124: Price vs Value: Why Cheap Decisions Cost You More

We’ve all done it. Chosen the cheapest option and told ourselves we were being smart.

But sometimes cheap ends up being expensive.

In this episode, Jessica and Brandon break down the difference between price and value and why understanding that distinction can completely change the way you spend, save, and invest.

We share real-life examples, including:

• When “budget” services backfire
• The hidden cost of uninvested retirement accounts
• Why professional expertise often pays for itself
• How to decide what’s actually worth spending on

Plus, we give you four simple questions to help you define value for yourself before your next purchase.

This is a mindset shift episode. Less guilt. More intention. Better outcomes.

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Money, relationships, and the mindset to master both. Hosted by financial advisor Brandon and his wife Jessica, The Sugar Daddy Podcast breaks down how to build wealth, unpack old money beliefs, and have real conversations about love and finances. Their mission? To help couples and individuals grow rich in every sense of the word: emotionally, relationally and fina...

Transcript

Price Versus Value Framed

Jessica 0:00

Alright, y'all, let's talk about something that gets a lot of us stuck without even realizing it. Chasing the cheapest option. We've all done it. You're at the store, online shopping, comparing three versions of the same thing, and your brain instantly zeros in on the lowest price. But here's the problem. When you only focus on price, you're missing the bigger picture. You could be spending more in the long run, on your time, your stress, and even your peace of mind. And when it comes to money, relationships, and long-term planning, that can create real tension. Today, we're digging into the difference between price and value because understanding how to evaluate value, not just cost, can change the way you spend, save, and invest in your life. It's not about being reckless with money, it's about spending it in ways that actually serve you. So let's break this down and help you start making money moves that feel good and make sense.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Sugar Teddy Podcast, yo. Learn how to make them pockets grow. Finance and freedoms where we grow. Smart investments, money flow.

Brandon 1:09

Hey, babe. What are we talking about today?

Jessica 1:12

Today we are talking about this topic that I feel like has been continuously coming up, which is cost or price versus value. And I feel like it's a really important conversation because so many people only look at price and it's costing them in the long run.

Brandon 1:33

Yes. Um, obviously now things are increasing so much, and how much they cost, that obviously that is a big focus for a lot of people. However, you do have to weigh that out in regards to what you're actually getting from a value standpoint, because price and value are not the same thing and they don't necessarily equal one another.

Jessica 1:52

They are not. And sometimes, and we've said it on other episodes, cheap can be expensive.

Brandon 1:57

Yes.

Defining Price, Value, And Subjectivity

Jessica 1:58

You buy something cheap and it can cost you in the long run. So just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's gonna get you the value that you're hoping for.

Brandon 2:07

And this is coming from a naturally frugal person.

Jessica 2:09

Yes, y'all. Oh my gosh.

Brandon 2:12

However, I do very much understand the difference between value and price because there are certain things that even though I'm always, you know, looking at how much something costs and I can wait and I can differentiate a need between a want, yeah. There are certain things that I'm going to buy and I'm going to pay the premium price for because I know I'm going to get the value that I want out of them because I use it all the time and it's going to last a long time.

Jessica 2:35

Yes, exactly. Yeah, that cost per wear. I mean, you know, at one point in life, I knew I was going to buy, you know, the$15 Target sandals, and I would buy three or four pairs for that summer. And by the end of the summer, they would be wrecked because they're$15 Target sandals. And I would just mentally in my head, I'd be like, okay, well, these go in the trash and I'm going to buy new ones next next summer. Now I have spent a lot more on quality shoes that I am no longer throwing out every summer. So, you know, it was that mindset shift. It's it's just a change in perspective of what am I actually doing and what am I actually getting for the money that I'm spending.

Brandon 3:19

Yeah, because if you know, you're looking at it just from a standpoint, you know, the definition wise, like price is simply the cost in dollars for something. Right. That's all that it reflects. As value is more is like what something is worth to you based on, you know, the benefit that actually provides for and that there is a difference because I think the important, like what's valuable to you is not necessarily valuable to me. It's very subjective.

