The "I'm Ready Now!" Podcast
Ideas to help you when you're ready for change.
The "I'm Ready Now!" Podcast
EP 25: SPECIAL EPISODE (3 OF 4): Goals--Embracing Transparency in Marriage: A Goal-Setting Path to Spiritual Maturity and Financial Freedom (Special Guest: Lydia Sanchez)
Today in my continuing conversation on Goals with my wife, Lydia Sanchez, we dive deep into the significance of setting spiritual and financial goals in our latest conversation. By sharing our personal practices, we highlight how these areas are interconnected and crucial for fostering a healthy relationship.
Here is a bit of what we touch on:
• Discussing the importance of daily devotional practices
• Sharing insights on being involved in a faith community
• Emphasizing financial transparency and shared accountability
• Highlighting the concept of living on a strict budget
• Recapping our "Big Bear Financial Summit" experience
• Discussing the decision to sell a vehicle for financial stability
• Acknowledging the importance of giving in our financial planning
• Inviting listeners to reflect on their own goals and align them with their values
Join us in this episode as we work on our relationship intentionally through goal-setting!
Welcome to the I'm Ready Now podcast ideas to help you when you're ready for change. I'm your host, Isaac Sanchez, here I share my musings on whatever it is I am reading at the moment, as well as any other ideas that I believe will help you break free from a standstill in your thinking in order to get you dreaming again. Thank you for joining me today. Well, I'm ready now. How about you? Excellent, so let's get started.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year again, everyone. So, per my comments last time, this will be the last time I will say that, but I will continue to wish it for you for the rest of the year in my mind. So thank you for joining me again. I can't wait to get into today's topic. If you recall, today we will be stepping away once again from our regular topic Dan Miller's book, the Rudder of the Day because I have as my guest my wife Lydia to discuss goals for the new year. We will be back to our regular content after the next two episodes or after next episode, I should say, on goals, where we're dealing with goals. All right, let's get to the regular housekeeping issues First.
Speaker 1:Here are my standard reminders I like to share. Right at the top there are the chapter markers on this podcast, but they are different this time, as we've been doing during this session on goals. This time there are markers highlighting each goal that we discussed. So go ahead and make use of those and also remember that in the description of this episode there's a link you can tap to text me there. You can leave your feedback on the topics we're addressing as well. You can always email me at IsaacSanchez, at Maccom, I look forward to hearing from you. Let's get into today's discussion. Today, lydia and I discuss financial and spiritual goals, two important categories that we have for our marriage. So let's just do that now with my still special guest for the third time now my wife Lydia Sanchez Sanchez. Well, we're back now. Welcome back, love.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's so good to be back.
Speaker 1:You're like a regular. You have the codes to the door and everything. The security disabler.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just come in the security guard lets me in now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and who's that other person you brought your agent this time? Huh, I did, wow, I thought.
Speaker 2:I was other person. You brought your agent this time. Huh I did.
Speaker 1:Wow, I thought I was going to get through these next couple episodes without having to go into contract with you, but thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're going to transition this time and this episode to spiritual goals, and the other one we're going to talk about is financial goals about is financial goals, and so I had mentioned last time that these are tied together. Where your heart is, where your treasure is, that's where your heart will also be, and so between spiritual goals and financial goals, they go together, and so we want to look at those that way, but in this one episode, because we want our heart to be right about the money that we have, and so why don't we talk about our spiritual goals for our marriage first, and then we will move into the financial goals.
Speaker 2:Well, things that we're doing right now to work on our spiritual goals are we read a devotional every morning, and so that's part of our spiritual goal, because there's verses in there that we read and it just helps with just daily life. It deals with how to treat each other, and so, yeah, that's one thing that we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that book is based off the five love languages, and so it goes to all these different topics and the cool thing is, as you stated, starts with the verse.
Speaker 1:It goes to kind of the devotional based on that and the prayer at the end, and then we always have a chance to see how it applies and what it applies to, and there's some that do not apply and we'll skip that. I think there was one about you know in-laws. You know not our in-laws, but those of our kids, and so Kenan and Selah are in that season of life. So I think we passed some of those. Let's just move on. We're not there and we can talk about other stuff.
Speaker 1:So that has been very, very helpful. That book tends to stay around the table, so in the morning, after we've done everything we need to do we're just a breakfast away from me having to go to work We'll sit down and have that time, as you said, and read through that. So that's been great, we's been a consistent thing for us. And again, whether there are days that will go by where it wasn't out of sight, out of mind, we didn't see it, so we didn't do it, and then we'd play catch up on it, but as far as I can remember, that's something that we've done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of the interesting points about it is that we've had it for more than a year now I'm guessing that it's about like two years and so usually we write like a little checkmark that we've already read the page. But as every year has come, the same pages just have different meaning. We're at a different place in our lives and so, yeah, they still speak loudly to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's amazing, with a little bit of time that goes by, how we re-see something.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's one thing, and so we want to continue that. That's been good for us. It's been helpful to us. Great conversation comes out of that, and then the other thing we decided to do is to read the Bible together and in this sense, we would select a Bible plan that we would read together from. There's a well-known Bible app, and so we found something there and we've been working through that and same kind of thing. It offers a devotional section and then some few two or three verses that it has you read that apply, and then a discussion right at the point at the end.
