7 Steps to Financial Health

We use a simple “pruning” story to frame financial health: cut back what’s excess now so you can grow stronger later. Then we walk through seven practical concepts that reduce money stress and help us protect our families while building enough stability to give more. 

• gratitude and humility as the foundation for financial stewardship
• taking care of what we own to avoid replacement costs
• getting on the same page with a spouse and using accountability if single
• talking to kids about money without teaching a scarcity mindset
• building a realistic budget and tracking spending so money has guardrails
• protecting the family with emergency funds, insurance, and basic food storage
• getting out of debt by understanding interest costs and paying balances down faster
• investing early with 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and trustworthy fiduciary guidance
• using financial stability to bless others through tithing, charity, and scholarships

If there’s been anything in this episode that resonated with you, please let us know. Leave us a comment and review. And also share it with someone that you know would benefit from it. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you get notified when we upload new podcasts. And visit our website, Dx2podcast.com.

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Transcript

Sister Catch-Up And Spring Vibes

Debra 0:04

Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each stoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you. Good morning, Deborah. Good morning, Denise. Good to see you today. You too, always. You're all purple. I love it. I am technically burgundy. Burgundy. Yes, and I like to go monochromatic. You want to see under my sweatshirt? I also have a burgundy shirt, and it's my favorite one.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Uh-huh.

Debra 0:53

On a dark desert high desert highway, cool wind in my hair. So part of one of my favorite eagle songs. Yeah. So that's my little inside on my heart, give me cheer. On a gray, gloomy, rainy day.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

It is green and gloomy today. Yeah. It's cool. It's nice. It's it's time.

