Money Matters: Insights from Veterans on Finances

Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:00

Introducing LT Defense Tactical Gear, your ultimate solution for top-notch protection and performance in the field. Our armor bundles provide unmatched safety and comfort, while our battle belts and holsters ensure quick and easy access to your gear. Stay prepared for any situation with our high-quality medical supplies designed to keep you ready for action at all times. Looking to enhance your skills, our firearms training programs will take your proficiency to the next level. Trust LT Defense for all your tactical gear needs and gear up for success on the battlefield.

Speaker 1 0:35

This entire military is one cohesive, dedicated force. And the threats to our nations? They don't sleep. They're watching our every move. Iran, russia, china, north Korea, isis, al-qaeda they may be watching this right now. Our military should not be mistaken for our cable news gab fest show. We don't care what you look like. We don't care who you voted for, who you worship, what you worship, who you love. It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when he died or if you knew who your father was. We have been honed into a machine of lethal moving parts that you would be wise to avoid if you know what's good for you. We will not be intimidated. We will not back down. We don't want war, but if you want war with the United States of America. There's one thing I can promise you, so help me God. Someone else will raise your sons and daughters.

Speaker 2 1:47

Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice. Find us on the web at mbradious.

Speaker 3 1:58

Military. I'm a certified financial social worker. I was in the Air Force for 14 years and then I paid off $20,000 of debt while I was active duty within three years as an E3. So that's kind of like I got really into personal finance and so I've been really passionate about that ever since, and that was 10, 12 years ago now. So since then I became a social worker and now I'm a certified financial social worker. So we kind of get into, you know, dealing with finances but then also kind of dealing with the psychology behind finances, like the you know, the mental side of things.

Speaker 2 2:39

So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy when it comes to finances. Please welcome the fire social worker, joey Laswell.

Speaker 3 2:52

Hello, hello everyone, we're going to jump right in. This is Money in the Military. Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate you guys' time. We are joined with Becky and Rob, your guys' time. We are joined with Becky and Rob. We had them a couple weeks ago, week after last, and we're going to go through some financial stuff with them. Thank you for joining us. This is Military Broadcast Radio. You guys have probably heard my pitch a hundred times by now. Becky and Rob, we left off with a little bit of homework, maybe a little bit of something to think about. So I just wanted to do a quick check in with you guys and just see, all right, what, what was the uh, what was the um? Oh yeah, I was going to talk to you about the, the, the date, if you guys did like a date, money, date thing, but I wanted to do a quick rundown, just real quick, and just see, okay, what did you guys do in the last couple of weeks?

Speaker 4 3:51

well, the first thing we did was we downloaded rocket money and we ended up doing the paid subscription one, because it wasn't very much money at all to to do the paid one and I'm able to see everything. The only one that's not on there, though, is GM financials not on rocket money yet, so that's his car payment, so I can't see that, but. But I requested that they add it, so maybe they will. And then I also did smarty pig and I made a couple budgets. I mean not budgets, sorry a couple of savings accounts or whatever savings goals on there. Yeah, I did like four of them. I did a Christmas one, a. What was the other one I did? I did a vacation on there.

Speaker 4 4:42

That's what it was Christmas vacation, car and emergency fund, yeah, and then we have gone on a money date, we've gone on two, two Well, one and a half Second.

Speaker 5 4:57

one restaurant was loud. It's out of control.

Speaker 4 5:00

Yeah, because the first one we went somewhere that was a little quieter so we were able to pull up the laptop and look at everything. And then the other one, we were like huh, I can't hear you.

Speaker 5 5:08

So now we do have to budget in a divorce. So figure that out.

Speaker 3 5:15

Oh, that's a big budget item right there. That was good man, that was good, okay, you got a couple of dates in, so that's really cool, so, all right. So is that pretty much all the big bullet items that you guys actually did on the tail end?

Speaker 4 5:36

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that was our homework, yeah, we got everything laid out.

Speaker 5 5:42

We got all the finances set up. We got the insurance set up.

Speaker 4 5:45

Oh yeah, we changed over, we changed our insurance. We did that yesterday, saving a little bit of money in the house, but had to pay a little more because of the 15-year-old added on to the car.

Speaker 3 5:59

So the financial realities of having another driver starting to kick in a little bit.

Speaker 5 6:04

Yeah just starting because we got one next year as well.

Speaker 4 6:07

We'll have to.

Speaker 3 6:09

Okay, what has been your biggest light bulb moment or what has been something that you guys really kind of like an aha thing that you guys had?

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Speaker 4 6:27

Yeah, well, um anything but just, yeah, I'm trying to think. Well, you know, I don't know, because I was looking at the budget and I guess the groceries were super high and I don't know if that's if we're being wasteful or if things are actually that high right now, or if we're just, like you know, spending a little bit of both sometimes.

Speaker 5 6:44

So yeah, it's yeah well, becky does have to have her eggs every morning. I mean, we could lay off the eggs for a while, you know oh man, yeah, the luxury eggs.

Speaker 3 7:00

Oh man, all right, so okay. Well, so so what? What would you say? That the grocery bill was significantly higher, or just like more than you guys just expected?

Speaker 4 7:09

It was significantly higher than I expected. I mean, it was like double what I thought it was going to be, and yeah. So I was like I don't know what's going on with that. Maybe we're just stopping at, like we'll pick this up, pick this up and then getting too much.

