Money, Mental Health, and the Badge

The patrol car might be quiet, but your brain isn’t—bills, overtime slots, and that sinking feeling when the card declines. We went back inside the Academy to sit with finance officer Jack Heuton and get honest about money, mental health, and the hidden costs of “I’ll just pick up more shifts.” This is a conversation about readiness that starts at home: when your base needs are secure, training lands better, sleep runs deeper, and relationships stop fraying at the edges.

Jack breaks down a practical, three-prong plan that works in real life: understand and manage your credit without letting it manage you, track every dollar so denial can’t hide in the margins, and choose a debt payoff method that fuels behavior change. We unpack why an emergency fund is the single best fight-stopper in a marriage, how dopamine purchases and gambling apps exploit trauma and fatigue, and why most of us try to “out-overtime” our spending—only to miss the moments we say matter most. The stories are raw, the examples familiar: toys that collect dust because you’re never off, arguments that start with a swipe, and the quiet repair work of choosing presence over more pay.

We also push forward: joint accountability instead of “my money vs. your money,” spending thresholds that require a quick check-in, and retirement planning that begins before 40 steals your compounding. Know your pension, your Social Security timeline, and the inflation reality that waits downrange. Even small, automated contributions can buy future calm, fewer late-career overtime hours, and a life with more choice. If faith anchors you, align your budget with what you value most; generosity and stewardship can steady the heart where numbers alone can’t.

Hit play if you’re ready to trade chaos for clarity—one tracked expense, one paid-off balance, one honest conversation at a time. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review so more first responders can find tools that stick.

If you or someone you know is in crisis and at risk of self-harm, please call or text 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. 

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Transcript

Inside the Academy: Why Money Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Shared Voices podcast brought to you by 1042 Project. And we're still at the Academy. If you got to hear the last episode, we came out to the Academy. Um, they ended up finding us. We tried to hide from it. No. We came out here and they allowed us in. And we sat down and we had a real conversation with the director and and with with uh Christy and with and Chaplain Al Perez, and we had a real conversation, and I think it was pretty powerful. Um I appreciate them allowing me to come in and ask my stupid questions. But now we have uh a special guest that I want to talk to because Jack, number one, thank you for being here. Yep, you you know the mission of our organization, you know what we do. Generally, uh the top one to two things when a first responder reaches out in crisis, money's wrapped in either the first or the second. So many of our first responders, when we struggle with mental health or we come into the line of work, we don't, we may not be used to having this kind of money, even though it's not a lot. Um and and we we kind of screwed up in a hurry. I'm just gonna be honest. And when you're supposed to be the pillar of the community, I know for me, I struggled with it. I tried to I tried to treat my mental health by spending money, by buying things like boats and campers. And it led to a very dark time in me and my ex-wife's life that led towards a lot of financial issues, a lot of marriage issues. Um, cleared down to our home being foreclosed on. And and I know it's a hard subject to talk about, but I know there's a lot of you listeners that are that are kind of going through that, and it can be tough because we're supposed to have all of our stuff put together, is what the world says. We're supposed to be above the standards of everybody else, but we're just people. We're just people and and Jack, thank you for being on. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why the heck you even care. Why do you care about what people, these first responders and their finances?

Meet Jack: Finance With a Mission

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Well, for one, um, so my name's Jack Huton. I'm the finance manager or financial officer here at the Academy. Um, I care about first responders because I I feel that uh sometimes they're not backed or they don't. Um people don't appreciate what they do on a daily basis. And uh there are times where they do things that are uh nothing short of miraculous. And um, so I I do what I can to basically help anybody in general, but um I do have a passion for first responders, military members. Um, you know, I have uh first responders, officers, and military members in my family. So you know that hits home for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

