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Episode 192 - How Good or Bad Money Habits Impact Your Life!

Welcome to episode #192 of the Debt Free Dad Podcast. Beyond the dollars and cents and calculations that make up our financial lives, lies a profound truth – the cornerstone of financial success lies in our habits! Yes, it's in our daily behaviors, choices, and mindset that we discover the keys to unlocking the greatest financial transformations. Today, we're diving into the incredible impact of shifting our habits and how these changes have transformed our finances and lives.

What You'll Learn

  • Good money habits, such as budgeting, saving, and investing wisely, provide a strong foundation for financial security. Listen in as we share how these tasks have improved our finances.
  • Your money habits directly impact your overall quality of life. Responsible spending and saving allow you to enjoy experiences, travel, and pursue hobbies without the burden of constant financial stress. Discover as we share our experiences and how our quality of life has drastically improved.
  • Your financial habits play a pivotal role in shaping your future. Good habits enable you to plan for retirement, invest in education, and secure your family's well-being. Poor money habits, on the other hand, can jeopardize your financial future, making it challenging to achieve your dreams and maintain a comfortable lifestyle in the long run. Listen to this episode to get some motivation from normal people who have taken control of their finances.

Resources Mentioned

Free Tools and Downloads at www.therealdebtfreedad.com

Connect With Brad

Thanks For Listening

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Episode Transcript: 

Brad:  

Hey everybody, welcome to episode number 192 of the Debt Free Dad. So, beyond the dollars and cents and calculations that make up our financial lives lies a profound truth which is the cornerstone of financial success lies in our habits. Yes, it's in our daily behaviors, our choices, our mindset that we discover the keys to unlocking the greatest financial transformations. And we've featured a lot of those transformations with our Roots members on the here over the last four years. Now, today we're going to be diving into the incredible impact of shifting our habits and how these changes have not only transformed our finances but also our entire lives. Stick around.

:  

You're listening to the with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck, both for learning the fundamentals of financial security. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.

Brad:  

Hey, how's everyone doing today? You can find us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Brad Nelson, and, as always, welcome to today's show. Remember to get all the resources, show notes and links for today's show. You can head over to thedebtfreedadpodcast. com and check out episode 192. Again, that is the and just check out episode 192. There is a search bar right there and you can search for any of the episodes and search through all 192 episodes that we have now, which is really, really cool. So, hey, if you joined us on episode 191, which was last week, and you were a little ticked off, today's a little better, because if you came back and you're like you know what, maybe, just maybe, it is my fault for my financial situation and I need to listen to these guys a little bit more. Today we're actually going to dive a little bit deeper into habits, behaviors and choices, which is really, like I said in the introduction, about where real transformation is going to lie. And today I just want to have a discussion with the podcast team here and really just kind of talk about before and after, of what life looked like before and after, and then talking about some of the behaviors, habits and choices, maybe some of the bigger things that we did in our lives to get ourselves out of debt. I know Kati here is still working her way out of debt but has successfully paid off $127,000 on a single income. The rest of us are debt-free, outside of our mortgages. I believe everyone's right. Right, everyone's outside of mortgages, right, yes, okay, so we've all have kind of gone through this and have been here. Some of us have been here for quite a while already. So I think we've got a lot of good experience in this, and I think that's another reason why we've been as successful as we have here at Debt Free Dad and helping a lot of people is because when you can change your habits and your behaviors and choices, you can go a long way. And these again are just normal people making normal incomes that are doing some of this stuff, and it's just life changing what some of these little simple changes can do. Simple as far as simple ideas. Hard to do, right, but simple ideas, no question. So, guys, real quick, we'll go around the group. But how much of your habits and mindset played a role in getting out of debt and staying out of debt in your opinion?

Kati:  

It's 100% why I'm out of debt or getting out of debt now, versus when I tried to do it all by myself. That didn't work, yeah.