Cost Per Use And Time Tradeoffs

Jessica 3:43

Exactly. And so you have to determine what the value is. Like I have to do that sometimes when I'm like, okay, I can drive to the store, I can park, I can walk in the store, I can shop for an hour, I can get in line, I can get back in the car. That's a three-hour ordeal, depending on what I need. Or I can use my Instacart app and I can order these here groceries and I can pay the price of the tip and the service fee. The tip never bothers me. The service fee bothers me, but I don't want to get off track today. And I will pay because the value to me is what else could I be doing right now? Could we be recording a podcast? Could I be getting some laundry done? Could I be studying for something? Could I be sending out a newsletter? Like my time is so valuable because I have so little of it that that is a cost I'm willing to spend because I get the value.

Brandon 4:36

What you find value in is determined upon your own individual needs, priorities, and goals. Correct. So that can that's obviously going to vary from person to person. Yeah. So that's not going to be one uniform thing. They're like, oh, everybody finds value in this because there's going to be things that I find value in that just might not even find value in. Correct. So it's more or less determining that for yourself and seeing if it makes sense for you to focus on that as compared to the price. Because obviously, you know, we do have to factor in price to some standard because even if you're getting a certain value out of it, if it's just out of your price range, it just might not be, you know, something that you could do right now. Yeah. So you have to be realistic about that also.

Jessica 5:12

Yeah. There's been a couple of um examples of things personally as well as just in our life and in our surrounding kind of family where this price versus value has come up multiple times. Um, and so we want you to think about a time where you paid a low price, maybe not the lowest price, but you paid a low price and it didn't pan out the way you wanted. Now, maybe it's the, you know,$20 jeans that ripped after the third time you wore them, and you're like, man, this doesn't happen with my$100 jeans. It could be something like that, but it could also be, you know, hey, I use this CPA who missed a bunch of deductions and it cost me money, or maybe I ended up with a big old tax bill versus or they tried to send me uh my tax return unencrypted. Y'all, one time we have the had the CPA who sent our tax returns unencrypted, and Brandon was like, This is the last time we are ever using her. I cannot believe she does not have encryption on her email.

When “Cheap” Services Backfire

Brandon 6:15

So she also tried to charge us like twice what she has charged us the year before, even though nothing had changed in our own. And also there was no communication. There was no communication. She just sent a bill. And I'm like, I'm not paying this.

Jessica 6:27

Like, yeah, that was a little crazy. Um, yeah. So again, or you know, we have we have friends in our circle who had a CPA. I don't know what they were doing, but on more than one occasion, they have ended up with massive tax bills. And that's clearly not worth it. Like, clearly spending less to get a service that then costs you thousands in the long run because it was done incorrectly, that is lacking value. You got a cheap price, but it lacked all the value.

Brandon 6:58

Because I always say this when it comes to, especially when it comes to professional services that you're looking for, whether that's, you know, work with me or another type of financial advisor or, you know, getting a contractor to do some work on your home. If you're getting multiple quotes, let's say you get four quotes, and one person is significantly lower than the rest, red flag. There is often a reason because their value is not the same.

Jessica 7:24

Correct. Correct.

Brandon 7:25

So you can go with the one that has a lower price, but nine times out of ten, you're gonna pay for it later on. One way or another. And it's gonna end up costing you more than if you simply went with the more valued individual that costs more in the beginning.

Jessica 7:40

Yes. Now, just as a caveat, if you have a super low price and a super high price, I would still shop around and maybe find two that are in the middle because you don't want outliers on either side. Like, you know, that's kind of a my rule of thumb when if if I'm looking for somebody to do work in my home.

Brandon 7:57

And here's what I'll say too, as a caveat, like it also depends on what you're looking to get out of it as well, because you might have an outlier that's on the high end, but you also have to measure against what are you getting.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

Yeah.

Brandon 8:07

So if you have, you know, these two over here that are in the same price range, you're getting five things. But this person over here is priced higher and you're getting 15.

Jessica 8:16

Well, but why is the scope of work changing? No, no, no.

Brandon 8:19

No, no, no, no. What I'm okay. So here's what I'm saying, here's the example I'm looking at.

Jessica 8:22

Okay.

Brandon 8:22

Um, from a financial advising standpoint, there are financial advisors that, you know, I don't I am not the cheapest financial advisor, but I'm definitely not the most expensive. Right. And there are ones that are significantly more expensive than myself, but they also are maybe providing a more tailored, more white coat, white glove, you know, experience. Now, obviously, do you need that experience is what it is, because more than likely they might be working with more high-end clients that do you need those more additional services. So you have to measure it out. But if you're just looking at it from the outside, this person's charging this much as compared to this one, doesn't mean the person who's charging higher is trying to, you know, get over on you or they're not doing, you know, or their value is not there.

