The Better Budgeting Podcast
The Better Budgeting Podcast is your go-to resource for mastering your finances without the stress. Hosted by Danielle Reese, this podcast breaks down budgeting, saving, and smart spending into simple, actionable steps. Whether you’re tackling debt, building wealth, or just looking to make your money work smarter, we’ve got expert insights, real-life success stories, and practical tips to help you take control of your financial future. Tune in and start making your budget work for you—without sacrificing the things you love!
The Better Budgeting Podcast
Cutting Costs: Are Your Subscriptions, Gym Memberships, and Warranties Draining Your Wallet?
Ever wondered if those multiple streaming subscriptions are really worth it? Join us on the Better Budgeting Podcast as George Curbelo and I unravel the hidden costs of our everyday habits. This episode promises to help you rethink and re-evaluate your spending on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus. With the majority of consumers juggling two or more subscriptions, we offer eye-opening alternatives to avoid overspending and suggest practical ways to enjoy your favorite shows without breaking the bank.
What about those gym memberships you rarely use? George and I dive into the financial drain and psychological barriers of maintaining gym memberships, particularly for women. From personal stories of failed gym commitments to exploring free fitness resources such as YouTube workouts and outdoor activities, we provide strategies to stay fit without the recurring cost. We even touch on the hidden pitfalls of Amazon Prime's delivery guarantees and how these seemingly small costs add up.
Finally, we tackle the complexities of insurance policies and the often-overlooked expenses of storage units. Learn how to avoid overpaying for unnecessary coverage and discover strategies to eliminate mortgage insurance by increasing your home equity. We also discuss the emotional and financial benefits of decluttering your life. Wrapping up, we emphasize the importance of balancing work and quality family time, along with insights on achieving financial freedom through personalized coaching. Tune in for an episode packed with valuable advice and practical tips to help you cut down unnecessary expenses and achieve financial peace.
Danielle is a money coach helping women and couples who have been trying to figure out their finances FINALLY create a clear plan so they don’t have to worry about waiting to refill their bank account the next payday.
She is the founder of The Financial Freedom Society on Facebook and her signature money coaching program, The Better Budgeting Playbook. You can sign up for her newsletter by clicking here.
Take the first step towards financial freedom and sign up for a complimentary assessment call with me, Danielle Reese.
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Sign up for the early release of The Better Budgeting Blueprint for $99 with a $50 refund once completed. The release is scheduled for April 1st 2025.
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Hello and welcome to the Better Budgeting Podcast. I'm your host, danielle Reese. I'm a money coach and the founder of the Better Budgeting Playbook, and this is my one-on-one coaching program for women and couples who have been trying to figure out their finances, finally create a clear plan so they don't have to worry about waiting on payday anymore. I became a money coach in 2020 after paying off over $60,000 in debt, rekindling my marriage, becoming financially free and wanting others to experience the same. If you'd like to work with me, you can check out the link in the show notes there. Also, we have the Financial Freedom Society on Facebook. It's a free Facebook community focusing on debt payoff, saving strategies, budgeting and money mindset. You can find the link to that community in the show notes as well. Welcome everyone to the Better Budgeting Podcast. I'm your host, danielle Reese, and the lovely guest, george Carbello. I appreciate you coming every single month. Hey, such fun topics to talk about, so let's get into it.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you as usual. Thank you and hello to everybody. And this is always fun. There's always something new to talk about and you know I try to be funny, so I don't know. We'll see. We'll see all the pressure now.
Speaker 1:You're a funny guy, so I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2:We'll see all the pressure now. You're a funny guy, a funny looking guy.
Speaker 1:That's what my mother told me All right, so today we are going to talk about five unnecessary bills to stop paying in 2024. I found this article over on gobankingratescom and I was like this is actually a pretty decent article. You and I, we went, I don't know. A month or two ago we talked about a different article where it was just like so left field and definitely did not in line with what we teach by any means. But this actually was pretty good, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 2:I would say too, it's one of those kinds of things that we always have so much. Everything needs spending and we have bills and we have to pay these kinds of things and I think it just allows us an opportunity to really evaluate some of the spending that we do, and is it truly something you need? Is it truly something you want One way or the other? But it's one of those kinds of things that, hey, if you're looking to make a change, here's probably areas you want to start looking at.
Speaker 1:Here's great areas to start looking at. Here's great areas to start looking at. All right, I'll go with number one and you hit with number two. Sound good?
Speaker 2:I'm okay, I think I got comments.
