Mind Your Money With Guest Brandon Rogers

Ever thought about where your money goes every month? If you haven't, it is time you did. Our conversation with Brandon Rogers, co-owner of Bradshaw Rogers Financial Partners, is here to help you make sense of your finances. We discuss the significance of financial wellness, sharing tips on budgeting, avoiding credit card debt, and the need for an emergency fund. Brandon also sheds light on the influence of technology on our spending habits and recounts his experience educating high school students on financial planning.  All of this aimed at helping firefighters make better financial decisions.

Now, imagine the peace of mind that comes with knowing you have a solid retirement plan. Together with Brandon, we delve into how pensions and retirement plans have evolved over time. We provide insights on the difference between pre-tax and Roth IRAs, emphasizing the importance of early retirement savings. Brandon stresses the value of a financial advisor in helping navigate the waters of retirement planning. 

We wrap up our conversation by discussing the consequences of not acquiring financial skills early in life. It is interesting how the lack of financial literacy can lead to dependency on side businesses or extra income sources. We explore how the rise of online services like DoorDash and credit apps can lead to unforeseen charges. Finally, we touch on inflation, financial responsibility, and the need for mindful spending. It's time to make smart money decisions and this episode is your guide to start. Don't miss out.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

You are listening to All Clear Firefighter Health and Wellness Podcast, this episode Mind your Money with guest Brandon Rogers. How's everyone doing today? I'm Travis Eric, the co-host over there, and we have a guest today. We have Brandon Rogers with us today, a longtime friend of mine who's going to talk to us about financial wellness. So just to kind of get started today, how are you doing today, brandon?

Speaker 2: 0:31

I'm doing good Travis.

Speaker 1: 0:33

All right, excellent. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of how you got to where you are and what you know that we need to know?

Speaker 2: 0:42

Yeah, absolutely. Again, thank you, Travis and Eric for having me on today. I'd also like to thank all the emergency and first responders out there as well that do what you do every single day. I know it can't be easy. So, again, if I can help in any way, that's what I'm here for. But now I mean to my background. I'm co-owner of Trent Bradshaw and myself. We own Bradshaw Rogers Financial Partners, where offices is located in Salisbury, north Carolina.

Speaker 2: 1:09

We basically help individuals, families, businesses, nonprofits, things of that nature with financial planning, investing, tax strategies, things of that nature, and basically budgeting is a big deal. A lot of education, really education-based. So there's a lot of things out there that I think in my career I guess I've been in the industry now about 16 years Securities license, insurance license, certified financial planner, professional designation as well, which is kind of the top designation in our field, and a lot of education are wrapped around that right. So I guess growing up and going through school, you never really got a lot of education about really important stuff like budgeting and planning, right, I mean taxes, I mean, come on right, there's a lot of things out there that were super important that I don't think the schools actually focus on, and even I went to Appalachian State.

Speaker 2: 2:05

I had a business degree still didn't really talk about it there either, so had to figure this out on your own, and not just any of the career that I came into was financial advising and, like I said, just kind of been there ever since I got out of college and, again, it's a very rewarding career. I love helping people and figuring this stuff out. It's a complex world out there, so, but everybody needs a little help when it comes to this. Schools nowadays that are actually, I think, getting better at starting to educate this were actually were called out to a local high school to talk about budgeting and stuff to a class of freshmen, which was pretty neat, so at least they are trying to approach that, as now with the current youth today. So again, super, super important.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Excellent. Well, I know Eric has an immediate question and his question is how do I know somebody that's so smart? I know he's thinking that right now, but I will tell a little bit of that. How I met Brandon. I met him through one of my co-workers, his wife Starla. And Brandon is super cool guy. You know, in addition to being financially wise, he also owns a bobcat, knows how to tear up, stumps, horses, so he's just all around good fella.