Pruning Trees As A Life Metaphor

Financial Spoke And Seven Concepts

Gratitude And Stewardship With Money

Debra 1:10

We like it. Yeah. They're about three inches tall. Yep. Daffodils. Crocus. I've crocuses up too. My crocuses haven't popped up yet. All my yellow ones are out there, bright and cheerful. Yeah. That's so pretty. Yeah. Well, let me tell you a story first. Please tell me a story. We like story time. Yes. It's Deb and Denise story time. So it's over the weekend. My husband and I decided it was time to prune our trees. We have several fruit trees, and I learned a few years ago that if you prune them, they will produce much better. Yes. So I learned how to do that. And last year I kind of did it by myself and couldn't get the big old heavy 500-pound ladder out to do the top. So the tops didn't get done. And there's where I told my husband, if you just get the ladder out, I'll that will be enough. But he decided to help me. But it's really hard for him because you're cutting all this stuff out of the tree. Yeah. All these branches and growth. And he's like, it's just gonna die. And it's like, nope, just watch. So my fruit trees are all bare looking. Yeah. But last year when I did it, we got such a better yield of fruit. We prune every year. Yeah, I I I haven't done that. Yeah. I had to learn that lesson. You got you. But I learned it. Yes. But that's why I always have all the fruit to share. That's true. But it's true. To ever with everybody. Just have lots of fruit. But one of the things about pruning the trees, my husband cries about it and he says, The tree is gonna die. And I keep reminding him, the tree is not going to die because you're pruning it. It will actually make it thrive and grow and develop more fruit. It'll grow stronger and be able to handle the load of the fruit as well. Yep. And it reminds me of a story I heard years ago in one of our church conferences about a mulberry bush that got hacked back and it was crying because it was getting hacked back, but it grew back beautifully and strong. And that's kind of like us. We sometimes have to cut things out of our lives to grow, to be stronger and better. That's what I think of every year when I prune the fruit trees. I'm cutting you back, but you're gonna be so happy and so strong and produce such good fruit. So cut out the bad stuff in your life. Or the excess. Excess, yeah. Yeah, or the excess. Things that are not helping your life to be better and improve and grow. Yeah. Nice, nice thought, nice correlation. I'm gonna say I'm a little bit like your husband when it comes to pruning the trees. I know it needs to be done. I'm always telling Tom it's time to prune them. But he has historically done it. We actually paid someone to do it this year. I've had a certified arborist come into my life and I said, Can I hire you? Will you do it right? And she honestly did it very similarly to how Tom has been doing it because he learned from the YouTube how to do it. But I'm always like, no, it's too much. I know it needs to be done, but don't do too much. And it does need to be done to thrive. Yeah. We're like fruit trees. Cut it out, get rid of it, and grow. Yeah. That doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today. But I thought I I don't know, pruning trees to me is is a good metaphor for life. Yeah, it's a life lesson. So, what did you want to talk about today? Well, the spoke of the wheel I want to talk about today is the financial spoke. We've talked a couple of times. So when you say the spoke of the wheel, for for new listeners, this is the wheel of life, which is what we base our entire podcast around every time. So if you haven't listened yet or done our the worksheet, go back to episode four, the wheel of life episode, and it talks all about it. But there are spokes in the wheel, and today we're talking about the finance spoke. Is that what you said? Yes. Okay. So I want to talk about seven concepts for financial health. Oh, this is very timely. Why is it timely? Well, the people are talking about financial stress. Costs have gone up for things, interest rates are up, food costs more, like people need better financial help. Health. Health. Both. Help and help. Yeah. Yes. So one of the things that I think is important is to prepare before the thing happens. So store up mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, education, like store up before the thing happens so that you can take hard times when they come and it's easier for you. Some of this has to do with that. Okay. The first thing that I want to talk about, the first concept, is recognizing that everything we have, we did not earn on our own. And that might be a bold statement, but Yeah. What do you mean? It's uh everything we have is a gift from God. And recognizing that fact helps us to be better with our financial gifts. Okay. So everything is a blessing. And we should be grateful for our blessings. Yeah. We should. Okay. Agree. So because everything comes from God and is a blessing from God, it's important for us to show humility and recognize that. And show gratitude for that. So make sure we tell him we are grateful that we have a job. It's really important. Even if we don't love our job, we're grateful for the way to support the family. You need green coming in. So I guess it's zeros and ones these days. Whatever it might be. But we should be grateful that we have an income. If it's too little, we should be grateful that we have one. If it's a lot, we should be grateful that we have one. If it's just right. So gratitude is huge. And to remember that, as with all blessings from God, we are stewards of our finances. So we're responsible for how it gets used. Used, misused, abused, grown, whatever. We are responsible for that. And we should be good stewards. I think of pride and prejudice when I hear steward now, because Mr. Darcy had a steward. His dad had a steward, and he m he basically ran all of the finances for the Darcy's. And it it's a big deal. Like everything that happened was the steward was responsible for. So it's interesting. That's your correlation, but it's good. So just I don't know. We should take care of what we have. Yes. Even like what we have dollar-wise, but also materially. So like last night I was showing Tom some scratches on our dining cable from something that he had done, and I said, we like to take good care of our things. So be thoughtful about what you're doing and take good care of our things so that we they're in good condition. We don't have to replace them. That's also being a good steward.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yep.

Get Aligned With Your Spouse

Teach Kids Healthy Money Language

Debra 8:51

Take good care of your clothes, mend them, wash them, fold them, put them away, don't just walk on them. Like take care of what you have. Because all of that stuff costs money. Yes, it ultimately comes from money. It comes from hours working. So how many hours did you work to get that dining table to then just treat it like crap, right? So you don't. You take care of it because it costs you hours working to buy it. Or hours working to buy the clothes. Or hours working to buy the stuff. So take take good care of it. There's a hard cost associated. Yeah. I think sometimes we don't think about that, but it's true. Okay, so concept number two is if you're married, get on the same page financially with your spouse. Please, yes. A lot of fight divorces happen because of finances. And it's important to be open and honest about finances with your spouse. Like money can be one of the biggest stressors there is. And if you're not on the same page, it multiplies that stress exponentially. Yes. And if you if you're having stress in your marriage about finances, it it it le bleeds out to every other area of your life. So get on the same page with your spouse. Does it mean you have to agree on everything? No, but you need to be agreed in the direction you're heading. Because you're not going to agree on everything and where the major priorities are. So what are you working for? Are you working for retirement? Are you working to pay off debt? Whatever it is. To build up a savings account. To have enough money for groceries. Like get that stuff figured out together. Together. If you are not married, it's good to have an accountability partner, somebody that you can talk to about it, because two heads are better than one. And sometimes somebody can help you see something a different way that you can adjust in your financial life so that it is better and healthier. Yes, different insights, different perspectives, different approaches. So in the same lines as being on the same page as your spouse, it's okay to make finances a family affair. Yes. At appropriate times and ages. I don't know that it's helpful for children to hear. We can't afford that. Right. We can't afford that. We don't have that much money. It puts it trains them to have a belief of lack. Yeah. There's not enough of things. If you don't have enough for something, you can reword it by saying, you know what, that's not in the budget right now. Or let's save and put, let's save up together. You and me, let's save up together and see how much we can put together to afford that thing or pay for that sport or whatever it is. But it's important for kids to know that mom and dad are not an ATM.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

