groceries here, close, here, gas, here. And you just sit there and do, do, do, do. And then it does the math, and you're like, okay, I budgeted X amount for restaurants for the month.

Then we look at the restaurant category. How much is left? Well, it tells you because it's right there. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. All right. Number five.

Last but not least. Spending to feel better. Yep. This is a bad habit that I'm guilty of. Maybe some of you are guilty of. But it's a real thing, you know, and you have to realize that retail therapy is not self-care. It is not.

But it is based on science that when you buy something, you have adrenaline, you have a dopamine hit. It feels good. It's kind of excessive. It's like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, all of it, it is just so real. It is so, so real. So you have to watch that

because you're going to buy crap you don't need. That's what ends up happening. And I've now gotten in this rhythm that if I feel the need to buy something, I'm like, I haven't bought anything in a while. I'm just curious, you know what this store has, and I'll go on my phone, and I'll start looking, and I'll see some cute stuff.

I'm like, oh, I'll literally add it to the cart, and then I stop, and then I go do something else. And I'm like, okay, because I kind of got the adrenaline and rush of adding it to the cart, but I didn't buy it because I really don't need it. And then, of course, about two days later, I get an email and they're like, things are left in your carts. But by that time, I'm like, oh, I'm good.

I don't need it. True story. I may help. If you just need a little adrenaline rush, just add it to the cart, but don't go through at the checkout. It's great. It'll save your money, but you kind of get that. That kind of like, oh, yeah, that felt good.

But the key is don't check out because we're going to break that bad spending habit. So these things, you guys, I know when it comes to lifestyle, it is so easy to not live with a budget and say, hey, I just want to live free and just do whatever I want. I want convenience. I want just impulse by, you know, these things like feel good and it's kind of this way of living. But then that takes you usually into debt without a plan, working hard, having nothing to show for. It's not a good plan. It's not a good plan. So examine your money habits, buckle down and say, hey, I'm actually going to get control of my money. And it's amazing.

Just tightening up some of this stuff, you're going to find so much money. Because my goal for you is to be debt-free, money saved in the bank, living on a plan, and enjoying your life. We're talking about saving money on cell phone plans. That's right. And joining me today is my friend

and fellow Ramsey personality, George Camel. Thanks for calling me a friend. That's very nice. You are. You're my amigo, George. I love it. So glad that you're back. I know, I'm glad you're here.

So cell phones, cell phone bills, that's a big part of the budget. Everyone's got one. Because everyone does. Every 12-year-old has a smartphone. Is that how crazy how young kids are getting it now? It makes me feel old because I'm like, those kids don't deserve smartphones. No, they don't. They don't.

They've got them. They've got to call mom. And then mom's got to pay for the bill in all things. So the average cell phone bill is $157 a month. Ouch. A month. And it's part of the budget. you guys are seeing it. So you're here to help us save some money on it. So George.

I feel like a superhero that just has one job to save you money. Because everyone out there is thinking, I want to know how to save money on my cell phone bill. How do you lower it? How do you lower the bill? There's no magic trick here, right? There's two things you can do. Either lower your bill with your current carrier or you switch carriers. So there's no magic silver bullet here, but there are some great things that we can do as consumers to make sure that we're not overpaying. which is what most people are currently doing, because let's be honest, we're lazy, we don't want to get on the phone,

we don't have to do all this work and research, but trust me, this could be the best part-time job you get by spending an hour doing this. Okay, so just switching networks completely. Yes. It's emotional. Well, it's emotional, but I'm sure it does. But that's how you can save a big chunk right off the bat.

Yes. Especially if you're with one of the big four carriers, like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Sprint, T, mobile. You know, some of those, while being the most popular, can also be the most expensive. Yes, and your in-laws did that. this right? Didn't they switch and save? I did it for them because I was so frustrated.

I know. I was trying to be, I was trying to earn some brownie points. Let's be honest. Great. But it was over the holidays and I was like, you know what? I can't believe. They had some tight margin in their budget and I was like, I think we could free up some margin by freeing up some money from the cell phone plan and their TV bills. And so I worked on this and I ended up saving them.