Speaker 1: 3:23

So I figured he would be a good one to talk to us about financial fitness, because, you know, we're shooting for overall wellness of the firefighter and you know, I hate to say it, I think a lot of firefighters are in worse financial shape than they should be, especially considering how regular their jobs are. So, brandon, just what advice can you give to a new firefighter, to say, maybe 18 years old, just starting out? You know, like I mentioned, some of our guys started 18, they'll be doing the same thing when they're retiring 30 years later. How can they make some smart decisions and not decide to go by jacked up Ford with 35 inch tires on it and, you know, maybe be a little more responsible for them to get go?

Speaker 2: 4:09

Yeah, I mean you know. Again, you mentioned firefighter. I mean, honestly, everybody of all walks of life have these kind of issues as far as budgeting, spending, saving, investing, you know, things like that for their future. So it's definitely not, you know, not everybody's not immune to it. Again, even doctors and things of that nature still need help in this area for sure. So, again, don't know, Everybody's on the same plane. So when it comes to that, my opinion, I mean, but really, you know, what we see, you know, is number one thing when we do the planning with the clients and people that we work with. The number one thing that I ask about before you even start investing or anything like that or saving, is do you have any emergency fund?

Speaker 1: 4:52

I mean, that would be step one right.

Speaker 2: 4:54

And why is that? Well, you know you need an emergency fund out there so you don't have to run through a credit card and then they pay the bank all this absorbent amount of interest, right? So when you look at debt and how people accumulate that through credit cards, it's just, it's unnerving. And again, it's so easy today to spend money, right? I mean, I can sit on my couch and order something online and it's here the same day or next day if I want to, right. Then you have to get up and go anywhere. So, and everybody's coming at you to wanting to buy subscriptions. That's the biggest thing now, right, subscriptions to things.

Speaker 4: 5:27

Oh it's just $5.

Speaker 2: 5:29

No big deal. But when you got five, 10, 15, $20 subscriptions adding up, I mean it's just, it's pretty wild. So I mean, technology is great, but you've got as a consumer, you've got all sorts of marketing hitting you. So again, going to these credit cards is a big issue that we see, because again, you're paying a bank or a company what? 20 plus percent in interest in a lot of times. And that's blows my mind, like I would happily loan out money if I could get a 20% return on it, no matter what, right, yeah. So again, we can see a lot of people getting a lot of trouble with that, and you know we have to help the budgeting side of the equation. Just find out where your money's going, right, and I mean, again, that might sound pretty straightforward, but again you start really adding things up. You have a budget, you know. Then you really know where your dollars are going.

Speaker 2: 6:21

But to get the emergency fund established against the number one thing. So even if people come as I want to save for retirement, I want to do this or do that, it's like, well, number one, let's get an emergency fund, because something happens and something will always happen. You need to have some cash on the sidelines to do that. What that really looks like is three to six months of living expenses is really what you need to focus on and having that right. So normally, if you're doing your own, I would say six months living expenses, and if you're again, you can be. Some people have a different mental calculation of what that number might be. Some people might want a year's worth just to feel comfortable, right so? But again, emergency funds, the number one thing we always talk about the very beginning, and you need to make sure you have that properly funded, because you're just going to get eaten alive by interest rate if something happens, because you're going to run to that credit card and pull it out.

Speaker 1: 7:09

So you know, you talk about having the, the emergency fund, and you also talk about you know watch, you know your your interest rates and stuff like that. I know this is kind of a hot question, but is being in debt always a bad thing?

Speaker 2: 7:27

I mean I guess you know they say there's good debt and bad debt. I mean being debt free should always be a goal of everybody's right, no matter what. And I would say, if you want to classify it as well, bad debt, well, bad debt is going to be your credit card, right, you know good debt it will. Maybe you're at least you're buying it, at least potentially an appreciating asset, not a depreciating asset like a vehicle, like your jacked up truck and your 35s or whatever. It is right.

Speaker 2: 7:55

I mean those things are you want you buy, or once you buy that new vehicle, you drive off a lot. Obviously it drops in value. So that's not an investment at all. It might hold its value, you know, depending on the making model of it, but it's always pretty much going to go down right. So I mean when you go to say positive debt or good debt, I mean it's really going to go towards, you know, a piece of property or your home, right? I mean, that's what's the American dream for a lot of individuals is to own your own home, right, but there's a lot of expenses that come to that and nobody can just save up cash and pay cash for a house.