Speaker 2:So that's something that we've been working on yes, it's really enjoyable to be able to read the word of god, that is is our instruction for living here on earth. So, yeah, it's been really helpful to our relationship and it's something that I really look forward to reading, yep.
Speaker 1:Now for full transparency. This is one that we picked, gone through together, and it's been out of sight, out of mind lately. We usually would do this after dinner. We'd sit down on the sofa, bring it out, you know, bring it out and start to go through that together, and so we need to make sure that we kind of make that a little more regular.
Speaker 2:Not sure why.
Speaker 1:Well, it's on our phones and I think it's just it hadn't become the habit. This is new, by the way. That part was a little more newer, so maybe that explains it. It is a little, a little bit newer to us and so, but whenever we've done that, it has been good, it has been helpful. This is our reminder to make sure we continue to do that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so all right. And again, you know we're people of faith. And so, for those of you out there that you're not a person of faith and you're working on your own marital goals or even individual goals, find whatever book you use that is going to work for you, that helps you stay grounded, that helps you lock in your values and remind you of your values. But the Bible's been working for hundreds of years and more, and it's still working for us, so we use it.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do.
Speaker 1:Okay. So the last point on this one goals about our spiritual goals is to become more involved in our faith community. So why don't you share what that looks like for us?
Speaker 2:Getting involved in our church has been really important for both of us. So last December actually I think it was in November I started going to a women's Bible study and it was great. They were talking about the fruits of the Spirit and, yeah, that was really refreshing to me. And I got involved going to a women's group after, and so we would just talk about what we learned at the Bible study and make friends there, exchange numbers, and it was really cool that just this week one of the girls checked up on me and said hey, we started Bible study again and we haven't seen you, and it was just encouraging to me that I was missed at Bible study. So I'll be back this week.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's great. And what that brought in a conversation when you mentioned that that hey, my friends are texting me and wondering where I'm at it did make me consider again, because last year I didn't get that far right when I was considering, because we found out that there was a men's study that same night that started, I think, a half hour later.
Speaker 2:Half an hour later, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. That too, and I hadn't worked that out yet time-wise, and so when you brought this up, we knew we were going to do this, but it was my reminder to look and to find out if they're still meeting. I don't know if I told you they are still meeting at 7, the men are, so that'll be something that we'll be able to do. And so that's one area where we had talked about before in the previous episode about volunteering. We had talked about before in the previous episode about volunteering, and you know that's a little note that I made for us here that that becomes an easy way to find opportunities to do those things. The friends that we meet, the people that we meet. What are they doing?
Speaker 2:already Right.
Speaker 1:Because that community is new to us and then we could just hop on and maybe find some opportunity there with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd really like that and I'm sure right now, with the fires going on, they have volunteers that are taking clothes, that are helping with food, so going to the Bible studies. It's great just because they know all the resources and like, hey, show up on this day and come with me, and so I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be a great way to find our way into helping. By the way, that reference to the fires this is we're in end of January here in 2025, of course and there's those LA fires that are still an issue. So, yeah, so there's plenty of help that can be had there. So, all right. So that's what we're looking at like in terms of our spiritual goals. We want to continue to read that devotion together and breakfast and after dinner we need to jump back and be more consistent about the Bible plan that we chose. And then our big goal that we're adding is just get involved in our faith community and get to know people and whatnot. So, just as a quick addition, that part of volunteering there at church is important, because I've always offered my services as a drummer. This has been interesting. I've always offered my services as a drummer.
Speaker 1:I've been a teacher for decades and I've always offered my services as a drummer. I've been a teacher for decades and I've never offered those services. I think I need a break from the students. Yeah, I'm done, it's a weekend, but it's always been. There's been a few times I've helped. I remember at a church I was helping their junior high minister develop their music program through their kids and it was really cool.
Speaker 2:But that's as close as I got to any kind of teaching thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I got involved with the folks there, made contact, met with them, and so they have me scheduled at the end and about another week or no, the end of February.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 1:They're doing a little jam over there and they invited me to that just to see what the fit is and whatnot, so yeah, so that's another opportunity, that's one thing, that we do and of course, you mentioned, you know, just a few minutes ago finding your way through volunteering. So that's that's a way that that will be met and that's again how we can get involved with our community and meet some new people.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm really excited about doing that.
Speaker 1:All right, let's move straight into our financial goals. You know, money and marriage. It doesn't have to be crazy, but too many times it can be crazy, and so let me just start off this real quick. I remember when we first met early on and we knew this would have been after. You know we were going steady. After the engagement I was going to say it might have been after the engagement. After the engagement yeah, that we opened up our books to each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't think we would have done that unless I knew you said yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like you're not going to see my spending habits, Like I was kind of a little bit timid to show you.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was way timid to show you, but we knew that this needs to happen. I remember sitting at the counter in the kitchen and opening things up and just talking stuff down and, as I recall, I want to say this, and you correct me if if you remember that there was just a kind of an opening statement about not no shame or anything like this is just where we're at. Did I say something like that or not?
Speaker 2:I think you did.
Speaker 1:You're like.
