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
Episode 97: Update on the Sell Family!
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They used to feel like money was suffocating them. Now they’re rating their financial peace at an 8 out of 10 and they got there by building a system that survives real life.
Jordan and Kiersten come back for a two-year update and share what changed after they stopped swiping credit cards, started making a monthly spending plan, and gave every dollar a clear job.
We also get honest about strategies that can go wrong before they go right. A balance transfer card became too easy when it lived in the wallet and got tied to DoorDash, so they removed the temptation (yes, the freezer story is real) and rebuilt trust with a strict pay-it-off approach. And even though a debt consolidation loan felt “icky” at first, simplifying payments helped them move faster and stay focused.
The numbers are huge: $66,888.62 paid off since June 2023 and 12 debts gone. But the best part is the mindset shift, like the moment Jordan realized they could replace a broken fridge with cash from an emergency fund instead of fear. If you’re working on budgeting, debt payoff, money mindset, or navigating life changes like a new baby or a job switch, you’ll leave with practical ideas and a lot of hope.
Subscribe for more real-world budgeting wins, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review. What would an “8 out of 10” level of money peace change for you?
Danielle is a money coach helping those 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.
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Welcome And Ways To Connect
SPEAKER_02Hello 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.
SPEAKER_03Jordan and Kirsten, welcome back to the Better Budgeting Podcast. It has been two years. Your original episode is episode 44. So your original episode, you were nine months into your financial journey, and now you're back. And the reason that you're back is I made a deal with you where you wanted to be back on the podcast, and I said you need to pay off one more credit card, and it had a specific date of when you had to pay it off, and you paid it off before, like a whole month and a half before. And you're like, hey, I'm it's time for me to get on the podcast. So here you are.
SPEAKER_01Here we are. I wanted to be back. I like the attention.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yes, you do. So it's been such a long time, and so much life has happened in two years, and it's been a great journey to be with you during coaching. So when we went back to the first recording, I had y'all listen to it again. So what did you think? Like, what makes you kind of smile?
SPEAKER_01Honestly, I think just how far we've come. Um, the mindset has changed completely. Our biggest issue was swiping credit cards, and I don't think I've swiped a credit card in over a year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We've really stuck with it too. Um we talk about you a lot and all of this, and that it was it's the best decision we've ever made, and something we've actually stuck with. And we're not always good with sticking with things. Um, but this we've stuck with and been really consistent with, and it's been life-changing for us.
SPEAKER_03What advice in that first like nine months did you not fully understand, or maybe you just like couldn't get a grasp of, but now you're living it and you're kind of living it out, and you're like, this kind of makes sense now. I understand why Danielle said that.
SPEAKER_01Um, so for me, the thing I had the biggest problem with was moving our car payments. We had them set up so it would pull out of our account twice a month. And we had two car payments that were over 500 bucks a piece, and we had them both set up to be due at the end of the month, and that's stressful having a thousand dollars due at the end of the month, and you know, because we've been thinning our bank account before, it's scary knowing that's coming. Don't want the cars being repossessed. Um, but it makes sense now doing what we do, how we pull money from each paycheck to pay for each thing, and there's always money there. Uh so that was the biggest thing for me, but I definitely understand it now.
SPEAKER_00And maybe not two years ago, but we talked about this a lot doing the debt consolidation loan. I remember when you suggested it at the time. We were very unsure, and it made me feel icky because I have so much student debt that I was like, why would I want to do another loan? That seems silly. It just seems like we're adding more to do less. But even that was a huge turning point for us. We got rid of credit cards, we had one finite bill that was going to get less and less, where you masked it out for us and showed us the benefits of interest and the benefits of even just collapsing all of those payments into one. But I felt very icky when you had suggested it the first time.
SPEAKER_03That was such a a good strategy for you all in really changing how how debt was getting paid off, how quickly it was getting paid off. Think back to that first episode. Is there habits from the very beginning that are just non-negotiables today? So you already said like you haven't swiped a credit card in a long time.
SPEAKER_00Definitely doing the spending plan every month and doing it like ahead of time, having all of the decisions made, you know, this is going here, this is what we're attacking next, um, all of that stuff for sure.
SPEAKER_03So last episode you talked about how I love how you said everything has a home. And since then, we've actually created a couple homes for some new things. What are those?