From day one, when I met you, how I introduced me to you, um, I knew right away the kind of heart you had. Like you, it's just who you are, you shine it from you. You're a very loving, caring person, very welcoming. And I've loved from day one when we first talked, we started talking about the money issues and some of the struggles that I see in the first responders reaching out. And that's why I wanted to bring you on. Is because money is hard to talk about, right? Let's be real. It's it's something we don't a lot of times want to share with people. Most of us are honest, you know, about it, and we try to we try to cover it up and make ourselves look better than than what we are because that's the that's the next Facebook post you want to make, right? Is is show that one with your new boat so you can show your buddy that you, you know, and it's just constant keeping up with the Joneses, what they used to call it, Al. I don't know if the Joneses are still still around, but we're trying to keep up with them, apparently. And Al, and and Al, real quick, I'm glad you're on here because you get to see it too, my friend. You get to see it personally, and and you get to see it when they first get to the academy. And I think that's what's important with both of you. You get to these recruits when they get here. Some of them have no financial understanding, and some have they're set in their own ways, and you ain't gonna tell them anything, and that's fine. But you two come alongside them and and you address it. You talk about that money side because it can be hard. And and I've seen careers end. Um it's pretty ugly. And I love that Jack's willing to sit down, Al's willing to sit down, and we're gonna address this issue. So we're gonna dive right in. You ready, Jack? Yeah, absolutely. All right, bro. One-on-one, let's go. All right, all right. So, how does the financial how how does finances impact the mental health in your relationships? I see it all the time, but let's break it down and unpack some of that.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah, absolutely. So uh people under financial strain are uh more likely, or actually two and a half times more likely, to experience anxiety and depression, um, which really flows into poor sleep quality and uh and also creates high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues. I mean, there's a lot of things that come into play with uh finances and fretting about your finances, constant anxiety and what that does to your body. But also uh mentally it goes into low self-esteem, uh sense of self-worth, which kind of leads into depression. You have your feelings of shame, failure, hopelessness, um, even down sometimes of suicidal thoughts. You know, uh there's there's a reason they say during the um holidays, you know, suicide is more prevalent. Some of that, you know, comes down to you know uh depression and also plays into financial issues uh during those times. There's a lot of pressure, financial pressure during holidays, especially around Christmas and whatnot. So um it really does play a uh have a big impact in your mental health and the relationships that you have, because when this creeps into your relationships, um when you're experiencing a lot of financial issues, you have social withdrawal. Um you can also, it can be a strain on your intimacy, uh, which can cause emotional distance between your partner. Um, and then let's say you start going out and gambling, um, or you're hiding debt from your partner, uh, which I've seen um, you know, amongst friends and stuff, and and you start lying about purchases you make, and that causes a major breach in your marriage. Um, so there's that erosion of trust in your marriage, and then the marital conflict, um, you know, where you're arguing, it leads to uh it's money is the major leading cause of arguments, divorce, separation amongst couples. Um, you know, it a lot of people say or try to act like money doesn't affect them or money isn't a thing, and it really is. Um, and and I, you know, I I I feel that it affects people more than they realize. And and they might be bad about something, they might be fretting about their their financial issues that they're having, and then they take it out on their partner, and then later on, you you know, you're doing reflect back and think where did that come from? Yeah. And and it's because you've been fretting about finances this whole time. Yeah.

Maslow, Money, and Readiness to Train

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So other than that, there's no reason to talk about finances, you know, no issues are wrapped around it. And yeah, yeah, right. But no, it's one of the key things because when we talk about our hierarchy, our hierarchy of needs, you know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, when it comes to you know, getting better, getting healing, um, there's certain things we have to have before we can kind of focus on that, right? We need to have our our finances in a safe place where we feel like, okay, we're safe. We have a home, we have a car, we can, so these things are taken care of. And then and then um if those needs are not taken care of, it's hard to build the foundation to build it up any higher because you're going to be focused back on the this money side. Yeah. So the hierarchy of needs, if we can start addressing those, it's a pyramid. If we can start addressing those at the base, and generally a lot of that can be financial, or at the second step can be financial. Um if we can help at that level, it will allow people to then move on to the next step of love and belonging, where you can focus on self-esteem, you can focus on self-improvement, you can focus on that. But it's pretty hard to do if you don't know if you have a home to sleep in at night, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

