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
Kim's Journey to Debt-Free Living and Real Estate Investor
What if you could transform your financial future by relearning the fundamentals and embracing accountability? Join us on the Better Budgeting Podcast as we feature Kim Tocco, whose journey with her husband Tony showcases the incredible shifts achievable through the Better Budgeting Playbook. Kim's experience as a single mom merging her life with Tony's, amidst the challenges of medical bills and family expansion, highlights the power of prioritizing budgeting even in a bustling household. Her story underscores how relearning financial basics and staying accountable can lead to financial freedom and security.
As we celebrate financial coaching triumphs, you'll discover how strategic debt management saved Kim and Tony over $30,000 in interest, setting them on a path to real estate investment. With aspirations to purchase a half-million-dollar property, they faced challenges like potential job loss head-on, illustrating the impact of personalized financial plans. By breaking down large goals into actionable steps, they achieved remarkable milestones, proving dedication and focus are key, even when surprises arise.
Explore the power of community and coaching as we discuss building financial stability while nurturing relationships. From entrepreneurial ventures like a successful Color Street business to balancing personal connections, Kim's journey emphasizes the life-altering influence of supportive networks. Passion projects turned profitable enterprises, intentional relationship-building, and maintaining financial stability all highlight the holistic approach needed to overcome obstacles. This episode promises insights into how deliberate effort, coaching, and community support can pave the way for a secure and fulfilling financial future.
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.
Grab your copy of "Let's Talk Groceries" Your Guide to Reducing Your Grocery Bill" This is an ebook with over 30 pages of tips, tricks, and guidance to help you save hundreds on your grocery bill!
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.
You can connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.
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, Kim.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for being a part of the Better Budgeting Podcast. Kim, you've been a client of mine before. You and your husband, Tony, have done a fantastic job with the Better Budgeting Playbook that it is now. It was actually called the Money Freedom Accelerator back then. For the listeners that are here, my business has really morphed in all kinds of things over the years until I found a good fit, but what I love about your story is that it didn't matter what the name of the program was or the tools that we were using or anything like that. It was really coming down to the principles and the concepts and that you were putting them into place and you were doing the dang work. So tell people about you and your lovely little family and we'll get started there.
Speaker 2:Okay, so my name is Kim Toko. We are here in, we're now in Asper's, we were in Gardner, so that's a part of the story later on. But yeah, pennsylvania, pennsylvania, yeah, pennsylvania, definitely. And so originally in the beginning I was a single mom and then I met my husband and he. He fell deeply in love with my son and I and then we got married in a very, very quick four to six months Honestly, it's probably six months and we had our daughter. Her name is Magdalena and so she's three now. But when we were working with you, danielle, she was very young, she was a baby. She was a baby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had all kinds of things going on. It's funny because, like, life never, never, really like settles out or slows down, they're just different things. So those things like the baby and the birth and all that stuff now is different stuff. So just the busy that changes, you know it never really stops being busy. It's just a different kind of busy. So we originally I could tell like so I had bills, medical bills from having her, I had medical bills from some things for Tony for surgery, and then I myself had to have emergency surgery right before Magdalena turned one. So we had a lot of medical bills piling up and then also, too, life just kept getting more and more expensive.
Speaker 2:At the time we were fairly new. My husband and I, we did everything all at one time, right, because it's more fun that way yes, it is, it is more fun, right. Right, and we were merging things and it was just hard because to build a budget, I was kind of lost in the sauce if that made sense because I've been trying to juggle my own recovery, my baby having a new household to manage and just all this stuff and finances just got out of control and the debt was just building and I knew something had to happen and I was like I have got to figure something out. I don't know what it is, but I have to figure something out. And then I, through another one of your clients, I had seen some posts and I was like I don't know this Danielle chick, she looks like she's got it figured out and we were trying to find.
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest things for us was like we needed my husband and I needed to merge together and we also needed somebody to help hold us accountable. Like we needed my husband and I needed to merge together and we also needed somebody to help hold us accountable. But also we needed to relearn our fundamentals, keeping track of things and, like you know, buying things like is this really, like is this really worth my money, like do I really need this? No, I don't, you know, just stuff like that, and it was life changing for us. I mean, obviously, I had a previous property from before, when I was not married. That was a rental, and then we lived in the current property, like the property that we lived at whenever we were coaching with you. That was a recent purchase from a family member, so we had bought that as well. So lots of things going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love how you said that life didn't stop, like there was always something going on, and I remember our coaching sessions were during your dinner.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, right during dinner we were eating and feeding kids and it was like it was so cool because, like, you fit just right in there. That's just how it was. It was so great because so a lot of times in life you know, like I have a color street business and like new stylists always say to me oh well, I just people, I just don't know if I have the time, well, you have to make the time for the things that are your priorities.