Speaker 5 7:23

I don't know oh, no, but we did have.

Speaker 4 7:25

I looked we did have a bunch of like big expenses, this month like. So our spending is higher than normal this month, which was not fun to see, but I mean I can see it, so hopefully next month won't be so bad.

Speaker 3 7:40

well, that's the thing that. That's the part of the whole beauty of this whole exercise, too, is that it kind of forces you to see it, you know, or forces you to look, and most people most times just don't really want to look at it, so they just don't.

Speaker 3 7:54

Yeah, it's understandable, it's human nature. You know, like we, especially with money, there's all kinds of like emotions attached to it, like shame and guilt and all this other stuff, and we, we don't have to go down, go into that category. But you know, that is something that in all of my work that I've seen is a lot of times people they're, they're like they don't even realize that they have these money habits, you know, until until it comes to light, you know, um, they might not realize that they're a spender until they're in their twenties and they're like oh man, I'm actually kind of a kind of a spender, you know, but that doesn't mean that that's set in stone. So that's the other thing. Like you have these, these things, these like programming built in, but then you can change your programming. So that's where you last time you guys said, oh well, we're not savers, well, you're saving right now. Right, so you guys are savers right now.

Speaker 3 8:49

You know, now did you guys make it an automatic withdrawal for those? Yeah, there you go. That's the first step and usually the hardest. And now the beauty of it, of the situation, is going to be, it's going to be automatic. So you don't have to think, you don't have to actively think about okay, now we have to put 50 bucks towards the Christmas account. You know what I mean. It just comes out automatically. And then at the end of the year, when it comes time for Christmas shopping, you guys are going to thank yourselves, you're going to thank past Becky and Rob. Okay, so we got some actually a pretty good amount of light bulbs, I think. Was there any positives, any things that you guys found that you're like oh okay, we're actually doing better at this than maybe we thought?

Speaker 5 9:43

Well, we did our taxes and we made a lot more money than we thought. That's kind of sad.

Speaker 4 9:50

Because we're like where did it go?

Speaker 3 9:53

I gotcha, I gotcha.

Speaker 5 9:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:57

And then you guys going to get a tax return.

Speaker 4 10:00

Yeah, it just came today actually, so that was exciting. Yeah, that was fast yeah, I know, we did it on friday and we got it today got it in before the irs shuts down okay, let me ask you what?

Speaker 3 10:15

what is your guys's initial re? Or what have you done in the past with your tax returns?

Speaker 5 10:21

oh pay bills immediately like we don't go and buy a tv or anything it's more of just like okay, we need this, you know we well I mean we went and bought the tv and then we were waiting for that to go ahead and pay for.

Speaker 4 10:32

No, no, no usually it's just like oh, thank goodness you know that kind of thing okay usually comes at a, at a moment in need. Yeah, because it comes right after christmas, so we usually do it in january. We waited longer this year than normal okay, all right.

Speaker 3 10:49

So what, what is? Do you guys have an earmark for what you're going to do with that one this time, or have you guys already okay?

Speaker 4 10:57

no, just uh. Right now my main goal is to pay off the credit card, because after christmas we were just paying what we could on it and now he gets his bonus or the profit sharing on tomorrow yeah, tomorrow so we're gonna. Yesterday I sat down and I paid a bunch of things that we needed, like, like medical bills and things like that that we needed to pay, and so the the credit card is looking real real hot, so like it's been a big help too.

Speaker 5 11:24

I get we didn't even mention that like my health insurance awesome yeah, so I mean you go in, it's just a like, it doesn't matter, it's just like a copay of like, what? 25 for a regular doctor emergencies, whatever, yeah, so that's been like a weight off of our shoulders, like we're not as scared to like go to the doctor for anything so like I had to get like a, like a mri, and it was, it was free, it was covered, and I was like wow.

Speaker 5 11:50

Well, now you take our eyes and our dental. On the other hand, we're paying some money for that, but, like, the main part of not having to worry about health care is, yeah, uh it's game changing too. I just wanted to add in there little, uh little plug for GM there.

Speaker 3 12:05

Huh, nice little.

Speaker 5 12:07

Well, it's like the military, we don't have to worry about that. You just walk into the doctor's. It's basically what we do now. Yeah, that's awesome, that's really cool.

Speaker 3 12:14

So maybe I'm thinking of a career switch now. Maybe I need to go into corporate.

Speaker 5 12:20

No, you found your good spot.

Speaker 3 12:25

Keep helping people. Let's be the best. Fair enough, fair enough, all right. Well, with that in mind, with the helping mindset, let's figure out what's going to be our next step with these little chunks of money that we're getting. We got the bonus check, and then we got the tax return right. So is that just going to sit in a checking account for the short term?

Speaker 5 12:47

Two big problems with that. So we're having people out for the pool and our first quote was what was it? $25,000.

Speaker 1 12:55

Yeah, about $25,000.

Speaker 5 12:59

So that makes it done. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 4 13:04

When he said it I was like don't act.

Speaker 5 13:06

Don't look, you're going to throw up. Don't look. No, I was out there with him. This is how naive I am. He was like it's going to be about $2,500, $3,500, something like that. I was like, oh OK, $2,500, $3,500. That seems like a pretty good deal in my. I did want to say that because I was like he might be talking thousands I'm going to have to touch base with.