So, and and sometimes people come here and and their hierarchy of needs is not being met. They're coming here. I know when I came here, I came here 20 years old with a car that Barry ran and a negative account in my a negative account in my and I walked in here like I had no idea how to run finances, nor did I really care, honestly. Yeah, you know, because I was kind of young, dumb, and and just didn't think I'd be around anyway. Um, but I love that you're addressing this because if the whole time they're at the academy, they're focused on their you know, their well-being and their income, they're never gonna be able to focus on the training. They're not.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Yeah, it's always in the back of your mind.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah. So we can we can address these things, we we can bring them up front and we can start processing them. Because you can just you can see Jack just listed what can happen, you know, the financial strains, what it does to to a relationship and to a person. And so many of us first responders, Jack, like myself, uh the listeners heard me say this before. When I was in my career, when I was in my career, um things started rolling. I started getting paid, and and I started getting exposed to trauma. I started buying things, and at first it was kind of fun because I had a little bit of money to do it. Right. Um, and then I got a house and other things, and I so I was taking care of my hierarchy of needs, but at the same time, I was jumping over those and going after my wants. The things I wanted now. Um and it led to, you know, led to um electricity being turned off from time to time. It led to all sorts of I mean, we were in major credit card debt, major debt on and every level you could be. And and I just kept digging us deeper with my mental health. Well, I gotta have that truck, I gotta have that camper, I gotta have that four-wheeler, I gotta have that boat, because that's what's gonna help me to be able to make it another day or be able to survive is I need these mental health breaks. But Jack, every department has these boards inside their police departments where you can sign up for overtime. So so many of us are working our 40-hour weeks and then some, and then we're but we're working all this overtime where we're bringing in more money, and now we have we have bills a mile high, and our mental health is still struggling, and it can get ugly and out of out of control in a hurry.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Well, unfortunately, what you see a lot of times with impulse buying, because when you buy something, it's just like when you eat something, you get that dopamine hit, it makes you feel good, right? And so if you're struggling already financially or you you already have a low self-esteem and buying things, a lot of people try to self-cope with I'm gonna buy this, I'm gonna buy that, it makes me feel good in that moment, you know, and then you have that buyer's remorse afterwards, but you can very quickly have debt get away from you. Um, you know, and then like you said, you have this overtime you can sign up for to help pay for all those debts that you acquire. But a lot of times after you pay them off, you just end up pulling out another debt. Um, and oh, I can now afford this, let me buy this. And you know, you wanna you wanna um buy all these toys so that way when you're with your family, you can uh have fun. So you get the speed boat, you get the jet skis, right? Because you've never seen a sad person on a jet ski before, right? So uh but the problem is you have to work all this overtime. So when are you gonna have the time to actually be on the boat or the jet ski? You know, I can I can tell you your family would much rather see you more often than have a boat or a jet ski that's not being used because you're not around to use it.

Overtime, Toys, and Family Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Thank you for saying that. Because thank you for saying that, because that's true. So many of us are walking away from our families and our kids to go work a football game and and to work a valley football game and to stand there for four hours on a Friday night while your family's at home. What should have been your night out, your night off is now you signed up and now you're you're out there. And I know I'm saying this because I've been there. We always say our families are number one priorities. We say our kids are our number one priorities as we're walking out the door to go do that stuff. Right. And our actions speak louder than our words. And I've no, because I I I have three kids at five now, but three when I was um going through the my mental health stuff, and we put a we can put a lot of weight on our kids.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Well, and I've heard uh can't remember who said it, but somebody said uh the most crucial time for you to be around for your kids is that age between, you know, like one and four, one and five. Um, and you only get that time once. Yeah. The mo the the time that you see your kids the most, you're gonna know them the most in their adult life. The time that you have with them when they're young and impressionable is very short. Yes. So to miss out on all those moments, you know, is is really a tragedy.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah, and I'm still repairing that. I'm just gonna be honest. Like my kids and I have a great relationship, but I know as a dad I let them down in those areas, and you know, and the best thing I can do is just continue to improve and show them. But we cause hurt, we cause a lot more hurt to our family than we realize when it comes to this overtime stuff. Yeah. I I've I've said this before on other podcasts, and I'm sure maybe the academy wouldn't agree with me, but I would like to get it down to where first responders are working four four-day work weeks. I think if anybody in the in the world who needs to be working a lesser schedule, I would love for those get paid the same, obviously. Right. But instead of working an 80-hour work week, they're working 70 hours, maybe that other 10 hours, you know, consider that their health and wellness time. Right. But we need these breaks because man, we get exposed to trauma and trauma and trauma, and then we come home, we gotta deal with our family, and a lot of times that's trauma and money, and then we go back to work, and it's a cycle of suck, Jack, that can be hard to get out of.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Well, yeah, I mean, and and you know, any person usually when they get off work, they need that little bit of downtime to kind of to reset. And uh, I can only imagine as a first responder, the amount of things the the things that you see uh that you'll never forget, you know, and and and when you're constantly on the go, you don't get any time to process that. Yeah. And you know, that that definitely would play a role.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah. So to have a healthy financial financial life, it is it's not gonna happen by accident. It's not. We have to be intentional. Yep. So let's get down to some intentionality here. And I I want to talk about we talked about some of the vices, but I want to talk to them, talk to you about some more. Gambling is legal in Iowa now. Um, it seems like first responders were very much uh adrenaline driven and dopamine. You're hitting those little betting apps, and and it sounds like a lot of these gambling apps are causing a lot of issues for people. Um why why do so many of us run to those high adrenaline type financial things? The things that really are we should be holding most dearly, we run to those. Like, why are we doing that? Why are we running to gambling and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah, so uh, you know, first responders do struggle and they have a high proclivity to gambling, basically because uh, and we talked about this a little bit, but their exposure, um, the uh the uh severity of the exposure of and and how often they're exposed to these traumatic events are at a frequency far beyond what the general public would see, so which results in the the PTSD, which you guys are gonna understand a lot more than I will about that and can talk to it more about me than me. But um, you know, when you have PTSD, you have this need for this release, which uh we talked about those um impulsive uh financial decisions. I'm gonna buy this, I'm gonna buy that. It makes me feel good. Um exactly. So you have those impulse control issues, but also you have avoidance and numbing, is where you're gonna see the drinking. Um you're trying to uh self-medicate this emotional pain and trauma. So you might go drink or you might go gambling. You know, you you go to a casino, you see these machines, and they have all these lights flashing and the sounds, and I mean it draws you in. There's a reason for that, you know. Um just like a kid on an iPad, it's just constant dopamine to your brain, right? So it's it's addictive. Um, and then because of the stigma, and and most men anyway don't talk about their issues, um, but then you have uh these emotional issues, and there's this stigma that um I I think, like you said, uh you have to be the strong personality. You you can't go seek help because you're the person everyone runs to for help. That's the stigma. Yeah, so you turn away from the psychological or even financial counseling, and then when you turn away from that, then you embrace these bad coping mechanisms basically.