Speaker 1:You know 100 percent. I agree with you. I think your journey through coaching a lot of people. They're just I don't have the time. I don't have the time and I'm going to be honest, we're getting into this lifestyle of sports mom and, yes, three, four nights a week. We are doing something, but I'll tell you once that's done and my family is taken care of. I come back and I'm coaching other people Because you all have busy lives, I have busy lives, but what's really important to you you take time to do, and I think that is something I just wanted to highlight is that I literally sat at your kitchen table on a phone while we all, like, talked about your finances, because it was, it was that important to you, it was, and it's like you know, like you said, you've, you're running and you're doing these different things and you're like it's.
Speaker 2:It's like you have a storm around you, right, and but you still have that sinking feeling. You're like I don't have the time for any of these things, but I really do not have the time to be broke, right, you know what I mean. I can't do all of these other things if I'm broke, because it's like, yeah, you can swipe a card, but that just makes things worse. And that's one of the biggest things that we've started to be like yeah, but we don't have the time for that. But should we prioritize this time? And the answer is yes, yes, you should. It gets uncomfortable, right? It also takes time that maybe you think you don't have, but if you don't take the time now, you're definitely not going to have it later. And then, in addition to that, everybody wants to be free and do whatever they want, but to hold yourself accountable for something like you got time later to be able to do all those crazy things that you want to do or whatever you know you make the time for those.
Speaker 2:I think that for me, was like one of the biggest things I was scared of when we started with you Like, oh my gosh, is she going to? Like, you know, take all of these things away from me and tell me I have to eat ramen noodles or whatever. You know what I mean. Like, oh, your goals are too big. It was never like that with you. Like you never were like, oh my gosh, kim, like that's just, that's just unachievable. It was more like, okay, well, that's really big, let's break it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces so you can achieve it. And you know we did that. We started with you in October of 2022. We spent money. We didn't have to coach with you, but we saved money. We would never have saved if we didn't start with you. You know we saved, gosh.
Speaker 2:I said like wasn't it like $30,000 in interest Because you just popped in there. We all talked about all the different stuff, we laid it out all on the table and then you're like, okay, let's do this, this and this. And we saved, like, through the lifetime of these, the debt and stuff, we saved over $30,000. That you know, because we paid it off early. We switched it to lower interest stuff. Like you don't see that accumulate every day? No, you don't.
Speaker 2:But when you sit back and you write down that number, you're like what am I doing, right, you know, when we came to you, we had some big goals. We wanted to either build onto our house or we wanted to buy land. We wanted to pay off debt, one of the big things that I wanted. I could just saw the housing market going up and up and up and up and I thought to myself oh my gosh, my kids are going to live in my basement forever. Up and up and up. And I thought to myself oh my gosh, my kids are going to live in my basement forever. And then I was like no, no, I am buying them a house now. I'm doing it. So I wanted to do that too. So we had some real estate goals. Obviously we wanted to buy land. We wanted to make sure the kids had somewhere to live, and then we also had debt. We had a lot of debt that we wanted to pay off.
Speaker 1:And I want to add that and it's, it's. I'm not meaning this in any way, but you and Tony are just average income people Like you're not making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Like you just had some big goals that a lot of people have and sometimes people look at that and they're like this is impossible. I think what was so unique with you all is that you knew it was possible. You just didn't know how.
Speaker 2:Right, right.
Speaker 1:And I think we really worked on that, especially when it came to the debt, is we strategize debt? We didn't just say, okay, the snowball and that's it. No, we moved things around, we shuffled to different interest rate cars, we did a lot of moving and grooving in order to get you guys to where you wanted to be, and I think, when it comes to a coaching aspect, that's what you get. You get an individual approach, and you could have Googled this stuff. You could have done a budgeting template.