This is not a joke. $3,100 per year. Oh my gosh, George? On those two bills alone. I know. I was very impressed with myself. Dang. That is impressive.

And it took a few hours. Now, it was some work. Sure. But here's what I did. I switched them from AT&T to T-Mobile. And that ended up saving them $124 a month, and they got free iPhones. When they did it. As part of the deal.

They always have different promotions. So that was $124 a month right there. And then I switched them from DirecTV to a shared YouTube TV account, which saved them another $134 a month. So when you add both of those up over 12 months, it's $3,100, just like that. Did you get a commission, George? I feel like you should have. charge something for that thing. The commission is just having my in-laws like that. That's fair. And that is a

deep investment. I would take that investment all day for sure. So I want to share some of the tools and tips that I found helpful when trying to get these bills down, switching carriers, all that good stuff. See, I love this idea, though, because I'm like, you know, we talk about doing a budget and subscriptions even that you have that you're paying for and you don't realize it or you've just been paying for a cell phone bill and you don't even think twice about it or even insurance. You just pay it. You don't think, like, when you actually do the research, you're going to see Either you don't use stuff that you can take out of your plans, you can actually switch, all of that. I will not name the people where this happens.

I don't want to embarrass them if they're watching. But somebody still was paying for AOL for an email address. No, people pay for that. $40 a month. And they just canceled last month and texted out. I did not know that was even a thing. Yes, and I thought. They got them with that free trial disc.

That's what got them. back in AOL and $40 a month. I know. So I'm saying, let's say, think outside the box people. It may feel a little uncomfortable of like, oh, I got to change something.

It might be worth it because it might make you a lot of money. So, okay, let's talk about all the different options. So let's start with the affordable options because, well, we love that. So where can people get just the cheapest cell phone plans? So straight up cheapest cell phone plan in our research, we found that telo economy

was the number one choice. And a lot of these run on the major networks. So they're using Verizon T-Mobile AT&T's networks, which means you get great coverage, but you get a much cheaper price. So, Telo Economy, $750 a month for six months, then it goes to $10 a month plus taxes.

And you get unlimited talk and text, but here's the kicker, you get one gigabyte of high-speed data. Now, if you're like, what, a gigabyte? A gigabyte is going to go real quick, especially if you're watching any content on your device. And they even have a cheaper plan starting at $5 a month, but it doesn't come with data, That's why I didn't even count that.

Because most of us need data. Yeah, for sure. More than we need minutes. And I think this is a good thing to remind everyone that, yes, if you're using these smaller companies, they are using the big carriers, like you said, their towers and all of that, which I think is you don't realize that. Because I feel like, I don't know. If I'm using this budget carrier, I'm going to get the worst coverage of all time.

100%. That's kind of what I always thought. But no, they actually use. It's come a long way. Yeah, it's amazing. Amazing. Love it. So that's awesome.

Okay. So people that want unlimited data because they're like, no, I watch everything on my phone. I don't always have Wi-Fi to connect to. So, like, I need the data. What would you say? This is a big one. Now, I'm a millennial, and so we care more about data than almost anything. Like, minutes, I don't care.

I'm not talking to people. I want to avoid talking on the phone as much as possible. Sorry, Mom. I need to call her. I really do. So I'm heavily invested in an unlimited data plan. That's the most important thing to me. And there's two ways to look at data, right?

There's the cheapest and there's the best. And so when it comes to the best, in first place, is Pure Talk. And this is $55 a month plus $5. taxes and fees, and you get unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data. And here's what I love about this. No contracts, no hidden fees. That's what you pay. It's $55. Pure. And changing to this could save you and your family $800. And they're actually an advertiser on the Ramsey show, and they still came in first place. This is unbiased. They're awesome company. People love PureTalk. And if you use promo code Ramsey, you can save 50% off your first month. So you're going to save even more.