Speaker 2:I'm going to just put everything out on the table and you told me this is what I make, this is the money that goes out, and this is some of the debt that I have, and so, you know, I did the same thing and we both looked and no judgment at all. And so we just thought, okay, what are we going to do when we get married to pay these things off? Some of the debt that we did have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we get married, to pay these things off some of the debt that we did have, yeah, and we're not going to get into a relational advice here now, but there is a real. You know this. I think this is important to state for those you could be in marriage or getting ready to get married or whatnot. This is a crucial piece to know.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:You have to know this you know, so that you know if you've not had this discussion and this is interesting, I'll just say this now We'll hit it and then move away from it because we're not going to take time on this. But I'd be interested in your input on this is if there's something that you saw, it would have been hurtful to me, but fair game If, after I left, you would have sat down, stared at the wall and said I cannot do this with this guy Like that, right there. You know the way he does finances, what he does with the money or how he kind of just wasn't able to explain, like, where a good chunk of that money is going. That'd be fair and vice versa.
Speaker 1:You know, just because of what finances can do to a marriage. So you don't want to. I don't think you want to open this up before you've got a commitment of an I do Right. And yet, at the same time, if someone said I do already and then you go into this moment of opening up the books, you know you can't be surprised if the other person says, Whoa, this, this part I didn't know, and I know finance is crazy, I can't do this. The other person says, whoa, this part I didn't know, and I know finance is crazy, I can't do this.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think that it's very important to talk about spending habits. If you're a saver and I think that we did talk about that Are you a saver? Are you a spender, Like, do you save money? Do you have a savings account? And yeah, financially it's very important to be on the same page.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sorry about just how money's being spent and budgeting how money is going to be budgeted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just want to be kind of really specific on a point here there's always going to be those. There's always a spender. I mean, in Ramsey Solutions, when they talk about it, anyone talks about it there tends to be someone that's the saver and the other one is the spender. So it's not so much that Knowing that yes is helpful and I would not have said no to you if I knew you were the saver, the spender and I wanted to spend money it would not have been that.
Speaker 1:It would have been if there was these red flags in terms of finances or one of the other things that came up was some stuff that we were reading and I've read before and heard before these discussions.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can have someone that has a problem it could be, you know, a gambling problem, a drinking problem, and that's what I mean where money is unexplained for, and then it comes out Ho-hum, ho-hum. I'm like, well, you made so much money, but there's like $1,000 missing here, but I don't see it. I saw you took it out of the ATM. So what do you have to account for it? So that's what I'm talking about. There is that you know you could have been if there would have been an issue that was so strongly that you believed in that. You said I cannot be with someone that treats money that way or doesn't have boundaries on money a certain way. So we both had good things and mistakes we both did, but it wasn't something that scared me off from you, that made me think I cannot be involved with this person this way, you know.
Speaker 2:Right. So for me too. I I saw what I saw and it's like, okay, we can come up with a plan to, um, you know, pay down debt and be debt free, and um, that's what we're working on right now.
Speaker 1:And it's and it's been, it's been good yep, so that's, that's just a piece of advice. I think this is crucial that you stop and and make sure that if and if you're married or you're in a relationship with someone and you guys are doing this with your money, that uh, that be wide open. There's discussions about whether you should have, uh, different accounts or shared accounts. We have shared accounts. We made that decision early on, and so you know it's just finances is crucial just because it can blow up marriages. It's just one of the obvious ones, and so we just kind of want to put that out there.
Speaker 1:That be sure you look at that and you're very careful about that and wide eyed about it, show a lot of grace, and if you love each other and if you're together, you probably do you can, you know, look ahead on on what you're going to do with your finances and make a plan, and so that's what we're going to do right now. Let's talk about what our financial goals have been, kind of things we've been doing and what we're looking forward to doing. All right, the first thing we want to talk about is living on a strict budget, and we've done this before. We did it for our marriage preparation, wedding planning. We were looking at budgets and laying things out on a on the computer, on a spreadsheet that was prepared for a budget.
Speaker 1:It was a. It was a budget spreadsheet, and so that's kind of the first time that we started doing that and making sure that you know what money did we have and how is it going to be used. And so I don't know how I'd been. I had done budgets before when I was living on my own in Chino, because, you know, through my life changed like, ok, I got to find out where things are going and what's going on. So, but just on budget, what was your experience with with budgeting?
Speaker 2:So with me and budgeting it was all written down on just a piece of paper. So I'd write down my bills and so everything was done, kind of like old fashioned. And so when you came into the picture and you know, put a spreadsheet out and wrote down all our utilities and you know, car payments, and then everything was just there like so nice and neatly. And it's something that I need to get used to because I'm just used to writing things down on a piece of paper. But it's really really cool that you can just open up the spreadsheet, delete, add, and it's all there nice and neatly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was just so. I'm a little more techie than you are and so and I remember those discussions there's a little bit of tension there, a little bit, and all it was was you being introduced to something new.
Speaker 2:And I certainly understand.
Speaker 1:I can be very much a paper person. I've got notebooks and what there. So I thoroughly understood that part. But I just knew with numbers we wanted to have a good record and because every month you know new things would happen and a lot of it would be the same, if we can get it on the computer then we can save that month, open up a new month and keep going or whatnot. So I appreciate you being willing to play along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one thing that you know caught my eye was, you know we're doing subtracting what bills are, and then the number, the balance of what was on our account, was adjusting to the amount. And I just thought, wow, that's really cool that it's showing us real numbers by bills being paid, even though they weren't. The money wasn't being taken out automatically like that day. They weren't the money wasn't being taken out automatically like that day, but we could account for that money being gone and we could see it, and so I just thought that was really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so today we had our little meeting with that yesterday and today, is that right? Yeah, we started yesterday, I thought, or was it just today?