Speaker 2:But I don't think the accountability for you or the unique circumstances for, and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't even see out the window anymore Help and I tried to help myself and, like, tony and I were not on the same page and, honestly, it wasn't really like there wasn't really a problem. It's just that we were new to each other, we didn't know how to ask the right questions and then it just got up over our heads and I had tried to, you know, tried to figure it out, but I just I didn't have the ability to, like you said, you know, I didn't know how to ask the right questions. I didn't think, okay, well, like, how do I get this credit card into something that is, you know, lower interest rate while I'm paying, like I'm making payments on everything? That is, you know, lower interest rate while I'm paying, like I'm making payments on everything, but I'm vigorously paying down my medical debt? Then, you know, how do I make the bleeding slower over here? The interest bleed we'll call it right Slower over here while I'm focusing on these other things.
Speaker 2:And you helped with that. It was really great. That's such a good skill to learn how to have like, because you never know like one one thing could change everybody's lives for the bad or for the good, you know, and this was the one thing that really turned us around. In June of 2024, we bought a property that's over a half a million dollars cost wise cost-wise.
Speaker 1:So I'll never forget getting that text from you, that you hadn't even closed on the house yet and you were just in awe of how amazing this process had worked for you to get to that, that goal that we had talked about, about buying a bigger property.
Speaker 2:Right, it was interesting Cause, like we had finished with you, we started in October and that was spring of 2023, when we had because I think we had done it for six months, right, yep, so it would have been spring of 2023 and then we just we maintained, we kept doing the process. We found out, I think when we were working with you, that Tony was going to lose his job.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, they were closing the plant. So we were like, oh my gosh, how are we going to still do all of this stuff, pay down debt? You know that kind of thing. And it was just like I don't know, it makes you feel like your dreams just get kicked out even further away from you, right. So, but we stuck to the plan. Stuck to the plan and kept paying things down and saving for things.
Speaker 2:And you know, like when I was younger, my grandmother she's like well, you need to make the decision whether, like, have you used this item? She was very anti-clutter, like, oh, does this item bring you joy? Have you used it in the last three months? No, okay, donate, you know that kind of thing. And it was kind of like that a little bit when we were making our purchases, because you said to I don't remember what your you had like a value of kind of system, right, where you were like, spending $80 for one meal out gets you one meal out, and if you spend 40 minutes to make a meal and stay in, you get to take that $80 and put it here here, here that hour and a half. Maybe does that bring you joy, or would you putting that money towards a trip to Africa. Bring you more joy, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's a lot of the times when we're making a purchase, like is that really something we should be doing, you know, like does that meet our goals? And just asking yourself that question honestly is, or teaching yourself to ask yourself that question, is life altering, you know. So that's, that's one of the bigger things that, like when we were working with you, you had taught us that I'm like, not just add to cart, not just add to the cart, not the add to the cart.
Speaker 1:Tell the listeners about the Africa trip. Because, first off, when you told me about Africa, I was like this is a I think it was like 15 or 16 months out until he would go on this trip and I thought to myself this is probably the wildest thing. I'm going to help a couple get through and try to go and do this thing. So tell people about Africa.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh, hey, we want to pay down our debt, but we're also going to go and spend all this stupid money in Africa, right, yeah, so it was funny because we were at a banquet and this trip came up for like, up for auction, right, you see those occasionally like, oh, a cruise here, a cruise there. Well, my husband and his brothers and his dad have always dreamed of going to Africa and doing a hunt, and it was like a thousand dollars for four people and nobody was bidding on it. And I thought to myself, I'm like we can't, like I have to make this happen for him. So I just swiped my card, you know, and this was pre pre Danielle, pre coaching. And then we have this two week trip to Africa for $250 a person. But I'm like I don't have any money to pay for a plane ticket which is $5,000. Like, oh honey, you can go there, but the only thing that you're going to get are pictures of animals. You know you can't kill anything, and I knew it was a dream for him and his brothers and his dad. I'm like I don't know how I'm going to make this happen, but I have to find a way, right? So that was a big thing that was a high priority for us was to get enough money saved, and then that would have been March of 2023 is when I had to purchase the ticket, and then I had to be able to pay for all of the animals and things like that the following year, which cause he went in March of 2024.
