Episode: 324 - Build a Sustainable Savings Habit
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Are You Tired of Living Paycheck to Paycheck?
For many, the moment a paycheck arrives, it seems to vanish almost overnight. Bills, debts, and daily expenses make saving money seem impossible. However, building a habit of saving money isn't exclusive to those with a surplus of cash; it's essential for anyone looking to gain control of their finances and achieve true freedom.
Understanding the Road to Debt Freedom
Brad Nelson, founder of Debt Free Debt, shares his journey of paying off $45,000 in debt and staying debt-free for over 12 years. Alongside him are Chris Hawkins, who paid off nearly $100,000 in debt with his wife, and Kati Hatfield, who has cleared over $200,000 despite being on a single income. Ryan Nelson also shares his success, having eliminated $160,000 in debt over eight years.
These journeys can teach us valuable lessons about the importance of saving and its role in reducing stress, worry, and financial anxiety. As Ryan reflects on his childhood spending habits and Chris recalls a humorous SNL skit, they realize that saving is not just about putting money aside but creating a fundamental shift in mindset.
Building the Habit of Saving
The key to building a habit of saving often lies in its connection with paying off debt. Chris highlights the importance of having an emergency fund and gamifying debt repayment to develop financial discipline. Initially, you may not see the value in saving, especially when living paycheck to paycheck, but establishing an emergency fund can significantly alleviate financial stress.
Implementing Practical Saving Strategies
Kati suggests starting small, even if it's just putting aside a few dollars. Automating savings and making it a priority can help in building that habit. Ryan discusses the importance of making savings a priority and cutting unnecessary expenses. Their family made significant lifestyle changes by downsizing their home and selling a costly car, which allowed them to prioritize and build their emergency fund.
Brad and Kati both emphasize tracking spending and identifying unnecessary expenses that can be redirected toward savings. Constructing an emergency fund is critical for achieving peace of mind and success in reducing overall debt.
Education and Support
Chris shares how education played a massive role in shifting his financial habits. Reading books on money management and learning from others' experiences helped him build confidence and develop a simple system for financial success. Surrounding yourself with supportive individuals and acquiring knowledge are invaluable in creating a long-term habit of saving.
Facing Financial Challenges with Confidence
Unexpected financial situations can arise at any moment, whether it's a job loss or sudden expenses. By having savings, both Brad and Kati illustrate how financial preparedness can transform stress into manageable events. A savings account provides not only security but also opens doors to opportunities previously unforeseen.
Reshaping Financial Mindsets
Shifting from a consumerist mindset to one that values experiences over material possessions aids in achieving long-term financial goals. For Chris, saying no to purchases that don't contribute to meaningful experiences is crucial. This perspective encourages us to prioritize financial health over instant gratification.
Rewarding Financial Milestones
While saving is vital, rewarding oneself occasionally is just as important. Setting milestone rewards keeps you motivated throughout your journey to financial freedom. Kati recommends making a list of desired purchases and budgeting for them, transforming spending habits into a planned, controlled act rather than impulsive actions.
Conclusion
Building a habit of saving doesn't just lead to financial freedom; it changes how you perceive money and what ultimately makes you happy. Those who dedicate themselves to this journey often find that the "stuff" they once craved falls into insignificance compared to the freedom that savings and debt freedom provide.
With determination, anyone can break free from financial constraints and change their lives for the better. Remember, it's not about cutting everything out but finding a balance that allows you to live freely, save confidently, and spend wisely.
Resources Mentioned
The Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner https://www.debtfreedad.com/planner
To learn how to take the stress out of your finances so you can breathe again, follow this link: https://www.debtfreedad.com/lwp-masterclass-opt-in-page-podcast
Connect With Brad
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Brad Nelson: 0:00
Hey, so are you tired of feeling like your money disappears the moment that you get paid? You're not alone. Saving money can feel impossible when bills, debt and everyday expenses pile up. But here's the truth Building a habit of saving isn't just for people with extra cash lying around. It's for anyone ready to take control of their finances and create real freedom. Now, in today's episode of the Debt-Free Dad Podcast, we're diving into a few simple, practical tips that will help you turn saving from struggle into routine.