Chris:  

Once I made the mindset change and got a significant way of being out of debt and realized that I'm going to make it, I'm going to get out of the debt. At that point it was simply I'm never going to go back to anything old that I used to do. This works way, way too well. My peace of mind, my relationship with my wife I would like to think her relationship with me has improved. It's just. There's no contest. There's absolutely no contest. I've been doing this a long time now and the habits are still there. They're never going to go away. How I execute some things and how I go about doing some things may have changed and even now, sometimes on a way, I might do things, but I don't borrow money to do it and I've got the money to do it, and there's so much joy and happiness that comes with that.

Brad:  

I think just that, just what you said to Chris about not borrowing money when you don't have it, just that one rule. If so many people would adopt that Like, if I can't afford to pay cash, I'm just not going to buy it how much that can save you, but how easy of a rule it is to break nowadays.

Amber:  

It's so hard, so hard, so hard to stick to, like Paul just showed me, my husband just showed me about we've been looking at upgrading not upgrading our boat, but just like fixing it up and changing the motor and stuff like that. And he showed me this and I was like yeah, it's a great deal. And I looked at him like he was we could go look at it right now. Literally we had this conversation in the car today and I thought about it and I was like, yeah, but where are we getting the money for it? And you can see his whole demeanor he just crushed. He's like, yeah, I guess.

Brad:  

You know what he's really thinking in the back of his head.

Ryan:  

I hate Brad, I hate Brad.

Amber:  

Probably we were all doing adult things today and signing our wills and anyways, it was an emotional day, I guess. Here's the thing.

Chris:  

Here's the boat dream here. No, you did not. He just can't have it today. That's the thing.

Amber:  

I really wanted it too, though you guys will save up and buy it. You know what I mean, so I would buy a boat.

Chris:  

I believe it was a boat stand for break out another thousand. Yeah, yeah.

Amber:  

We look, we, but here we're just restoring my grandfather's boat, but we want to like bring it back, and we just don't have the right motor for that.

Chris:  

Well, that's different. I could certainly understand that, but then that's the thing about we got to save, right. That's the good thing about doing things differently in the money habits that we're talking about. It doesn't mean you can't have it, just means you can't have it today.

Amber:  

Right. That's probably where the mindset shift has changed, has made us stay out of debt, is because we have these conversations with each other and we're like, yeah, we probably shouldn't do that right now, let's plan for it right now.

Kati:  

That's the key word right now, we always have what would Brad do in the back of our brain, and then would Brad get mad at me if I did this.

Amber:  

I get to see other brads like phoning. I saw your post on Facebook.

Kati:  

Daily struggle. If I leave the house, I'm like what am I going to spend today?

Ryan:  

If you're a new listener where Brad doesn't really creep on your stuff.

Chris:  

I'm thankful I got out of debt before I met Brad.

Brad:  

Seriously, I still shake my head about that. When did they put that together?

Amber:  

that like the first one we started Back in 2016.

Kati:  

Our members did they created that saying.

Brad:  

That's silly, but it's stuck for what. Seven years now.

Chris:  

If you're not sure what to do and you're in Roots and Brad's your leader and you're not sure what to do, well, what would Brad do Exactly? You don't want to do things wrong and Brad's got all the answers. I'm sure that's the mindset.

Kati:  

Brad is not a cult leader, but just put that out there.

Brad:  

I brought some Kool-Aid.

Ryan:  

I understand where Amber is coming from, though, because I think for us we bought an inflatable hot tub a year and a half ago and we want a real hot tub. We bought it because we wanted to try it and see if we liked it before we bought it. I think more of my mindset and over the habits and everything we've developed. It is easy, especially now, especially when you get on the other side of debt. It's so easy to say it's $200 a month. That's easy, that's a drop in the bucket. We can afford $200 a month. But $200 a month leads to another thing that's $50 a month and another thing that's $75. That's the old life I lived. That was my old lifestyle, my old way of doing things. It's just payments, payments, payments. I think that's where my mindset is. I don't want that over my head. I want to sit in it and know that I don't have to pay for it and that it's paid for and it's ours and I don't have to worry about it. That's just such an incredible feeling. I remember when we went on our first vacation after we got out of debt. We paid fully in cash and we got back. It was one of the first vacations I took that I wasn't during the vacation thinking about how we're going to pay for this. I was so upset that we went and paid all this money. It was the first true vacation I had where I came back and I was like man, that was awesome and fun and I don't have to worry about it. That's just so much better than Trust me. We went on a lot of you know, mickey Mouse vacations and posted a lot of pictures that were like man, how can you afford that? We charged it all. We probably paid them two times the amount of money that those vacations really cost. So those credit card companies loved us back then.