SPEAKER_00So everything still has a home. Um we stick to that for sure. We've added um car maintenance into specifically in our ally account, so it just lives there, it grows on its own. But we have um a vacation fund, which we just kind of are shoveling money into throughout the year, and a family fund or kid fund, I think you called it, for Claire's gymnastics, or if we want to go do like a family activity, you know, something more spontaneous than scheduled out events.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And how old is Claire now?
SPEAKER_00Claire's now four, almost four and a half.
SPEAKER_03She's getting into fun things. And you guys are really enjoying this season of life, aren't you? Absolutely. And you got the money for it this time.
SPEAKER_00And we do, yeah.
SPEAKER_03All right. So if we pulled your bank statements today, what would look drastically different than what we began in 2023?
SPEAKER_01I think there'd be a lot less debt payments, definitely less credit card payments, because I don't think we're paying any credit cards right now except maybe our Verizon card, which is only because the um Verizon bill goes on there and then immediately comes back off. So I think that'd be a drastic change from last time.
SPEAKER_00And just more controlled dispersal of money.
Job Changes And Stable Income
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, let's shift gears here and talk about work. So, Jordan, you've been in your position for two years now. What has changed for you in that?
SPEAKER_01So I definitely make a lot more money than I've ever made. I'd say another thing, I feel secure in this position too, because I'm salaried. Whereas in the past couple jobs I've had, whether it was being a service advisor or store manager or mechanic, the paycheck was different from week to week because it was all based on performance. Like I said last time, I'm not a great salesman. So it's it's nice having a stable paycheck every single week, and I can focus on just doing my job the best I can instead of you know worrying about how much money I'm gonna bring in and how we're gonna be able to pay bills and stuff like that. And I kind of have the ability to leave it all at work. I'm not bringing it home and thinking about it and worrying about it. It's not affecting my life like it used to.
SPEAKER_03And your position has changed within your job since we last talked too. What you were hired on, you're doing it a little bit differently now.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah, I was um in the field doing auto damage appraisal for a company, and that changed a little bit to more of managing a couple of shops or own network program, and now I'm in a new program where I get to work from home. I'm still managing some shops and you know, auditing estimates and stuff like that, but it's a hundred percent virtual and it gives me the flexibility I need to help out with you know getting the children from daycare and doctor's appointments and things like that.
SPEAKER_03And what's crazy is in your last episode, you talked about how that previous job you were working 11 hours a day. It was almost an hour drive every single day back and forth, and now I'm home and I have a little bit more flexibility in my schedule. I'm making more money. It's like a dream come true.
SPEAKER_01It really is. I mean, I love it. I've never been happier in a job, and I've had quite a few of them. So um making that switch, we it was not too long before our first podcast. It's it's been life-changing. The company I work for is amazing. Um, I think they'll have to drag me out of the building if they want to get rid of me.
SPEAKER_03Well, your income isn't the only thing that's changed because Kirsten, you decided to take a huge jump. So tell the listeners what you what you used to do and what you're doing now.
SPEAKER_00So I'm still a pediatric physical therapist. I was doing um early intervention, which is a version of home care for kids. However, the way our pay scale worked, we were paid per service by unit, basically. So if kids canceled, then I wasn't getting paid, and kids get sick and families get sick, and every time a kid canceled, that was a minus for me. Coming off of maternity leave, I had to rebuild my caseload and it just it was not rebuilding. So I actually went to an outpatient clinic where I'm still a pediatric physical therapist, but I'm now salaried.
SPEAKER_03So we've grown our income a lot. I actually didn't get the math together on that, but but significantly we've grown our income by like thousands of dollars since the beginning. The question is, how did your lifestyle change with this income change?
SPEAKER_00I don't really think our lifestyle itself changed significantly. Like we're still working the system. We have more money to throw at debt, which I think has been life-changing again for us. We we were talking about this last night. That's like when we really got traction in the debt payoff. You know, we'd have bits here and bits there, but since I took this new position, it just feels like we're paying off like thing after thing after thing now. We'll say almost felt like I was suffocating there for a hot minute just because we were trying to um, you know, groceries were on a budget, and you know sometimes groceries are more expensive. You have to restock all the other things and you have to get gas for both of us, and he's working from home, but he's driving the girls around and all of that good stuff. So even being able to allot just a little extra money for those items for when we do need to restock this, that, the other diapers, wipes, you know, all the things, it feels less intense than it did just because we have that extra income.