Speaker 2:We went through everything and you know you helped us like work out like, okay, well, tony, you can't buy any other things, you can't buy all these extra toys, whatever guy stuff you need need to focus on this. And so you know, every time something would come up, a new, a new thing. Oh, a buddy has such and such for sale. You know he'd be like, oh, I really really want it. I'm like, well, do you want to go to Africa or do you want to go to do that? And it was cool because, like, he'd asked me the same things, like, oh, I really really really want that new, like canner, and he'd be like, yeah, well, do you want that, or do you want to be able to like buy more land?
Speaker 1:You know so Right Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, listen, you're right. So it was a good like way for us to stay accountable with each other. There was never a time where Tony and I felt we were being shamed for anything or any of our past purchases or or any of the situations that we were in. You know, because it was our choices that put us there 100% and you never made us feel like that ever. Nobody ever wants to be like make people disappointed, dad, or you know, like you were never like that with us.
Speaker 2:And I don't want to say like, as you're going through the system, it does make you feel a little guilty because you're realizing, like what you're doing to yourself, but there's never like any like pushback, if that makes sense. Like I never felt like I had my own conscious and I felt guilty because of the things that I had purchased or maybe not intelligently done, but there was never any of that from you. It was always. This is the situation. Like how do we not like? How do we move forward from this? How do we prevent this from happening again? And like just teaching those new skills and learning from that. You know those mistakes. It was great.
Speaker 1:Like well, I appreciate that so much. That's something that I think, like you said, people don't understand that coaching is not meant for you to come to the principal's office and just sit here and let me hound you about all the terrible things that you've done and stupid things that you've done with money. You know, I really don't care what you've done with money, I care what you will do with your money, exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's so important to it. I think, through the process, like we, tony and I definitely felt that. We definitely felt like you were invested in us, you were invested in our future, you know, and it was about making those dreams, like Africa or the land or whatever, come true and it was just. It was really refreshing and I think you know, we, I think we were maybe afraid that we were going to get called to the principal's office. Do you know what I mean? But that never happened. So, like I think that sometimes people don't take that leap into money coaching because of that, and I think when you find the right coach and the right person to help you, you don't have to be afraid or worried for any of that kind of stuff, do you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate you saying all that. I want to kind of pivot a little bit. I want to talk about income. You guys have multiple streams of income with your color street business and I want to pick on Tony just for a moment, because you and I have the entrepreneurial spirit Right and Tony is a collector of firearms. He loves them. Yes, and I remember we were talking about creating income and one of the things that Tony wanted to do was to be able to sell, buy and resell and I was like, okay, well, we're talking about the inventory that he already has, to sell some of the inventory so that we can jumpstart this business.
Speaker 1:And boy did he not. I mean, he was very silent about the thought of even thinking about getting rid of something. But I think that is a process for a lot of people. For you and me, it's like that's a no-brainer right. You said it earlier. You jumped in here with money that you didn't have. You swiped it on a credit card just because you knew that the other end was going to be a better outcome, and there are some people that are like Tony that it's still really scary. He definitely saw that there was benefit, but it was still really scary. And so let's, let's talk about businesses, specifically your color street, because that is amazing. Oh, thank you. Yeah, this girl she's been going. Where'd you go? It was somewhere beautiful and tropical.
Speaker 2:I went to Cabo. Yeah, cabo, mexico, los Cabos, mexico, so yeah, so, interestingly enough, no-transcript something. I have to find something. And so a friend of mine showed me Color Street and I was like, okay, so Color Street is more now than what it used to be when I started. Like, oh my God, six years ago, it's crazy, but it used to be just dry nail polish strips, right. So it's very innovative product, great product, but anyway, like it had to work.
Speaker 2:When I started my color street business, I didn't have a choice, I had to work. I was desperate. I made it work, like I forced that square peg in the round hole and I just kept smacking on it. So we started. I started in June of 2019 and then I built a team and now I have a team 107 women across the North American content so I've got some Canadian stylists and things like that, and I actually was in Los Cabos in September and then I'll be going here in January to Irvine, texas, for a leadership summit. Then we'll be going to Indianapolis for conference and then I am very, very close to earning the next trip, which is to La Roma, and I think that's the Dominican Republic. So I'll go there in September.
Speaker 1:That is so amazing. Yeah, and sometimes MLMs get a bad rap, right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've done the hard work and you admitted it Like I was doing the dang thing because it had to work, and that's not only with MLMs, but businesses and in general, and one of the things in 2025 that I'm going to be focusing on in this podcast is having people start businesses to help with their debt and their savings goals, because that's kind of where I want to steer this conversation is. We talked about this extra money that would come in from Color Street and you had the opportunity to blow it, oh yeah, and we could have used this extra money for, you know, whatever you wanted. But we really had a good conversation about how are we going to utilize this to further your goals, get you there faster, and at times, it probably was difficult when you had money coming in and you're like I just want to go and spend it.