Chris:  

So what I'm hearing you say is this that you enjoy you. I don't know how do you blow up a inflatable hot tub.

Brad:  

First of all, he's in the backyard.

Chris:  

Is that how the water gets hot in it?

Ryan:  

It's just a mini pool, and then we each have straws.

Brad:  

It's really not that cool.

Chris:  

What I'm hearing you say that was, you would rather do that than have a hot tub payment.

Ryan:  

Yes.

Chris:  

There, you go.

Kati:  

Yes, I just got back from my I think fifth vacation that I paid in cash, whereas most of my vacations before Roots were on a card. And I'm still paying for them 10 years later. Probably I'm getting out of it. But I just have such more relaxing vacations, like I went to the chiropractor today for my lower back from sleeping on a bed that's not mine for a week, and then she's like but your neck and your shoulders, where all your stress is, you don't have any of that. I'm like, yeah, because I could actually relax on vacation. It is truly physically like. It is a thing like mental stress, physical stress. It's melted away and I'm still paying off debt, but I'm in such a better place.

Chris:  

So two things there. First of all, you can go on vacations that are paid for, even though you're trying to get out of debt. The second thing there is maybe not going on vacations anymore, and let's save you the chiropractor bill.

Kati:  

You can put all that money towards your debt and you'll be out of debt faster. I actually hurt my back before I left on vacation and then I was sleeping on a memory foam mattress the whole time and I just my back needs way more support than that, so it was just a compilation of things. I even was checking my chiropractors scheduled the morning I was supposed to leave going. Can I still make my flight if I go in? And she didn't have any appointments that morning, so I'm just like, all right, I'll deal with it on the beach, it's fine.

Brad:  

I think we need to get Ryan is inflatable hot tub and do a podcast episode.

Ryan:  

Don't knock it, man, it's awesome.

Brad:  

No, I want to go back to what Kati said about vacation is so much more relaxing. I'm just going to just up that and say life is just way more relaxing, I think. Don't get me wrong. There's still times where money is something. When you're debt free or I don't know if I use the word worry or stress, it's different. You pay attention to it a little bit more during certain situations. I guess when I lost Sarah, obviously I was paying attention pretty close. I wouldn't call it stressful, but your spidey senses, let's just say, are a little raised up when you're going through certain situations, whereas opposed to when you're in debt, it's like crisis to crisis living all the time. I can't even say that I'd whatever relaxed doing anything, because it was just something constantly in the back of your mind. There's so much statistics that support that. People who worry about money at work, they lose sleep. It's one of the number one causes for people's mental health issues the stress and anxiety and what financial stress can cause them. So I think what Kati said as far as what our habits have changed, at least for me, is just life is just easier to live, even though life is still hard. It's just one last thing to worry about and for a lot of us, it's one of the number one things we're worrying about. So, even like Kati said, we're still getting out of debt we hear this a lot in Roots Like even in the first 60 to 90 days. It's amazing the difference people feel just because they have a plan, they have a system that's working. They're actually making progress, they're starting to save money, they're starting to see hope that they can actually pay down their debt, and the reality is they keep going, they will. And so, even when you're feeling lousy, it's amazing, just by making some few simple changes, how quickly those feelings can change into feeling much better, not being so anxious, not being so stressed, and you have full control over that and that's the coolest part.

