Episode: 333 - Navigating Life's Financial Setbacks with Resilience and Preparedness

Recently here on the Debt-Free Dad podcast, I did an episode where I used the book the Go-Getter and the story of the main character to share with all of you that when things don't go as well as you hope they might, when you have some adversity in life, when you have some setbacks, to stay positive, to realize that they are going to happen and that you have to work through them. And only through working them can you complete your journey to whatever financial goal that you have set. Well, little did I know when I recorded that podcast that over the weeks afterwards I myself would have to sort of adhere to my own advice. And so in this podcast I am going to share with you a little bit of an insight into my personal life and what's happened to me over the last few weeks. And my goal is to help you realize that, even when the worst things can happen, that when you get on the right financial journey, that you can have a positive mindset, that you can work through whatever difficulties come in life and you can learn from them and grow. So let's talk about what's happened to me recently here on this episode of the Debt-Free Dad Podcast. This episode of the Debt-Free Dad Podcast. This is the Debt-Free Dad Podcast, where we help normal, everyday people like you take control of your finances so you can live a happier, less stressful life. My name is Chris Hawkins and I'm going to be your host for today's episode, and from 2005 to 2008, my wife and I paid off just under $100,000 in debt and we've been debt-free except for our house ever since, and so, if you think about it, 2005 is when we started our journey. That's 20 years ago as of the recording of this in April of 2025.

So I've been doing this a long time and I've gotten pretty good at budgeting and managing money and cash flow, investing and saving. I've been doing it a long time, but it wasn't easy early on, just like I talked about in that last podcast, there were lots of difficulties, there were lots of adversity and I had to learn how to fight through that. And I had to learn how to fight through that. I had to learn how to keep going so that eventually we were able to get out of debt, go from a negative net worth to start building some wealth and getting to the point where we are today. But I want to take you back to November of last year.

I got a phone call on a Saturday afternoon that my mother had had a stroke. So I went to the hospital and my sisters and I were there, and that's when we got the news that mom best case scenario was she would be in a nursing home for the rest of her life. But nine days later, nine days later, mom passed on November 19th and me and my sisters, we were faced with having to plan a funeral on a very short notice. Mom died, had no signs that this might happen, it just kind of came out of nowhere and so, fortunately, mom had a will. Fortunately, mom had some life insurance. It wasn't quite enough to pay for her funeral and to bury her, but it came pretty close. But mom had no emergency fund, she had no money in savings and, of course, as soon as you pass away Social Security, that stops. So in order to keep making her mortgage payment, in order to pay her electric bill, water bill and sort through her finances, I had to put some money into an account to cover those expenses and I'm very fortunate that I went through, from 2005 to 2008, all the pain that it took to get out of debt, to get an emergency fund, to get savings to start saving for's funeral and to contribute towards paying some of her bills until we could sort of get things straightened out. The other beautiful thing is is I was the executor or I am, I should say, the executor of her will, and so having the experience on how to manage my own finances allowed me to sort of jump in and see what pieces of the puzzle were out there and sort of put them together to figure out what her financial picture was like, and I probably will do a podcast episode on this at some point down the road, on what you can do just in case something happens to you, so that when people have to become your executor or they have to take care of your finances, some tips that you can do to make it easier on them. But I'm the executor of my mom's will and, again, my experience has allowed me to go in and fairly quickly get up to speed and figure out what needs to be done, including moving everything out of her house, getting her house updated, some paint we're going to have to do new countertops, new flooring and fortunately for mom, she didn't owe a whole lot of my house, and so we're going to be able to keep the house and the goal is to rent it out so fast.

Forward to about five weeks ago, I was going down to mom's house it was about two hours and 45 minutes from where I live each way and I had been doing a bunch of work. And there's two of us and we have four vehicles. We had two trucks and two cars, and I had been taking one of the trucks, which was an older Ford F-150, back and forth, and the truck was worth maybe $3,000. And a check engine light came on on my way back and before I could do anything with it, I lost power in the truck. I had to pull over, have it towed to a local shop where it broke down, which was about a third of the way home, and a couple of days later I got the bad news that the motor had blown. And a couple days later I got the bad news that the motor had blown, and so I sold that truck to scrap for about $400. So that's a $2,600 loss in value. But again, it was an extra vehicle, one that we had had for a while. It was high mileage and it wasn't worth putting the money into it to fix it up. And after all of my thought process. Well, I've still got two cars and I've got a truck, so I can sort of weather that storm.