Speaker 2: 8:28

That's almost impossible for anybody to do so. Therefore, you know you go to a bank, get your loan and just make sure those interest rates are kind of in check for that. So, again, good debt and bad debt. You know, obviously credit's very important these days. You got a lot of different places in your home or auto insurance, I think it checks your credit. Your cell phone carrier might check your credit.

Speaker 2: 8:50

So I mean, credit definitely is important and you want to. You want to have something out there. Use the credit cards is fine, Like I personally use credit card for all my expenses because it does a really good job of tracking expenses, classifying where you're actually spending money. But you got to make sure you pay it off every month, right, there's some points and rewards and things like that. I mean that's, that's all good and all, but again, you just got to make sure you you pay that off Because it does help build good credit and you don't want to be carrying a balance out there, right? So, yeah, credit's important. Good and bad debt. I believe there's such a thing.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Well, you know, and that is something I will admit, when I was young, I wasn't in the fire service when I was 18. I came in later in life, but when I was 18, I made very not smart financial investments sometimes, and are not even investments, just financial decisions that were less than optimal. And so that you know that's something, I see rookies now and I see young guys that are in the fire service and it's like you're spending your money on what, why you do you have a house? No, oh, okay, well, and you kind of you kind of hope that they'll figure it out before it gets too far behind. But one of the advantages of being in the fire services we have pretty decent retirement compared to some other industries.

Speaker 1: 10:16

We have a pension that you know is better than some industries and things like that. So what's your advice? I know you can't give specific advice, but overall, what would be your thoughts about retirement and trying to kind of sort that part of it out?

Speaker 2: 10:31

Yeah, I mean retirement is definitely important. Again, there's many companies out there nowadays that don't don't have pensions anymore, obviously government type employees and things of nature but one of the last places you can actually get a pension right. You know the reason for that is people, companies, especially if they're publicly traded companies, don't have pensions out there for the employees because it's a, it's a liability, so to speak, to the company to have to fund a pension for retirees, right, and it looks bad to shareholders if you're buying their stocks. So a lot of companies shut them down. Duke Energy, for example, is a big employer, obviously in this area. They had a pension, but if you join them now, their pension is gone right, and they do have 401k matches and things of that nature, which is great. Another big one, obviously, if you go kind of back in time, was Canon Mills, right, I had a lot of family that worked there and they had a great pension, right, they worked. They were there 30, 40 years, you know, and that's where is their career, because the pension kind of kept them there right, which is so pensions do have positive things out there, something you can't outlive, which is nice and you know, when you have a pension out there. It's very, very important, a very good benefit, but again, that's just kind of dying.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Close to saying a lot of people have now is really going to be looking at social security, right. So again, you have your regular job, your income, your put back, you got your pension that you come, and then you have this thing, little thing called social security that can supplement you. Well, nowadays, like I said, if you don't, if you have a job where there are some pensions, you can't live alone off social security. Right, it's a great program, but it's not.

Speaker 2: 12:09

You can't usually function only on social security. Now there's people out there doing it, but you're not really doing, you're not living too much of a life and when you want to retire you want to live a little more, right? So saving for retirement is massive. Even if you do have a pension, I think you have to save even more just for the retirement and down the road. Again, the biggest thing that we hear from people that come in to kind of go through our process and look at everything. You know they might be in their 40s or 50s or even their 60s and there's like you know a lot of time flies right and try to speed.

Speaker 2: 12:42

You were just talking about that earlier Time flies. You know you're in your 20s, you're in your 30s, you're in your 40s, you're 50s, 60s, and then you're like, oh crap, I might have some retire soon. How do we? Let's start thinking about that? And you know, when somebody really gets serious about it it's all about it's all about time, and the earlier you start, the better.

Speaker 2: 13:00

Compounding is a beautiful thing when you start saving and you know it can make a massive difference down the road. So again, if you've got your access, obviously you've got your pension. There's usually 401ks, four, three Bs, 457 plans that are out there. There's going to be more employer sponsor type plans or government sponsored plans that you can put more money into. Or, if you want you can you know, don't have to be tied to one of those plans you could look at a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. From that end, roth IRAs can be magnificent tools, so way you can kind of go through the differences between those two real quick.