Announcer: 0:36
You're listening to the Debt-Free Dad Podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. 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 Nelson: 1:04
Hey guys, welcome to today's show. I am Brett Nelson, founder of Debt Free Debt. I paid off about $45,000 of debt. I've been debt free now for more than 12 years. I've also helped thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Debt Free Debt.
Chris Hawkins: 1:18
And I'm Chris Hawkins, and my wife and I started our financial journey 20 years ago, in 2005, and it took us about three years to pay off just under $100,000 worth of debt, and we've been debt-free except for our house ever since.
Kati Hatfield: 1:31
And I'm Katie Hatfield and I am still on my journey to debt freedom and in the last six and a half years I have paid off over $200,000 in debt, and that's all on a single income thousand dollars in debt.
Ryan Nelson : 1:44
And that's all on a single income and my name is Ryan Nelson. My wife and I paid off about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars over eight years while we were raising three kids.
Brad Nelson: 1:51
Now, guys, if you're listening to this episode, if you're ready to take things to the next level, you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, you want to reduce financial stress, you want to build savings and finally pay off your debt for good, but you're really not quite sure where to start.
Brad Nelson: 2:04
We've created some incredible free resources here at Debt-Free Dad to help you get there, and we'll be sharing some details about how you get started with that later on in today's episode.
Brad Nelson: 2:13
So, guys, a very popular topic is saving, and I always tell people this when they start roots or anyone that I really talk to about saving because a lot of us are not really good savers is that, if I can learn to save, I feel like anyone can learn to save, because I was absolutely terrible at it and, admittedly, back when I was in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, I never really saw any real value in saving. All I was concentrated on was like I gotta pay off debt, I gotta pay off debt, I gotta pay off debt, which I did, but I didn't really quite understand how savings played a role in that and then really how it plays a role in just your overall stress levels, your worry, your anxiety as it relates to your finances and I think for a lot of people, especially when getting out of debt, they make the same mistake. Savings is a critical part of getting out of debt.
Ryan Nelson : 2:59
I remember being a kid and we'd get an allowance from mom. I would have it spent in a second.
Ryan Nelson : 3:04
I'd be, down at the store playing video games or just gone and that whole mentality of saving just the same thing. It just never really was a thing. Anytime I got planned tax returns or any of that stuff was, as we got older, like I had that money spent 17 times and there was never really a thought of. I should put away a little bit of this for this reason or that reason. There's another thing that just pops my mind when we talk about this. There's an snl skit talks about you shouldn't buy things you can't afford. And there's this part in that skit where steve martin's like and where do you get this saved money? And it just makes me laugh because I remember thinking that when I was younger, like who has savings? Who has $3,000 saved? Nobody does that.
Chris Hawkins: 3:48
And I actually used to show that Saturday Night Live skit to my students when I was a teacher, Just to kind of break the ice a little bit, make it a little humorous. And the funny thing about that skit is the book. Remember there was a book in that skit. The book was one page long.
Ryan Nelson : 4:03
Right.
Chris Hawkins: 4:05
All right, and basically the message was stop buying stuff you can't afford, Right? All right, Brad, you kind of threw a monkey wrench in your little introduction there, Because to me you know the number one way to build that habit. Remember, this is a building a habit. By the way, it doesn't happen overnight.
Brad Nelson: 4:20
Right.
Chris Hawkins: 4:21
It's not necessarily easy. It takes time to build that habit, but for me, the easiest way to build the habit was to pay off debt. How much can I put towards this debt? How much can I put towards that debt? Now, sure, you want to have an emergency fund in place, but what I found is, when I gamified it and you've heard me talk about this before is how can I find an extra $10, is, how can I find an extra $10, an extra $20? Can I have money left over in my gas envelope or my food envelope to put towards the next debt on the debt snowball? And so what I found is, when I got out of debt, all of a sudden, I had the habit of putting money towards this debt, that debt, everywhere I debt debt.