So good. So you can go to PeartTalkUSA.com and check them out for the best unlimited plan. Yeah, they're awesome. Okay, so what about the cheapest unlimited plan? So as far as the cheapest goes, Mint Unlimited is what you want to go with. It has the word Unlimited in it. And it's $30 a month, which is not bad for unlimited, plus taxes and fees. You do have to prepay three months at a time, so make sure that you're budgeting for that. But you get unlimited talk, text, and data, and your high-speed data gets reduced once you hit 35 gigabytes.

Which, that's like a power user like me. Okay. Can I ask a maybe ignorant question? No, no dumb questions on the Rachel Cruce. And if you don't know, because I know you don't work for a cell phone. company. So if you don't know the answer, there's no fair to say, I'm not sure, Rachel. Okay. Okay, so with these smaller carriers, you can still use iPhones and all that. Yes, absolutely. Okay, so here's my question. I'm asking myself, why would I pay for one of the

big four carriers? What do you get? Do you get anything with the big four that you wouldn't in a budget-friendly scenario? You know, it's kind of like paying for the brand. And so, you know, it's- Oh, George, you're kind of below my mind. I know. You know, you want the Gucci shoes. what's the difference between that and the generic brand purse? Some of it's a name and some of it's customer service and their infrastructure. But at least with shoes, people know. No one's looking at my phone. What kind of service do you have?

What plans do you have? I do feel like it's less of a big deal. As there's more competition, everyone's having to get more competitive. And so I love that there's so many great services and options out there these days. And you're going to get, you know, maybe there's better customer service because they have huge teams. But I haven't found that to be the case where it's a terrible experience. because there's people who are super happy with a lot of these budget carriers.

Did you catch my Enneagram 3 comment about people seeing my shoes? Did you get that? I caught. I wasn't going to say anything. I was Rachel's heart that just came out. I didn't want to throw you under the bus on your own show. It's fine.

You can. You can, you know? I really try not to let what people think about me affect me. So I'm really trying. Brand is important to some people, and if that's the case, you just have to budget for it. I know, but you can get cheap brands and save money, just like all this.

Okay. Absolutely. Okay, let's talk through the plans with multiple phones, like if you have multiple phones, because you have a big family, kids, all of that. What would you say?

This is a big one. So if you have a lot of people on the line here, we've got to look at the best option for that. And what we found is that visible is the best option for multiple phone plans.

This is $35 a month for two lines. $30 if you have three lines. Okay. $25 for four. So the more lines you have, the cheaper it's going to get. Of course, there's some taxes

and fees there, but you get unlimited talk, text, and then you get five gigs of data per line. And so that may not be enough for some people. Yeah. You do get unlimited hotspot data, which means you don't have access to Wi-Fi and all that stuff.

But that may not be enough for some people. So if you're not a heavy data user, you're on Wi-Fi a lot, then that may be a great option for you. Okay. Love it. Yeah. Okay. What about, yeah, you mentioned hotspots because you're working on the going stuff. What are good plans around that? Yeah. So this is exactly what you're talking about. You don't have Wi-Fi around, and you still need access to the Internet.

So the first place in this category is Boost Unlimited. And what this is going to be is $60 a month plus taxes and fees. So it's a little pricey, but you're going to get unlimited talk, text, and data and 30 gigabytes of hotspot data, which should be plenty for the month if you're not trying to watch a movie on Netflix on your hotspot. Fair. Okay. So you're streaming a lot. You got to be careful when it comes to streaming visual content. That's what's going to take up the most amount of data. Okay. And when it comes to buying a new phone, how do you do that and get the best deal? This is a big one. A lot of people just pay the sticker price.