Speaker 2: 13:38

Because I think it's very important to understand is that most of the retirement dollars today are pre tax right Meaning. I'll give you an example. Say somebody makes $40,000 a year, they put $5,000 into a pre tax IRA or pre tax 401k. They're in their taxed at the end of that year on $35,000 income. Because IRS says, hey, good job, you put $5,000 back, you're not taxed on that income during this year. That money then grows tax deferred all throughout your working years and when you pull it out in retirement, whatever you put in plus, whatever it's grown to your taxed at, whatever the current rates are at that time, right, flip it back to Roth IRAs or Roth 401k, things of that nature.

Speaker 2: 14:20

There's a bunch of different versions of them. Same scenario you make $40,000 a year, you put $5,000 back in a Roth. You're actually taxed on that $5,000 as income. So basically, you're taxed on your full $40,000 income that year. But any growth that you have on that over time that grows tax free. You pull it out in retirement tax free. So Ross can be very, very advantageous. Again, it depends on your situation, depends on your filing status, it depends on your overall household income. There's other rules associated with that, but if it's a good idea and your income's kind of in that range where it makes sense, I mean, ross can be powerful vehicles for sure.

Speaker 1: 15:38

So to break that down into firefighter ease, go talk to your financial advisor. Find you a good one like Brandon or someone else like that. Find someone who's qualified and knows that, because I used to work with a guy he's retired now he could tell you down to the dime how much he would be making on the time of retirement. It's kind of hard to do that now with moving targets and things like that going on. So, brandon, don't you agree that finding a good financial advisor is a good idea as early as possible?

Speaker 2: 16:17

Yeah, absolutely Like I say, that's the biggest thing that we hear about from individuals saying, dang, I wish I would have met you earlier. I wish I would have sort of thinking about this earlier. I mean it makes a massive difference. Again, let me work with someone that you can trust. I'd say, get referrals from someone if you don't know anybody, just like anything else these days. I mean there's a lot of good information out there that's free if you're a self-learner and have interest in it. I mean YouTube has tons of good videos with different podcasts out there. That's great as well. I mean we actually do our own podcasts called Mind your Money and we have a bunch of different episodes to talk about all this stuff in a little more detail. So, and it's free, it's out there now in all every major platform. So free information also can be good as well. The information's out there. You just gotta take the initiative and go find it.

Speaker 1: 17:08

No, that is very awesome. So we are, like I said, in a unique place. A lot of guys started 18 and they're still doing it when they retire, 30 years later. But, eric, you remember when you and I had the conversation a couple I don't know, it's a couple weeks ago, we were talking about how so many firefighters hey, they work 24 hours have 48 off. Well, in those two days they have a landscaping business or they pressure wash or they are a mechanic or any number of things and how they become dependent on that.

Speaker 4: 17:42

Yeah, and you know we do. We see that kind of stuff a lot the emergency services and, like you said earlier, brandon, this is any young person you know really getting into a career field, you know, whatever it is that they think that it's gonna be long lasting Really need to be thinking about this stuff, because I remember when I got into the fire department first, got hired, it was, wow, I get paid, I get paid every two weeks and it looks pretty good. And next thing, you know you're out buying the trucks. You're out, you know, not saying like useless spending. But you know, 18, 19, 20 something years old, when you first have a steady income, we really don't pay attention to the long, the long haul, so to speak, that hey, we've got to make this money last. You know 2030, the rest of our life.

Speaker 4: 18:47

And you know, getting that mindset of living within a certain means and not overextending ourself at a young age has got to be important. You know I'm getting ready to turn 50 in a week and it's like holy cow, where'd this time go? And I remember getting hired onto the fire department and here's a 401K plan. No idea what that is. You know no clue. Where do you wanna invest your money. Well, just here, invested in all this high risk stuff, I got 30 years worth of career, you know if it goes up or down or whatever else, not really thinking about it. And now it's like, hey, I'm 50 and I'm out on a medical disability retirement, so my income is at a fixed income right now.