Kati:  

Yeah, like our last episode was about. Why don't we save for emergencies? Well, because the banks have always said well, that's why you have a credit card. Credit cards are for emergencies. And that was just what my brain had in the back of my mind before Roots. And now I'm like I need to get rid of these credit cards. I need to have actual money for emergencies and before $500 emergency would have completely stressed me out. I don't have that worry anymore. I know I have to like get new tires soon, because I just had a low tire pressure light come on and I'm like, oh crap, it is about that time. But if it was a $5,000 emergency, yes, I'm going to stress about that, but I also have a plan and I still have money that I can put towards that. And it's not like oh no life, like I can't eat for the rest of the year or something like that.

Brad:  

Right. Well, and I think the other thing too when when you're I don't know for me I felt like I had less opportunities when I was in debt. I didn't feel that way when I was in debt, I was just stressed. But I think once I got out of debt, I realized like holy crap, I have created a lot of new opportunities for myself. I mean, look at this entire business we've created now and help people get out of debt. And this wasn't the goal. It came down to debt for me, by the way. It just happened and it turned out to be an opportunity that was able to take advantage of it, and I was able to quit my full time job and jump into this full time and I lost my income for a while while I got this business running, but that was an opportunity I was able to take advantage of. And I think that's one thing that a lot of people just don't realize is that there's so many things that you're saying no to, maybe even subconsciously, because you are in debt. You know, Kati, I think one of the cool things about your journey is when you started and I actually asked you about this because I made a TikTok when you started you were making $13 an hour, like a little over five years ago, and so can you talk about I mean, because you've made some significant transitions into your career and changing jobs, getting promotions Can you talk about how, like, your finances have played a role in some of that stuff with you All right?

Kati:  

Yeah, when I think I actually might have found my pay stubs from back then and I might have actually only been making like $12. 50 an hour. And then, like three months later is when we got a raise all of a sudden and it was like, oh great, yeah, I'm, you know, I can afford to live now, but like still just barely. And I just I had confidence. All of a sudden like, oh, I can make changes, I can change my behavior in my mindset and do these things, so maybe I can also apply for a job that pays me more. So I did apply for another job and I have now gotten four promotions at that other company and five years later I'm making more than double what I was when I was at my original job five years ago and I have lots of flexibility. I love it. My stress level is way less. I was able to move across the country and still keep my job because I was working from home before. It was cool. But yeah, it's just like I can be closer to family. I can still go on. I can actually use my PTO to go on the actual vacations instead of going home to visit my family in the cold. So I enjoy that I just have to live in the cold for eight months of the year. But yeah, it's just. I have less stress, I have less health issues. I have just a better life in general from all the things, and one of the key sparks to start all of that was taking in control of my finances.

Brad:  

Yeah, that's so awesome. And Chris, you same thing. I mean, you're sitting in your ice cream shop, man Slinging ice cream.

Chris:  

Well, we're back to being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. It's a little quiet in here now, thank God, but yeah, that's that's. You talk about opportunities, a opportunity to move. We, we decided to move couldn't find a job doing what I traditionally did, so I just created my own job. Ok, and it's a lot of fun. And I don't have I don't have a lot of stress dealing with the business, because I know there's no better way to say this, but if it were to fail, I wouldn't feel like I was a failure necessarily, and so it takes a lot of the stress off and allows me to focus on growing and managing and building a business without all that fear of oh my gosh, what am I going to do if I fail?

Brad:  

Right, and so by from a financial standpoint right, correct, that's.