Speaker 4 13:24

Beckham, I'm trying not to puke and you're just like, oh hang on.

Speaker 5 13:28

What else do you do? Oh yeah, there's no way we can afford this Keep talking.

Speaker 3 13:36

That's funny. Well, okay, well, that's a big number. Obviously that's not something to shake a stick at, but I guess the I think we had messaged each other a little bit, becky, but like the idea, like you've been given some initial advice, but like, since those times, since that happened, has there been any other things that come up?

Speaker 4 14:02

You're getting other quotes and stuff too, right? Yes, for our AC we had someone come out to do a tune up and they found there was like debris in it or something, and and there's, there's just we have some rain.

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Speaker 5 14:13

Do you know? No are you supposed to clean out your ac? Is that a thing?

Speaker 4 14:17

yes, that's what the tune up is. But they, um, they said there's like stuff growing in it and all this stuff, our home warranty is not going to cover it. Our home warranty won't cover it.

Speaker 5 14:28

Because it's growth or something.

Speaker 4 14:30

It's like biological growth. I was like what does that mean?

Speaker 5 14:35

I mean, it's a unit outside. Is that not like I don't?

Speaker 4 14:38

know, I don't know, but they suggested us getting a new one. They wanted us to get a new one.

Speaker 4 14:42

What they did say was that it has a new one, you know, they wanted us to get a new one, and so and they said but what they did say was that it has a new kind of like heater something I can't remember what it was called now that's supposed to save us money on our electric bill. And I actually talked to my mom yesterday, because they just got a new one a year or two ago. She said she's seen a huge difference in her electric bill well, we are leaking our, they call them.

Speaker 5 15:03

I'm using my ac skills here um plan them. Whatever the little vent.

Speaker 4 15:07

Oh yeah, there's a hole in it yeah, so it's leaking air out and so we're wasting.

Speaker 5 15:12

I mean, I we could probably fix that with tape. Right duct tape works on that duct tape.

Speaker 4 15:17

It's a duct putting them together so we're we're debating, yeah, getting a new ac to try to save money in the long run. I mean okay, so the sales guy said it's net positive. So I'm like, what do I believe?

Speaker 5 15:32

he saw us coming a mile away.

Speaker 3 15:34

Let me tell you I know but you know, the sales guys, they, they never lie, or or never yeah, they're just honest all the time well, they don't always disclose everything that they're supposed to disclose, right? Yeah, yeah but uh, well, okay, well, let's so as far as the ac unit you know um. Did they give you an estimate on that, right, or?

Speaker 4 15:58

yeah, it would be eight thousand something, almost nine thousand, and they said normally right now it'd be thirteen thousand. So we're getting a deal.

Speaker 5 16:07

Oh yeah, I'm not buying that I mean they were definitely upselling there, but I mean it is old and we might yeah because they said the outside unit was from 2008 and the other one is from 2013, so I mean they're old, I years or so I don't know how long they last.

Speaker 3 16:26

I don't know, yeah, I don't even know what the shelf life is for some of those thumbs. All right, well, let's focus on the pool first. Okay, so you've got multiple quotes, but the general number is about the same.

Speaker 4 16:44

Well, one guy already sent us the quote, and then the other guy I'm still waiting on it. And then we have one on Tuesday and one is going to come out this week.

Speaker 5 16:53

So you can say anywhere between 15,000 to 20,000 will probably be a good average 25, 30,000 possibly, oh yeah, possibly 30. All right, yeah.

Speaker 4 17:03

So 15 to 30.

Speaker 3 17:04

Yeah, 15 to 30. Yeah, 15 to 30. We'll go in to estimate the high end, just because, um, you know, might as well, if they're giving you that high end, then we might as well lean towards that. Anyways, yeah, just as painful as it is, it's just you know, especially with costs rising and tariffs and stuff like who knows what, like metals and things like that might go up in price, and so I don't know, it may actually be a good time to lock something in with, especially even for the ac unit. I, I don't know, we'll have to, we'll have to do some, some, um, some cogitating on that one, but yeah, so we'll. Uh, yeah, that's my little scrabble word for the day, um, but all right. So what do you? What are your initial thoughts when it comes to how do we pay for this expense?

Speaker 4 17:51

well, I was thinking we might have to get a loan. I mean, we would have to, we would have to. I mean we don't have 20, 30 thousand dollars, how?

Speaker 5 17:59

much do children go for on the black market?

Speaker 4 18:01

you probably sell one, yeah, yeah I mean but yeah, so we would. We would have to get some sort of loan. I mean, I wanted to use the bonus, but it's it's not going to cover it and we, when we need to use that, throughout the year too, we have to have the credit card we kind of use it throughout the year just in case we overspend. We're like, oh, we have this.

Speaker 5 18:26

Well, that was our mistake.

Speaker 4 18:27

We will be saving now. We are.

Speaker 5 18:30

And our cars as well. We got a little separate part for the car now.

Speaker 3 18:35

Yeah, oh, you did a maintenance fund for the car, is that?