Speaker 2:I want to go get myself a cup of coffee that I didn't have to make. Yeah, no, it totally was. But I think too like for one of the things for Tony and I, we're currently in salaried positions, so that's what you make, you don't have any extra, like you're not going to get overtime, like at the time that he was working, like when we were doing our coaching, he was working overtime and that was how he was earning extra money. But for me, I was a salaried position and that was it. So I had to find another way. And so Color Street obviously before was it, and it's also it now, which is interesting because you know it just it just collects and, and the cool part about some of these you know MLMs or these side businesses is like you got to make more, so you just work more, right, so that's really a really great opportunity. I don't know a lot of people that don't have like a side gig anymore. You know Most people always, they all have something on the side. But you're right, starting businesses is another way that can help you earn additional money. So what we just did, we just got a nice freeze dryer. So that means that we're going to be starting a business to do freeze dried goods.
Speaker 2:I didn't tell you about this yet. We were given some meat rabbits by a friend of ours that just couldn't take care of them anymore, and so we took those and we're breeding these rabbits, these meat rabbits. I said you know, we're throwing so much stuff away right when you butcher them, and I'm like, why can't we just take these and, like, make dog treats or something out of them? So that's what we're going to do. I mean, obviously, the freeze dryer, we're going to preserve stuff, but we're going to make dogs, we're going to do dog treats. And I mean, cause, have you ever seen how much people pay for those freeze dried candies or whatever? Yeah, yeah, and that's so. That's going to be our next venture, and that would be to support my husband's hunting habits too. So, you know, maybe more trips in the future for him, for those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:Finding out what do we want to do for a business and creating business. I love that. I can make a business out of anything. To be honest, right, yes, I can make a dollar out of anything.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. Well, and the best part like when you're choosing a business, you need to do something like so you're probably going to do it in your free time, right? So you need to pick something that you find joy in, yes, and make money off of it, because then it just brings it back. It's a circle. So my husband loves to hunt and he's very outdoorsy. So our plan is to freeze dry, like hearts and livers and things like that, like you can. So our plan is to freeze dry hearts and livers and things like that.
Speaker 2:You can't sell wild game, but we have the rabbits and then we also do chickens and beef and that kind of stuff. So we'll do that and that money will generate. That will probably add to the collection, danielle, if I'm being very honest, but it'll also fund those kinds of things. And that's a part of our heritage too, like our children being brought up in that and my husband's heritage. Like they didn't. You know they ate from, from the woods. So that's what we're going to do and we're going to use that. So we have the color street business. We have this new freeze dried business. The land that we purchased is a working Christmas tree farm farm and then we have a rental business. Is that it?
Speaker 1:I think that's it yeah, yeah, that's what I have here. You know we've been talking a lot about tony. He's just such a wonderful man and he is love of my life I've always enjoyed talking with the two of you. It always felt like friends, like I'm gonna go hang out with my friends for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, oh my gosh, that's how we felt about you too.
Speaker 1:Let's talk a little bit about that. In my notes here I have the date February 15th 2023. And it's quotes. We went on two dates, two dates. Yeah. So let's talk about prioritizing your relationship while y'all were on your financial journey. For sure, because you knew, baby know, we just we talked about the time constraints and things like that, so tell us how important that was for you.
Speaker 2:Right. So interestingly enough that you bring this up, because money was one of the biggest things that my husband and I thought about in our young marriage, one of the biggest things. And now it is not that at all. I mean not that we ever fought a lot, but it is. We have a plan, we've got it figured out, you know. So that's not a worry, it's not something that caused conflict in our marriage, so that's really awesome. It's funny, you know, you bring that up because Tony and I are very focused on our children and very focused on earning the money to support the children and give them what they want. But sometimes we just didn't have the time or the money to do the dates, you know, and you're like, no, no, you need to do this, like we need to do this, which was something we knew we needed to do, but I think we needed to hear somebody else tell us that. If that makes, sense.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we would all have conversations you, me and him and I would have said the same thing to him 20 times. And then you're like, yeah, but Tony, that's not really an asset because you don't intend to sell it.