Speaker 1:All right. Number one of things unnecessary bills to stop paying in 2024 is subscription services. So here's some facts. This has skyrocketed in the last decade. I remember when you could get Netflix sent to your house via DVDs and that was kind of like the weird thing to do to not go to a store to rent a movie. But now you could get it directly to your house and then streaming was not long after that. And this is something that people are usually signing up for left and right. Specific, like show specific, because my husband and I were just talking about the other day about sporting events, like if you wanted to watch this football game, it's got to be on Peacock, and if you want to watch that one, it can be on Hulu or you know whatever. It's just crazy that one it can be on Hulu or you know whatever.
Speaker 2:It's just crazy, wouldn't you agree? I would say so. Here was the thing that I was sold. You got to cut the cord, right, so pay. Who pays for cable today, in 2024? Right, that was the big thing, but I can see why people still do it, right? You know, the one thing that I look at when it comes to cable, the biggest complaint was you know, I'm paying for such service and I'm only watching one or two channels. That was the biggest thing. So, cut the cord. All you need is Internet. Everybody needs Internet. Right, we need something, connectivity to the Internet for some, for some purpose, whatever that might be.
Speaker 2:And now, today, we have you have all of the streaming services. You're right, you got YouTube TV. You have direct TV. You have Hulu, netflix, paramount, you know stars. You get the idea. I'm already running Mac. We have any Macs. You know, we have so many streaming services that we have. And the one thing that I've noticed with people and let us know, let us know if you're in this boat it's like I have all of them. But the biggest complaint we had about cable TV was I don't need all these channels. How many hours a day do you do you? Do you have to watch television? Why are we paying for all of these services when you're right, danielle, I think we're in this mode of it's. It's a show-based. I want to watch Breaking Bad. Where is Breaking Bad? Let me subscribe to that. And, by the way, you can still buy those things digitally. I know DVDs and Blu-rays are going away physical media but there are ways to where, instead of subscribing to a service, you can just buy Breaking Bad and just watch, you know, and binge the show.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. It says that video stream subscriptions services are the most popular subscription model, with 90% of consumers subscribing to at least one service and 75% subscribing to two or more. So basically, three quarters of the people that subscribe to anything, it is going to be to two or more video streaming services.
Speaker 2:Okay, so but which two two or more.
Speaker 2:Two makes sense. Every, I feel like everybody. You either have Netflix for the adults or Disney plus for the kids, like it's one, that's your standard. I'm like, okay, I'll let you get away with one or two, but the amount of others and they're not cheap anymore. I mean Netflix is now close to 20 bucks. You have Hulu, that's, you know, hovering close to 10. You know Paramount's at 10. You get the idea where, you know, all of a sudden you're thinking you're saving money. The average cable bill was around 200 back in the day, you know, back like last month $200 a month.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Subscription services. But if we're going to sit back and go, well, you know, I need all of these channels itself. Oh yeah, I'm saving, you know, $25. If you're not going to watch all that media, you know, just pay for what you want and what you're watching, rather than trying to have this bundled version, um, that you have from there. So I I yeah, it's, it's that's for me, that's the biggest. I feel like the biggest thing that we've.
Speaker 1:We've substituted one and we're still spending that same amount of money yeah, like, for example um, we had this disney bundle which came with esbn, hulu and then disney. It was like an upgrade at one point where it was free and then it started charging us an extra 12 a month to have all three of them. And recently, recently, I was like nobody's watching hulu, we're not watching esbn, like I'm just gonna to downgrade for Disney and now I didn't even know this until I went to downgrade that you can have like a cheap version of Disney where you have ads playing during the show, normal TV back in the day.
Speaker 2:Whoa whoa, stop it now, what?
Speaker 1:no, I don't do commercials pay an extra like two dollars and have no ads. And I've got young kids and they have no idea what ads are because they grew up in the, in the subscription world, right. But I will say that we have cable six months out of the year. Do you know why we have cable six months out of the year?
Speaker 1:I'd like to know explain because the orioles oh gosh okay, they are contracted by a local sports center which is only on one network provided for cable. And last year it wasn't so bad because it was like the mid tier package and I was like, yeah, whatever. Now it's the top tier package, but here's the thing. George internet and the cable right and we only watch the Orioles. It's $200 a month. You know how much it costs me to go to a game for a family of four.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I mean, I know there's $10 tickets, but it ain't, it, ain't, it ain't 200.