Jessica 8:59

Okay. I feel like what you do is very tailored.

Brandon 9:02

Oh, I do. But what I'm saying is like I'm talking about like so it's different between me working with someone who has like, you know, a few millions and someone that has 200 million.

Quotes, Outliers, And Scope Clarity

Jessica 9:10

Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brandon 9:12

There's a big difference in regards to what they need.

Jessica 9:13

Okay.

Brandon 9:14

So that's what I'm saying. Like, just looking at price, you have to look at also what you're getting.

Jessica 9:17

Yes, I understand. Well, okay, so let's break it down into maybe some more realistic um examples. Like one thing that came to mind as we were talking about this like value versus price is, and your mom does still doesn't listen to our podcast, so I'm gonna talk about her. If she doesn't want me to talk about her, she can listen to our podcast.

Brandon 9:36

She'll probably listen to this episode just.

Jessica 9:38

Of course she will, because that's the universe. But your mom, frugal, frugal, frugal.

Brandon 9:43

That's partially where I get it from.

Jessica 9:45

And she has beautiful kinky curly hair, and she needs to go to a coral specialist. But what does she do? She goes to the school. She goes to the Paul Mitchell school, where every single time she walks in the door, she gets a different person. There's no continuity, nobody understands her hair because they haven't worked with it, they haven't seen it, they don't know what's going on with it. She's gotten cuts, she's gotten color. And I would say nine times out of 10, the color is off, the cut is definitely off, and she walks out not super happy.

unknown 10:20

Yeah.

Brandon 10:21

And the sad part is like she'll have one really good experience because she just happened to find that one diamond in the rough.

Jessica 10:27

Yeah, but they're in school. So then they leave.

Brandon 10:29

Then they're not there. Right.

Jessica 10:30

And she has no idea where they went, which is like that continuity. Like, I want somebody who knows my hair, knows my journey, like, et cetera.

Brandon 10:37

And this is a price versus a value scenario.

Jessica 10:40

So then you and your brother bought her a uh cut with the curl specialist that I see, who is not cheap, nor should she be, because she's got decades worth of experience and courses and education.

Brandon 10:54

And more importantly, the results.

Jessica 10:56

And the way she walked in our front door after she got her hair done, you would have thought she was walking next to Naomi Campbell on the runway. Did she not?

Brandon 11:06

Yes.

Jessica 11:06

She she was obsessed.

Brandon 11:08

And my mom's a very, I love her to death, but she can, she's a hard one to please sometimes. And so the way that, you know, for the fact that she went and did have this haircut and came out, you know, glowing about the experience and everything like that. And I explained to her, I was like, this is the difference. You are paying more, but the value you get out of it is significantly more.

Jessica 11:32

Yeah. Cause yeah, you can get the$35 haircut, which there are people out here who can get a$35 haircut. That's fine. Your mom is not one of them. And the last time she went to the school, she they cut off so much hair she could barely put it up in her little puff to play pickleball. Yeah. She was pissed.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

Yeah.

The Haircut Story And Expertise Premium

Jessica 11:52

But again, I'm not going to feel listen, I'm at the point. I am not going to feel sorry for you. I straight up looked at her and I said, This is what you get. I've been giving you Michelle's number for a bajillion years.

Brandon 12:03

Shout out to Michelle Pardo.

Jessica 12:05

Shout out to Michelle because listen, you get the value. She's not going to ruin your hair with color. She's not going to chop off more inches than you talked about. She is going to understand how your curls bounce back when you cut them. So if you say you want an inch off, guess what? That inch is going to turn into four and a half inches because of how much shrinkage you have. People need to understand that. So when we talk about price versus value, your mom finally understood the value of going to somebody who has decades of experience, has touched all different kinds of curls for 20 years and has the education behind understanding what they're doing. Period.