Speaker 5 18:38

what you said, mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 18:42

We have a little separate thing for that. So see, you're already stepping in the right direction, because now it'll take a few months. But once you build up these little mini savings goals, then when those bigger expenses come up, then you're not as affected by them If anything. You're already ready. You're literally preparing for those expenses right now. Ready, you're literally preparing for those expenses right now. This time next year, you guys, I think we're going to be in a lot better position because let's think about it too Now your check, your tax return and your bonus will not be going towards paying back the Christmas money.

Speaker 4 19:21

That's true.

Speaker 5 19:26

Yeah, that'll be nice.

Speaker 3 19:28

Yeah, the christmas money, that's true, yeah, yeah, that'll be nice, right, yeah, light bulb, yeah, so, so that's, that's something exciting to look forward to. But in the meantime, we got to deal with the present day, which is how do we deal with this, this, how do we get caught up? Yeah, right, um, and you mean like the rocket money that, like I, that's going to do really well for you guys, just giving you that visibility, um, but uh, as far as the loan for the pool, so there's a few different things. Um, let me see if I can pull.

Speaker 3 19:55

So I, we had talked a little bit about um, different loan options. So I mean you can go with like a traditional bank loan, um, like they do have like home improvement, slash, repair loans. Some banks do that like it's specifically geared towards like you have to use it towards like home repairs. Yeah, the other alternative, I mean there's there's a lot of different ways, honestly, but you know, like if you have equity in your house, you could tap into that and get like a home equity line of credit that sometimes people kind of shy away from that because you know, like it, it it adds an extra loan to your, to your for and, yeah, basically adds an extra loan to your uh, to your house so it's like a, like a.

Speaker 4 20:43

That's what I was gonna ask. Is that the one you said was a lien in the house. We don't want to do that, yeah well, I mean I don't, I don't know well, which that's a?

Speaker 3 20:51

yeah, I so just full, you know, full transparency. I've done one of those before too in my, my previous house with, uh, an ac unit. You know, like it was one of those things. That ac unit went out and I had the money well, I had most of the money but I basically I did it, I did it strategically and they had like a pretty good interest rate at the time. So I kind of just was like, all right, well, I'm going to take out this loan and just pay it off, you know aggressively, and that's basically what I did.

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Speaker 3 21:19

So it was it was a short term loan, but they do have options to make it pretty affordable. You know, like 10-year loans, um, you know, like so the longer, obviously, you go out, the the more affordable it's going to be, and I mean this is a pretty big number. So I mean you yeah, you might want me, just for the sake of your budget, you might want to kind of like start looking at the different options as far as time of the loan and length of the loan goes. But the other thing and I know last time you talked about this was something that you knew was coming but how were you envisioning paying this in the first place, or did you guys not?

Speaker 4 22:02

We thought we'd be able to use the bonus or the profit sharing.

Speaker 5 22:07

Yeah, for most of it at least, and then have maybe a pavement plan that we could afford Now some places the maintenance, like the people the pool repair companies.

Speaker 3 22:18

sometimes they'll have in-house financing options too. So you got to be careful with those because sometimes they can be less than reputable financing options. But sometimes they're actually legit and you can get 0% for a certain amount of time or generally a low interest. But how much in your guys' budget would you say you would feel comfortable putting towards that kind of loan?

Speaker 4 22:47

Yeah, I don't know, because with our savings we were talking about, um, doing like, allocating like a thousand dollars a month, but we ended up doing it to where it was only like 490 something, so 500. So just because we haven't had it, we haven't been in the green in a while, you know. So I don't know, I, right now, with all with this month, I'm not sure, like because it's not a typical month of spending, so I'm not sure what we normally spend, which is hard, you know, because I don't know what's normal for us.

Speaker 5 23:25

Yeah, I guess you don't really have like a set budget.

Speaker 3 23:28

It's always very normal.

Speaker 4 23:29

Yeah, that's, that's what I'm yeah.

Speaker 3 23:31

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 23:32

I don't know.

Speaker 3 23:33

Honestly, I don't feel bad about that at all, because that's, that's actually very, very common that's. But that's also where you know we could do a little bit of of work towards getting things a little bit more predictable. So that way you, you kind of do know how much you have extra in your, you know, in your budget or in your, uh, in your spending plan. So, um, so let's just put out a number and just see how comfortable you feel with it. All right, so let's say, um $200 a month for the next five years, would that be something that you guys could support?

Speaker 3 24:18

I mean that's a low number, but I don't know.

Speaker 4 24:18

All right, yeah, what were you thinking?

Speaker 3 24:25

$1.

Speaker 4 24:26

Well, so the other thing is For the next 30,000 days, 30,000 days to go.

Speaker 3 24:33

So, yeah, that's where we're probably probably gonna have to do a little bit of more follow-up homework and just kind of figure out, okay, um, because you don't want to go in there and say, okay, um, give me you know, I was going buying a car like, yeah, just give me whatever at this. You know, just give me whatever, uh, price point that I can afford. You want to go in there and say, okay, I want to spend this much money and I want this much loan for this long, this period of time. So, yeah, we're going to we're going to have to do a little bit more homework, but that's, that's okay. That's part of part of managing your finances.