Gambling, Dopamine, and Stigma

SPEAKER_00 15:50

And when you're struggling with your mental health, I know this from experience. You can justify anything to yourself. Yeah. I mean, just to be open and raw. Like there was times where my family didn't have the money to keep the light bill on, but I would keep a stash so I could have vodka. You know, like yeah, we're making some really bad decisions at this point, right? Like and and that's where I was, and and a lot of the not a lot, but I don't want to categorize everybody, but some of the first responders we deal with is kind of the same thing. They're kind of dealing with with with that as well.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Um and when when somebody, you know, let's say somebody approaches you with the decision you made, um, you know, most people are gonna be quick to get on the defensive and justify why they did what they did. You know, and so it it's hard to be uh to have some reflection and and some you know some self-judgment there to to really stop and and think, hey, you know what I'm doing, because what you're doing in the time feels good. Um it makes you feel good to spend money or or go gamble or this or that. And and and it's it's facing that and saying, okay, well, if I stop, then I'm really gonna have to face the problem. Yeah. And and that's where it's hard to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yeah, because it's facing it's the hard part. Yeah. Because there's there's there's inherent like guilt and shame that comes along with it. Yeah. Um, which shouldn't, but there is. And and it's hard to break through that. I mean, that was the biggest thing to me was my ego. I wasn't gonna ask anybody for help, you know, like it gets ugly in a hurry. Um I've got so many questions that we're running out of time, Al. Good thing we're gonna have Jack back here though, guys. Seriously, because it's one of the big things you guys reach out about. Um, and for some of us, I just want to address this real quick. For some of us that are really bad that can be in a really bad mental health place like I was in the past, it can be hard to think about planning for the future because you don't feel like you're gonna be part of the future. Um I know for me, um, I didn't want to plan for the future because I I didn't I plan on dying before that. And it's a very sick mind thought, you know, mindset, but that's where I was, and there's some other people that that's kind of where where you are. But I would just ask you guys we as we talk about this, when it comes to financial planning and getting your and getting yourself um set up right or getting out of a hole of your debt, um getting help with that and getting through that with somebody, um it can do two things. It can either draw your marriage closer or it can push it apart. But if you allow your finances to for you and your and your spouse to be able to talk about your finances openly, um, and sometimes that's that means you're gonna be have to have some uncomfortable conversations. Um, but getting on the same on the same page with each other, and honestly, for the ones that are really struggling bad, you know who you are. I know you you you don't care about you may not be around in the future, but let's do think about our families. And I think what Jack um a lot of stuff he talks about with with financial wealth and and this type of stuff, even if you may not feel like it's for you, and I know that sounds sick, but let's think about our families here moving forward because um we do care about them. I know y'all care about your families. And sometimes I know for me, getting help for myself was no thanks, but I would get help if it meant it was helping my family. You know what I mean? Because sometimes we won't we don't want to do it for our for ourselves, but let's shift to to now let's shift to having a healthy, a healthy financial relationship, you know, a healthy career. Yeah. Coming into it. Um what do you guys talk financially about in your classes here at the academy that for your recruits? What what are you equiping with? What type of advice? And you don't have to go into the whole the whole thing, but like if you had to wrap this financial class up, right? It's a financial class. What's the purpose of it?