Speaker 1:Right, and we're not buying $10 tickets. We're buying the $50 tickets because I'm trying to enjoy the game. So there the $50 tickets because I'm trying to enjoy the game. So there's 200 just itself. Then I want snacks and I want whatever. So, anyway, I'm not trying to girl math it, but we can stay home and watch all season long, go to the game once a month and it's still cheaper and like a better experience that we enjoy over not having the cable and then going once a month to these games. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Fair enough.
Speaker 1:I think there is a balance that is needed. However, there's so many times that I get on phone calls with clients or coaching calls with clients and they do the bank statement exercise and they say I have no idea what this charge is.
Speaker 2:Apple is charging $9.99 a month. What's Apple right I?
Speaker 1:don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's the more common one is like what's this apple charge?
Speaker 1:I'm like, seriously, is it storage, is it tv or is it, or is it a combination of both, and it's like well let me find out yeah, and you parents that let your kids you know, have the phone or the tablet or whatever that's connected to your cards. Those are the ones that they're like $5. 299, 192. Like it adds up so quickly. Because those kids are, they're buying them Roblox packages and what's that going to be?
Speaker 2:Oh, of course I can buy this. It's free, it's no big deal. It's like no, no One thing I'll. So you're, you're on the Orioles, me, the nfl. So obviously the nfl last year started this and it started to get some uproar. It's gonna get crazy this year as well. Netflix has two games they're showcasing on their platform. Peacock has one. Uh, you have your, your standard local right you're gonna have. I believe hulu's gonna have another. Uh, amazon prime does thursday nights. So you get the idea where it's like holy, if you like the sport in order to follow the games that you're going to have, they're making you put you into this position where you're also kind of working that that way as well. So I get it. This is where, if you're a big sports fan, anything alive very difficult to kind of say well know, I'm just gonna get hulu tv and then that's the harder of the two, but I would say always priorities does. Is it more important with the sports or some of the financial goals you're setting?
Speaker 1:so right, right, and also you would. You would mention this, like how much are you actually watching of these?
Speaker 2:oh, I'm right.
Speaker 1:So for us, if there's 15 orioles games in a month, which there usually is, or more, and they're three hours each, not that we're watching, but it's on the background, like you know what I mean, it's well used within those six months.
Speaker 2:But if I've got hulu, peacock, netflix, stars, hbo plus, hbo, whatever, I'm gonna miss something, though, danielle I I need to know what's on MGM plus so that I can get that old movie that I didn't, that I didn't see five years ago.
Speaker 1:I would say on average, whenever new clients come to me, at least $80 in subscriptions and that's that's if you're lucky with the monthly.
Speaker 2:We get people who are well, I'll just sign up for the annual Right, and then all of a sudden, come March, they're like $400. What happened it's we'll be signed up for the annual plan. So be careful with how you sign up for those two.
Speaker 1:Amazon Prime, man, amazon Prime. You know what makes me mad about Amazon Prime? They guarantee the two day delivery and now it's like three days, four days, like what is this?
Speaker 2:We'll get there eventually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, hit us with the next one, all right.
Speaker 2:So gym membership seems to be another kind of hot topic here. But paying for and I'll give you a funny I'm trying to be funny here, so here's a dad joke but paying for gym memberships you never use is like signing up for the marathon and then taking a taxi to the finish line. Come on, come on. Is that good? Is that good Can?
Speaker 2:I get away with it. We understand the intentions, you know, especially at the beginning of the year, beginning of the year, new year's resolution oh, we got to get this. We got to do this. A lot of the gyms right now to the subscription model right, If they get you on the monthly right, they put your card, they do the monthly that you don't, if you don't go to the gym, start recording some of the exercises doing what you need to do. This becomes a quick add up. I know some of them are like 10 bucks a month.
Speaker 2:Yeah 10 times 12, you get the idea and then 50, it's like $50 annual fee as well. So you're still talking almost $200 a year for gym membership that you may use, you know, once or twice a month. There's a problem People are doing this, though, with some of the more expensive ones, where it's $120 a month and it's like or how many times did you go? I mean, let me tell you if I'm paying that money. I'm, you know I'm, I'm living there for at least for at least three hours, you know. So I think.
Speaker 2:But that's where we need to be very careful when it comes to, you know, I get, I love the commitment, but there has to be not just the financial commitment that it comes to gym memberships. There has to be the time commitment that we have there. I think some of the stats around is like 63% of gym membership go unused, 63, which costs about a 1.8 billion annually, and so, yeah, I mean that's for me, that's an easy one. I mean it's it's like why the I know why people sign up. But what do you think, daniel, what's you know good in january?