Speaker 3 25:04

Sometimes is you got to do a little bit of homework, but but you'll, once again, your, your future selves are going to thank you because you didn't just jump into this willy-nilly. You're doing your homework, you're doing your due diligence. So you guys should definitely feel you're going to be more prepared than most jumping into something like this. So, yeah, so there are some different options and I mean you can literally go on and start looking up, like maintenance or pool. I just looked up pool, maintenance loans and I mean, granted, some of these are probably, you know, um, not that great, but just just out of a for reference, like, uh, let me say, wow, this, this sounds way too good to be true, but uh, yeah, so some of these, some of these, are going to be home, like they're. They're going to be similar to a home equity loan, but, uh, we're going to try to avoid those types of loans if we can because, like you guys said, you're not really feeling that and that's fine, you know.

Speaker 5 26:14

But there are other options out there I mean, if it's a good deal, I'm not going to turn it down. Just yeah, it sounds very scary putting the lien on my house with something that large without like knowing what's going to happen, absolutely like jobs and stuff.

Speaker 3 26:30

Yeah, I mean, you're very valid in thinking that way, you know. But you know people, especially with big ticket items like this, you know this is a pretty common thing. You know pools need maintenance and you know like there are many different ways to finance those types of things. So so, yeah, we'll, we'll start the process of doing doing, you know, like doing that homework, and then we'll we'll work on that. But I think we've I've gone a little too long and I need to do a little commercial break. So I've been rambling a little bit, but no, we had to get stuff and but I think there is actually a new song. Let me see if I can find it. So we got, uh, andrew coffee. Let's see if he's in here, but he's not in here, yeah. So we got a whole, like a whole bunch of veteran music. That, uh, I mentioned that last time, but I guess I don't have it in my uh, in my thing yet. So I guess we'll have to play my usual, which is no peterson, the uh, super cool jazz guy.

Speaker 5 27:41

All right, so we'll be back last time, I like it.

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Speaker 3 27:43

Yeah, yeah, makes you want to um watch to me. I want to watch oceans 11 for some reason.

Speaker 2 29:49

all right, so we'll be back after this one second. Thank you, I'm ready to change the music. Thank you, military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice.

Speaker 1 30:05

find us on the web at mbradious opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent find us on the web at mv radious we're back, all right.

Speaker 3 30:26

Um, that was noah peterson, marine corps veteran out of san antonio. I actually auditioned to be in that video, but it turns out that I can't dance. What is it? What, what? All right.

Speaker 5 30:40

A lot of us are plagued with that issue. It's fine.

Speaker 3 30:44

All right. So we're back here. This is Money in the Military. We have Air Force veteran Rob Selzar and his lovely wife Becky, and I don't think we've been introduced to the little dog.

Speaker 5 30:57

This is Leah man. She's been here since the beginning. This one's like a. Yoda of dogs, A thousand years old. This one.

Speaker 3 31:04

Nice, that's awesome, that's sweet, all right. Well, before the break, we were talking about the different strategies that we can use for getting this stuff done. But I wanted to do a little quick, shameless self-promotion, because you know why? Not? It's my show.

Speaker 3 31:23

And so this Sunday at 5, I'm going to be doing a basically similar to this, but it's going to be a group session, so we're going to be doing just five people. It's going to be a group session, so we're going to be doing just five people. It's going to be a group coaching session. It's going to be $100 or $99. I'm not going to give you, I'm going to save you that $1. So it's $99. But basically it's going to be a 90-minute session and it's going to be open-ended.

Speaker 3 31:51

No real crazy agenda. But if you're interested, you can send me a message, dm me, email me, um. But yeah, that's my little pitch for for this Sunday and there'll be more in the future. So if you, if you like what you're seeing, what, what I'm spitting, then, um, just hit me up and we'll uh, we'll keep it going, all right? Well, with that being said, let's keep this conversation going and let's see what we can do with the bonus money that you got the bonus and the tax return. Did we ever decide what we're going to actually do with that, or what?

Speaker 5 32:30

do you?

Speaker 4 32:30

got the credit card. That's the first priority. Is that going to be any leftover after that?

Speaker 3 32:39

yeah, I think probably about six thousand left over yeah, so so you guys will have a six thousand buffer for after paying all your expenses.

Speaker 4 32:50

That'll be what we have in our checking account after we pay it all that will be it, that will be it. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 32:59

Well, that's still you know. It's still something to you know, plenty to work with, as far as you know. Obviously you're going to have future paychecks too, but let's play with that number Just out of curiosity. How do you guys generally tally up or divvy up your money, like when you guys do like what first the month you kind of like go through and start making payments, or is it all automated?

Speaker 4 33:22

or you guys do anything like it's all automated, yeah, yeah, the only thing that isn't. We have a lawn uh person. I have to pay her by check.

Speaker 3 33:30

She's very old school.

Speaker 4 33:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3 33:32

Oh, check.

Speaker 4 33:33

Okay, I didn't even know you have to mail her a check, so I have to get stamps.

Speaker 5 33:36

I feel so bad she's so old that she's out there mowing our lawn, you know. So I was like, yeah, I'll write the check, it's fine.

Speaker 3 33:45

All right. Well, so during that initial process of like rocket money and things like that, Did you guys have you said your grocery expenses were higher than you expected Did you guys have any kind of game plan on what you guys wanted, like, is that is that were you, or is it just like, hey, you know what we love, food, that's our thing and we're going to, we're going to do that, that's our guilty pleasure, kind of thing, or whatever.