Money Mindset And Marriage Stress
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And what we talked about last time was that transition from when Jordan uh was kindly asked, maybe not so kindly, asked to leave the previous job before starting the other one early. And there was that time period where the income was just it wasn't existing. You had no stability in your job, and it's so interesting to me how you both experienced that, and then not long after, we started looking at new jobs, and we looked at stability versus the potential of more income or what's good for the family right now. It's it wasn't always about money, it was also a big conversation of how's that look like with the family? Because you are coming home a little bit later than what you were before, so that changes how the household runs as well. It's not just finances when we're looking at jobs, but we talked about all aspects of your life. Absolutely. Let's talk about some mindset and some money marriage kind of stuff. I'll say it again. You guys have a wonderful marriage. Uh maybe it's all behind closed doors. Maybe you really do want to hit them with a frying parent every once in a while. Money stress or the lack of it. Um, how's that affected your marriage over the last two years?
SPEAKER_01I think it's almost kind of fun now. We don't really argue about money at this point, but it's fun to sit here and have conversations and think about the future and things that seem like a real possibility now. And it's it's easier to plan, you know, taking the steps that we have, knowing that the money is there when we need it and it does what we want it to do. It's not even really stressful, it's kind of just fun to sit and do and talk about.
SPEAKER_00And even yeah, even when we do have these conversations now, okay, what's more of a priority for you? Where before, not that we didn't prioritize that kind of stuff, but it was just it felt so far off where like now it feels like more of a possibility, so we can talk like, okay, well, which do you think we should do first? Which route should we take with this, that, or the other?
SPEAKER_03I have to ask for both of you, who is like the heavier spender at this point?
SPEAKER_00I think it's Kirsten. But it's for the kids, usually.
SPEAKER_03There it is. There it is. It's the kids, it's not Kirsten, it's the kids.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I don't really think we're necessarily spenders anymore. I feel like I know at least I put more consideration into stuff. I love my Target and I love my Target trips, and training my daughters to also love their target trips. But um I don't feel as impulsive when I do that, and you know, there's more consideration, and we get our treats here and there, and Jordan still gets his little snackies when he whenever he leaves the house, but it's more built-in and more structured.
Delayed Purchases And Spending Control
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. All right, so since 2023, it's two years. Is there a purchase that you did delay um that you would have just swiped immediately for it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I need a new TV for the basement. This is uh this is Kirsten's dad's fault. Kirsten's dad says a man deserves a new TV every five years. It had been more than five years on my previous one, and uh, you know, the basement's finished, it's long been finished, and the final piece we needed was a nice big TV. But uh this time we delayed it, we waited until we had the cash on hand to buy it, and it looks great.
SPEAKER_03So I have to share with the listeners about this TV because this is for me. My values are not with the what the price tag of a TV is and what that TV is was worth, they do not align. I would never spend this much money on a TV. Your wife is shaking her head right now because she also did not want to spend this much money on a TV.
SPEAKER_00But especially when there's nothing wrong with our old one either. Right.
SPEAKER_03It was too small, it was too small to watch football. But for me, just because I wouldn't do it doesn't mean that it's not the right thing for y'all.
SPEAKER_01I just want to point out we're already a year into this TV, so only four left before we can get another one. Get out of here.
SPEAKER_03Alright, so I've got some big numbers to share with you. I wasn't gonna share them with you until we actually met. And um, you guys have paid off$66,000.
SPEAKER_01Holy cow.
SPEAKER_03That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01That's more than I thought it was.
Credit Card Strategy And Points
SPEAKER_03Yeah, same.$66,888.62 since June of 2023. And of that, 12 debts are gone entirely. That total of those debts was$35,746. So the difference there is what you've been making on minimum payments for other debts, but altogether, 66,000 of that completely gone debts, everything's gone is 35,000. And that is incredible. You guys have been just so resilient. Um, you talked about changing over to that personal loan and the strategy, and that was a big shift for you all because we combined, I think it was three debts into one to help with just one reducing payments. But when we did that, y'all took the difference of what that payment was and you started throwing it at the next debt, which really, really helped with paying things off. You have a paid-off car now. Incredible. You soon will have two paid-off cards, very soon. But I do want to talk a little bit about the credit card because we had our friend Willie Fargo, as Jordan likes to call her, uh Wells Fargo credit card. And I'm gonna I'm gonna take ownership of this because in the very beginning, I said, hey, let's get a zero balance card, let's transfer stuff over there, we will we'll clear it up, but you guys ended up using it a little too much. Do you remember? Yes, I remember. You ended up using it just a little too much.