Speaker 1:how do I keep motivated when I'm in june, july, the summer months, where I'm still paying for these subscriptions, these gym memberships I think they're as a, as a woman in the gym culture, I think that there is this kind of stigma of I don't want to be looked at funny at the gym. So like one, it's already hard to get there, like emotionally, mentally, just get there and then when you're there, if you don't know what to do, it's feels a little scary, right, and you back out for maybe a month or something and what happens is people start thinking, well, it's only $10. It's only correct, I'm going to get back there, I'm going to get back and it going and it just it never happens. Um sandy said I canceled my gym membership, my gym membership at covid, and never went back.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, that makes sense, you know, and if you're not using it, then it makes sense. And I think people feel guilty that like I really need to be going, so I should keep it, so that it is the motivator to go. But that ain't the motivator. You can go outside and walk, you can, you know, lift up your children as free weights, you know that's one way to do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, find other ways to exercise, and if you don't really enjoy that gym, also that gym culture, you're not going to go anyway.
Speaker 2:So the one thing I so I follow a few TikTok. Going back under one of our old TikTok you know the TikTok thing, there's a guy who goes on TikTok A lot of the things that I worry about with the gyms as well. There's a lot of recording, people recording themselves, and it makes people feel uncomfortable. Where you have some folks who are very I'm okay with confidence, but you have to still be aware of people as your surroundings. So that also, you're right. Gym culture, that could also turn some people off. But once, but I think again, adulting, we have to make that decision. Where it's like, okay, maybe the gym's not the right uh, avenue for me, if you want to still do the workouts, try some home workouts.
Speaker 2:There is plenty of free stuff out there when it comes to, you know, youtube and what's available for you. Start there. Start with free activities outdoors. Go for a nice walk, do a nice jog around the. You know, and there's no. For me, exercise is like dude. If you do 30 minutes of activity, you're winning. That's the most reports You're winning. From that standpoint, there's never there doesn't necessarily have to be a financial commitment to it initially. Going back to subscriptions, a lot of those online subscriptions. When it comes to gym, you know the home videos, you could, you know, work out from home, those also $20 a month. I love the intention. The thing is, if you're not actually setting the time to do it, for me that's a waste of money, and that could be money that you could be using towards other financial goals that you're that you're setting.
Speaker 1:And you can always go back Like when you're fully committed. You've got a really good why of why you want to go to the gym, why you want to get healthy, like why you want to work out. When you get to that point, you can always go back, but at least save your money while you decide you're not going to go.
Speaker 2:I agree, totally agree with you there All right.
Speaker 1:Number four is unused insurance policies. Unused insurance policies. So we're specifically talking about car insurance, health insurance, home insurance. We're talking about all types of insurances here, because this is such a it's a difficult topic. There's so much jargon right. So much lawyer talk in these documents is really what it is when do I agree?
Speaker 2:Where do I agree? I just-.
Speaker 1:Let me sign this paper. You're saying that you're going to cover my house? Great, and then-.
Speaker 2:Enough for me.
Speaker 1:You know, and then your water pipe busts outside your house. That connects to the main line and nobody covers it because insurance didn't cover it, right. But there are instances, especially in the car insurance world, where your car is being over insured, right, and what we want to do is become knowledgeable about what is our car actually valued at. If it was totaled and I was going to get a check from the insurance company is it going to be worth what I'm paying right now? Because what happens is in insurance companies they go ahead and they say, all right, your car is worth $10,000. Okay, and they're going to write you a check for $10,000.
Speaker 1:And I'm sorry, I just got sidetracked for a second. They're gonna say your car is worth $10,000. But you're paying for, like, full coverage, right? Like you're paying the $250, $300 a month for all of your cars and stuff and your car is only going to be a check worth 10,000. Go ahead and talk with your insurance agent, not, not Joe Schmo, not TikTok, whatever. Talk with your insurance agent, go compare it with another insurance agent and saying hey, if my car was totaled today, what would I need in order to cover it? And a lot of the times we're overpaying in insurances.
Speaker 2:I would agree. So for me, the insurance is one thing. I would agree. So for me, the insurance is one thing. Where would be the areas? Right, we over insure from a car. Car insurance, right Again, funny, take right, I'll give another.