Chris:  

My point is I don't need the business to generate X amount of dollars to be able to pay my bills, so I have time to let it grow. I have time to take some of the money and to reinvest it into things you know, more equipment or higher people, things like that and it really, in the grand scheme of things, has been a lot of fun because I haven't had that hanging over over my head. A couple of things real quick. I'm. I mentioned we're closed yesterday and I, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a couple of painting packages because my wife has been talking about wanting to paint, wanting to paint, wanting to paint, wanting to paint. Well, one of my employees has also been saying the same thing. I'd love to start learning to paint. I'd love to start learning to paint. Well, I found a company where you can watch their videos. They send you all the canvas, they send you the paint brushes, the paints, and I just don't know where I'm going to spend like 120 bucks buying this kit for my wife to sit here and one of my, one of my workers to see here and paint, and they're about halfway through. They're going to come in tomorrow and finish it. But that's something that makes me feel good and I have the ability to do it on the whim. I'm just saying you know what it's 100 bucks I'm going to. It's going to enrich two people's lives a lot more than the value of the 100 bucks. Go ahead and spend it so you can say no to small things now, so that later, when you're out of debt like you're talking about Brad you can start a business. Or I can start a business, or I can just on the whim and buy something. Don't go buy a boat, you don't know.

Amber:  

Save for my boat. Got it Right.

Chris:  

But it's. That's the thing is, you're never saying no for the rest of your life. In fact, you're saying small to notice small things. So later on you can say yes to really big things. But you got to get through that that hurdle. First you got to get over the hill, and then boys. It's so much fun. But one more thing I know I'm rambling on here. Okay, you, we have mentioned this before, so there's nothing new, but this is a good point to mention it. Learning what to do about money or how to manage money never goes away. You get completely out of debt. You get a three to six month worth of emergency fund. You get your kids through college, which is where I'm at now. Now the question is okay, I need to invest, I need to save for retirement, maybe I want to retire early. How do you do that? The lessons never learn. It's just the pressure that's on you at the moment to learn something new, to fix something. That pressure goes away and it makes it a lot more enjoyable.

Ryan:  

Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, when it comes to opportunity, you know, like for me, I mean, this has been the. There's people listening to this, and I was one of these people for a long time that are stuck in jobs they hate, are stuck in the day to day rut of going to work, hating what they do, have dreams of doing something different, but they can't because they got a bunch of stuff they got to pay for and that used to be my life and it's just like. This is, for me, probably the biggest payoff is not I mean, they're over the course of my career and all of my working time, there were a number of opportunities that had come my way and I couldn't even entertain it, I couldn't even say, even think about it, it was just an immediate no, because I had payments and there's no way I could do it. I mean, kind of going back to what Chris was talking about, like what if I fail? Like if I do this and it doesn't work, I mean we're really going to be in trouble. And just to know that now my life hasn't lived that way, you can really kind of capitalize and take advantage of an opportunity, that's a huge thing. And, Kati, with the different promotions, taking a different job, I mean, even that is scary. When you've got a lot of bills, like moving jobs into a different company is like, well, what if I do that and what if this? And you have all these what ifs where it's like, once they're with finances, get in order, you might right now be thinking, man, I would love to go to my boss and ask for that raise, but you wouldn't do it right now. But if you got out of debt, maybe you would, yeah, maybe you would get a little bit more vocal in your job and maybe that would help you in your current role or maybe it would help you go to a different company and be more valuable there. So it may not always be about starting big businesses or doing those sorts of things, but it may allow you to live the life you really want to live and do something in your career that you really want to do, instead of just having all the fancy stuff that you have or having all the things or the cars or whatever it is that you have. Are you happy? I mean, are you going to work happy every day? Are you going to work hating that it's Monday and happy that it's Friday, because all the stuff in the world, all the stuff I had. I was never happy, not truly Not like I am. Now I have way less stuff than I used to have and I'm so much more happier.

Brad:  