And they go, well, the phone's $1,200, and that's what I need to pay. Yeah. But what I want you to do is buy no contract phones, which means you're not locked in with a certain contract. And I like to buy gently used. I know that sounds big time for a lot of people, but people that are upgrading their iPhone, well, that iPhone's a year old in a great condition, and you can save hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, save on taxes, save on all that stuff by going gently used. And honestly, the people that really want to upgrade the phones are usually the ones that have, like,

the otter box and the springs all the good is to go with. Screen protector. Thank you. Screen protector. All the stuff. Yeah. And so it's probably, I mean, not my phone. I know. I know. But here's what I like to do. You know, for a long time, people at Ramsey, I would go, oh, you're upgrading phones

and they're selling them on our forums. And so it doesn't have to be a stranger off the internet. There's people in your office building and your family who are upgrading phones. Oh, my little brother's got a new phone and I'll take his phone. And we would do that with parents. I'd give my parents the old phone because they don't care. They don't care. And I need to the newest,

nicest, best camera and features and all that stuff. I know. Sound like an Instagram 3 now. I know. I know. So there's some great options there to go use and not pay full price because these phones, I mean, they cost as much as a laptop. Yeah, it's so expensive. Because you're carrying around a computer. Because you're actually carrying around a laptop. Yep. It is wild. It is crazy. It's crazy we're even talking about this. Oh, gosh. We're old, Rachel. We're getting old. Hey, how old were you when you got your first cell phone?

I was probably 14. What was your first cell phone? It was, I think it was this no-brand flip phone. It couldn't do it. Did you have an antenna that you had to pull out? I couldn't even text. Oh, man. I missed those days. I'd call 4-1-1 to find out like local restaurants.

It was rough, y'all. I'm sure a lot of the people watching. I use pay phones. Yes. We used pay phones because we didn't have cell phones. Anyways. Find a quarter. We're going.

Find a quarter. We'll do a whole other episode on that. Okay, so how do we keep our cell phone bill low, just in general, besides just using pay phones? Yes. And not having a cell phone, what would you recommend? So I remember when I didn't have unlimited data, I had to really. really watch the clock here and go, how much data have I used? Now, that can be stressful, but if you're on one of those plans that don't have unlimited data, you've got to get on Wi-Fi as

much as possible. So always check to see if you're actually connected to a network and that you're not using up data needlessly. And again, don't stream movies or download music on your phone's network if you're not on Wi-Fi, because that's going to eat up the most amount of data. So you can sign up for alerts, which is super helpful, and they'll let you know, hey, you're running low. Otherwise, you're going to get charged, you know, $15 the moment you go over. Which is going to make you go over your budget. We don't like that. So that's important.

That's good. So watch the data. Yes. Another one is limiting your background data use. So all the apps on your phone, a lot of them, if they're open, they're still sucking in data, updating things. I know. It's very stressful. So here's what you need to do.

Just go into your settings and look at the cellular data usage and background app refresh Vchap. And so you can go and turn those things off to where it's not using up data when you're not actually needing it. So that's a great option. people that if you swipe up on it and you know and you can see all the videos. Oh, there's like a thousand apps open. I know. I know. I'm guilty to. It's so bad. It's okay. This is a confessional time for both of us. But doing that's going to save you data and battery life. That's another one people don't think about. See, you are like the jack of all trades. Well, I'm just a nerd who's here to help. I love it. Okay. And also just negotiating your bill in general is going to help save.

And this is what I did. I took manners in my own hands. And I was like, I feel like they're overpaying. Like no one should be paying like $200 for two people on a cell phone. And so what I want you to do is whatever carrier you have, try this first, if you don't want to switch, is find the customer retention line. And you can do this by just calling up the number, right? If it's T-Mobile, that's what, they were on AT&T, we switched them to T-Mobile. So I called up AT&T, and I was ready to take some notes. You want to be ready for that. And you also want to do your research.

Take a good look at your bill. What are you paying right now? What are the features? What is your usage? And then research competing offers. So if you find that T-Mobile is $30 a month and you're paying $65 with AT&T, well, that's great information to come armed with when you call them up. Because you can tell them.

Yes. So when you call up the customer service agent, they might be able to help with minor things, they're there to make sure we can get you happy really quick. But a lot of times they can't, and even their supervisor, can't. So here's what you need to do. You need to get to the customer retention line. That's basically the cancellation department, right? This is the secret.