Chris Hawkins: 5:04
That was the point at which it became easier to save, because now you go, what do I do with all this money? And I've worked so hard for three years to get out of debt that that became the mind shift change. I wasn't wanting to go out and spend everything that I got. It's not like okay, I'm out of debt, what do I do all this now? Oh, let's go blow it. No, it's like I've developed a habit of paying debt off. Now what's the next natural progression? So to me, paying off debt and saving kind of became hand in hand, if that makes sense.
Announcer: 5:35
Yeah.
Brad Nelson: 5:35
Well, I don't think we're really ever taught like to. I mean, obviously there's this general rule of thumb that you should save money. I think we can all agree with that. I think where a lot of us struggle with is that we're not really taught to save. Though it's like it's spend, spend, spend, it's go into debt, it's payments, payments, payments. Why save up? Get it now Right.
Brad Nelson: 5:55
And so I think a lot of people who struggle especially me at first, when I was living paycheck to paycheck, I didn't see any value in really saving. Like why would I save when I can easily just sign up for a payment that I could afford? But then at the same time, I'm dealing with a ton of financial stress on the back end because I'm trying to afford all these payments. But it wasn't until I built like you brought up, chris that emergency fund. It wasn't until I built that where I realized, like just having 1000, 1500 bucks, 2000 bucks in a savings account, how much stress relief I had. And that's not even that much really anymore. I mean, it doesn't take much to spend that kind of money, but just having that there. I mean 63% of the American population can't handle a $500 emergency expense without going into debt right now. I think for a lot of people it's just we have this idea that we should save, but we're just not very good at it. We're terrible at it actually.
Kati Hatfield: 6:44
Yeah, when I was little my mom I feel like this is something that was on Oprah or one of those kind of shows growing up and we had jars like she got little jam jars or whatever and we had to like if we got $10 for our allowance, we had to put $2 in savings and one in church and like two for fun. And then it was just like, okay, that's great, but when I can reach into the jar there's a problem because that money just is sitting there. So she made us go to the bank and put it in an actual savings account, because back then you had to write checks. That's how old I am. It took a lot of work to get that money out of the bank.
Chris Hawkins: 7:25
You can just have it to spend whatever I did my doctoral dissertation on what we should be teaching high school students about credit, and as part of a dissertation you have to sort of write a background history of what this particular study is important.
Chris Hawkins: 7:41
And as part of my research, and if you go back to before the Great Depression, a lot of what was taught in school it was this order. It was save, earn, spend in that order. And then, of course, after the Great Depression, after World War II, you get Keynesian economics, and I won't go into a big economic lesson here. But the idea of Keynesian economics was consumers need to spend money for the economy to continue to grow, right, so it changed. It now became how to spend, how to earn and how to save in that order. So save went from one to three on the list and so, yes, we all know we're supposed to save, but it's not really stress, because what's been more important? Spending money, because if you're a good American, you'll spend money to help the economy grow and everybody has a job and you can pat yourself on the back. Unfortunately, as we've seen, that doesn't really work well either.
Brad Nelson: 8:36
Yeah, Well, and I think so that's what I would like to ask you guys. So how did you guys individually start creating more of a habit of saving in a society where we're taught we should save, but really we're told we should just spend, spend, spend?
Kati Hatfield: 8:50
I didn't start saving until I joined Roots because I was like I don't have any extra money. What am I supposed to put in my savings account if I don't have anything? So I had to learn it's okay if it's just $5 or $10 or $20, just put something in there. And I remember automating 10% of my paycheck as soon as it got deposited. It would automatically roll over 10% of my check into savings and I'm just like all right, well, I'm only going to be able to live on what's in my checking right now. I'm not going to be able to touch my savings. And I just made that a habit and now I don't even notice that that is gone.
Kati Hatfield: 9:27
So, it helps, but you have to start a little bit. Same with that's how I started with my retirement fund. I put in $50 a month for an IRA. Got to start somewhere.