Speaker 4: 19:37

And wow, where did that time go? I look back at all the poor decisions that I made financially, you know, coming up through my career and you mentioned a few things of you know this might be something that when we're teaching these young kids, you know, coming into the fire academy bringing somebody in like you, you know, to say, hey, let's talk about your future investment here financially in this career field, you know, because in school they're definitely not getting it. You know basic life skills of how to plan a budget. You know how to pay bills, little things. Well, you don't see a whole lot of checkbook balancing anymore. It's all online. But you know those simple life skills that we really don't think about until almost it's too late. You know, within our career, valuable information being delivered here right now.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Yeah, absolutely, but I do have kind of piggybacking off of that. You know we talk a lot about not the wasteful spending, but you know we live in the Amazon world where I can order it and have it here in you know in a couple hours. Different things like that. If you look around, you see a lot of kids are using things like DoorDash. You know different things like that. Well, I'm just gonna have McDonald's delivered to that. When I was in high school if you wanted McDonald's you had to drive down to get it.

Speaker 1: 21:06

You know you see things like that happening. You see folks using like different credit apps. I think one of them is I can't think of the name, I've roughed off my tongue, it just jumped out but like where they'll give you like a payday loan and you can get, you know, and you pay it back within like two weeks or a week or whatever. And I know it's not as predatory as some of like the title lenders and stuff like that. But when you start seeing all these little you know schemes for lack of a better term on the internet and different things like that, what's your advice on those? Because you know a lot of guys are like, well, I can get a you know an extra $200 to get me through to Friday, and you know I get paid. Then, yeah, you do get paid, but you're winding up spending for things that you might not expect. So what's your? What's your, what's your thoughts on things like that as well? You know just the convenience fees and things like that.

Speaker 2: 22:01

Yeah, like I said, I mean they're not doing it to be your best friend and do it because you're doing your favor. I mean there's something in it for them. And, like you say, you got to look through the the fine print and the red tape and see what you're really paying for, right? Me personally, again, I don't know. I looked at DoorDash one time. I think I was in an unfamiliar city and I was like let's see what this DoorDash is all about. I opened up the app and I ordered something, something from a simple place in it.

Speaker 2: 22:25

Just seeing the extra charges that were on there, I'm just like nope, not using it, like it's not worth it, it's just insane. Yeah, convenience is nice and it's also worth the price, but, like I don't know, I just ooh, it drove me the wrong way and I'm like I'm not not using this Now. I know there's some places there in peak hours they'll do free delivery and stuff like that. And again, convenience can be nice, but just be careful because also, too, you're creating a habit, right, and you're oh well, I just I can't, I don't have it now. Or let's just go get a quick fix and do this little payday loan or this advance Again. You go to any store nowadays.

Speaker 2: 23:07

I mean, they're gonna ask you hey would you like some like Marshall's right, for example, same they go in there where they ask you. Every time you walk up to the register they'll say, hey, you wanna open up a credit card today and save 10%. I'm like no, no.

Speaker 2: 23:21

I don't actually I don't you know what I tell them. I tell them, no, cash is king. I just that's what I tell them when I move on. And but one of the times I did it and I was at boot bar and buying a pair of boots and one of the register lady no-transcript, would you like to buy a bootcamp bootbound credit card?

Speaker 4: 23:39

I'm like no, I'm good, I was like actually cannot.

Speaker 2: 23:42

You got a pamphlet on it and I looked, do it, opened it up, turn it around and I think the interest rate on it was like 23%. And I look at this lady who was probably in her mid to late 60s and I was like, bang, the interest thing on this, things like 23%. And she's like, oh well, that's not that bad. And then I was just blew my mind saying like, wait, what? How was this okay? Like this is not okay, you know so. So again, it's just be very careful with that. Look at the fine print. Again, that's you get in a habit and that's where you can get yourself in trouble and you rely on it. You know, I know there's other like a firm, there's other companies like that, where you can buy anything and just finance it. You know, right, I mean, look, look at the difference, right, I mean sometimes there's not a difference but you say, hey, you could buy this for you know $200, or you can pay $10 a month for like 10 years and you're good, you know.