And so you want to be polite but firm. This is stressful for a lot of people because they go, I've got to be angry and, no, you can be a very kind human to this poor person on the other line who's just doing their job. But be firm. And so you're saying, hi, Rachel, I've been with AT&T for 12 years now. And while I'm happy with my service, my bill is just a little high for my budget right now. Is there any way that we can lower it?

I can check, George. I'm not sure if that's possible, though. And then you hear soft jazz for about 24 minutes while they come back. Let me check with my supervisor. There we go. And they're going to come back and they're going to say, yeah, you know what? Well, here's the plan we have and we can do that. Here's what you say.

No matter what they say, you say, no. That's not good enough. I'm sorry. Okay, well, Mr. Camel, we don't want you to leave our service. You have been a loyal customer, and we want to maybe offer you something. Let me check back with my supervisor to see what else we can do. I really appreciate that. More soft jazz.

Hello, Mr. Camel. I talked to my supervisor, and I don't know what it's better. They say. They basically say, here's what we can do, but, You know what? It's still not good, no. Okay. Here, I can offer you this. Yeah, you know, that's a good start, but it's not quite where I need to be based on my budget. Is there someone else I could speak to about canceling my service?

You know, I hate to go, but if you can't help me, I'm going to need to switch providers. Oh, yeah, Mr. Kim, we do not. We do not want you canceling. So let me go back to my supervisor. Or they transfer me over. Or I say, you know what, just transfer me over. Cancellation Department, please. Oh. Winston tried doing this with Comcast and they never. transferred them. Well, that's Comcast for you. That's the intermission of the story. Okay, we're back,

we're back. We're back. I'm with the cancellation department now. Hello, my name is Rachel with the cancellation department. How can I help you? Hi, Rachel. You know, I was just speaking with Brad, a very nice customer service agent, about lowering my monthly bill. You know, I've been with you guys for 12 years. I really want to stay, but it just, it costs a lot for me right now. You know, with the pandemic and everything going on, we're trying to ratchet up our budget in any way we can. And there's a lot of competing offers out there that are honestly, they're half as expensive for the same exact features. Is there anything that you can do to match those deals?

Yes, Mr. Camer. Are you going to be canceling in the next 30 days? If we can't come to an agreement on this, then yes. I think we can figure something out. Yes, hold on one second. Let me talk to my supervisor. That's great. Look, we're starting to get some work. I'm very impressed. You know, if this doesn't work out, I think you have another career cut out for you.

I think I would be good in customers. So here's the deal, right? They're probably going to come back and give you a good deal and lower your bill, even if it's for 12 months. And guess what? A year from now, it's become a family tradition where you get on the phone and you play this game. Yes. Even if they say, well, can cut it by $30.

Yes. And they say, hey, for the next 12 months, we're going to give you a $30 credit. Yeah. Well, you do the math and you go, that's $360 back in our life. Yep, yes. And so you start to do that with your bills. You negotiate, your firm, your kind. But you need to get to the customer retention cancellation line in order to do that.

And a lot of people go, wait, are they going to cancel my account? They're not going to do that unless you actually confirm, yes, I want to cancel. Sure. So make sure that you're taking notes on everything that happens. Because the problem is you get on the phone the next day and they say, we have no clue of what happened. So make sure you say, hey, can you add those notes to my account? Can you email me confirmation?

Write down their name. Write down all the information you can get from this agent, the time and the day of the call, all that stuff so that you're protecting yourself. You're advocating for yourself. That's what this is all about. A lot of stuff there. Just putting fate in your own hands, you know. That's what it is.

It is true, though. Take control. When you call and ask, it's amazing what they'll do. Because, like we've said, they sometimes just raise the price and raise the price, and no one asks. No one pushes back. And they just keep on going. Especially the longer you've been with them. Yes, totally.

And they only have offers for the new customers. Yep, for sure. So good. Okay. That's a great way to lower your pill. Also, things like insurance. We think about insurance. Ooh, I'm not a fan of phone insurance because I want you to become your own insurance with your own bank account and not pay someone in case.

Yep. So if you can't afford to replace that phone if something happens to it, then you may not be able to afford the phone. Yep. And so. And that'll save you some money too. Yes. Because that could be, you know, 10, 20 bucks a month you're paying for some of these insurance policies to protect you.