Speaker 2:Let me see if I can be funny twice. So you know, having too much car insurance itself is like wearing a helmet while driving a tank. Come on, come on, all right, so that's good enough. So think about it like this, though I think a lot of us don't understand what's in the insurance policies, what we're signing up for. We just think I need the most coverage, I need this, or I need the least covered. Whatever you know it's, you have to understand what it is that you need for where you're driving, for the cars that you have, for the drivers that you have in your family. Having that information and knowing that is just a better way of understanding. Okay, here's the type of coverage. And working with a good broker, here's the type of coverage you need.
Speaker 2:You don't need all of this. You don't need to overpay for some of these kinds of things as well. Whole life insurance you get into. You have mortgage insurance, like insurance on an insurance, don't we have PMI? Isn't there things that we already have in place? Pmi is another one. That's another insurance where it's like, hey, if you can avoid, get that 20% knocked out as quickly as possible. Even if you do 10%, 15% down payment, get to that 20 where the equity, where you can remove the PMI. For me that's always unnecessary mortgage or insurance. There we pay way too much from a statistics standpoint. But extended warranties kind of fall into this as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, think about. I mean, let me so think about it. Right, like you need the extended warranty on the toaster you know I mean on the television like do you need to?
Speaker 2:you know, like I understand, accidents happen. But isn't that the emergency fund? There's certain things in place and again, not getting a new toaster or tv is not going to be an emergency. But when we talk about things going wrong, you know, if we have a safety net, if there's money set aside for those kind of things, what? What's the extended warranty on the car like? What do we like? If you read the fine print, even on the extended warranties for the car, they'll, maybe they'll cover all oil chains or, but they're not going to cover the engine, they're not covering.
Speaker 2:You know the transmission the big stuff that's going to cost so much money. There's going to be fine print that we just think, oh, you know, I'm covered, why not, don't worry about it. So it's one of those kind of things that let's understand exactly what it is that we're we're we're shopping for. And we have to understand too, like there's, there's a financial incentive for these realtors and marketers and they're making a ton of money on on the, on the bank that, yeah, I signed up for a three, but what if the, if the TV breaks in the next three years, I get a new one free? Most likely, those, those tvs are meant to last five, ten, ten years. Yeah, you're not. And, of course, what do you do with the receipt that you're supposed to keep? Just that's lost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say, um, when I bought my car back in 2017 I've had it that long, seven years and, uh, it was a brand new car. It was a hybrid. It was a new model at that, like brand new model for Kia and I remember sitting in that finance office and the lady took this hunk of metal and she set it on her desk and she said do you know what that is? And I said nope, and she said this is part of the battery pack. She said if this goes out in your car, it's going to cost you $7,000. If you don't have $7,000 sitting around, I would highly encourage you to get insurance to cover this. That would need a replacement part, like a brand new car. And you want me to buy a warranty on case something breaks? No, no, and I thought it was just so funny because I've had this thing for seven years and, like I do routine maintenance, I haven't had a single problem. Knock on wood.
Speaker 2:Like that's what I'm saying here. You go right here, it's all good on it.
Speaker 1:But like we have to be educated on what is actually reasonable, because slimy salespeople, they will wiggle their way in and and sell you what you don't, there's a financial incentive to it all.
Speaker 2:And it's not that they're meant to, you know, mean to, meant to be mean or doing it. It's just it's part of business, it's an extra way to make money. So that thing you got to speak. Be cautious and be aware of that I do think there's.
Speaker 1:there is salespeople out there, by the way, like, let me just set the record straight, there are salespeople out there that are selling something to you to solve a problem that you have that are being honest about it, and they're you know whatever. But there are people out there that have commission breath and just want to sell it out and it's just cool.
Speaker 2:Know the difference. That's all I would say.
Speaker 1:Know the difference Indeed.
Speaker 2:So the next one, I think, is storage units that we have on the list here as unnecessary. So I'm torn on this one. But I do understand why Having storage for stuff I went from a big house to a smaller place you have to put some of the stuff there because you can't put it all into the apartment. Moving from place to place, moving to a new home, I get the necessity for storage. Yes, where I draw the line is I've had a storage unit for three years and we're still. We're still paying you know X amount of dollars for storage of stuff that we probably don't need and we probably haven't seen the inside of the box in that same amount of period of time. How, I mean, how much are we talking? I mean, I'd imagine the numbers behind the amount of, first of all, the storage facilities that are out there, that's one, but the amount of money that the we believe they Danielle, they have shows, they have TV shows about storage units.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That's. That's how crazy we've gotten when it comes to the storage unit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I found this fact and this just blew me away and it is as of 2021. So it's a little bit older right now, but still, there were almost 50,000 self-storage facilities operating in the US. Over half of available self-storage space is owned by small business operators, which is great. Love that for them, right, we need a small business operators for the economy. Love that, okay, great. The average occupancy of storage facilities is 96.5 percent. So 50,000 96 percent of them are filled and I don't know about you, but like they're popping up everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like I'm new to my area here in Palmetto Florida and it's like holy cow, there's another one, there's another one.