SPEAKER_01I am irresponsible, I'll admit that.
SPEAKER_03So I will take full responsibility. I mean, you guys weren't quite ready for for that advanced of a strategy, however, you redeem. And at this point, you are using one credit card only for purchases and paying them off, and you're using them for credit card points for flight miles.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, we talked about Welly Farg and how it started as a good idea, and then we were keeping it in our wallets, and we had connected it to the uh Devil DoorDash, and it was just it was it was too easy. It felt non-committal if you just oh well, I just picked it and put my little snack on this card today, and we'll pay it off, we'll get it next time, and then it just kept growing and growing. But now that we've talked to how he said, you know, he hasn't swiped a credit card in months, it doesn't live in our um wallet anymore. Jordan actually put Welly Farg in the freezer for quite some time.
SPEAKER_01In a block of ice.
SPEAKER_00In a block of ice, and then um, but now it's all strategy, like you said. You know, we're using it for our miles for future family vacations, and it's very regimented. Like you said, amount goes on, amount comes off, and that's just the way it goes. And that's the only way it will go for now on.
SPEAKER_03You have a plan for these points coming up.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully, another Disney trip with the fam. I'm hoping to take a girls' trip this summer.
SPEAKER_03So, yeah, big plans, big adventures. And that's gonna significantly reduce how much is going towards flights. Absolutely. Girlmas says that you saved, you know,$500 on that, so you get to spend$500.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I mean, basically the plane's free, everything's free.
SPEAKER_03So you had some big life changes, so introduce your newest blessing.
Baby Planning And Cash Cushion
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we did have another kid. We have two of them now. Um, our youngest daughter, Maddie Ray, was born on November 27th of 24.
SPEAKER_00And so she's uh almost 15 months old now. Um when we got pregnant, I realized that my current position at the time did not offer any short-term disability. And praise Danielle because she helped us math it all out and praise a little bit to us too, because we were able to save all the money that Danielle told us we needed to save. But I mean, we had all kinds of scenarios if this happened, if that happened, if scary things happened, what what all we would need to make it work, plus a cushion, plus backup and all of that.
SPEAKER_03That was such a big change. I'll never forget. We're we're actually on a coaching call, and Jordan, you send me a video and you're like, hey, I need you to go look at that real quick. And then look at the video, and you're telling Claire that you're having a baby, and I'm just like, I'm screaming on the call with you guys. So I'm in. One of the things that we did at that time is y'all were on a roll with paying off debt, which was fantastic. But I said, no more, we're done. We're done for at least the next nine months of paying off debt. I want you to stack up as much cash as possible. Do you do you happen to remember off the top of your head how much you guys had saved up before she arrived?
SPEAKER_00Uh I want to say it was like seven or eight thousand by the time we were all set and done.
SPEAKER_03Whenever you went on maternity leave, you used a lot of it. And you actually were able to take an extended leave, I believe.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because coming back, my caseload was building really slow. So thankfully we had a little bit extra of a cushion, so I was able to stay a little longer and just kind of work my schedule around that slow return, which was nice.
SPEAKER_03We didn't really prepare for this, but how was that different from when you were pregnant with Claire and maternity leave with Claire?
SPEAKER_00Um Well, there there wasn't any extra. You know, we made do and kind of like limped along. Granted, some of the expenses were a little less because it was just the two of us, plus an infant infant, but you also have maternity leave as well. But I also had maternity leave um to kind of buffer that but it did feel a lot safer this time because we had we had mathed it through several times. You know, it wasn't just in the beginning, it was each time we would meet, we'd re-go over what we have, what we need, you know, possible scenarios. You go early, like what's gonna happen then, and all of that. So very prepared.
SPEAKER_03The dollars changed based on the date that you delivered. Based off of the the insurance that you had, and all kinds it was there was so much that went into it, but you all were patient, um, and you followed through because it was very important to you. And as soon as she was healthy and you were back to work and you decided, okay, I think we're gonna change jobs. So let's just add in there, along with all the hormones that come with pregnancy, and then postpartum, let's just go ahead and change jobs.