Ryan Nelson : 9:38
We made it a priority for us when it came to saving. So I mean, we were a hundred percent in that 63% you talked about. We were the 63% who couldn't afford a $500 emergency, and when those things happen, whatever they may be, we charged it. You know, that's how we lived our life, and it got to a point for us where it was like we were tired of living that way and then we made sacrifices. We I mean we're wired kind of like what you just were talking about, chris, of we're wired in this spend mentality here, especially in America I don't know about other countries and we're wired in this acquire and stuff and payments.
Ryan Nelson : 10:13
And we just had to stop doing that, because saving for a lot of people and for us in the moment when we started doing this was like I don't have any money to save. At the end of the day, when I pay all my bills, I don't have anything left. And so for us it was taking a step back and saying, okay, we're going to stop going out to eat as much. We sold a car. We had a big car payment on. We actually sold a house and downsized our home. We did a lot of things that freed up some cash so we could say, okay, if we're going to do all these things, then saving needs to be a priority and kind of that first emergency fund savings for us. That was really the big thing for us is it had to be a priority and if we didn't make it a priority it was never, ever, ever going to happen.
Ryan Nelson : 10:52
Especially me and to this day I'm still a spender my first inclination when I hear we found $5 or $20 or $100 is like what can I go buy? That's my first reaction to this day, because it's just in my nature of who I am. It's just now. I don't react and go do it like I used to. Now it's okay, we can't.
Brad Nelson: 11:10
Now we're going to save that or we're going to do this with it, yeah, and we talk about it all the time on this show. For me, I was like, once I started really tracking my spending, I realized that I could actually save money. I was just spending it on a bunch of stuff that I didn't need, like going out to eat or going to concerts. I loved doing all of those things, but the reality is like you said, ryan, you have to make it a priority and, yes, sometimes that means like you have to cut out things here and there in order to make saving a priority, but it needs to be one. In our experience, helping with so many people people getting that first emergency fund bill is so critical and having success with paying down all of your debt You've got to get yourself to that point.
Chris Hawkins: 11:51
And for me, I personally had gotten to the point where you know you make good money but you don't feel like you have anything to show for it, and I struggled with that for a couple of years and it took really educating myself, primarily through reading, reading and reading what other people wrote about money, and quickly I became to realize that all I needed was a simple system, and then what I wanted to do was achievable, and so it was gaining the confidence.
Chris Hawkins: 12:24
I think, initially, that there were other people who were like me, who wish they could be doing better, felt like they had the means to be doing better and should be doing better, and so, for me, I immersed myself in education and as part of reading, I mean Good Gracious, total Money Makeover, the Wealthy Barber, richest man in Babylon, I mean I could go down a long list of books that, by the way, at the same time I began doing my dissertation, which was a whole different area of learning about money.
Chris Hawkins: 12:56
That helped me gain the confidence to be able to pay off debt and, as I mentioned, it was that lessons learned in paying off debt start small and then, eventually, you figure things out and you figure out how to pay off more debt and it's got to be the most important thing, it's got to be a priority that eventually those same lessons, everything I learned about getting out of debt and everything that I read like pay yourself first I was able to then apply towards savings. So it was sort of a simultaneous path, if that makes sense, but for me, education was a big part of it.
Brad Nelson: 13:32
Yeah, well, I think education and then also getting yourself around different ideas and, like you mentioned, chris, the books that you've read, the things that you were doing. When you're locked into your normal everyday life and you're constantly in this cycle of spend, spend, spend, you're around people who are spend, spend, spending. Sometimes it's hard and it's impossible to even see outside the box that it's even possible to save. But when you start reading books, listening to podcasts like this, getting yourself around other people who are doing some things different, it gets some light bulbs to go off, like, hey, maybe this is something I could do. I just can't be like everybody else. I got to do some things different. So getting around the right support system, I think, is huge.
Kati Hatfield: 14:10
Yeah, because now it makes me upset when someone's like well, that's why you have a credit card for emergencies, and I'm like, no, if you don't have the money, don't put it on a credit card. Like you have to figure something else out, I Don't put it on a credit card.