Brandon 12:46

Well, the thing is too, you also like have to weigh, not just simply that you have to weigh it out from, you know, the standpoint if you're buying something cheaper, like one, more likely you're, like I said, it's not going to deliver the value that you're looking for. You're going to have to replace it anyways. And then also it's going to like, you know, for a lot of people that are, you know, always focused on price, that's going to be decision overload because you're always searching for a bargain. Yeah. You're going to put more work and effort to finding the cheapest price than just simply going with the highest value, getting it done, getting the out the um outcome that you want. And you're, like you said, you didn't waste all this time just searching for the lowest bargain and even wasting all your time to do that, find the cheapest one. And it still doesn't provide you with the outcome that you're looking for.

Jessica 13:29

Yes. I'll give another example because I really feel like I want to get people's minds kind of going. And then I'll give my personal example. But I have a close friend who I've been saying you should be working with Brandon or somebody. She has multiple retirement accounts from leaving, you know, jobs over the years. She didn't aggregate or she didn't combine them into an IRA. So you have all these accounts sitting in different places. They could have been growing in a compounded way. It's like great that you have$15,000 here and$20,000 there, but like you have$35,000 if you put it together. That's going to grow differently than if you have all these separate accounts.

Brandon 14:08

Once again, I'm going to tell you mathematically, that is incorrect.

Jessica 14:11

Okay.

Brandon 14:11

If you have$15,000 here,$10,000 here, and$5,000 in a different account, and if they're all invested the same at the same time.

Jessica 14:20

Were they all invested the same?

Brandon 14:21

Okay, so you didn't say that. That's the caveat.

Jessica 14:23

Oh, you get on earth.

Brandon 14:24

The way you were saying that's my standpoint. If you have them all in separate accounts, but they're all invested the same. Okay. They were not separated together. It's going to equal the same amount.

Jessica 14:32

Okay. Yes. That makes sense. You're a turd. Also, they weren't.

Brandon 14:37

So the biggest caveat, what you're saying there is that she did not, she had an account that was not invested. It wasn't cash.

Jessica 14:44

I wasn't, I didn't even get to that point yet.

Brandon 14:46

Okay.

Jessica 14:47

Okay. So all these years, and she finally sat down with Brandon, which I'm glad that she did. And what did you find? Now tell your story.

Decision Fatigue From Bargain Hunting

Brandon 14:56

Within, you know, uh a couple minutes of looking at it, like not even a couple minutes, a couple seconds. You know, you can look at it and say that it wasn't invested, it was all in cash. So, first of all, so what had happened was is that what had happened was it was an older employer, one of I'm from the earthwise, I want to say it's one of her first employers, and um had been in a 401k plan. And what ends up happening is that when you leave an employer and you don't actually do something with that money at that 0401k for this with the 403B and 043B, she's in healthcare. If you don't do something with it, often what happens is that after a certain period of time, they automatically roll you over to an IRA. The big thing is though, is that when that happens is that often the funds that you may be invested in in a 401k plan or 403B are not able to be rolled over into an IRA. So what happens is they cash you out and it rolls over as cash into an IRA, and then once it's in the IRA, you have to reinvest it. So what it did is it she didn't do anything with it, cashed her out, rolled into an IRA, and it was sitting there in cash.

Jessica 15:55

AKA was not invested for the past 10 years. So thousands of dollars is what she missed out on. Because it had like$2,000.

Brandon 16:02

Yeah, I mean, I kind of did the math on it. Like, you know, if we had done the basic portfolio that would have been recommended, you know, for her at the time, she probably would have had roughly, you know, it was like around a little over$2,000 in cash that was there. She probably would have had around, you know, between eight and nine thousand dollars. Just from doing nothing. From doing nothing, just from without just from compound interest, a compound interest growth without adding any additional money to it.

The Lost Decade: Uninvested Rollover IRA

Jessica 16:25

So there was a couple of pieces of value that you added within minutes. A, she thought she needed to open an IRA and she already had one. B, the money was sitting there in cash, not actually invested. So she missed out on a decade's worth of growth. And C, making sure that she understood, hey, when you leave an employer and you don't do anything, sometimes they convert these accounts into this kind of an account, right? So there's so much value in a couple of minutes worth of conversation that when you work with a professional who does this for a living, you get the value instantly. So all that to say, when you spend money in most cases working with a professional, you are going to get the value. You are gonna get the better haircut, you are gonna get the better suit tailoring, you are going to get uh the better financial information to make sure that your accounts are set up correctly. You are gonna get a better job done on getting your brakes installed. Like there are so many examples of where going with the cheapest option does not make sense. And I'll give you one more example.