Well, last week and again we're recording this in early April, so this would have been in late March I once again was coming back from my mom's house pulling my trailer no-transcript and I got an early start, early in the morning, while it was still dark, to come home and I was going down the interstate and came to the top of the hill and as soon as I started going down the hill there was a deer at 440 in the morning standing in the middle of the interstate. And of course, as soon as I came over the top of the hill, light shining in the deer's eyes If you've ever seen a deer in headlights, there's that phrase the deer froze didn't move and so I had a choice and I chose to try to avoid hitting it. But unfortunately I hit it. But the action of trying to avoid it took me off into the grass shoulder and pulling a trailer behind sort of whiplash the vehicle to the point where I had to make a decision. I was staring at the end of a guardrail and I didn't know what was to the right because again it was dark, so I tried to pull it back onto the freeway, knowing that I couldn't hit the guardrail head on, and so when I hit the guardrail, the right passenger side made impact, and then, of course, the trailer made impact and it tore the trailer off of the trailer hitch.

And, to make a long story short, this was an older truck but it only had 77,000 miles on it. It cost me about $15,000 to replace it and it's going to cost about $8,000 to replace the trailer, and both of them are totaled. Unfortunately, I have insurance on the truck and we'll wait to see what they give me in terms of value. But I was given some bad advice by my insurance company, and the trailer carries liability insurance, but it doesn't carry comprehensive or collision. So I'm going to lose the value of that trailer and I'm going to have to replace it, and again, that's probably going to be about an $8,000 hit. Plus I'm probably going to have to pony up a little bit of money to replace the truck, depending on what the insurance company gives me. So in the matter of a few weeks, I've gone from four vehicles and two of them being trucks to no trucks and two vehicles, and so I've had a hard time here recently.

There's some other things that have gone on in life. It just seems like I've been punched, and I want you to know that even when you get out of debt and you get emergency funds and you get savings in place, it doesn't mean that financial issues aren't going to pop up. Now notice I didn't call it a financial problem. It's something that has to be worked through. It's something that I'm highly frustrated about, but I'm going to get through it. Why? Because I'm no longer piled with debt. I no longer live paycheck to paycheck. I have a sizable emergency fund and, yes, I had to spend part of it helping out my mom, and now I'm gonna have to spend part of it replacing at least the trailer at some point and maybe put it with a check from the insurance company and replacing the truck. But I'm okay physically and for the most part emotionally. I mean, again there's the frustration part, but it's a speed bump in my financial road. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

And so here's the message Just because you get out of debt doesn't mean that you still don't have financial issues that come up from time to time. But the big difference is when you're telling your money what kind of life you want to live, instead of your money telling you what kind of life you can live. When you prepare ahead of time, when you plan, when you get good at budgeting, when you get out of debt, when you have money in the bank, these issues like what I've gone through, they just become minor speed bumps. They become more annoying than anything, but you realize that it's not going to keep you from accomplishing your dreams. It's not going to keep you from accomplishing your goals. It might sidetrack them for a little bit, make it take a little bit longer, but you have peace, peace of mind, knowing that you have prepared for situations like this. And so here's the main message If you're living paycheck to paycheck, if you're struggling with debt, keep doing the things that Brad teaches.

Keep doing the things that we talk about on this podcast.

Don't give up. Be a go, go getter, be somebody who says it shall be done. And, regardless of what happens in life, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off and you keep going, and your financial situation is going to get better. And one of these days you're going to have a pretty tough, you know, four or five or six weeks like I've had, and you may be annoyed by it, you may be frustrated, but it's not going to create panic in your life, it's not going to make you feel like you can never accomplish your dreams.

It's just a minor setback, and so what may seem like major big setbacks right now is when you're in your journey, when you're trying to get out of debt, when you're trying to learn how to budget. Those big setbacks just become annoyances the better you get at it. So stick with it, keep going. When struggles happen, just let it be like water off a duck's back. Learn from it, prepare for it in the future and when Murphy seems to really visit you like he's done with me lately you tell Murphy to get lost. That's my message. Stick with it. Things will get better and you will learn how to prepare and deal with financial issues in the future in a way that doesn't destroy you, that doesn't allow you to become negative, and that you can stay positive and enjoy life.

If you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, which, if you're listening, I hope you are. You want to reduce financial stress. You want to build savings. You want to finally pay off debt for good, but you're not sure where to get started. Don't worry, we've got you covered. Here at Debt Freeat, simplify my Money is sent each Sunday to your email. We make it easy and Simplify my Money. It's your step-by-step roadmap to better financial control, and you're also going to learn easy-to-follow strategies to manage your money effectively. You're going to get stress-free money decisions that will help you simplify your financial life with proven tips that actually work. You're also going to gain the tools and the confidence to tackle your financial goals head on. You can sign up for Simplify my Money by clicking the link at the top of the show notes. Thanks for joining us on today's show and we will see you guys on the next episode.