Speaker 1:And he's like, oh, Listen, I have to stop you right there, because I just had this conversation with my husband about baseball cards. We are just I don't know why, but we are into baseball cards right now with my son and my husband, and he pulls one out yesterday. That is a value of like $170 minimum and I was like, oh, this is exciting. He's like, oh, my gosh. And I said, but, brian, it's not worth anything unless you're going to sell it. Otherwise, it just sits in your underwear drawer and you're. It's just there.
Speaker 1:Like it's nothing of value, like until you go and give it away and exchange it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so true, it's, it's, and that's like the one of our other friends has worked with you. I had just asked her the other day on New Year's we were at her place for New Year's. I said, hey, so how's it going? Like what's, what's up, you know, and she's like it was like the best marriage counseling, but it's so. It's funny, you know, we were talking about it.
Speaker 2:When you're two people and you're trying to talk about something, especially something that can be as conflictual as money, it's good to have somebody in between. You need to make that sandwich, you need cheese in your sandwich, because you're just eating bread otherwise, right, right, so you're definitely the cheese to our sandwich. But yeah, so we needed to take time and focus and ask my mother-in-law to watch the kids so we could go do our date, or take a day off, work and do our date. So it's interesting Today we sent the children to school, you know, daycare and actual kindergarten, and so today and tomorrow are like days for Tony and I, and yes, we might be doing some work around the house, but like it's us together.
Speaker 2:Intentionally, we were thinking, oh well, you know, take a day and we'll go, and we'll go to the spa and we were looking at it and the pricing turned into like $800. And him and I were talking I'm like is this really something like? Do we feel like that $800? Yes, it would be so nice and so wonderful, but most times, like your treatments are separate, like you might be laying in the same room together, but like that's not, like no-transcript, is it really worth it? Like are we going to feel guilty when we get done? Like is that, yeah, is that worth it? You know just those kinds of different things. So normally it's about once a month that we do like an intentional date day. So I'll leave work early on a Friday. Normally it's a Friday afternoon and we spend from like 1230 till 430. When Max gets home Just being together. We'll sit down and watch a movie and hold hands.
Speaker 1:You're fitting in intentional date time where you can. Yeah, I love it. I love it because y'all weren't doing that.
Speaker 2:No, we weren't, we were just running crazy, just busy busy, busy.
Speaker 1:We talked a little bit about business, so I want to highlight where you are now. Y'all sold. You didn't sell, you rented out. You rented the other one. You've gotten to this property. That is a huge accomplishment. Is that something that you ever thought was possible?
Speaker 2:So it was a dream, right? It was always a dream to have two rental properties and then have this bigger property that, when our children were 25, 26, ready to like buy a property or put down roots or whatever or put down roots or whatever when our children were ready, it was something I wanted to make sure that they either had a home or they had a home that they could cash in to get whatever it is that they wanted, right? Other than our mortgages, we don't have any debt, which is a huge deal, like we bought a $30,000 tractor last year and that was all paid for. So the rental property, the place where we used to live, that's rented. The tenants are super great. We have a great system set up there.
Speaker 2:The property that I had previously I don't know that I told you this, but so we found out that they just basically trashed the entire house, oh no. And outside. So in the midst of putting an offer on a property that we were like I don't know if we can afford this, but we prayed about it and, you know, god just put all the pieces in together. Man, he just he knew that this was going to happen because he put you in my life and then all of these other things just kind of fell together. You know, you can see God all over. You can't not see it.
Speaker 2:We were we had originally, when we were working with you, we talked about we wanted to pay off the debt not necessarily mortgages, because we feel like, you know, mortgages are kind of normal to have, right, but if you can pay them down, that's wonderful, right. So we paid off the debt and then we had about six months where we didn't have the debt and we could, you know, save some money. We kicked the people out of the current rental property and in that process we had expected to start building in March of 2025 on our new home, because we had looked and looked and looked for a property. We couldn't find anything that fit our needs, you know. So we're like that's fine, we'll just build. You know, we'll have the money, it'll be fine. We provided an eviction notice in April for the current rental property that we had and they left the end of May and so in that month span our realtor's like, hey, I know you guys are done and you're going to build, but I found this place and I think you guys might like it, sent it to us. I looked at it. Tony's like absolutely not, we have a plan, we're done. Not looking, I'm so mad at you. He nearly didn't talk to me for like a day. So then he looked at the listing and he's like this looks really awesome. And I was like I know it checked all the boxes and that's why Chris sent it to us. So we went and we looked at it and then the same night we put an offer in on it. Right, little did we know it was going to come through.