Speaker 4: 24:37

What about? I don't know if you can speak on this or not. What about, like debt consolidation companies? You know where somebody might rack up. You know three, four or five different credit cards and they're having. They're struggling to pay those bills off and they decide to go to a, a, a consolidation company is. Can I have negative impacts on you as well?

Speaker 2: 25:07

I, you can definitely use those. I would. Before I would go that route, I would Basically ask that credit card company to say, hey, let me just be real with them sometime. I mean, you'll be surprised at how much they'll actually work with you. I had a friend that Kind of got in a bond and you know he basically took a lot of strength for him to come ask his buddy for help. You know, I mean, and that takes nobody likes asking for help, especially guys, right, because you might be embarrassed by it about what you've done, right and you don't want that to be ruined. But you know, asking for help is a is a huge first step and there's places out there to get help. And one of the things that he actually looked into, which is called the credit card company, and said, hey, I just came into our times, this is happening, whatever. Don't know if the story really makes a difference those people, but still you just say, hey, I have an issue, can you work with me?

Speaker 2: 26:04

and they actually what they'd actually did is stopped, like his, his interest from accruing, or lowered it dramatically, I believe and just said, hey, you pay this much every month until it's gone and and you do it that way. Right, going into debt consolidation that can also be in a company, that can be also be an option. You know there's a bunch of different ones out there, but you know you just want to make sure your credit isn't negatively impacted as least as possible, right. And there's a lot of different things that can control your credit, since so many things are tied to it, right. I mean, I've worked a lot of people that you know they've done a good job. They say they pay everything cash, they don't have credit, but then they get denied for something very simple that's because they don't have any debt.

Speaker 2: 26:50

It's just like but that's a good thing, right.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Counterintuitive. But you know something else that I that I feel like that I will Probably be asked about if I don't ask you. I Know you cannot speak to cryptocurrencies and you can't speak to specifics and things like that, but when we start seeing these, I'm not gonna say get rich quick, but when your buddy comes you hey man, you need to invest in blah, blah, blah, whatever the coin or whatever the I don't even know what this stuff is the non frangible and if, whatever. So when somebody comes to you and says that, what's the first thing I should ask them?

Speaker 2: 28:17

I Mean I don't think there's anything that really is get rich quick. I mean it's not out there. If it's out there, you would know about it and the guy that would, who figured it out, it would be preaching about it. I mean it's exciting investing and everything is exciting when I all my my investment advice in general is to Really I mean they look at it as long term Diversify your assets. You know, if you like a company that's out there, do your research on them. You know. Right, you know, look into companies that actually create a product or service. You know, have employees, have big brick and mortar buildings or office buildings as well, or or they actually have audited financial statements. Right, that's a real thing. So, and invest in quality companies and invest over time. I mean that's the best thing to do.

Speaker 2: 29:13

And, as I go back earlier, what you talked about, saving as far as retirement, a lot of people, when you put money in and save in a retirement type of counter, 401k or whatever it might be the best way to do it is how do you put money in it? Right, you put it in every single pay period. Right, could be once a month, could be over two weeks, whatever it might be, but you're putting in to the market as it's, having its ups and downs, right? There's about 14 moves every year inside of the market up and down. That can be pretty drastic, right? So nobody has crystal ball. Nobody knows when it's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 29:46

There's a lot of the analysts out there have opinions, but you know, all it is is you can't time the market. It's impossible. All right. You can get lucky sometimes, and normally when you hear those stories of people hitting it, you hear all their good stories. You don't hear their bad stories, right? So that's a big key too. It's just be weary of some of the stories some people tell you, right. But again, everybody needs a different advice. Risk tolerance is different. Appletight for risk, again. Everybody wants to get rich quick, right.