SPEAKER_00You know, we had just gotten our taxes done, and we, you know, we felt all rejuvenated, we had this big plan, this is gonna go here, this is gonna be able to go to debt, this is gonna be able to go to vacation, and you were like, slow your role, let's just wait till you get back to work. And so we did, and we s we slowed, and then I got back to work, and uh we ended up using almost that whole tax return just to kind of buffer my paychecks, and we had many conversations about like what's your backup plan. We had briefly looked at jobs and I wasn't ready, and you were very gracious and kind of gave us some time, but you did give us a finite timeline, and we actually decided it was like a month and a half before Danielle's timeline that it was time we needed to make a jump, and we jumped we did.
Feeling Good With Money Now
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And full full force, both head first kind of thing. Yep, both feet in. So tell me, do you feel like you guys are good with money now? Do you feel like you're good good people with good money skills?
SPEAKER_00Um, I don't know. I feel like good is relative. I feel like maybe if you pulled everybody that's our age, there's still a lot of people who are better and more knowledgeable, but I also feel like there's probably a lot of people that are not as knowledgeable. And you we've even talked, we think these people would benefit and these people would benefit, and I feel like our possibilities are much more open than they ever were.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I can see that too when I look at your spending plans. I had to remind myself because it has been so long, we've been together for for quite some time. You kind of start forgetting how you started almost. But man, the amount of growth since June of 2023, I don't even recognize you people when it comes to your finances. It's so different.
SPEAKER_00I always tell him I feel like it's like a game because you get to like stretch it all these different ways. We're gonna do um Disney on Ice next month, and you know, just being able to shift um money to accommodate that without it really impacting anything. And the next month we're still able to put a massive chunk on the debt that we were already planning on doing, but being able to stretch and maneuver if it kind of feels like a game, it's more fun.
SPEAKER_03Um being able to just I love how you put that just change it around. Yeah, I love how you put that because it is a game, and when you know how to play it, oh yeah, like it's so much fun. Tell me what does rich, quote unquote, rich mean to you now versus it did two years ago.
The Lowe’s Fridge Moment
SPEAKER_01I mean, to me, rich a couple years ago meant like your stereotypical thought of rich, you know, the fan. Fancy stuff, nice designer, whatever, big house, nice cars kind of thing. The stuff that everybody wants, you know. I everybody wants to be a billionaire, right? I'm no different. Like that was my opinion. Um now it almost just seems like to me, Rich is just being comfortable. I've started listening to a bunch of financial podcasts just because all this stuff interests me. I know I tell you about them all the time, but like the idea of being a net worth millionaire, we're going to be that one day because of our debt payoff and the investments into our 401ks and stuff like that. We're going to be net worth millionaires one day.
SPEAKER_03So I have a specific situation. You came to a coaching call, Jordan, you said, Danielle, I had this moment and I just had to share it with you. You told me that you went into Lowe's with Claire. Oh, yes. Yeah. So t tell the listeners about this situation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so one day after uh gymnastics, uh me and Claire had to go to Lowe's for something, and we were just wasting time and walking around the store, and I was letting her explore and seeing what she thought was cool because I love Lowe's, so it's gonna be cool. She loves Lowe's. And we were walking around like the appliances. Um, I was just kind of looking at the fridges. I remember back to when our fridge broke, I think not too long after we switched jobs and still had no money, and it was still you know a scary situation. And you know, we were weighing, do we fix our fridge? Do we buy a new one? And at that time we went to Lowe's and we were looking at fridges, and we were looking at the ones that we thought that we could afford, which weren't that nice. And now that we have a funded emergency fund, I was looking at the prices of the fridges that I do like when I was there, and it was cool to think of that you know, this time around, if our fridge broke again and we had to go buy one, we could buy the one that we want with cash instead of just the one we think we could afford. So it was it was a good feeling, honestly. It felt like that freedom we were talking about felt rich.
SPEAKER_03The listeners obviously don't see this, but I'm smiling ear to ear. My face is getting tired just listening to you guys. Because for me as a coach to hear that, that means there's been huge transformation. Where a moment in Lowe's looking at a refrigerator makes you reflect on how far you've come and how awesome you have it now. You probably wouldn't trade anything for it. You would not go back to that situation, you wouldn't make the decision to put you in those type of situations because you want to be able to go to Lowe's and look at a refrigerator at and get the one that you want. Right.