Speaker 1:This is the statistic that blew my mind, and it said that 90% of worldwide self-storage inventory is in the United States.
Speaker 2:George, we have a lot of junk.
Speaker 1:We are a consumer society. We hold a lot of things for the dear life. I remember as a kid my grandmother holding on to the aluminum foil of gum. It's foil, though it's foil. We have been raised in a consumer society. Now, like it is funny, right, it is funny. And my grandparents? They were born in the thirties, right? So, it got the tail end of the great depression Like they went through a whole lot of crap. They understand the need to have things because resources were so Same right.
Speaker 2:Totally agree, totally agree.
Speaker 1:But when you go on the other end of it, where there's just so much available in the world now that we've become so accustomed to having things and this also kind of goes in line with our mental state as well when you've got a lot of crap, it takes away from our brain power.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:You ever been in like a stuffy room and then been in an empty room Like it's such a difference of a feeling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in other cultures around the world. Why this stat just blew me away is other cultures around the world. Their laundry is in their kitchen. Because it makes sense, sense, right, and then you come over.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, it's close to the water. It's close.
Speaker 1:I mean, you don't have so many pipings and yeah, that makes sense and you come over to the us and we've got laundry rooms that are as pretty as as like living rooms and and like it's, it's quite we.
Speaker 2:I had to, I had to, danielle, I had to get the room, as you know, with the nice shelving, and you, you, know, here's the thing that's normal in this society.
Speaker 1:And if you want, to sell your house. That is a big selling point in our society. That was a choice that you've made, whatever. You know what I mean. But, like when we go over to Europe, they were raised in smaller houses.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even in Europe they're not making big ass houses. It's just not normal over there.
Speaker 2:No, that's all. But I think, whether the size of the house, I mean, I get that, but I think we're in this. You're right saving stuff, if you do have a storage unit, or even your garage, if people don't store their cars in their garages, you might have too much stuff. So, you know, having the opportunity to kind of declutter, see what's in the boxes, see what's, do you still need it? Is it still necessary? I mean there's, there's things that I mean I get it. Some of them have sentimental value, so I'm not, I'm not going to knock on that, but does everything have that tie? So I'm not going to knock on that, but does everything have that tie?
Speaker 2:The one thing that I, you know, my wife, my mom, saving, like our baby stuff, saving the, you know, the first grade poster. It's great memories, don't get me wrong. But it's like we have boxes of that stuff and I just like take a picture, take a picture, save a picture, save it. So it doesn't. I mean I rather have a storage unit of my Dropbox you know data files and do that than have a garage full of papers that are, you know, decomposing, attract animals, do things. You know what I mean, like you, just I don't know. It's just opportunity to be able to declutter and agree with you. An empty room that doesn't feel so stuffy, doesn't feel so, you know, cluttered I. I would agree with you there. It does have a different feel for it, but yeah and you forget what's in the storage unit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny that we're talking about this topic today, because yesterday I paid somebody to come and haul away a bunch of junk Like I'm on a cleaning spree here, and it was. It was yard work, stuff, branches, whatever. But he said to me in the winter time, when his junk removal business slows down, he goes and he buys storage units that are past due, like now they're owned by the storage facility and he goes and he buys. He's like I can make so much money on these things. People don't realize how much money is sitting in there. And it's so true because there's 96, almost 97% occupancy across 50,000 storage units. Right, you forget what's in there. I'll never forget my mom moving out of her house into a different house and she lived there for 20 plus years and there was just so much stuff yeah that she was like oh, I forgot about this.
Speaker 1:I forgot about this and I don't know, me and my husband, we, we go at it all the time about how my side of the bed has, like a book, my phone charger, a candle water bottle. That's about it. And his side is like all the things, but he knows what all is there. He says he knows what's all those things. Don't touch my things because don't touch it.
Speaker 2:No, my wife is the same way.
Speaker 1:I know that I put that piece under there and it was back on that side.