Speaker 2: 30:16

But you know, hardly anybody does so just be careful about that, yeah, get rich slow right, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1: 30:25

And there you go. And the last question I have and I'm sure Eric's got one or two as well. I know we don't want to monopolize your intelligence and your knowledge of this. All this inflation, we see. Eggs are expensive, milk is expensive. It cost me $50 the other day for three hamburgers for my family at a restaurant that wasn't that good. With all this inflation, we see, should we be panicking or do you think it's just a phase?

Speaker 2: 30:56

I mean, I think it's a phase. I mean you basically come off of all the rate hikes that we had last year in 2022, right? So this is the most rate hikes that we've had in the last 40 years. I believe it was roughly about, I don't know 12 potentially in a row, which is like unheard of. And the Federal Reserve was raising rates to try to combat this inflation, right, so it's come down drastically off its peaks.

Speaker 2: 31:27

This was really July of 2022. Inflation was in the high 9% range. Now it's in kind of 4-ish range. So the Fed's only tool in their toolbox really is to raise rates and that's the only thing they can do to do it to try to get the inflation down, and it has worked over time. So Jerome Powell, as the Federal Reserve chairman, is really trying to do everything that he can to keep that inflation down. But you're right, even it might come down when it's printed and you see it on TV or you read an article about it, but you still feel it when you go to the grocery store, right? The major consumer price index actually takes out food as one of its food and energy as one of its components, because it fluctuates so much and so volatile. So you might see like, well, they say inflation's come down, but I sure don't feel it. You're right, I went to the grocery store and got like a bag of groceries that cost me a hundred bucks and I'm just like what just happened here, right, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:24

But that impacts everybody and there's a lot of people that are on fixed incomes and maybe they are only on social security and maybe they don't get really good. Cost of living increases to nothing. I don't think really actually truly follows the inflation side of the spectrum when you get your cost of living increases.

Speaker 2: 32:41

But something's better than nothing by far. But again it goes back to the importance of saving now, because it will happen again and it might not seem that bad when you're working now but you will get impacted down the road. But again, if you plan properly, you'll be ready for it when it happens.

Speaker 4: 33:04

Yeah Cool. And a cool deal.

Speaker 4: 33:07

It's the little things too. You know, of being mindful of your spending. You know in, I see it in, I used to be part of it too you guys on the job that are working two or three jobs, always complaining they don't have money, whatever else, and they've always got to, they've always got to cover Starbucks in their hand or or something like that. Going out to to eat two, three, four times a week and it's like man, you got a couple corners, you still live comfortably, but guess what you're? You're gonna be able to put some money away and you might not have to be working yourself to death. You know, and my wife and I have had to do that several times. And it's amazing. You mentioned like door dash.

Speaker 4: 33:58

You know people, they're paying for convenience and you know if you start cutting that back. You know, maybe you have a couple of apps like that. Okay, maybe I don't need to utilize three of them if I want to use one every once in a while. Okay, no big deal, I cut down on the number of trips to Starbucks that I'm making every week. Dunkin Donuts, fast food, going out to dinner two, three times a week. That's going to add up. And next thing. You know, hey, I've got money and it's nice, and you know, invest that in you in the future and make sure you're going to be comfortable in the long run instead of just right now.

Speaker 2: 34:38

Yeah, I mean to you mean, look at it. I was like the saying is that I remember as a kid my grandmother had been thinks she did and hung on the wall with a bunch of sayings, you know, and it said a penny saved as a penny earned. I mean there's a lot of truth to that and you know, pennies make dollars, right? So that's the biggest thing that I ask people when they actually have to say I got to spend them? Probably not. What can I do? I mean, when you get to items, you know if you're out in the store, you're online for one through stuff. I mean you just got to identify a need versus a want, right, is this something I need or something I want? And then see how many times you put that in the want category. Think about it real hard and do that. Another big thing I think that helps.

Speaker 2: 35:26

And we've talked about credit cards and all that. Right, it's just. I know it's difficult and a lot more difficult than today, but there's a reason why some places places don't take cash anymore. Right, you can think about it. Just try it. If you don't listen to anything else on this podcast today, just try this.