Speaker 2:Actually it was yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And yeah we sat at the table and just went over it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we're going to get to we're going to call it our Big Bear Financial Summit here in a minute and we were working off of some work that we had done over the summer, but we just hadn't looked at it since we'd come into this space here. So over this yesterday and we brought out that stuff, we started updating stuff. One of the first eye opening things was how how much stuff had changed. I think that we had planned. We had knocked out some things that we had planned we hadn't done yet because we didn't have it in front of us, but we knew we needed to start working with an updated budget for being here in Orange County. So we opened up the computer, did all that which, by the way you know, we're just using a spreadsheet that my older brother, larry, sent me, and I loved it.
Speaker 1:We were actually yeah, we were actually working with my dad. Larry and I were there. When I saw that, I said, larry, send me that, you know, because I knew immediately that I'd be able to use it. And then when we came together, I knew you'd be willing to continue with that. We would. So there's that.
Speaker 1:Then there's I'm not going to get into details, you can YouTube this, anyone who's listening is that the Ramsey Solutions EveryDollar. It's a budgeting app online that's free. You can do it for free. There's a premium one that we're going to try out that connects to your bank. So if you really want to keep close tabs and we all should of EveryDollar that's why it's called that then that's one option. Again, that's called EveryDollar. And then we have not used this lately, but we have it on the computer and it would be another thing to do. Now, some of this is duplication. It would be Quicken. Quicken is a software also that connects to your account, and so anytime something clears out, you can use that. Now we've not used that. I remember the last time we did that, you liked that a whole lot.
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we'll look at that again because there's some duplication, but maybe it's just a couple of different ways of keeping track of stuff, you know, so that we can just have, you know, a backup of a backup.
Speaker 2:Right, so Quicken is like the check register. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really really neat.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So whatever you folks are using and listen, if you're going to, if you're going to go and just say sorry, I'm going to stick the pen and paper and pencil and paper with your eraser, that's great, whatever works. But but we just knew we needed a strict budget. Now, one of the reasons was a big reason is our plans to be debt-free by the end of the year are actually way before. So that's one last step. We need to do with some of the accounts that we have. We just have to do the math of deciding how much is owed. There there's a snowball Again. This is not a financial thing, but if you look up Ramsey Solution snowball method of paying down debt, you'll see that that's what we're doing. And but we haven't crunched the numbers, the new numbers now, because a lot of good stuff has happened and we need to crunch the new numbers to get a date certain. We want to know exactly when's the month that will be debt free, because there's some, there's some really cool vibes in that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that that that was like one of the coolest things that I saw in Big Bear, because you know, we're trying to work out a plan like how can we pay off this debt and by when? And so you know it's like, okay, what? If we go with plan A, Our debt will be paid off in like 2026. But if we go with plan B and stick to a strict budget, like by the end of summer, we can be debt free, not have a car payment. And that was really exciting to know that we can be debt-free by summer when we saw the amount of money that we had some debt to that could actually be paid off, and that was so, so just encouraging to pay those bills off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the power of a plan of a goal and having an end date on it. Yeah, it's the power of a plan of a goal and having an end date on it. And so we talked about Michael Hyatt's smarter goals. I wrapped up the last podcast with that. So you had referenced Big Bear, so let's go into that, because some of our discussion is based on that and some things we've talked about. So, uh, our, our big bear financial summit. Uh, what that was was after we sold the house, um, we, we, you got married, we were a year out where you were living, sold the house, um, and then didn't have a place to go.
Speaker 1:No, we were homeless, we were literally homeless, and so um so we, so we went to two different Airbnbs. There was one in Santa Ana, two in Santa Ana right Two in Santa Ana.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the third time we still didn't have a place. So those Airbnbs were going to be temporary places, of course, as we worked with someone who's going to help us find a rental. So we knew we wanted to rent because we weren't ready to buy. We weren't sure if we wanted to buy in California. There's some questions we have about where we're going to be in a couple of years. So that was the decision that we talked about, and after the second Airbnb, we were sitting at a restaurant there in downtown Santa Ana. I was like where now?
Speaker 1:Where now we had no idea, and we had plenty of summer ahead of us.
Speaker 2:still, yeah, so the truck was full of our clothes and suitcases and just all our belongings that we thought we needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and all our, our, our belongings, our possessions from the home were, in us, two different pods. Yeah, okay, we had two pods in storage somewhere in Orange County, yeah, so I remember we were sitting there and it was just one of those moments where I can't remember which one of us said like it'd be really cool just to be up. We knew we wanted to go up to the mountains.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then I had a friend who had a cabin.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So let me just say this real quick before that. But because we didn't have a place to go to yet. We knew if we go up the mountains, wherever it is Lake Arrowhead, big Bear and then we start having to go back down and look at properties, we're going to be going up and down that mountain multiple times a week and that wouldn't be cool. No, so, um, so. But you know, at the same time we we just didn't have a place and we just thought, well, we do want to. It was basically a split between we have some summer here together. We want to enjoy that. Where would we enjoy it? And it was going to be in the mountains. So we went ahead and pulled the trigger to head up there. Help me understand was this space?