Planning When You Don’t See a Future

SPEAKER_03 19:45

So the purpose that um, or my purpose, uh uh to give them the tips that they need to get their financial house in order. Like you said, um, it doesn't happen by accident, it has to be intentional. And and I I think in the back of people's minds when they're struggling financially, they know they are, they're just not ready to face it yet. And um I it's really so what I what I cover is a three-prong um uh uh approach? Yes, thank you. A three-prong approach of one, understanding your credit score, why is your credit score the way it is, know how to pull your credit or score credit score, and also how to maintain a good credit score. Um, the next one is gonna be debt control. And we go over um tracking your debts, understanding um where your debts are coming from, because it, you know, a lot of people are saying, well, I need to save money. Well, if you don't know what you're spending, how are you gonna save it? You have to know where your money's going. So getting in never knew. Yeah, right. A lot of us don't, or we do where we uh absolutely tend to ignore it and look the other way. Um, so like I have an app on my phone that uh connects to my bank account and and it categorizes my expenses for me. I can see how much are we eating out, how much are we spending on entertainment, how much are, you know, which gets you to start thinking, well, if I was saving that, you know, what would that in the future be worth? You know? Um and then so we talk about uh debt cons or not debt consolidation, but like uh debt snowball, um, getting out of debt, showing also credit card debts. I mean, credit cards are it it's crazy the amount of consumer debt. There's over$18 trillion in consumer debt. And this is last year's figures, over 18 trillion in consumer debt, and 1.2 or 1.3 is is credit cards.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

That's disgusting.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

It's crazy. And um, you know, 73% of Americans die in debt, which means that gets passed on to your kids, you know, because you have assets when you die, or hopefully you do. Um, but those get caught up in debts and probate. So it's really about getting them to this mindset of of buying what you need and not just what you want, being purposeful with your money and then and then um paying down your debts as fast as you can, getting to that that debt freedom you want to experience. Because I can tell you, paying something off gives you a lot more joy than buying something new.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Or paying cash up front. Yeah instead of say or saving for the and using the cash up front. Like I know a lot of financial things focus on credit score, but sometimes credit score, it seems like, and I could be wrong, seems like sometimes if you're not using credit, you're not using credit cards, your credit score goes down, and then people are like, Oh, you need to put more on credit.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Um, and that's one way, but uh there's also something to be said of of paying cash for something that's I mean it it's okay to have a credit card, but those companies are banking on you not paying your debt off. I mean, that's where they're gonna get their money from.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

They built a new building just because of me. Yeah, yeah.

The Three‑Prong Class: Credit, Debt, Tracking

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Yeah, I've I you know I I have to I have to admit, I've thrown quite a bit of money in their building too, right? So um credit cards, it you have to be very purposeful with them. They can be good if you use them the right way. If you use a credit card, like for me, I use mine just for gas because I've been I've had my card stolen, the card information stolen at a pump before. So a credit card is a lot easier. They can cover that cost and delete it off your card, right? I'm not gonna use my checking account card at the gas pump because I've had it happen. And then all of a sudden I see this charge for 800 some odd dollars at Pet Smart, and then I'm texting my wife, like, what are you doing? And yeah, it wasn't yeah, she's like, What are you talking about? I'm sitting at home. I'm like, no, you're at PetSmart. And no, this this guy uh scammed my scammed my card, took my information, created a new card, and bought a bunch of gift cards from PetSmart, and then he was gone out of the out of the city before they could catch him. So I use my credit card only for gas. Um, and then I make sure I pay it off every two weeks, or you could pay it off every month. But the whole point is to pay it off before you incur interest. Um, and the the credit companies banking on that, you won't do that. I wonder what percentage of people actually do that. Like, probably not very many. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