Speaker 5 34:14

It's not a sustainable trend, I don't think, if it keeps going up.

Speaker 4 34:16

yeah, I did think about like our pantry is full right now, like the kids are, like we have nothing to eat and I'm like there's so much food in there yeah, teenagers so maybe a challenge yeah, maybe I need to like write down everything we have and like check it off when it's used or something you. I'm not going to buy anything new until most of that stuff is gone or something like that it's not even that.

Speaker 5 34:39

It's just the basics. We're out of bread, we need lunch meat, we need all this other stuff.

Speaker 4 34:43

Well, that's what we need today. Yeah, but where did all that come from?

Speaker 5 34:48

Yeah, Agreed, agreed, doctor. Okay, yes, agreed.

The Military as a Cohesive Force

Speaker 3 34:51

Agreed doctor. Okay, well, I guess what I would challenge you guys to do then, just like we did with the Christmas spending, is to kind of go back and if you guys are able to look at your grocery spending for the last month or so and kind of try to come up with a good number, so like, um, you know, based off of previous trends, this is how much we've spent. And then you can kind of like, based off of like, let's say, two months, you can say, okay, this month we spent in whatever, then the last month we spent that, and then we kind of split the difference. Um, but I would also challenge you guys, if you guys do any kind of split the difference, but I would also challenge you guys, do you guys?

Speaker 4 35:36

do any kind of meal prep or anything. Not really, not anymore. I used to, but not anymore.

Speaker 3 35:42

It is time consuming and kind of tedious sometimes, but from a financial perspective it can be very, very helpful. Just start your grocery spending because you're you're being more intentional with what you, what you cook. You know what I mean. So by also, and then it also saves you, like you know, from eating out. I don't know if you guys, if you know you guys don't eat much more. You guys said that already.

Speaker 3 36:10

Um, okay, all right, well, that would just be a one little, an actual food budget and then maybe, like somewhat aggressively, try to try to pull back and see, survive off of food. What is the food? Food is a big one for a lot of people that ends up basically eating away. No pun intended, I'm just full of dad jokes today. I know you got it, but alright, so we got the grocery stuff. We'll kind of deal with that. Maybe we'll touch base on that again, but all right, so you know we got. We got the grocery stuff. We'll, we'll. We'll kind of deal with that. Maybe we'll, we'll touch base on that again. But was there any other like major things that came up in the in either your date, your money date, or just during this last couple of weeks, that that really um kind of jumped out at you or you had questions about.

Speaker 5 37:12

Um trying to think.

Speaker 3 37:15

I don't think so we haven't really even talked about investment and saving for the well. Not you're doing saving, but like um, how are you guys with retirement accounts and things like that?

Speaker 4 37:27

oh, um. We have some money and like I have my 403B because I'm a teacher, then he has his Fidelity account through General Motors. We have some money, but not a whole lot.

Speaker 5 37:44

Listen, we're making it about a month. We retire today. Maybe a month Tops.

Speaker 3 37:52

A lot of people. Okay, maybe a month tops A lot of people, but okay, well, that's the other. Like once, once we kind of get the and maybe it's not time to even prioritize that yet, but I do want you guys to start thinking that the money that you save in your budget, that I would, I would, I would really encourage you guys to start slowly ramping up your investing. You know, really encourage you guys to start slowly ramping up your investing. You know, um, uh, so that could look like one percent a month. You increase you know an allotment or something at work, or um, you know, would you how much like? If you had to put a percentage like of your paycheck, what would you guys say you're guys putting towards your retirement?

Speaker 5 38:33

I don't remember, I can't.

Speaker 4 38:34

I set it up so long ago.

Speaker 5 38:36

I can't, I don't remember mine at the lowest because we needed money. But the cool thing is gm is matching whatever I put in there. So when we get extra money I could actually raise it up and actually build up a nice little chunk of change when we're actually in the green again. Yeah I mean priorities and priorities.

Speaker 3 38:55

Right yeah, and it's tricky to think about, like you know, 65 year old version of you when you're like, okay, this is, you know, this is right now me and and we, we have all these things to worry about. So I totally get that. I guess I want to put the bug in your ear that the being young is one of those things that the compounding effect, you know, compound interest, all that stuff. Like you, we can't get that time back. So like I'm looking at, like I'm looking at 30 year old Joey and be like man, if I'd only put in just a little bit more, I would be sitting much better. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 39:39

And then if you really factor in the time and you look at the time lost, like 10 years of not investing versus even just 10 years of just small investing but then doing it consistently once again, your future selves will definitely thank you. So that's that's my. My challenge to you guys is to kind of, like you know, oh, you know, dust off the, the login for your, your retirement accounts, and just kind of go in there and just just see what, what you're, what you're looking at. You know what I mean and maybe you could even link up that to rocket money.

Speaker 4 40:14

I um and then, yeah, I did okay all right, so I can see it, I just don't know how much I'm putting in back when I quit with my job.

Speaker 5 40:24

We we pulled out all of my retirement that had saved up from the last job.

Speaker 3 40:29

So yeah, I mean, that's that, happens that okay, we needed it at the time. Yeah, yeah, I get that Okay. So let's kind of recap a little bit about, like, from the first session to now. We've got Smarty Pig. You're saving for Christmas, saving for vacation. Oh, and actually speaking of vacation, what number did you come up with for your vacation fund?