Speaker 2:already on, on on and we knew it was. I think that it was, but we just have it. We hadn't had a, a yes, a solid yes or no, so we were kind of in limbo whether we were going to be able to move to this house because of whatever reason. The owner was just making a choice. He was just asking questions about us and he just wanted to make sure that he had good tenants move in.
Speaker 1:But, as I recall, it was strong enough, like we were, exactly as you stated, but it leans strong enough for us to feel let's go ahead and go up there, cause this one's probably going to happen. Yeah, okay, so maybe that's what pushed us up to the mountain. So so, yeah, explain how we ended up finding a spot out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, I got to just mention this before I go on. I just love how our summer was, where we didn't have a place to stay but we had fun, just you know, looking for Airbnbs.
Speaker 2:Really, I mean, it's really neat just to stay at a new Airbnb and just see how people have their homes decorated and just really inviting. And so, with that being said, I just I love how you are that a little bit under pressure. You know where we drive up to. I think it was like a Pauly's restaurant and we're sitting there and we just kind of like smile at each other and we're like what now? And we're both just calm and patient, like okay, let's see what we're going to do. And that's something I really really love about you is that you're calm and we just plan. You know we just plan. You know we um, uh, just like brainstorm, okay, um, do you have any friends that have any um, cabins in the mountains that they ran out? And I'm like thinking in my mind, yes, I have a friend and um, I think for those dates they weren't available. Um, and then a light bulb went in your head and then you remembered that you had a friend that had a cabin, and then it just worked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a high school friend that I had totally forgot that over probably weeks and months. In our messaging she had mentioned that because I'd seen her post on social media like, wow, what a beautiful cabin, that'd be nice to go check that out at some point. And so it, yeah. So it just dropped in my head and I thought, oh man, heather, now we're high school friends in choir, have not seen each other and we need to make that happen. Because we talked about when we got back and settled in you know, we go to downtown Fullerton and have a drink with them and just hang out together and because we were so grateful that when I checked in with her and and saw it that you know the messaging again I just well, let's just ask what's available. It turned out like more than half the month we were up there for 17 days 17 days and it was wonderful.
Speaker 2:It was a beautiful cabin.
Speaker 1:So we were out there, we, there, we again. We enjoy being in a space where we can cook together, go do things together. We took some hikes out there together, a little bit of sightseeing, but hanging out on the deck having dinner out there, just looking over the mountains.
Speaker 1:It was wonderful gorgeous so, yeah, that was one of those moments where, between our little pool of friends, something worked out, and she and her husband, dan, who I've not met, and you know it would just be what we need to make that happen. So we're putting that on the recording now.
Speaker 2:We're not going to edit this out.
Speaker 1:We'll make it happen. They were very gracious about that. So we're out in Big Bear. We've got 17 days ahead of us and we knew that in Orange County, obviously already looking at the rents, things were changing for our budget and we went out there and started putting poster boards against one wall that just look out on the slopes to where, if it was in the winter or, you know, snow season, we'd be looking at people sliding down those mountains.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were like floor to ceiling windows. They were just so beautiful. Yes, it was gorgeous.
Speaker 1:So what those became for us were places to put our posters.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And we had our laptops open, we had the markers up there, Sometimes we had a little table at the laptop, Sometimes we were on the sofas. You know we're writing stuff down and we just went through these income projections, whatever debt. There was, thoughts about what we're going to do, how we're going to plan, what we're going to get written. You know, pay off first all these things. And you know why don't you share what kind of decisions came out of that? We were talking about vehicles, what we're going to need out here and not need, or whatnot. So why don't you share, from your perspective, what we were doing in this summit, our Big Bear Financial Summit?
Speaker 2:Right. So one thing that we were talking about was just our, like, how to pay down debt. What can we get rid of? What don't we need? What are things that we can cut out? So? So we had a plan to you. If Plan A is to pay off our debt and that's not going to be until like 2026, 2027, then all this debt will be paid off.
Speaker 2:But if we start getting rid of things that we can do without, we're used to having them, of course, and so one thing that we put on the table was what if we get rid of one of the vehicles? We had a truck and the car, so, you know, the truck payment was a little bit more than the car, and so we just thought, you know, if we get rid of the, we did both, and so we ended up getting rid of the truck, and we both decided that it would be smart just to sell the vehicle and not have the payment of the truck. You know all the maintenance that goes along with it gas and changing the oil all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So we're like, wow, that's really a big chunk of money that is paid to that vehicle. And some of the time, a lot of the times, the vehicle would just be parked. I, I wouldn't go anywhere. And if I did um like it wasn't anything, I couldn't wait for you to come home from work. And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to go run to the store. So, um, that was, that was a big, that was a big um decision that we both made to get rid of that vehicle. And, um, if it was going to push us to pay off debt um sooner, then let's do it. And and that's what like got the fire burning underneath me like, yes, let's get rid of the truck. And if we can have our debts paid off by summertime, yes, let's do it. And it doesn't mean that you can't like rebuy things that you want. It's just not right now. Like you don't have to have everything right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, one of the important things, too, was that this decision was coming from where we were to where we were going, and where we were going is we knew you were going to have the surgery in your foot.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't be going anywhere for a couple of months, and why would we be sitting on a vehicle not being used, and so that was one key thing, to the point where you're saying like, in other words, this stuff came up as we started thinking through our situation, so immediately that became a no brainer, and so now the question was just which one? Um, and? And so we, we made the decision you made, and since we'd once we'd come out here, um, we were out here already, by the way, you know, for whatever month or something, before we ended up selling it, um, because you were still, you know, for whatever a month or something before we ended up selling it Because you were still, you know, you hadn't had surgery yet, and so there was still use of both of us bouncing around Once we moved here you having to go out places, me having to go places.