Speaker 2:I know exactly you move the remote. Why did you do that?
Speaker 1:we've got a strict policy of where the remote goes. I got kids.
Speaker 2:Let me throw one outside of what we've kind of discussed itself. But unnecessary costs again we could have the debate. But expensive coffee. Most people are like, oh, I got to have my latte, I got to be able to feel good, do whatever I need, but I got to function Lattes, I mean. I don't even think it's $5 anymore. I think they're like $7 or $8. Like we're not talking cheap anymore. The average American now spends about $1,100 in coffee annually. Wow, that's, I mean that's. I'm just throwing numbers at you, it's. But when you hear that, what are we like? That's what's that I mean. Are you, do you love coffee? Do you like? What like is that? Is that? What's your preference when it comes to that?
Speaker 2:I don't drink coffee okay, we'll say all right, so then next topic on average.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing it's all about what we value. Yeah Right. Like, when you tell me eleven hundred dollars a month, I think about emergency fund. Like how much eleven hundred dollars can change a lot of my clients lives. Just today I had a client she got a thousand dollar grant for her electric bill. Like that is life changing. And people don't look at it that way. Whenever they look at coffee they're like well, I need my coffee in the morning, okay great. Like for me, I don't value coffee that hot, that high on my my pillar or whatever my totem pole of values. Um, so for me I'd be like, if I was a coffee drinker, I just make it at home, not a big deal make it at home, right?
Speaker 2:well, it big deal Make it at home, Right?
Speaker 1:Well, it's become a habit right. It's like I run, I run, drop the kids off while I do. I take that route and I go to that specific Starbucks. I see Janet who's making my drink. She loves it.
Speaker 2:You know, Janet.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, I got it All right. Excuse me, I know her, she, we talk about her and kids. Maybe her kid is on my baseball, my kids baseball team yeah, and like it becomes a part of our lives and people don't separate monetary value from the experience at that point I agree you know, it's no different from me buying the 50 seats versus the $15 seats at the Oreos game.
Speaker 2:Like I'm going to go, get them Bleach your creature or your third baseline.
Speaker 1:I am as close to home plate as possible. I don't care if I'm up in the nosebleeds, but I want to be on home plate so I can see the game.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 1:Go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, no hate on that. I mean I think you're right. On the brewing at home, you can do frothy milk, you can do syrups. I mean, think about it. That's all about time again. It's like if I, if I do the time at home, you know I can manage those kinds of things. If I can do the gym at home, if I can, it's all about you know. Yeah, I can see one show, but do I need all the subscribers? It subscribe, it's? It all comes back to lifestyle, it comes back to mindset, it comes back to habits when it comes to any of these types of things. And then, when you're right, how do we change that? We've got to think differently. What's our priorities? What are what's important to us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that kind of segues into our, our next topic, and I'm going to change it up on you a little, george.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:We had cable TV as number five. Like getting the cable. You mentioned that on the very first one.
Speaker 2:Streaming Yep.
Speaker 1:So let's kind of pivot and discuss about time, because when you talk to your clients, when I talk to my clients, every single one of them has a why. That revolves around time. Yep, spend more time with my family. I want to be able to spend time on vacation. I want to be able to go to my kids' games. I want to be able to be with my parents more. All of that revolves around how do we want to spend our time, and what I find is people aren't equating that to how they spend their money.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Right, like we'll talk about this coffee situation. $1,100 a year. $1,100 a year, you can go on a weekend trip somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:You could have that time with your family And-.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't have to work overtime so that you can, you know, make that extra money per month, be able to. You know, it's the little things what's more important when it comes to because we, that's the one thing I can always make more money, I can't make more time, and that we always, we always get back into that situation where it's, you know, I can't get back that time when my kid was two. I can't get back, but you know I work overtime so I'm missing out on certain events. You can't make, you can't get those things back. And I think that's where I understand some of us might be in a position where we have to. You know, you know we're in crisis mode, we have to do what's necessary, but if, if it's extended for three, four, five, 10 years, those are years you're just not going to get back. And I think that's where what's important to you, you know you're right. I mean, you're in control of your calendar.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's important.
Speaker 1:Let me. Let me break this down in the way that I kind of did it from. From my life, Okay, and it is when my baby was born. I went on this heck of a journey of paying off debt, becoming financially free, working really hard, trying to save up cash so that I would have time. Now my kids are five or no, she corrected me yesterday, she's six.
Speaker 2:Come on now.