Speaker 4 41:03

I did $3,000. You said like medium was like $4,000 to $7,000 or something like that. I think is what you said. So I was like we'll go on the lower end maybe, yeah.

Speaker 5 41:12

I don't know. We'll do a little steak.

Speaker 3 41:14

It sounds like. It sounds like, yeah, you guys are frugal travelers and you're not. You're not, you don't need. You know the lavished, you know expenses. So so, yeah, that's a, that's a great number. What was your timeline? What was your time window for that trip?

Speaker 5 41:31

Dude, did we set up a timeline?

Speaker 4 41:33

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 41:34

Well, we didn't discuss this. There's another money date for this one.

Speaker 4 41:38

Yeah, this money date didn't happen. Let me see I can pull it up real quick.

Speaker 5 41:47

How efficient is it to have a money date at a fancy restaurant? Is that efficient? Well, I mean, if you've budgeted for it, maybe, I guess. Oh man, dude, I knew we were wrong, it didn't feel right it wasn't.

Speaker 3 42:01

I mean, if it's something that you guys already like no, I, I get what you're saying now. Yeah, no, it's fine. It's fine.

Speaker 4 42:11

Um, sorry, it's loading we had had a nice brunch we did have a nice brunch, but that was a place that was too loud so we couldn't even talk about the money.

Speaker 5 42:20

Ah okay, Rich people don't like to talk in silence.

Speaker 3 42:25

I don't know, I wouldn't know.

Speaker 5 42:28

I'm just assuming I've never been afforded that luxury of talking in all that noise.

Speaker 3 42:37

All right, well, leah, so we've got $3,000 for the vacation and then, yeah, you're looking up the time frame, but it's not a big. I was just curious as, like what you were projecting and then did that feel comfortable for you guys? Did it do that?

The Constant Threats Around Us

Speaker 4 42:55

I think I did it for next year. I think I did it for next year. I think I did it for next june. Um, yeah, I'm that's. I'm remembering that. Why is this not? Someone stole our smarty, but our smarty pig lost all this money no, it's just not I don't know she's panicking.

Speaker 5 43:11

I'm not panicking she's going to have dreams about putting in your passwords. It's going to be impossible, oh man.

Speaker 3 43:18

All right, Well, so that's your Smarty yeah, Smarty Pig was kind of. I think their login was kind of weird maybe.

Speaker 4 43:26

There we go Security was weird. And that's not working Okay.

Speaker 3 43:33

It's fine like, yeah, if you're here yeah, we'll say, uh, a good, a little over a year, that's a great window and honestly, yeah, like I'm sure the payment for that was pretty, like maybe surprisingly affordable for that it wasn't so bad.

Speaker 4 43:48

Actually, I was surprised.

Speaker 3 43:52

So what other types of big ticket items Like do you guys and you know you mentioned sports for the kids Are there any like big sports expenses that you guys have on the books or like a musical instrument or anything like that?

Speaker 5 44:08

We'll have to do some lessons coming up.

Speaker 4 44:10

Some hockey lessons, which is like $80 a lesson lesson and it can be like once a week. And then she's also, um, she wants to do spring hockey, which is five hundred dollars, four hundred something, and so I paid it in half, like I did 200 something now, and then, like in April I think, it comes out again.

Speaker 5 44:39

Try to take anything big for Kaylee besides insurance.

Speaker 3 44:43

Well, oh, what I mean and like, what are you guys gonna do for a new driving car? Do you guys have a plan for that?

Speaker 5 44:53

Yeah, we have a car my parents were able to they gave us one, one of their cars.

Speaker 4 44:55

They got a new one and gave us that one.

Speaker 5 44:56

So we got that registered. We got, like I said, we got insurance on that now. So we got that all set up. And how much? How much extra is that? How much the insurance costs us on top of that?

Speaker 4 45:07

Um a hundred extra dollars a month, a hundred more, which is something that I thought was going to be a lot more.

Speaker 5 45:13

It's actually doable, and then we'll have another a hundred dollars next year.

Speaker 4 45:19

I was right about the goal. I finally pulled it up it's the 1st of June next year.

Speaker 3 45:25

Nice, Awesome. Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing and hearing about your awesome trip that you guys take. It'll be exciting. You have to send us some pictures. So then I was going to ask about the car you guys are saying is that like the car emergency fund that we talked about, or is that just for a future car? Was the car fund?

Speaker 4 45:50

oh, car maintenance, yeah, because I mean the inspection.

Speaker 5 45:53

We had to do inspections once a year.

Speaker 4 45:55

Registration, that's like all together, that's like a hundred and something dollars yeah, but then dollars for the registration, your inspection, everything's like 30 and then, like I'm doing a tune-up like for my car, and, um, that's gonna be like three hundred dollars, I think. So the 60 000 mile tune-up and then the ac don't forget about the ac.

Speaker 3 46:17

You're gonna have to worry about another 10 grand yeah, well, it usually happens in threes, I hate to say, but hopefully that doesn't happen here. But it sounds like we're getting to a good spot in the sense of maybe cleaning up things, identifying maybe holes or gaps in the spending, and that's going to be a process. It's not going to happen overnight, but if you guys are interested, we could do some more follow-ups and just kind of check-ins with you guys. Or if you want to just do it that offline, that's fine. But I would like to do some semi-regular check-ins and just kind of see how things are going, any updates or like you know, because basically what I'm thinking is that right now people are following along with you guys.