Speaker 1:But once the surgery happened which we had been thinking about already, we knew that was going to happen. It became clear when we get down there, we need to sell the vehicle and I'm 20 minutes from work now, and one of the things that we said because it's hard to think about that when you've been going with two vehicles but we just said, listen, without all that money going out, if I need to take an Uber every once in a while, then I'll do that and it's, it's would not put a dent. I'm the way I am. We've talked about this and I know that you're this way too.
Speaker 1:I'm more than happy to pay someone money to offer me a service, and at that point we would need the service of someone get me from A to B and be back to A. You know, home to work and work to back. So let's pay for it and it's not going to kill us at all because of the amount of money we're saving and it would only and it only happened a few times. You started making more use of it once you had surgery, but you were able to get out and about, just not drive again. So it worked out. It worked out perfectly for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's it's working out really good. Still we don't miss having the other vehicle and we we work it out just fine.
Speaker 1:Yep, and one thing that always I mentioned and I keep mentioning is like, listen at any point if you're going through your day and it's time to go pick me up, but you just, man, if you had that extra hour and a half without having to go pick me up and that you know that disruption in your schedule, just tell me, I'll take an Uber and I'm home in 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:You know 20, 25 minutes and you do what you need to do or whatnot. So it has worked out and it's just a matter of just being willing to think through and not accept yeah, we need both vehicles, like we didn't accept that. We thought it through. We looked at, you know, the goal of being debt free by a certain date and that became really easy to check off and say we sell the truck and if it would have been the vehicle whichever was costing more, we would have done that. But the goal was looking at what that was doing to our debt and our goal to being debt free free. And you're right, we have done fine with one car. I don't think there's been any time yet that we've just been. Oh, my god, this is going to work out because you know we have one car. What's going on here?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm very proud of us for making that smart decision for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's working out. And so one of the things that we're looking at is you've been talking about this lately. We knew this that afterwards there's a couple of things we're juggling with you A business going back into the workforce as we build your business, like that's the exciting thing, like how do we do that? And even whenever we've discussed that in terms of the vehicle, it's been the same thing. You just said it Okay, if, after we find out where you're going to be at and what your schedule is, you can drop me off and I'm at work earlier, great, I can be at work as early as six o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:I don't mind it. You know I was doing that when I was taking the train from where we used to live two hours away. So I there's something about really being extra early at work, knowing to to disrupt me or whatnot, and so if that can happen, or, you know, if we make it work, both picking me up and dropping me off and you getting to work and you getting back great. But if it doesn't, we buy another vehicle. I just need something with wheels on it. You know and and and.
Speaker 1:So it's just, it hasn't been an issue for us to kind of pull our hair out of our heads about how's this going to happen. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and one interesting fact is that if you were to Uber yourself to work and back home, it still wouldn't be anywhere close to what the truck payment was and gas and all of that. So if that was something that we decided to do, it still wouldn't be an issue.
Speaker 1:issue because the cost in terms of the cost in terms of the cost.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's exactly right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and plus we don't have good parking space around here. So that was when we did have the truck. You know we have a two car garage but we have stuff in there. Right, we're working through that. But but yeah, and you know, and then when the kids come over in time, anyone's come over. You know we've hosted a couple of things here. It's just been crazy.
Speaker 1:So it's a, it's a hike to to park and to come down here and stuff so yep, so it's, it's working out, and and so. So we're back at looking at our budget, and there was a lot of stuff that were surprises. I was paying for a car wash subscription that I didn't know of.
Speaker 2:Because I remember going to get the subscription.
Speaker 1:When I went through they made the deal for me. I said, oh yeah, for one month. Yeah, that'd be great. And apparently it was more than that and we weren't looking at our books.
Speaker 2:No, it's like, if you don't look at it like just with like a fine tooth comb, it's like little things that you know. It's like oh well, they're just small, small charges. But it was $29.99 a month and I was going to go get the car washed at the car wash.
Speaker 1:At a different one.
Speaker 2:At a different one, and I didn't even know that there was a subscription for the car wash.
Speaker 1:So that's what happens when you don't look at the budget, and we are looking at everything. So, for example, apple, when it shows up on the bank statement, is just some expense for Apple. I think there's a hint or a line there that says it's recurring or not. So but you know, there are certain apps that we have and that we use. There's tools. There are tools that we use, but we're not sure which one is which. So we just want to make sure we match those up to know which, which 999 is the right one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we're just going through all of that in great detail and trying to find things, rework the numbers in terms of, you know, grocery money that's gone up. So we're looking at those sorts of things. But we just started readjusting the plan. We started going, we went down, we zeroed out every column, the categories on that spreadsheet on the different categories of the budget and started punching in our new numbers.