Chris Hawkins: 14:23
Like you have to figure something else out. I was kind of giggling in my head because that's almost the word that are in that Saturday Night Live skit we mentioned earlier. Yeah, if you don't have the money, stop buying stuff.
Brad Nelson: 14:34
Right.
Ryan Nelson : 14:35
Yeah, and the other thing I would say too and this is important for us is when we first started saving is you haven't fixed yourself yet. So if you're going to start saving and you do a good job at it and you have one or two or $3,000 saved, the old spender in you is going to see that one or two or $3,000 and think we have one or two or $3,000 to spend. And so for us, we made it a very big point. We opened up another account. We had the money in that savings account and we didn't tie a debit card to it. We could go get it if we had to, but it forced us to not be able to live in the moment where it's like I could write a check or I could do something with that money, which when we did that, that's when we learned a little bit more contentment and we don't really need that.
Ryan Nelson : 15:25
Like when we started doing that, it really helped us feel like, right now I want this and we'd be like, okay, should we go to the bank? We'll go get the money, and then within a couple hours you start going. I don't know if we really want it, I don't know. And so I'm not saying we never did that when we started, but it happened very, very seldom. So I think that's a big part is don't make this easily accessible. If you're just starting to save, because the old you, if you're like me and like a lot of us, if you're a spender, it's going to creep up. You're going to save 500 bucks and you're going to feel like I have 500 bucks in savings account. I'm just going to go use that. So get it in a spot where you can't use it or it's very hard to access.
Kati Hatfield: 16:00
Yeah, and you have to determine, define what is an emergency. They're not always truly emergencies. It's the sinking. Funds are what you need, for you know, your tires will eventually need to be replaced, your battery will need to be replaced, your furnace could go out, your roof needs replaced, like all of those things happen and we act like we had no idea and it pops up on us. And the waiting before you spend on any kind of purchase. I was the queen of impulse spending. I was like, oh, I'm at the checkout and I'm looking at all the little things that they have there to add two, three, four, five dollars to every little purchase and I had to think what would brad do? And then I would put it back and then I would see if I wanted it the next time I went to the store and then I just stopped going to target and that helped immensely.
Brad Nelson: 16:57
yeah, that 24-hour rule is huge and I think that was probably one of the things that helped me the most was just taking that extra second and saying no. But I'd openly admit I think today it's much harder. Back when I was getting out of debt, yes, online shopping, all that stuff was gaining steam, but back in, you know, 2011-ish, it was like not anywhere near it is. Now they make it so easy to spend money now, but just taking that extra 24 hours, just a day and just sometimes. It doesn't have to be a whole day. It's like Ryan you said you know, do we really want it? Do we really need it? And as you let time go on, you realize like 99% of the stuff that you really wanted in the moment you don't even really want. It was just that emotional urge to buy something. So, giving yourself an opportunity instead of telling yourself no, just tell yourself you're going to wait for just a little while to see if there's something that you really want to have. I think that it's helped so many people For me.
Chris Hawkins: 17:52
I want to add to that Having I don't want to say dreams and goals, but having a purpose. We talk about the why all the time on here. It really is. It's a tough thing to develop and it does take time and it does change over time.
Chris Hawkins: 18:07
But if you have a higher purpose, something that you're really working towards, it makes it easy to say if I buy this, does it help me to accomplish my purpose? And if the answer to that is no, then it makes it real easy to say no, and you're not really saying no, you're saying yes to something that is much more important, which is that purpose or that goal or that dream or that aspiration. So for me, I always ask myself does spending this money on this help me have an experience that I may never have had without it? All right, and I had my mind, without going into too much detail, what I mean by an experience, because to me, things are not as important as having experiences. Experiences could be, you know, traveling or seeing something, or learning something, or doing something I've never done before. I can ask myself does buying this little trinket or this little thing help me have an experience? And most of the time the answer is no, and so it's saying no to that thing, but it's saying yes to having experiences later on down the road.