Speaker 1:Right, she's six and they're seven, and I have so much time on my hand because I don't have to go to a job to make money, to pay a debt, to do this, to do that. My money is not directed towards past life anymore. My money is directed always to forward.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people don't look at it that way. I had to pay a price. Do you think I enjoyed dropping my kids off at daycare at two and three years old and having to go work a nine hour day?
Speaker 2:Right, totally not, but that was not None of us like it, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:That was my drive to being like no, I'm building something bigger, like I don't want to have to do this ever again and if I have to give up this time right now, so that when they're six and seven and they can walk, can go out and explore the world and like, have fun together, like, pay the price now, get your stuff in line, shorten the amount of time that you can spend with your kids and stuff now, so that you can get to that point of I want to do that. And sometimes people I see it all the time on social media where they're like you know you'll not get this time back. You even mentioned that a little bit but I'm going to, I'm going to turn it a little bit. You're not going to, you're not going to have this time back. So go on the vacation, spend the extra dollars.
Speaker 1:It just puts us further and further away from that a reality forever. You know, like at this point I don't have to go back to working a nine to five because I've done my due diligence, I've paid off. Yeah, I've changed the behaviors so that I don't get just one or two vacations a year. I get to have as many vacations as I want to hear financial bounds within budget Right.
Speaker 1:And I think I think people don't look at and see it that way as like okay, well, they're only little for so long. Yeah, they are, but they've got so much life left.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you do too.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1:Get the work. I'm feeling passionate about it right now. I'm about to sweat.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'll give you. So your you what you've done. I love how you've you've kind of framed it. I'll give you so what you've done. I love how you've kind of framed it. I'll give you the way I framed it. And everyone's is going to be different, guys.
Speaker 2:My thing was I want to work hard and do what's necessary, put the foundation now, because when I get, when I get old I'm assuming when I get older and I'm whether I'm in good shape, good health, anything like that. I just don't want to be the burden to my kids. Yeah, we are. We are in this society today where a lot of our parents are now relying on their kids. The kids now are relying on their, you know, the kids. It's the sandwich. You're in the sandwich parenting right now, where you got to take care of your parents and your kids.
Speaker 2:I want to get to a point where my kids don't have to worry about those things. Like, I understand there's, there's. I still spend time with my kids. There's still things that I need to do, but the, the, the. The time that I do dedicate to the finances that I need to make and save and do what's necessary is because my ultimate goal is I want to retire and have the freedom and not have to worry about if I'm sick or not available or you know.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm not here. There's no burden that's left to my kids. It's you know, it's all. Everything was on mom and dad, and mom and dad are vacationing. We're enjoying each other's time, we're doing what's necessary and the kids don't have to worry about. Wow, I don't know if you know it's mom eating out of the tuna can. Again, it's like I just don't. I for me that's the scary part is I, as I age and I get older, I I'm not saying that I'm gonna live to a hundred, but what I'm saying is, if I'm going to, I want to make sure that things are in place that allow me to. You know, I'll do the work that's necessary now so that I don't have to worry about those kind of things later.
Speaker 1:Yep, so we all have time to. We'll all have time. It's just we all get to choose how we get to spend our time. Isn't that beautiful? I?
Speaker 2:love it, I love the passion, I love the passion. Guys, I hope you, I hope you feel it Provide your. You know, hey, if you, you know, obviously, what's important to you when it comes to your time, your financial journey, you know, what does that freedom look like for you? It's going to be different, so please share and let us know what that, what that would look like to you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well, george.
Speaker 2:thanks so much for taking your time to chat with me today and thank you for allowing me to be in your presence and allowing me to be on the one of the best podcasts that's out there. Your presence and allowing me to be on the one of the best podcasts that's out there. Keep liking and keep streaming on this podcast because this young lady definitely provides a good service and good entertainment and she has great guests, you know, on the podcast, so you got to listen.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing. So you can always schedule an assessment with me if you want to come coach with me. But George also, I'm going to put his information, his calendar, in the link. So if you are interested because here's the thing, like I coach a certain way, you coach a certain way, you're a funny guy, I'm a funny girl, like we look at things differently and we've showed that today too. You know, maybe you're just a little bit more comfortable with George, more comfortable with myself, but whatever way you want to go, you can now access George, get on his calendar and get on my calendar as well.
Speaker 2:We help out in many, many ways, but we all want the same goal right that financial freedom and that peace. At the end of the day, that's all we want.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right. George thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, ma have a good one, bye.