Speaker 3 47:09

So some of the things that you brought up in the first episode, I've gotten feedback that they're like oh yes, we're going through that same thing. So you guys are. You might be surprised, but you are a snapshot of the modern American couple right now and dealing with your finances the way you. You know, so, um, and and the things that you're bringing up, I I hear all the time and you know, like it's not to say that you're, you're not special, but you, but you know like the things that you're going through are very common. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 47:39

So I just wanted to to basically show people that, hey, this is what you know, this is what modern finances is looking like, and you know, this is how people can, can kind of like tweak things, improve things, and you know. And then also people can follow along and they'll be like you know, some sometimes like they might be like, hey, what's going on with Becky and Rob? You know like, how are they? How you know, like so they'll, they'll ask for check-ins and things like that. So so, yeah, so that's, that's something that I want to do just to you know, as long as you guys are cool with that, maybe we can do like you know, depending on how comfortable you are, we could maybe do like a once a month check-in, uh, after, after this, um yeah and then, um, and then just, you can, you guys can always message me offline and we can talk.

Speaker 3 48:32

You know, uh, you know behind the scenes and stuff too. So, um, so we got, we got a lot of good, good stuff, and then I can, um, you know, you will, I'll make sure that you guys get to get a copy of this so you guys can watch it again. Um, but was there anything that I guess, any last minute things, any homework for me that you guys think you want me to kind of do some?

Speaker 4 48:57

research for you guys. Um, if you can help us find a loan, I mean, you think I probably will probably we'll have to do alone, right Like?

Speaker 5 49:04

yeah, that's really been what we're worried about.

Speaker 4 49:14

Like, pool has to be done. It's falling apart. Yeah, it's gonna be an outrageous. That's a crazy amount of money. It is a huge amount of money. And then like, should we do the?

Speaker 5 49:19

ac, and should we all put it on, one is it a net positive after all. I mean that hillbilly knew what he was talking about?

Speaker 3 49:26

I mean yeah um, yeah, well, I guess we we will have to, um, we'll have to talk offline and try to figure out a little bit more, um, you know, like, clarify some things, and I'll do some more research on what is probably the best bet for you guys, um, and then, you know, I'll share it with the audience too, that way they, they kind of can, can follow along and, and you know, I'll do like a blog update or something, but, um, but, yeah, that's, that's all. These are valid concerns and you know I do. I do appreciate you guys being, you know, honest and open with all this. So I appreciate, I really do appreciate that and, um, you know it's going to be okay, you know.

Speaker 3 50:07

I already feel pretty good about you guys in just two sessions.

Speaker 5 50:16

Somebody does.

Speaker 3 50:19

Come on, you guys got to feel a little bit better, right?

Speaker 5 50:23

No, it's nice man. It's nice to be able to like seeing our finances on that app is game changing, do that.

Speaker 3 50:30

Yes, Rocket money. If you're listening, I will. I will shill for you for a very low price.

Speaker 4 50:38

It did. Actually, it has a thing where it can negotiate for you with a couple of bills and I got one of them. It got down from $30 a month to $11 a month. I was like I didn't know, it was an option.

Speaker 5 50:56

We saw our subscriptions too. We laid all that out. We got rid of something that we don't use, and then we added another one. That was great to see what we have. That was awesome, man. That was great. It's been great.

Speaker 3 51:13

Yeah, okay. Well, like I said earlier, usually the most impactful part of this process is that, pulling back all the things that you've been sweeping under the rug over the last however long you start to look at those things, but that's what that really helps with. So, but, once again, you guys are doing more more work than most. So, you know, give yourselves credit that you're. You're taking steps, and then you're now also showing other people, hey, this is what you guys can do. So, so, yes, so that's actually going to be our time.

Speaker 3 51:49

Oh man, I got a little bit of a late start, but so, anyways, that's pretty much going to be the show. So, thank you, becky and Rob. We're going to have you guys again. At the very latest we'll do a month, but then maybe we'll see about, you know, in a couple of weeks, just to kind of do a quick check in. And you know we don't have to do like the full hour if you guys don't want to, but you know it is a lot to cover and I really do want to make sure you guys are taken care of. So, all right, well, that's pretty much going to be it. For me, this has been money in the military. Thank you, becky and Rob, and I already forgot your little Yoda dog's name.

Speaker 5 52:28

Leia.

Speaker 3 52:30

Okay, all right. Well, thank you guys again and we will check you guys out and hopefully everyone is going to be just really excited to see what you guys do. All right, thanks guys. I appreciate it and we'll catch you guys later.

Speaker 4 52:46

Bye, see you.

Speaker 2 52:49

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to Military Broadcast Radio as we wrap up today's show. We want to remind you that the podcast of today's episode will be available right after we go off the air. Will be available right after we go off the air. So if you missed any part of the show or want to listen again, be sure to check it out. And remember we're here to support and honor our veterans. Your stories and experiences matter and we are committed to giving you a platform to share them. That's right. We're here to give our veterans a voice, so don't forget to catch the podcast and stay connected with us Giving our veterans a voice.