Speaker 2:So we were moving and gutting a house, renovating it all, and you know, because every, like I said, it all happens all at one time. It always does. Well, I'm going to do that when I have the time. Well, when is that going to be? Never, that's when it's going to be. That's like you have to take the time to get your finances in order. I don't know. For me, it was one of the biggest priorities to get my finances in order, because I had all these hopes and all these dreams and all these things that I wanted to do. And Tony wanted to go to Africa and he wanted land to hunt on and we wanted land to hunt on. We wanted land to be able to leave our kids, and you know all these different things. But if we had never taken the time to get our finances in order, we would never achieve our goals. It's just not going to happen, you know, we realized that and we took the time.
Speaker 1:Your journey has been absolutely beautiful, and it's been hard and it's been easy. In parts it's been a whirlwind. What is to come for the toko?
Speaker 2:well, first off, my husband's like oh, you don't want to go, and like you want to travel here or travel there. So the goal is not 2025 but 2026. I want to save up for a trip for, like, all four of us to go to wyoming oh, magical, beautiful. Yes. So Max will be eight, so he'll be able to do some of like the hunting stuff with Tony. But I want Tony to be able to go hunt and I don't want to do anything, I just want to look at the mountains, right, I just want to sit there and drink my coffee and and like schedule posts on Facebook or maybe maybe read a book. Yeah, maybe you know.
Speaker 2:So that's like that's. That's one of our short term goals. In the fall, we're going to be looking at purchasing additional rental properties, so that'll be something that we're looking at, and then we would like to build in 2028, probably a larger pole building on the back part of our property, just because, you know, by then I'm sure my husband will have more toys, so we'll have to have places to put them. More tractors, yeah, more tractors, yeah. And by then Max will want his own tractor and just, you know things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, Kim, thanks so much for being here and letting me interview you, you sharing your testimony and your story. I think it is just an amazing story because it's one of the long-term stories that sometimes I don't get to share very often. You were with me in the program for six months but you and I have kept in touch over the last two years because it has just been an amazing journey for you and twists and turns and ups and downs, but more ups than downs for sure, and I just I really appreciate you and Tony and you know, entrusting me to help you jumpstart that.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that too. You know one of the things when we started, um, I quickly realized that we were building a community together. Like you have built this beautiful community, community and and in life, um, I feel like we don't take the time to recognize the wins quite as much as what we should. And one of the coolest things like every time I accomplished something, I was like, oh, I have to tell Danielle, I have to tell Danielle, so it's so cool because we built that community together and that fellowship and that was really important to us and it still is really important to us.
Speaker 2:You know, I occasionally get the chance to see a podcast here or there or catch it while I'm doing some work, and those are really important because, you know, that's first off, that's great doing great work, and because people need to be able to, like, circle back. You know, sometimes when you stray away from the system, you got to be able to circle back and get your priorities right and it keeps, keeps foot in there. So I can see that and I can keep maintaining. But we're just so thankful for everything with the coaching. It really has been life altering for us and I honestly don't know that we would have gotten to where we are today without doing, without working with you, because you were exactly what we needed A little little bit of marriage, counseling, a lot of bit of money, coaching. You know, yeah, yeah, it's, it's. The feeling is mutual. I'm really thankful for what you do and the work you do.
Speaker 1:I do appreciate that Well. One last question If there is a listener out here and that they are just on the fence and they just need that one little last push of saying, yep, I'm going to go and do coaching, what would you say to them?
Speaker 2:Oh man, it's now, you're in the right time, you're in the right place. It's now, like now is the time, because if you wait, even a day or a moment, those moments turned into a million and you're going to be sitting there four years from now, like you know, like for us, two years from now you'd be sitting here and I'd be. I wouldn't even be talking to you, you know. So it's just life altering and it's time. It's now. Now is when you need to do it. So you're in the right time, in the right moment. Get her done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I appreciate that so much. I just appreciate you, and thank you so much and tell Tony hello and send my love to you and all the kids, thank you. Yeah, enjoy all the hard work that you've built, for sure.