So set aside a few extra dollars a month. Get a good case. Yes. Get a screen protector, all the things. Exactly. That's true. Oh my gosh. I'm protected everywhere.

I've got the case. I've got the screen protector. You live a little bit on the wild side. I know. I have a case. That's about it. Seeing a broken iPhone screen, it's like, oh. It hurts my heart.

But the one that cracked, my new one that cracked. All mine cracked. It's only a very faint line, though. It's not as like... But you have to stare at that for hours a day. It's very light, though. I don't even notice it. You deserve better.

I don't even notice it. You are worth... You are worth an uncracked screen. Yes. Invest in a good screen protector and a good case. So great. That's my caveat. George, anything else?

Anything else that like... The big thing is being intentional, doing your research, and advocating for yourself and doing this audit. Maybe it's once every six months or 12 months saying, what are my bills? That feels kind of high. I'm going to see what other competitors are offering right now. And a lot of times switching, while feels emotional, and you're like, oh, I've been with AT&T for 12 years.

Totally. They don't care about it. You're not their friend. That's right. Okay, you're not breaking up with them. You're a number. Exactly. And so it's totally okay to switch over.

And sometimes T-Mobile's happy to pay the rest of your contract or your cancellation fee for them to get a new customer. And you have, you save money at the same time. So negotiate your bills. Cut out the stuff you don't use. if you're not using these features, make sure that you're getting what you need out of the things you're paying for you. That's what it's all about.

You do not work for T-Mobile. No. You say that out loud. No affiliation. We have thrown that out a few times. It sounds like it. We're not being paid. Thank you very much.

I appreciate it. Where can everyone find you? You can find me at George Camel on Instagram and Twitter. And of course, the Fine Print podcast on the Ramsey Network. I'm helping people avoid money traps, save more, spend less,

all the things over there. So go check that out. So much. So, so much. Well, you guys again, I hope this helps you. Thank you. Thanks for being on.

Your stuff is always so good. It's so practical, so tactical. It's what we need. This is one of my favorite segments of the show because I get to answer your questions. And Sheena is coming on to ask a question in regards to her money, and we're going to kind of talk through her situation

and guide her through what is best. So Sheena, thanks so much for coming on. Oh, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. And you're calling from where? From Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte, North Carolina. Great city.

So good. Okay, so tell me a little bit about where you are financially, a little bit of, you know, marital status. You have kids. Like, kind of give me a little bit of a background of what's going on. Sure. So married with a stepdaughter and a three-year-old and one on the way. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. When are you due? January. Oh, so great. Coming up. Halfway through this week. So good. So it's been a beautiful, beautiful blessing. So married. So the stepdaughter is in college. And so I've got my little one at home with me in daycare. So I work in the hospitals. And between my husband and I, who's a detective for local police force, we make about 200 a year. But we're also on baby step two. So we owe about that same amount because of student loans, medical school, all those kind of things. So working really diligently, gazelle and tant on baby steps.

too, which is where we are. I love it. So what made you guys decide this to do something and say, you know what, we want to aggressively pay down our debt? We want to get rid of it. We don't want to just hanging around for the next, you know, five, six, eight years. Yeah. Well, it was actually when I was pregnant with my daughter, they had a financial class at the hospital and just, I had never learned about it, I guess, and decided to take it upon myself to go to that class and learn about it. And so I started looking into it, well, who is this Dave Ramsey guy? Who is this racial cruise girl and just started really honing in and listening to lots of podcasts and reading the books listening to the books on tape when I drove and just got really, really gazelle intent.

That's amazing. What did your husband say when you came home and you're like, here's this whole new thing I want to do? Let's do it together. What was his response? I have so many ideas in life that he just kind of goes with them from now on. So no, he was all over it. He knew that anything I set my mind on were going to do.