Brandon 17:34

I got one more real quick because it's funny because you said about the tailoring option that um I have a uh um an individual that I know named by named Brian Burnett, who um uh owns his own, you know, bespoke uh tailoring company and you know, a lot of other things he has going on. But I always see his videos talking about he has clients come in who maybe have spent you know twelve hundred dollars on say uh a suit or a um or even just sometimes like a blazer, and but they go and try to get it tailored at like the laundromat. And he's like, he's like he has all these videos where he's like, do not take your$1,400 jacket to the laundromat because this is what they do. Like he has all these different things where he's having to fix these expensive garments because people were focused on price and not value.

Jessica 18:21

Which is so silly because in my my mind, and we've talked about they try to cut it someplace else. Yeah. But in my head, I'm like, let me get the hundred dollar suit and get it tailored by a Brian Burnett and then make it look like a$1,500 suit.

Brandon 18:33

But sometimes what happens is that people will will see, they'll see they understand the difference between price and value. They just don't always apply it equally across the board. So they're like, oh, I see the value in purchasing this higher end garment. Yeah, yeah. However, I'm going to go ahead and cut on the price standpoint and go to the laundromat tailor, which doesn't make any sense to me, but I just thought it was funny because you said that because I always see those videos and they make me laugh.

Jessica 18:54

Yeah. No, but it's, I mean, that's exactly right. It's like you're gonna sometimes you get what you pay for.

Brandon 18:59

Yeah. You know, that's the biggest thing, is like you're not, you're not getting you're it's not that you're getting less than what you paid for. You got exactly what you paid for.

Paying For Tailoring Versus Cutting Corners

Jessica 19:08

Well, I'll give you this whole this whole episode came about because I um am in a PMP course. So uh project management professional certification. Um, this course is was$4,500. Then I had to spend$425 for I think the exam and then the membership and all the things. So all in, it's it was a little over$5,000. Now, my caveat was that my employer is paying for um$5,000 worth because I wrote that into my contract for professional development, um, which is fantastic. But I already knew that I wanted to do this course. And if you scroll back into our podcast archives, I'm doing the PMP boot camp with Tamra McLamore. We did an episode with her, she's absolutely fantastic. And I knew that I did not want to, nor would I have had time to study for the PMP for eight to 12 months, which is what most people do because it's not easy. It's a ton of material. Um, there's compliance, there's risk, there's procurement. There, I mean, there's so many things. There's methodology. Um, and I just don't have the time, y'all. I don't have the time, I don't have the energy, I don't have the want to study for something for eight to 12 months. And so Tamra's whole thing is I will get you ready for the PMP exam in 30 days. And so ironically, I'm actually taking my PMP. Um, it'll be 30 days on the dot from when we started the boot camp. Now it was intense. It was uh Monday through Thursday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. So, you know, you work, you have family, you have all the things, and then you're still up and learning until 10 p.m. And y'all know my bedtime is between 8:30 and 9. So that was very difficult for me. That was two weeks, uh, three hours of class on Saturday, four hour mock exams on Saturdays. Like it has not been easy from a time perspective, but the value that I got in sitting down with somebody who is a professional in this field and who is teaching us how to take the exam, where to focus our time, how to prep, how to study, that is value because it would have taken me two or three months on my own and digging through YouTube videos and which ones can I trust and which which curriculum is up to date? Are they using the latest version, the greatest version? The I mean, that amount of time that I got in two weeks would have taken me months to figure out on my own.

Brandon 21:45

And then if you've out figured it out.

Jessica 21:49

Exactly. So, you know, going through with a professional holding your hand, I mean, I I feel very confident that when I take this exam, I will pass. I'm just Affirming it now, I will be passing this exam. But the value is in having somebody hold my hand to tell me exactly what to do. Now I'm still putting in the work. I'm still, you know, spending hours away every Saturday taking my mocks and studying and doing all the things. And a lot has fallen to Brandon during this time. Um, because he knows, hey, let's grind it out for a month and then we're done, versus the slow, the slow burn of eight to 12 months. Oh my gosh, I can't imagine. So that's where this episode came from is like, wow, I've gotten so much value in the money that I spent doing this with a professional who knows exactly what she's talking about, is up to date on all the latest and greatest, understands where we need to focus our time, gave analogies and examples that I know I'm gonna take with me on test day because she's helping break down the material. She's helping us, you know, walk through step by step. That is value.