Brad Nelson: 19:16
Absolutely Love that. And the other thing, too is, guys, it's okay to reward yourself as well. I think sometimes we get so much in the habit of I got to save, save, save, save. I never can reward myself or have any sort of milestone rewards, and I think this comes to saving money or getting out of debt. I think you should reward yourself along the way, like we talk about it often on the show. I don't feel like you should have to cut everything out of your life to get out of debt. Some people are able to do that, but it's such a small percentage of people. You need to still live, you still need to celebrate life a little bit along the way. So it's okay when you get to a certain spot, like, hey, maybe you do go do something, or maybe it is that one little purchase that you want to have that you've been putting off because you've been saving, it's okay to reward yourself too.
Kati Hatfield: 19:56
That's where I make a list of those things that I'm like I do think I really want that, but then I can budget for it. So I have a list and I'm saving towards it, Not like I have to spend this right now, charge it and then pay it off later. I save and then I buy it. It's just reversing my habit and my mindset from six or seven years ago.
Brad Nelson: 20:18
Yeah, I like Morgan Housewell's quote, and I don't know if it's I don't know it to the T, but it's something along the lines of saving without a savings goal is your insurance policy against life's inevitable ability to surprise the hell out of you. So that's. The other thing, too, is like you eventually want to get so good at saving like you don't even really have a savings goal. It's just, I know that saving money today will save me tomorrow, and it will be that hug that you need when things in life show up on your doorstep. Sometimes it doesn't necessarily have to be a goal, it's just like that. Again, I know something's coming down the pipeline. I don't know what it's going to be. It ain't going to be fun, though, and I would really like to have some money put away just in case something like that happens.
Ryan Nelson : 21:03
And I would really like to have some money put away just in case something like that happens. But I think the reality is that and I think we've probably all seen this when you're on the front end of this, you know learning how to save, trying to get out of debt. For me, it was about getting out of debt and saving money so I could buy cooler stuff, and I think there's a realization that happens along the way that most of that stuff that I wanted didn't make me happy. It was this happiness cycle that a lot of us get trapped into. It's like this next cool thing I'm going to buy is going to make me happy, and so you get it. And then a day, a week, a month goes by and then you're not happy and then you're back out doing the next thing to give you that hit of dopamine of this is going to make me happy, and you just keep doing that over and over, and I think what we've seen now is 90 plus percent of the crap I used to buy didn't make me happy. Is there still stupid stuff? I buy, of course, but nowhere near what I used to, because I know now, and so what makes us happier now is just, we'll just save it. We're going to save money, you know we have our retirement goals and things like that, but we would rather just put it in savings and if something comes down the road where we really want something, well, we have the money. But I'm not going to go just back into this mode of like buy this thing to make me happy, knowing that I'm just fulfilling like something right now, that I'm just I'm bored and so I feel like doing this will make me happy, you know. So just getting yourself out of that, you'll find that I think all of us probably would rather save money than just go buy stuff, because it's not as fulfilling as watching like a savings account and knowing, like you said, if something happens, I'm good, I don't have to panic and worry about it.
Ryan Nelson : 22:35
Like when I lost my job a couple of years ago, that was scary. It sucked. I got laid off and I see a lot of people on LinkedIn right now getting laid off and they're like I can't pay my bills, I don't know what to do, they're having to dive into retirement right away and it's like we didn't have to do any of that and I would much rather have that than what a lot of these people are facing. I don't want to have a pile of bills in a house and the first check I miss. I'm like I can't make my payments. I don't want that life. That's the life I used to live. I don't want that again.
Kati Hatfield: 23:02
And I'm going through that right now because not my regular job, but my side hustle the company that I represented has been in business 32 years and, without any warning, two, three weeks ago, they just closed no warning whatsoever, just done, ceased operations and left many hundreds, if not thousands, of people with no income whatsoever. And it's just a shock and I'm glad that, yes, I do have another job so I don't have to go rushing into that. But now my day job is also having possible issues, so I'm like I'm just looking at my savings going. I am so glad I have that so I'm not stressed and I don't have to jump into something just to do something. I can take a step back, evaluate what I want to do. This is not the midlife crisis I was expecting to go through this year, but it's just like what do I actually want to be when I grow up? Maybe I need to figure that out this year.