So he just kind of rolled with it. I love it. Okay, before we get to your question, I want to know, because $200,000 a debt, it's a lot. Obviously, you guys make a great income, so you have a big shovel to kind of help fill in that hole. But what were you feeling in your heart and everything when you decide, okay, I want to do something different because you don't just decide, all right, yeah, I'm kind of stressed with this, we're going to just pay it off. I mean, like, were you really kind of like, oh, feeling the weights of that $200,000? Yeah, feeling the weight. So, I mean, I had gone to school for a long time and never really knew

how to make the money and what to pay off first. So that was my first question was, okay, what do we, what do we attack first? And so I started looking into it and starting researching and the Ramsey Solutions site just kept coming up and up and up. And so I said, okay, well, this is what we're going to do. This seems to be golden ticket to get out of debt and move forward and, you know, living and gave like no one else. I love that. You know, it obviously, you're more motivated than just math. You know, math helps where you're like, okay, good. If I'm not paying out this money in debt, I'm going to be able to use it and invest it and do different things. But there is that emotional drive. Money is very emotional. And so to be able to say, God, I feel this weight. I feel a burden. I feel overwhelmed. You know, I want to start

this journey to get this out of my life. I don't want anything to do with it. So I think that's a very, a very real thing and a great motivator for a sense. You know, I think that I think we've missed. that sometimes on why we start this journey. So those of you watching that haven't started, if you have those emotions and you're feeling that, that's normal. Like, that's kind of what debt does. And then once you start to gain control and have a plan to get out of debt, it just gives you this relief and kind of this intensity like you were saying, Gina, so I love that. Okay. So what was your question that you wanted to come here on the show for? Yeah. So my biggest question was, you know, before I met everyone, then I had already started.

kind of a 401k with my company because they had already had a match, a 6% match. And so before I even started the baby steps, I was already contributing to that. So my big question is, you know, I've kind of saved up quite a chunk of change in there. And my heart really wants to take that out and put it right on my student loan. But I get the feeling that that's not what I'm supposed to do. So that's my big question is, what do I do with it? Do I contribute to a 401K? Do I switch to a rock?

When does that all transpire? Yes. Great question, great question. Well, first and foremost, I don't want you cashing it out because there's going to be tons of penalties and fees and all of that when you cash out retirements, obviously before the age that you're supposed to. So do not cash out, leave it in there, number one.

Number two, though, I would pause. I would pause it, even though you're getting a great match and all the math nerds out there are like, no, because it's like free money, you know, all of us, I get it, I get it. But when you're on Baby Step 2, your biggest goal is to put as much money as possible towards the debt. So cutting everything out from expenses, but also things like investing. So any 401K, Roth IRA, any of that, we pause all of that and put all that cash towards the debt

because it's going to help you get out of debt faster. And then you'll actually have more income to invest later on in the baby steps, and you'll have plenty of time to catch up. And again, this is pausing it. I like to say pause versus stop. Stop makes it sound like whatever. we're going to go back to it. Pausing, it's like, no, we're going to go press play again.

And we will soon. We will soon. But it'll be in a few years. But I promise you're going to make it back because you're actually going to have more cash to put in retirement later. So, yeah, number one, do not cash it out. Just leave it. And then number two, just pause it and you'll come back to it.

I love your situation, in a sense, just on a number standpoint, because you guys do have a great income. But the problem is you've been living, probably like you make $200. a year because that's what you make and that's probably the lifestyle and all of that. So cutting some stuff for anyone out there is very difficult. But can you think of things right now? Have you mapped out a plan at all, like in your budget or anything where you think, okay, we can, we're on track to pay off debt in X amount of time or we're able to cut

our lifestyle down in half? Like, kind of what are you thinking? Because you guys could be out of debt in 18, 24 months. Like if you really went for it. Oh, that makes me feel better because I was thinking three years, which that was That's been my goal, you know, three years. And so, yeah, we've cut out a lot of different things. I'm the nerd.

He's the spender. He's the free spirit. So we've cut out a lot of things, you know, even just subscriptions that we weren't using and buying organic food at all dates instead of a bigger rennie in place. Yep. So, yeah, making lots of small behavior changes, I guess, is kind of what the key to our success in the last year has been. So I kind of had to prove to him that this worked before he was really on board with it.