PMP Bootcamp: Paying For Speed And Certainty

Brandon 22:58

Yeah. And with, you know, kind of piggybacking off of that, we also want to help you be able to actually define value for yourself. Yeah. And there are, you know, kind of like, you know, four questions that you can really ask yourself that'll help you define what value actually means for you as an individual. So, you know, first starting out with, you know, does this solve an actual problem for me? Because most of the time, you know, you're looking to solve an issue or a problem, and you have to make a determination is like, you know, going with the cheaper option. Is this actually gonna solve that? So for example, like you wanted your your quote unquote problem was you wanted the PMP and you wanted to do it as soon as possible.

Jessica 23:33

Yes.

Brandon 23:33

So you, you know, going with the cheaper option probably wasn't gonna solve your problem.

Jessica 23:38

No.

Brandon 23:38

All right.

Jessica 23:39

No.

Brandon 23:39

So number two, you know, will it benefit me in the long run? You know, whether that's financially, emotionally, time that you invested or wasted doing this, that can help you define um what the value means to you.

Jessica 23:51

Yeah, I like that.

Brandon 23:52

Number three, does it align with my priorities, values, or lifestyle goals?

Jessica 23:57

Oh, I like that one. Okay.

Brandon 23:59

Yeah, because often too, because you also too sometimes have to define like just because you see a good deal, doesn't it mean that that deal aligns with your goals? It's not something you were necessarily looking to do. It just happened to be a good price or a you know, a good deal, because we want to use that language because it could, you know, sometimes you do good things for a lower cost that are still have pl plenty of value.

Jessica 24:18

That's true.

Brandon 24:19

Um, and then number four, would I feel good about this purchase six months from now?

Jessica 24:23

Ooh, I think that's a good one.

Brandon 24:24

Yes.

Jessica 24:25

I think and you know, I talk to the kids about that a lot because when they get birthday money or a little spending money or tooth fairy money, you know, and they want to go and spend it. The last time I went out with our daughter, I said, Hey, let's think about what we already have. Are you are you currently playing with it or not? And are you going to care about this in six months? And she actually asked herself those questions as we were going up and down the aisles. And she was like, I think this would be fun for like a weekend, but then I don't think I would care about it anymore. And I was so proud of her because, yeah, some things are fun right here in the moment. But you know, you know that a week from now, two weeks from now, three months from now, you are not gonna care about that thing.

Brandon 25:08

I mean, I can easily think about, you know, that scenario where in my you know younger years where I had a problem where, like, oh, if I saw a nice pair of shoes, even though I didn't need a pair of shoes, I knew it was a deal. But it's like, I don't need them. Yeah. And then the time sometimes I would go ahead and purchase them and then I'm not wearing them. So six months later, still haven't worn these things, even though I could have and had occasions where it wouldn't make sense. And it just didn't make sense. So it wasn't bad things. Ultimately, it was not a good purchase.

Jessica 25:37

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and those listen, we're all going to make purchases that don't make sense. I mean, I went to TJ Maxx yesterday. I went in for four specific things and I three hours later. Three hours later and$200 later, I was like, what did I buy? But I will say that I did analyze the things that I bought for the value that they would give our home, our family, etc. Now, were they wants and or needs? They were wants. They were all wants. They none of them were needs. Um, so I acknowledge that. And that doesn't happen too often because I really just don't like going into stores. You sure don't. I just don't like it anymore. Um, which is good. That is that is good. Um, but that's not to say like you you don't have to evaluate every purchase with those four questions. No, no, no. But we should, you know, is it a want versus a need? Am I gonna have to replace this in two weeks because it's low quality? Is it serving me? You know, I mean, I think those are good things to just start incorporating so that you have a reference point of why are you buying this? Why is this in your cart?

Four Questions To Define Value

Brandon 26:45

Well, yeah, you can start actually, you know, kind of incorporating this, not necessarily on a daily basis, but you know, incorporating it to your life as far as having your own personal value filter. Yeah. And this is kind of what you run those decisions through. So, you know, it's like, what are like my top three priorities? You know, that might be your family, your time, and being able to do whatever you want to do when you want to do it, your health, whatever it may be, whatever your top three priorities are.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Yeah.