Speaker 1:And it was one of those things to where you know you've got to go with averages, sometimes on electricity or different bills where it's going to fluctuate in different seasons. But we did that.
Speaker 2:And it felt really good just to have a plan and also budget, you know it's like you go out to eat and sometimes you don't plan ahead, just go enjoy yourself and then at the end of the month you're like ouch, yeah, how much did we spend?
Speaker 1:And you're the one that's been looking at that more closely.
Speaker 1:So I was just you know well, I've said this before and this is totally on me it's like you should not we work well together on this but just with you, as you started recuperating from your surgery and you start taking over all that stuff and looking at it and, you know, taking care of that for us, I just kind of made you like, great, that's cool, and I'm here, I am not being, was not being very helpful with that, and so it, this was wonderful.
Speaker 1:And what I would say, to come back to my point, is I've said before, like you shouldn't and this might be a thing for for people to understand you shouldn't feel like the weight of that is on your shoulders, like we should look at it together. If you're going to be the one and it's the way it is right now where you kind of execute on things, you know during the day you take care of certain things for us, business wise, that's great, but we should have, you know, we should use our brainpower together, work out the plan, and then you kind of start, you know, make the plan, you start working the plan, and I take bits that I can do when I'm at work maybe make phone calls at lunch or whatnot.
Speaker 2:So thank you, I really appreciate that yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's just one thing that you know. We should work on that together, and this weekend was a wonderful moment where we did open everything up and the cool thing was we were able to look at our posters, update that information, get it on the computer and then throw those posters away, because now we were updated, it was right in front of us. Now Our numbers were Just to wrap this up. We readjusted some things. We saw some goals, plans, things that we said we were going to do. We were able to tick them off, and other things that we realized. Okay, we put ourselves back a little bit because we weren't looking at our numbers, and so that's a lesson learned learn and you live and learn. And we're going to do that. We've, we've, we've done that Um, and so we've just readjusted things. And the last step that we need to do is what we said earlier we're going to look at the um where our debt is now, run a quick calculation and have that magic numbers when we're going to be debt-free and work like crazy towards that goal.
Speaker 2:And we got excited about that again in the near future, being able to buy a house together, and just how exciting is it to both of us go and look at houses and dream together. And I know you're going to want a studio and I'm going to want a big kitchen. I already have my list of things that I want. I want two dogs and I want a cat and maybe a bird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we'll talk about the bird, we'll talk about the cat and actually you downsized on the dogs. I remember you saying if you can have a lot with like many dogs as you wanted you would do that Two dogs, and then they'll have puppies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's certainly one of the goals as we kind of start to wrap this up is the purchase of a home. We are not sure where we'll be in California. We love Tennessee. What will we do? But the excitement of knowing that the work that we're doing is going to position us wonderfully to make that choice. The second thing is just investing, to continue investing, because you know that's important. We want to retire responsibly and that just takes, you know, continued planning, and so that's another absolute reason to be debt free, to be able to invest that we want. And what's the final reason that we have here on our goals?
Speaker 2:To be able to give on our goals, To be able to give there's a lot of things that we want to do and just some nice things just to give to people. And, you know, give without people knowing that it was you. If you see somebody going through a hard time, just you know, send some money down their way. Or, you know, send an Amazon card so they can go to shop. So just being able to help people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know the thing about giving if your heart is in the right place and I know yours is and I've I've always appreciate that about you you're a giver is that? Um, it's just straightforward. Uh, the more you have, the more you can give. That's just it, you know. If you know, I can only have the resources to help one person enjoy the benefits of how we save in retirement and how we live, and even currently, the fruits of the work that we're doing, either businesses that we start or investments or whatnot. It would be crazy not to do that. We loved Yosemite that took money and so we went out there. So this idea of giving, giving responsibly, finding those causes you can trust, you believe in, and being able to support them, so that's one of the biggest rewards.
Speaker 1:We both come from families that, in their humility, gave. They're not rich at all, struggled, and many times they did. But you have memories of your family, I have memories of my family that they were giving. You know it was a different time, but I have memories of people being brought into our home for certain times to help them and then move them along, and I know you have the same experience growing up. And so this idea of giving sometimes is not always money, but sometimes that's exactly what's needed for a cause, for someone, and to be able to do that, and not the problem being asking do we have money, but how much do we want to give to this, and that's a wonderful place to be.
Speaker 1:So these light a fire under us and give us a reason of why we're doing what we're doing, why we're selling a truck. You know why we did that and why we're on a budget, instead of just saying, hey, there's extra money left over, let's just spend it. You know, of course, that's not responsible, but it's just good that when there is a goal, you know it makes those you said this earlier. Like you know, and I know this about you Once you have a goal in sight, you'll just work furiously to hit that goal and do whatever needs to happen to make sure we get to that goal, and that's what we need right now, exactly. So give me some of that.
Speaker 2:We're going to split eggs because they're so expensive, so you're going to get half portion of eggs.