Speaker 2: 35:44

One thing. One exercise in real life is that go somewhere. I don't know if it's going out to eat or maybe you go go somewhere. You're buying a part for your truck or you're going to, you know, lowe's or whatever it is. Just take cash with you and try to, and when you try to buy that $100 tool or whatever it might be or product that you want, you know once you, when you, when you peel off those dollar bills or 20s or $100 bill like it's hard to let that go right, but you take a card out of your pocket, swipe it on the machine, it's no problem. They've. You know, the companies have done the credit card companies have done a great job of disassociating, I think, the true value of a dollar and they put it on this little magnetic strip or this chip or the wave it and some, some magical happens when you put it up against the machine right Kind of out of sight, out of mind. And that's it.

Speaker 4: 36:32

You know, I know I got into trouble early on in my career, you know, with some credit card debt, and it was like, oh, I can buy that right now, even though I don't have the cash. And you're not thinking, at the end of the month there's going to be a bill sitting in the mailbox and uh-oh, I couldn't buy what I wanted to begin with, so I put it on this card and now I've got this bill that I can't pay it. And it.

Speaker 4: 36:57

Yeah, it can get in trouble. I liked what you said cash is king. I try to do everything as much as possible with cash because it is hard to let go of those green pieces of paper.

Speaker 2: 37:11

That's very true. I was on a trip as a kid, if I had a hundred dollar bill, if I got it for my birthday or something like that, or a fifty dollar bill, you know if I had Grant, you know, sitting there in my pocket or you know I folded up and I put it somewhere because I just didn't want to spend it, right? I?

Speaker 2: 37:28

would walk out of a store if that was the only bill I had left, because I didn't want to bust that big bill. But I mean again, that's the, that's the tie that you had, the actual cash that you don't have with just a regular card.

Speaker 1: 37:39

Absolutely Well, cool. Well, brandon, thank you for taking time to give us some financial education. Hopefully you'll be willing to come back and maybe do it again in the future, because there's a lot of stuff that we still need to learn to be financially responsible as adults, and I'm still working on it myself.

Speaker 3: 37:58

Absolutely Thanks for having me Sure I appreciate you being here tonight.

Speaker 4: 38:01

I got a lot out of it. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 38:04

So again, that's for help, it's not a problem.

Speaker 1: 38:06

Yeah, not at all. Hey, hey, brandon, you don't see something cool?

Speaker 4: 38:10

Watch this, hey Eric do I have to go to the oh jeez?

Speaker 1: 38:14

I got to go to the dentist tomorrow, you know what time.

Speaker 4: 38:18

You broke up there. I couldn't hear you.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Oh yeah, fine, fine, yeah. Now I'm breaking up.

Speaker 4: 38:24

No, seriously, you know what?

Speaker 1: 38:27

time I have to go to the dentist tomorrow.

Speaker 4: 38:30

No. Tooth herdy Okay.

Speaker 2: 38:35

I'm glad that broke up.

Speaker 4: 38:37

Yes, me too. Oh, my gosh Travis and his dad jokes.

Speaker 1: 38:42

No Well, seriously, we try to throw a dad joke in at the end to kind of lighten it up and also to show that, hey, we do need some more listeners and subscribers, and anyway, it's painful. It is painful, almost tooth herty Anyway but, anyway, brandon, and all seriousness, thank you again. How can folks get a hold of you if they want to send you an email, anything like that?

Speaker 2: 39:06

I would say go to our website. It's a really good resource. It has a lot of educational videos that you can have. Link store our podcast there. Again, that's Mind your Money, but it's BradshawRodgerscom. Again, there's a lot of really good resources. It's free. Just take an issue out there and look at it. If you got questions, there's a contact us link out there. Or give the office a call. We'd be happy to help you out. Anyway, we can.

Speaker 1: 39:30

And tell them that you heard about it on All Clear Anyway.

Speaker 2: 39:33

There you go.

Speaker 1: 39:34

But thank you again and again, folks, thank you for taking a little bit of time out of your day to listen to us, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Thank you.

Speaker 2: 39:43

Thank you, thank you Thank you, thank you.