SPEAKER_00Like you said, talking through the if our fridge did break, are you suffocating a lot? Because it's kind of how it feels when you don't have the money to put it places and cover things and like okay, if our fridge broke, like then we just pivot again and stopped at payoff for a month or two if we couldn't pay it all, or you know, pay me pay a portion out of the emergency fund. However, Danielle would help us strategize it best, and then it wouldn't feel like, oh my gosh, everything's ruined, we have to stop everything, we have to start all over again. Like this is what we plan for. This is why we do this.
SPEAKER_03So is there anything that you're planning for today that used to feel like super impossible?
SPEAKER_01We are talking about moving a lot more. Um, and honestly, probably not anytime soon, not anytime in the near future, but that used to feel like it was never gonna happen. It was just an impossibility, and now it seems like it could happen one day, and we actually have to sit here and talk about it and plan for it or plan for what we'd want and think about it that way as a real possibility.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's no longer a pipe dream. It it felt so like impossible before. Like, how could we ever have enough extra money floating around that we could even consider changing and getting a new mortgage, a mortgage that we didn't know if we were gonna be able to handle? How could we ever possibly factor that into our lives?
Advice For Paycheck To Paycheck
SPEAKER_03And now it's becoming a reality, it it certainly could. You know, you're getting yourselves into a position when the right home comes along that you can and you're ready to make that jump. No. So if someone is listening um and is in the position that you were in in 2023, paycheck to paycheck, you know, not really understanding how finances work, uh, going back to that very first episode, selling toolboxes so that you can make your mortgage payment, you know, what would you say to them?
SPEAKER_01So last time we said do the coaching, which seems like the clear and obvious answer. But I think this time, you know, it's been a couple years, and now that we're making so much progress, you gotta be patient and but you gotta be persistent too, I think would be the biggest advice that I would give. It's not gonna happen overnight and it's not gonna be fun for a little while. But if you keep at it and keep working, you will see results, you will get to where you want to be. Like I said, we're going to get to where we want to be. We're still not there yet, but it will happen, and it will happen fairly soon.
SPEAKER_03It instantly took me back to a session that we had, and Jordan, you were like, I'm getting impatient, and I just want to pay all this debt off.
SPEAKER_01Well, we were like seven months pregnant at that time, and we hadn't paid anything on any debt for several months. I mean, yeah, I was getting pretty antsy.
What Nearly Derailed Them
SPEAKER_03And your wife was just like, whatever Danielle says, we're doing it. Even after, you know, I'm like, it's not time to pay it off. It's not time. And I think to hear you say, be patient, just shows that you know that was a struggle for you, but you knew after coming through it that that's what you needed to be at that time in order to have that success. Absolutely. What almost derailed you in the last two years?
SPEAKER_01Um, well, I mean, obviously having a baby that's a huge expense that's expensive, and um changing Kirsten having to switch jobs um was kind of sketchy there for a little bit. And for some reason, we go through tires like nobody else. It seems like every six months we have to replace tires on Kirsten's car.
SPEAKER_00And it's never just one, it's always two or all of them.
SPEAKER_03And that's why we have the car maintenance fund. Yep. Now we have that that thing to take care of all of it. All right, again, was coaching worth it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Well, I feel like a lot of people have asked us too, like, why why do you still do you guys still feel like you're getting stuff out of it? Absolutely. It's evolved so much. You know, before we didn't know how to budget, now we know how to budget. Then it was navigating the rocky terrain of Jordan changing jobs, and then my maternity leave, and then building up the emergency fund, and then we're doing debt, and then like the debt consolidation loan, and just like the education piece of that, and how to be strategic with the credit cards and all that stuff. Like you said, we weren't necessarily ready for that in the beginning, but just more strategy holding.