Speaker 1:Oh God, Okay, I didn't think we're going to. The eggs is not in our notes here right now, but we'll wrap with that. When we were in Mariposa for about a week in an Airbnb, going out to visit Yosemite and hike out there which was wonderful we knew eggs was an issue. What was wonderful is that the owners of the Airbnb live on a little farm and they brought us fresh eggs.
Speaker 1:Fresh eggs, that was wonderful A dozen fresh eggs and we had gotten through those and you can see the difference, like we had some eggs that were store-bought and they're fresh eggs.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, you crack them open. You see the difference.
Speaker 2:The yolk was so yellow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very bright, and so we came down the mountain. One time knew we wanted to stop and get eggs, and we went to one major grocery store and didn't see any eggs at all.
Speaker 2:No eggs, zero Albertsons, no eggs.
Speaker 1:And they didn't want and they didn't know, like when we're going to have them back and go. Okay, great, so let's, let's just get into town. We were about maybe 30, 45 minutes away from town, so we went to Mariposa, stopped and as soon as we walked in we saw a guy you know stocking the produce and when we asked him buying chats.
Speaker 1:You guys have eggs. Like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like cool, like that crazy albertsons. They don't have eggs, these guys have eggs. And he marched us confidently. As soon as we turned the corner and looked at their big fridge for the eggs, there was one carton of 18 like triple stacked or double stacked I think it's like five dozens and it was like 50, 49, 99 and he was like whoa, like what?
Speaker 1:he didn't know. Yeah, he missed the meeting, yeah, didn't get the email, didn't get the memo, uh. And so he just chuckled and just kind of like I did not know this. And we told him the story and uh, so, anyways, we, so we realized, okay, they don't have it. But then, uh, what happened next? Did we go back there and they had it, or we went somewhere else?
Speaker 2:I think we ended up going to the same place just on a different day.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what it was. And they had restocked the eggs yeah, they fully restocked, still expensive.
Speaker 2:Still expensive, it was like $10 for a dozen which is a lot when they're like $2.99, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, so in your budget have a category for groceries and then add one more lime just for the eggs, because you're going to have to work overtime for that.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so all right. Well, listen folks. I hope you enjoyed this. We have one more episode together. Awesome, and I see your agent looking at me right now with a paper and ink. I think I need to sign something if I want to get to have you back for one more. So thank you in the meantime for helping walk through this.
Speaker 2:Your insight is helpful. Thank you, it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's important Folks, it's just important. Money can be crazy, but work together with your partner, with your spouse, with your to-be partner. If you're like us, open the books as you're getting ready to get married, or if it's just for yourself, if there's anything for the kids, kian and Selah, that we want them to be totally aware of, just guard your money. Be very careful with that now, because both of them are positioning themselves very well for their futures. They're not even close to where I was. Let me say I was never not even close to where they were, you know with what they're doing with their finances right now.
Speaker 1:So that's exciting, but it takes planning because there's pitfalls out there. So, all right, well, that's everything. Love. Thank you, and we will. We'll meet again at the same place next time.
Speaker 2:Alrighty, see you then next time.
Speaker 1:Alrighty, see you then. Well, let's pull this all together now. That means that we'll wrap this up with some application as usual. So get your pencil and pad, digital notation app, et cetera, et cetera something. Just be proactive about this work we're doing together, friends. Okay, today's application will be pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1:First, on the spiritual what are the things that you will continue to practice to keep this crucial part of your life in balance? Think about that. These are things that you've been doing. They're working for you and so you're going to continue those. If you do not have this practice, will you add it? Even if you are not a person of faith, how can goals that require you to acknowledge a power greater than yourself be helpful to you? I'd encourage you to consider that there is a larger purpose to life than living and dying and set your goals accordingly. Now back to those of you who do acknowledge your spirituality. What are new goals that you will consider this year that will stretch you? Is there anything that we stated, or is there something else that you've been thinking about, that you've heard from someone else, maybe over the weekend or at any point, in things that you're listening to regarding your spirituality, and you just thought I should really try this. I should add this to my goal setting this year in this category and mark those down Once again. A great thing to do is to go back to the wrap-up section of episode 23 and listen to Michael Hyatt's Smarter Goals, filter your ideas through his Smarter Goals lens and tighten up your thoughts on the values and goals you set as they pertain to spiritual matters and financial matters. As we discuss this time. Hey, I wish you the very best on these two very important life components.
Speaker 1:Next week, lydia and I will discuss our career and business goals. We're excited to execute on some ideas we have and see where they go, so we'll share those then. Okay, let me send you away with a quote here. It is Always make your future bigger than your past, and that is from Dan Sullivan. That's it. That's the quote. Think about it, act on it.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for spending time with me today. Friends, please join me again next week as Lydia and I conclude our discussion on goals. Thank you for listening. If you found this time together useful, please consider following this podcast and leaving an excellent rating. If you feel you can't do that yet, please reach out to me and let me know what I can do to get you to leave a top rating. If you are already excited about what you've heard, please consider sharing this podcast with a friend. I really would appreciate it. Also, I'd love your feedback, both on today's topic as well as what you'd like to hear me address in the future. I would really appreciate that input. Again, I'm your host, isaac Sanchez. I hope today's thought serves you the way it has served me. Remember, your next move is just one inside away. Have an amazing rest of your day. I'll see you next time.