Brandon 27:08

Then also running your, you know, personal value filter through the like, does this help solve this problem in this area? Does this help um make things easier in this area? Does this free a time in this area and run it through the filter?

Jessica 27:21

Will I walk out of here with four inches less hair than I wanted? Well, and even, you know, the fair was just in town. We did not take our kids to the fair. I think the only reason they even knew about it was because some of the neighbor kids went. And people spend a lot of money at the fair, y'all. You have to pay to park, you have to pay to get in, you have to pay for the food, you have to pay for the ride.

Brandon 27:41

And the thing is, though, for some people, that's value because maybe that's a tradition they've built in absolutely from a uh family time, which is fine because you find value in it. Because once again, going back, the idea is that what you find value in may not be what somebody else finds value in. It's very individual. We personally do not find value in the fair.

Jessica 28:00

There's no value there for us.

Brandon 28:03

But if you do, then that's fine because it fits within like your top you know priorities within your family.

Jessica 28:08

Yes. And one of our priorities is always travel. So travel together without our children, and then travel with our children. Now, I'm not saying that a tropical vacation at an all-inclusive for a week is comparable to what you would spend at the fair. However, if you add up those things, right, they add up over time. So maybe it's, you know, you're at the end of the day, we're just not fair people. We're not fair people. I don't want to be there. I don't want to be there. But we know it's an expensive activity. And so when our kids finally said, are we going to go to the fair? I said, no, we're going to X place for Christmas instead. And they were like, Oh yeah, that's going to be great. So at this point, they're not even like questioning or saying, like, oh man, I want to go to the fair. Like, no, they don't care. I mean, like, they also don't know what the fair is. So they have no like references.

Teaching Kids And Building A Value Filter

Brandon 28:59

We're also kind of teaching them like, you know, the personal value filter. So it's like, hey, with this. Our personal value filter. You know, with this scenario, is this, well, it's going to be ours for now because they have no money.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Correct.

Brandon 29:10

So zero dollars. Does this is this aligned with our personal values? And, you know, does it actually serve what, you know, brings us joy or what it may be? Right. Because the nice thing is too, is once you actually start to run the decisions through that filter, it allows you to give yourself permission to really actually invest in things that do matter to you. Because you're not wasting money on all these other things that actually don't. So it allows you to really focus on what you find value in and put the money towards that value.

Jessica 29:38

Yeah. And I think that's, you know, if that is, for example, if you are not a foodie person and you are being invited to dinner by foodie friends and you're like, oh, that's really not where I want to spend my money. That's when you can say, hey, that actually doesn't align with where I want to spend my money right now, but I would love to grab a coffee and take a walk. Or I would love to, you know, whatever it is that is not that thing that you don't want to spend money on, you should feel empowered to say, hey, that's not what I'm spending my money on right now, but I would love to see you. How can we make that happen without going to dinner?

Brandon 30:11

Yeah. It it makes you more intentional about how you're spending your money.

Jessica 30:15

Totally. Because listen, y'all, we are too old to be spending our money in ways that do not bring us joy, do not make us feel good at the end of the day, do not align with our goals. We need to be stopping that. Like we just need to stop.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

Yeah.

Aligning Spending With Family Priorities

Jessica 30:28

So really, this was more of a food for thought type conversation because I felt like these are mindset. Yeah. These these things were coming up for us quite frequently with, you know, a lot of those examples that we shared. And I said, I really think we should do a price versus value uh discussion because it comes up for so many of us in so many different areas. And so we want you to start thinking about what is the cost of something versus what is the value that it's bringing to you. So the next time you have a purchase decision to make, hopefully you will hear us in your head. Um, and hopefully it'll help you make decisions that you feel really good about at the end of the day. So hopefully this was helpful. Um, it's something that's been, you know, kind of top of mind for us. So hopefully this will help you make the decisions that you're proud of, and we will talk to you soon. Don't forget, Benjamin Franklin said, an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid. Until next time.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Sugar Daddy Podcast go. Learn how to make the pockets grow. Five minutes of freedom play a week, bro. Smart investments, money flow.

Jessica 31:38

Thanks for listening to today's episode. We are so glad to have you as part of our Sugar Daddy community. If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review, and share this episode with your friends, family, and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the Sugar Daddy Podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past the sugar segments at thesugardaddypodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail to our Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

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