SPEAKER_01Accountability, I think, is the biggest thing for me as well. Because I've had the conversation too with some people who are like, well, I mean, you have the plan, you know what you're doing. Why are you still meeting with Danielle every month? The accountability, know that if I swipe this credit card again, I'm gonna have to explain to Danielle why. And it keeps me from doing it a little bit. So I think the accountability aspect of it has been super helpful as well.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome to hear. Yeah, you guys have been with me for a long time. We're going on three years now. That just shows how much, and Kirsten, you just you summarized it perfectly, so much changes within our finances that we might have a grip on something and it needs to get changed because life changes. And you know, we add humans into our lives, or we change jobs, or maybe you do need to get, you know, moving. And and gosh, Jordan, wouldn't it be cool? Like eventually you get relocated, you move up in a position and stuff, and you know, we'll navigate that together. It's so many different things can happen, and I think it's awesome to have somebody in your back pocket to work through things that uh is kind of unbiased. You know what I mean? I'm not family. I am a friend at this point, but coach first. But after that, we're friends, and um, you know, every once in a while I might even say, hey, it's a good time, let's go to B dubs together or something, even though I still stand by that they're not the best wing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I still stand by that that's blasphemous.
SPEAKER_03What's the next financial mountain you guys are clean uh climbing up?
SPEAKER_01We gotta get the rest of the debt paid off. We're still not there yet, but I feel like we're approaching the end game at this point. We have the second kid, we have decent jobs that are steady and consistent. Um we're in the end game. We just need to get the rest of this debt paid off. And while it's still a a fair bit, um it gets it's less and less by the paycheck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's the big ones too that are left. And we even have your mortgage wrapped up in that thing, and you guys could be out of your mortgage in less than a decade. Which is crazy. Yeah, you know, if if you stick with that. So that's awesome. All right, two two years from now, let's say we're doing another update. What do you hope that we're celebrating?
SPEAKER_01Kirsten said fully financially free. I I I think at that point I want to be completely out of our consumer debt and have a fully funded three to six month emergency fund.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean you had said in one of your the OG podcasts that got us addicted to you, as it were. You said financially free rather than debt free, and I feel like that's the best way to describe it. Like he said, no consumer debt, you know, no credit cards or strategic credit card use, but being able to say yes to the kids when it's something silly that do they need no, but they want it. You not to spoil them to no end, but just to be the yes man occasionally.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, we might have to put like a wedding fund starting, you know, a little later after the debt is gone. Uh a new bucket in the high yield savings account. It's the wedding fund because he's the girl dad and he wants to be able to say yes, especially when they start to get married, which will never happen, by the way. They're not getting married, they're not dating.
SPEAKER_00They can date when they're married.
SPEAKER_01Danielle, can you remind us? Uh we were talking about this last night. What did we say last night when you asked us to give the one through ten on how we feel we stand?
SPEAKER_00The last time or on the original podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, on the original, the the level of peace.
SPEAKER_03Oh, well, what is your level of peace now?
SPEAKER_01Currently, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I would say like an eight now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I say eight. I say eight because like I'm not stressed about the money anymore. Like we're confident, it feels good, it's not tight, it's not heavy anymore. Um, I think I'm gonna save nine for when we're completely out of the water and have that emergency fund, and I think I'll save ten for when I am that net worth millionaire one day. So, but for right now we're sitting pretty at eight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would agree with that. Eight because it's not so scary and suffocating anymore.
Closing And Next Update
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you were a three, and Jordan, you were a four. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, and it's just it shows just how much finances intertwine with just all of our lives. To hear you guys go from a three to now you're an eight, you're gonna be a nine, and then you know where you're gonna be a ten. And that's such an amazing goal for people because I think sometimes that people think that it's the number, it's the 66,000 that you paid off in debt. It's not, it's how you're looking at life, it's how you're managing life, how you can go into lows and just kind of be like, I can afford that refrigerator because I I like that refrigerator too. Um, I feel like that's just such a better place to be than just focusing on the numbers. On that note, I just I'm so proud of you both. Uh, you come consistently every month, you come prepared, you come with really great questions. And Kirsten, I love how much that you keep up after the numbers. You know exactly where everything is all the time. You are kind of the backbone of making sure that it all happens. And Jordan, you are the futuristic. You come with the questions of all right, cool, when that's all done, because you guys have that handled and I and I trust and I'm knowledgeable, but but when that's all done, what about this, Danielle? What's your opinions on these things? And it always keeps the conversation going, it keeps it growing too between the the three of us. And I just I appreciate you both so much. I appreciate you for being on the podcast as well. We're gonna get you guys back here in two years with another update. Okay. Maybe a third child, maybe even a fourth child, maybe a new house.
SPEAKER_01Okay, all right. Relax. Thank you, Daniel.