Yeah, I would say that is probably the biggest payoff of habits, behaviors and choices just the freedom that you get. And I would agree, you know, when I started this business I mean very much like what Chris and Ryan have both said is that, you know, when I started this business, yeah, there was fear or failure, but not from a financial standpoint. It was actually like Chris, like you, opening up your ice cream shop. It was fun and in fact, me and Chris kind of we were kind of doing the same thing when we first started. We were, and so I've known Chris for a while as we were getting started and it was exciting. You know, it's exciting, but it can be the opposite too. Like Ryan said, it doesn't have to be business. Maybe you can work less hours, maybe you can spend more time with your kids, maybe you could quit your job and stay home with your kids. Maybe, I mean it, maybe it's a vacation, maybe it's I mean it could be. It could be a lot of different things. That is going to give you new opportunities because of the behaviors, habits and choices that you're willing to take or willing to change. But it's what it is. It's it's so life-changing. But and I think you know if you're wondering like, okay, well, where do I get started on changing behaviors and habits and choices, I think you know we we're gonna talk right at the end of this podcast. We're gonna give you a workshop. It's free. It's gonna give you some great starting points, some things to look at them, some things to start doing. Go listen to the episodes that we have here on this podcast. I mean there's so much information We've shared over the last hundred ninety two episodes there's. I mean, really just comes down to just putting your focus on it and Really putting in some of that work. But what would you guys say? I mean, in your opinion, getting started, what do you feel is like the best thing that they can do? And, in your opinion, and changing habits and choices, what's one tip that you could give them based on your experience, guys?

Chris:  

Just start, just plain and simple. Even if you have no clue what to do, even if you completely screw it up, start, start again, start again. Kati, you mentioned this. How many times did you say you dropped off the bandwagon and had to start over again?

Kati:  

I have sorry, I was stuck on mute Lots, countless. I have stopped counting.

Chris:  

It's pointless to count how many times I've rebuilt my but you wouldn't be where you are today If you hadn't started the first time correct exactly like 100%.

Kati:  

I've tried this before on my own, but this works like. This really Changes everything and it's what saved marriages. It's saved Mental stress and health physical health for a lot of people that have joined. It's just, it's huge.

Chris:  

So just start. That's the big thing. And if you're just, you don't know what to do next. Then what would Kati do?

Brad:  

I like that one way better.

Kati:  

And Then also, when you start, if you fall off the bandwagon, you're not going all the way back to zero. You have experience and you have knowledge now. So you're not falling all the way back, you're just taking a step back so you Don't have as far to catch up again. When you try again, it's just if you get knocked down seven times, if you get up the eighth time, that is success here. It's that's it. Just keep doing the things, just keep moving.

Amber:  

It's a great thing. I think, when you get started, though, like it's a good thing to do is just to get a picture of where you're at. Go through that and we've talked about it a lot Go through your bank, see where your money is going, because that's that's a really good place to start. Once you're like I don't know what do you mean, Chris, where do I start? It's probably a good place to start is just to get a picture where you're at, because I think that in itself Gave us a really good check on shoot. We need to change something and do something different here.

Brad:  

Yeah Well, and I think it's also a good point to look at where you're at, but also a good idea from a behavior, habits and choices standpoint is looking at where you where do you want to be. In fact, I have like a notebook that I still have today that I was a side-by-side comparison because I was very much like Ryan was saying I didn't hate my job, but I just had hit the income ceiling. I just was kind of getting worn out from it. I had a great boss and great position. I was very grateful to be there, but it just I just didn't fit that anymore. But at the same time I was so broke I didn't know what to do. I didn't have the opportunity to switch jobs and take a different job because it would have been less money and I want to be able to form my bills. So I made like a, a side-by-side comparison of pros and cons of here's where I'm at, here's where I want to be and, believe it or not, the stuff that I wanted in a job is this business. It's crazy looking back at some of those notes, but just just look at also like where you want to be, and not just from a career standpoint, but just your overall life because, like Chris and I talk a lot about. Ryan, you mentioned a lot is like finding your why, like why do you want to do the work? Because getting out of debt is hard. It's not easy stuff. You know we we talk about that all the time here on the show. You know Some of this. For some of us, me included you know it's one of the hardest things ever did was get out of debt, but it's also been one of the best things I've ever done for our life. So I think having the reason behind why you're gonna do that work Is gonna be the motivation behind changing some of those habits and those behaviors, because that's where the hard work comes in is a Lot of these concepts we talk about are easy. It's it's the work that is challenging and then the consisting that, the consistency that needs to go with that work so Cranky.