I mean, most because I used a credit card as well. I'm out of money, I don't get paid for another week. Yep. I'm still gonna go do all the things I want to do. The majority on the bill and then never happens.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

The majority of people use it to float, right? Um, because we earned it.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

So don't you know I earned I earned to be able to go buy this because I have had I've been working long days. I've been it's been stressful. Me and my wife have been arguing. So I deserve to go out and spend this money. Exactly. The justifications, right? We do it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

I still catch myself doing it.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

And and so what people should really move to is um excuse me, should move to having an emergency fund, right? You move to have an emergency fund in your savings account or a high yield savings account, whatever you want to put in, but it needs to be liquid where you can pull it out. Because one what happens is when you have a credit card, you know, it seems like anytime you get money, your car craps out, something happens, right? And then you're swiping your credit card, then it takes forever to pay it off. And you're paying interest on it, paying interest on it. Because something else happens in the meantime, and now you gotta, yeah, exactly. So if you just have an emergency savings account, that would be my first step would be um start, yeah, track your expenses, but start looking into creating an emergency savings account so that way when something does happen, it there's a lot less arguments, right? I don't have to, you know, let's say, let's say something happens and then um you have to swipe your credit card and now you have the arguments with your spouse again because you're constantly trying to pay this credit card off. Well, you have an emergency savings account, something happens. There is no arguments. Yeah, you you just pay it, and then you rebolster that emergency uh savings as time goes on, you know. And then after that, um, you know, then you want to start looking into you know the debt snowball, paying down your debt. You can do debt snowball or debt avalanche. Um there's two different methods. It's debt avalanche is you pay down your highest interest rates first, regardless of how big the loan is.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

As opposed to the other way where you start with the smallest.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

You start with the smallest. So finance is 20% knowledge and 80% behaviors. It's not guess. Well, sometimes, right? For me, I just guessed. Um, so it it really is behavioral. So um the reason the debt snowball works is because as you're uh paying things off, you start seeing rewards, right? It's all about seeing those rewards. If you do the avalanche method, and let's say you're paying on something for four years and it's not paid off yet. I mean, how long are you gonna, let's say it's a diet, how long are you gonna stick to a diet and see zero results? Right. So you start with the the debt snowball, and then as you pay something off, it it kind of makes you feel good, and then it it reels you back in, and then you pay the next thing off, you feel good. It's all about behavior and and the psychological aspect of it, you know.

Emergency Funds and Debt Snowball

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Um that's how I that's how I number one, I for one time it happened several times, but I use a debt consolidation, they help me kind of get settle some stuff. Um that helped. Yeah, but I'm losing my train of thought. What are you just saying? This happens all the time. Now I get tired. I don't even know anymore. Anyway, but I do we're getting ready to close up and I'm gonna ask you this, and we're gonna have you on more. Yeah. But I get this, I get asked this a lot. Should I have my own account separate from my wife? I hear this all the time. I'm tired of her, I'm tired of her, I'm tired of her. Oh, wrong button. I'm tired of her complaining all the time. I'm tired of all this. I want to have my own account. It's my job, my money. We'll share the bills. A lot of times I get phone calls where there's arguments going on where she didn't pay her part and he's let her have it, or she's letting him have it. What's your thoughts on this? Because I hear all different ways. My wife and I, we share everything. We don't have anything separate. Um, what's your thought?

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Uh, my personal thought on it is I would rather have it joint. I I feel like when when when you're married under God, you become one. Yep. Right. And um, that also plays in the finances. I I have friends that do their finances separately and they're constantly arguing with each other because, as you just said, one person's carrying most of the weight and the other person's doing what they want. When you have a joint account, um, it forces you to work together as you should be doing, and you can hold each other accountable. If I go buy a gun without talking to my wife, she's gonna say, Hey, you just spent$800. Like, you didn't even talk to me first, right? It it helps you hold each other accountable. And that's exactly what a married couple should do. You keep each other in the right, you hold each other accountable, and not to punish each other.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

It's not that a lot so many of these money arguments turn into, I mean, like like playground battles. You know, when they tell it like little kids, it's it's um it gets ugly.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