And he's just seen the light. We finally kind of combined incomes, which was a big deal. You know, thank you for always talking about those kind of things. That just gave us the language and the jargon to have those conversations, you know, that we weren't having, I suppose, looking at depths that we didn't know that we, that each other had. Yes, no. Absolutely. It does.

It opens up a whole other, a whole other door of all that. communication. So how does it feel now just in a marriage sense with you and your husband now? Like, what is that like for you guys? What is marriage like now that wasn't there three years ago? Much more open. You know, we have our conversations about our budget. It's more me bringing it to the table and saying, you know, that's okay. That's good. That's good. But yeah, just having the conversation together and having that openness about where is our money going instead of, yeah, This disappeared. We need to stop doing this.

Let's really hone in and sit down together and figure out where it needs to go first. I love that so much. What an amazing job, you guys. I mean, seriously, kudos to you because change is hard. And when you decide, especially when you have a big pile of debt like that, I think it's so easy to feel so defeated thinking, we'll just keep it around. Everyone else does.

I mean, I don't know, it's from medical school, right? We have kind of all these excuses that you hear of like, eh. But to actually say, no, you know what, we're going to. cut our lifestyle. We're going to make different choices. We're going to work together for the first time with our money. And that's kind of scary and intimidating and vulnerable and all of that. And we're going to come together and try this whole new way of looking at life. To be able to do that as an adult is really hard. So I just want to applaud you guys for even just taking the plunge in. And I'm so thankful you're seeing the benefits already. Not just the benefits in marriage and your

relationship, which is amazing, but the benefits on a tactical level, right? Being able to map out and say, okay, in three years we can do this. And I think it's a beautiful thing. Well, I'm going to push for two and a half years for you secretly. If you said 18 to 24, I'm shooting for that now. Man, you can live on nothing. You can live on nothing and get this knocked out super fast. But no, you guys are doing an amazing job.

And once you kind of see that light and you get that feeling, it's hard to stop it. You're kind of like, okay, I'm going to keep going and going. So amazing job. But again, answer your question, yeah. Don't cash out that 401K. It's tempting because I know there's some money. And you think, oh, we can knock out a big chunk.

but it's not worth the penalties and the fees and all that. So pause, but you guys are going to be able to live and give like no one else real soon. So I'm really excited for you guys. And you're just doing an absolutely amazing job. And you're doing it while you're pregnant. So I'll say kudos to you for that too. Well, thank goodness for hand me down. That's right.

That's right. That's right. So great. Well, thank you, Sheena, so much for calling in. I so appreciate it. I think it's always so helpful to see and hear from people that are just doing this, you know, you're in the trenches doing it day in and day out, and there's so many people that are seeing this or listening to this that are in your boats. And so I know that they're

cheering you on as well. It's definitely overwhelming. And I think now that we're kind of seeing a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel and just that the traction's starting, you know, and I think if anybody out there's listening that's got a big pile of debt, you know, you just got to keep going, got to keep hammering. That's it. Spoken from her. Spoken from her. You got it right there. Oh, so, so amazing. And for you guys out there that want to start this plan and do something, you can go check out our membership, Ramsey Plus, and you can sign up for a free membership.

If you text 33789 and text Rachel Plus to that number and start that membership because it's going to help walk you through how to do exactly what Sheena's doing and working on a budget, working with your spouse, getting out of debt, all of it is there in Ramsey Plus. So make sure to check that out. And if you have a question for me for Ask Rachel, you can go to any of my social,

media channels. You can go to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all of it. We're checking it, and maybe you can be on the show next. Well, again, I loved Sheena's question. It's so good, you guys. And again, walking these baby steps, there's a specific reason for every step and doing them in order. So, so important. So thanks, Sheena, for your question. And I want to thank George Camel for being on the show. So fun. And thank you guys so much for listening. If you have not hit that subscribe button, make sure to do that. And And if the spirit leads, you can leave a review. And as always, remember to take control of your money and create a life you love.