Chris:  

Chris says this I don't know how to budget, just start. I don't know my why is start figuring it out. Yeah, I don't make enough money. Start figuring out how to make more money. Action there, action, yes, it don't. Kind of goes back to last week. That's why I jokingly said cranky Chris is Is stop being you're blaming everybody else. Stop coming it with excuses why you can't do it and just start. He may not get it right. Do it again, you'll figure it out. Read, listen to podcast like this one, join Brad's program. Just the heck, look at the Facebook page and some of the things that you post in there, some of the things that people post in the success that they're having. Learn and keep moving forward.

Ryan:  

I yeah, and I would just add for me, you know, don't be discouraged by. You may have a decent amount of debt and you may be thinking, oh, it's going to take me a long time to pay off. You know, katie, you've been what? Five years now.

Kati:  

More than five years. Five years and five.

Ryan:  

It took me almost eight years and now I did it and it's like now I'm already saying that was three years ago, I already finished. So, regardless of how much debt or how long you think it's going to take, that time is going to pass by. So if you do nothing, you just keep doing the life you live in. You know, five years, Kati, if you did nothing, where would you be? Or 11 years later, where would I be if I did nothing? I mean, it would be a mess. So it's like don't be discouraged because it goes by. It's a long haul, but when it's over, it's like it does feel like man that did it went by pretty quick. You know, it's just in the middle of it. It feels like it's going to go by pretty slow.

Brad:  

So the totally awesome Debt Freedom Planner is helping so many people make consistent progress with their finances, whether that be building emergency funds, paying down bills, budgeting, tracking paydays, saving up for larger purchases, goal planning and planning for those irregular yearly expenses that always seem to catch you by surprise. Now the Debt Freedom Planner will help you take the stress out of managing your money. And if the thought is running through your mind, hey, I just need to have a simple tool to get my finances together. This planner is perfect for you. Head over to therealdebtfreedad. com, click on the Debt Freedom Planner in the menu at the top of the page and order your Debt Freedom Planner today.

Chris:  

Let's talk about debt, baby. Let's talk about your money. Let's talk about all the good things, all the bad things that may be. Let's talk about debt.

Amber:  

And that sound it means it's time for the celebrations of the show. First we have Erin Hood. I stayed on budget with my trip, so I will have a little leftover from the cash I saved to pay off my credit card while overseas.

Brad:  

Yeah, paying off a credit card while on vacation.

Ryan:  

Right, hell yeah, that's awesome, kim. Oh, is it me?

Brad:  

It is me, so I was really excited about Erin Kim Schmidt. Okay, big win is getting my internet bill down to $56,. Other than that, it is just maintenance right now, Trying to stay happy about that. But it's not backwards. And I do want to speak to that because, yes, there are times during the journey where you do stall out a little bit. Life comes up, expenses come up. You got to slow down your debt payoff or your savings, that's okay. You just got to stick with it. Kim's kind of at that point right now. But still a big win, still looking for ways to save money. So just keep at it.

Chris:  

And sometimes those wins involve paying off the last $300 of your couch, which is what Corey Brown did. Congratulations.

Brad:  

Yeah, way to go, corey, Congratulations.

Kati:  

Hillary Morris paid off a credit account and all her accounts are current that is a big win.

Brad:  

That is a huge win, Way to go.

Ryan:  

Hillary and Cindy Kirkpatrick. Hannah, I didn't get talked into a new car. Huge win, Wow.

Brad:  

Good for you, cindy, congratulations. She's just following that simple rule If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it right, simple.

:  

Oh Cindy.

Brad:  

Yeah, so hard sometimes, but good job. All right. Guys, if you're just getting started with our podcast or maybe you've been listening for some time and you're interested in how you can get started on the road to financial freedom go visit our website at debtfreedad. com and sign up for our free Life Without Payments workshop, where I want to show you the first steps that have helped tens of thousands of people just like you and I kick financial stress and worry for good. We'll see you next week.