Chris Hawkins: 24:00
Well, you are going to land well, regardless of what happens, because of the fact you've gone through this journey and now you've set yourself up to be able to fight the fight. But you've also learned so much, and it's that learning that's going to pay off, I promise you, in some other form or fashion, regardless of where you land and what you do. Now, brad, I do want to come back and piggyback on something you said, and that is the idea of saving, because something negative is going to come up at some point, and that's certainly true, happens all the time and really I don't even notice it anymore. I wouldn't call it negative anymore. It's a blip and a change in the budget. Okay, we'll deal with it.
Chris Hawkins: 24:35
But on the flip side and this, I guess, is more for those of you who were maybe halfway through your journey you've been doing the route, so you've been listening to this podcast for a while or maybe you've gotten to the point, or you're about to get to the point, where you're out of debt and you're saying, okay, well, what can saving do for me On the flip side, just having money in the bank that you have no idea what you're going to do with it down the road, but when an opportunity pops up, guess what?
Chris Hawkins: 25:02
You've got some money in the bank to take advantage of an opportunity that you never expected before, and that's just as equally as a cool feeling as it is paying off your last debt or being able to contribute to your 401k or your IRA for the first time. There's so many moments that continue on down the road, even after you get out of debt, so that's an encouragement for those of you who are beginning your journey, but also maybe some of you who are towards the middle, who are getting ready to transition and think what's next? There's so much more out there, and having money and savings creates opportunities.
Brad Nelson: 25:35
All right, guys, if you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, reduce financial stress, build savings and finally pay off debt for good. But again, maybe you're not sure where to start. Don't worry, we've got you covered. Simplify my Money is sent each Sunday to your email. Now, simplify your Money is a simple, step-by-step roadmap to better financial control, and you're also going to learn easy to follow strategies to manage your money effectively Stress-free money decisions that are going to help you simplify your financial life, and proven tips that actually work, and you're going to gain the tools and confidence to tackle your financial goals head on. Sign up for Simplify my Money by clicking on the link at the top of the show notes.
Chris Hawkins: 26:20
Let's talk about death, 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 death. Let's talk about death Tune into Dead, free Death Tune into Dead.
Brad Nelson: 26:38
Free Death, all right guys. And that sound means it's time for the celebrations of the show, and today we are kicking it off with Mary. Mary said I paid $823 to debt. I had $100 back for taxes, $20 to my emergency fund, $200 to my health savings account, $150 to sinking funds and a cash birthday weekend for my daughter, mary. What a week, great job.
Chris Hawkins: 27:09
And Kristen actually is an example of something I just talked about a minute ago. She says for the first time in my life I had an emergency fund and I had money. My car battery died and I had enough money to fix it and the really cool part was I didn't have to touch my emergency fund. We reworked the budget and just paid cash for it.
Brad Nelson: 27:31
Yeah, that's awesome. You get really protective over those emergency funds I love it.
Kati Hatfield: 27:36
I always hated using my emergency fund after I built it up, but that's what it's there for, right, all right. And Tara paid $500 towards her last loan, so ready to knock that debt out and have her budget completed.
Brad Nelson: 27:51
Awesome, awesome.
Ryan Nelson : 27:52
Awesome and Daria, I've been doing Roots 15 every day this week and tracking my spending. I set up automatic savings for $100 a month and I was able to keep groceries and dining out within budget this week.
Brad Nelson: 28:08
Awesome, awesome wins. Hey, as always, guys, congratulations to all of you guys who are taking a stand for your financial life and are wanting better. Hey, we get that getting out of debt isn't easy, but with our help and hopefully with your consistency and discipline, we promise you guys this will be some of the best work that you guys do in your entire life. Thanks for joining us on today's show and we will see you guys in the next episode.
Announcer: 28:29
Thanks for listening to the debt free dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram Just search debt free dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. We so appreciate it For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show. Visit debtfreedadcom. Catch you next week.