It does. Well, it turns into the well, who are you to question me on this? And when I've been doing this and this and that, and the walls go up. Yeah, the walls go up, and and you should absolutely be able to ask questions of each other, uh, obviously respectfully. But um, yeah, I I feel the joint account helps uh hold each other accountable, and and you should really be on the same page. Like you said, uh finances result in uncomfortable conversations. They absolutely do. Excuse me. Um, because a lot of people don't want to talk about finances, not even with their friends, but let alone when you have to be accountable and uh with your spouse. Uh yeah, it it is uncomfortable conversations, but they're good conversations. Yeah, you might argue, but at the end of it, at least you're both on the same page. Yeah. You know, and and that's that's the important part is being on the same page. Uh even talking about your goals together. Yeah. Uh, you know, how often do you sit down and ask your wife or your husband, like, hey, uh, what are your goals? I mean, it do you are you wanting to travel? Are are you wanting to be debt free? Are you wanting, you know, and just discuss those things. And it's funny because it's all about communication and people don't communicate.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Especially about money, because it can be uncomfortable, but you don't you want to know what's more uncomfortable when you don't talk about it and the lights are being turned off. Bills are coming in and the sheriff's at your door. That's uncomfortable. So let's have these uncomfortable conversations with our spouses now because it's a lot better having them on the on the other end. I promise you that. Um wow. So what about here? I hear this, and then we'll close out. And I want to uh give me a good answer on this one because I hear this all the time. I sign up for the overtime, I work it. That's my money. It goes into my separate account. She doesn't get any of my overtime money because that's mine. Now you've left your family to go work the overtime.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Yeah, I yeah, you know, I I would disagree with that viewpoint as well. Uh because again, you're married and you have kids, and you gotta put your you gotta put your spouse and your kids first, and they should always come first. And um you again, being on the same page, that's why the joint account helps. And then my my first mindset, if I had overtime money coming in, I'd be saying, what debts can I pay off to free up cash flow? Yeah. And then when I free up cash flow, now I have money to invest in the market. That's something we didn't have time to get into. That's another part of the prong that I talk about with recruits and um starting retirement early because the more time you have for your money to compound on top of itself and grow is the the more that you're gonna see in your account and you're more financially free.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Um we're gonna let's really dive into that next time. Absolutely. Get into the a playbook of how to do it, you know, a safe way to do it because everybody hears different opinions from every different level.

Joint Accounts, Accountability, and Goals

SPEAKER_03 31:25

I I I encourage them to uh in the class to reach out to their departments, whether it's HR or their supervisor, but you should know what your pension looks like. You should know um what's your pre-retirement income that you need, like when you retire, what's your financial independence um that you need to have? What percentage are you gonna have? When are you gonna draw Social Security? How much uh how much income do you need to supplement to live beyond? Because you have inflationary impacts after you retire. Is your money gonna be worth as much 20 years from now? Are you gonna have to go get a part-time job when you're 85? Like that's the stuff people need to need to really think about. And unfortunately, what you see in most people, pretty much all people, is they don't think about retirement until they're 40. And you've already lost 20 years of growth. You know, you should be starting retirement the moment you get a job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

So um, Al, can I get uh just a couple words out of you real quick before we close? What's the Bible say about money? A lot of people think Bible, we don't talk about it. It's what's the Bible say about money? Because it's not evil.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

No, no. Um, but um when you and I think about this, because we've worked with a small record. Okay, look at alcohol and then we talk about inappropriate uh partners.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Our regional partner, like, hey, can I comment on that? Yeah, yeah, and I like to yeah, have Jack come and speak to some of our at our some of our events and stuff because it's it's a huge thing, the money. And you know, when God talks about money in the Bible, he talks about the he talks, he's talking about the heart of people and what they're doing with the money. Money's not evil. When used properly, um, money is good. And as Christians, we also have to, you know, we need to add into our budget, in my opinion, is a tithe. I think it's important. I think when we, you know, for our faith listeners, I think it's important when we give God our first. The first of what we make. Um sometimes it doesn't make sense, but he provides a way. And there's it's not about money, God doesn't need your money, it's about your heart. And that's what I've learned through it all. It's about the heart. Your heart is where your money's gonna follow where your heart is, right? Yeah, and that's why so much in our organization we focus on the heart. But thank you, guys. This is fun. Can we do it again? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Yeah, we can do a part two.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

All right, and I'm gonna uh say say say thank you to producer Corey over here. We got Corey sitting with us. If you've been in the academy, you know Corey we got producer Corey over here, he's he's learning the switches, so thank you, Corey. And thanks for tuning in. We'll see you guys on the next podcast. God bless.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

All right, thanks.