And you have resources that need to be utilized wisely.

Build A Budget And Track Spending

Debra 12:07

Did you know that on average people gain 15 pounds between Halloween and New Year's? Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's true. That's why headed into the season, I really recommend that people use the fat reduction package from Optimal Health. It breaks free from the cycles of cravings, stalled progress, and it uses science-backed approaches to weight loss. It targets nutrients that work together to help you feel your best while achieving your goals. Sounds good to me. It also helps control your hunger. It has fermented fiber that supports appetite regulation and makes healthy eating easier, which we need during the holidays. It does, but it also blocks fat storage. So it supplements the body to prevent you from storing fat and helping you shed unwanted pounds naturally. Nice. It also helps you boost your metabolism. Lipase, patented chromium, and herbs like berberine. Berberine is all the rage, right? Yep. Helps metabolize fat and sugar for sustained energy. So it's a complete balance of pure protein, essential fats, and carbs that simplifies balanced nutrition while supporting weight management. You can get your fat reduction pack at optimalhealthsystems.com and use the code D times two, that's DX2, to get a great discount. So I do think it's important to make it a family affair. And yes, don't put the, I'm gonna say, financial strains on the kids, but also that verbiage that you use ha is powerful for you too. True. To think of how can I afford this, not I can't afford this, or how can I make this happen? How make a plan for it rather than I can't. And give up. And give up. Yeah. It shifts your mentality and the whole approach and opens up possibilities rather than just literally damning progress and shutting it down. Find a way through. Yeah. But you can do that as a family. Like I've heard stories. I've heard stories of families that wanted to save up for a vacation. And so the parents talked to the kids about how much it would cost. And the kids each did side jobs, babysitting, mowing somebody's grass or whatever, and they all helped pitch in so they could pay for this family vacation. And how cool is it for that to happen? And the kids feel like they contributed, not that they're just going on vacation and they expect mom and dad to pay for everything. And then they're not really that grateful and they complain about the time they had. But if they contributed to it, they have skin in the game. You said you've heard about that. Did you know we did that? Oh, yes. So we used to have that five-gallon water bottle in the entryway, and we would all put our change in there. And all of that got cashed in to help fund a vacation. I like, I don't know if it funded the whole thing or a portion of it. I don't know, right? We were kids. We didn't have to do that. But we all contributed. And that all went to the vacation that we took. I do remember that. Yeah. That was fun. That was. Going back to that, everybody be on the same page, it's it is important to talk to your kids about finances and teach them how to manage finances. We actually did an episode on finances, and Trevor talked to us about how his parents taught him to handle money. It's like the Dave Ramsey plan. And he thought that's he just thought that's how you how you live. How you live. It's the only way. And he adapted that as he moved away from the house and got married. But like that was an interesting episode, if you want to go back and listen to that one. Yeah, he talks all about that, and we have some resources for setting up your own budget and how to run your finances in that episode. So that's what we're going to talk about next. Concept number four is create a budget. Yes. And Trevor gave us a fantastic money tracking spreadsheet that is available on our website. If you go to the website, deeptimes2podcast.com, and go under freebies. It's under there in our resources. I think it's$14. I I was going to say I don't think it's a freebie. It's there's a little bit there's a little bit of a oh yeah, there's a cost associated, but it's very low dollar. It's worth a whole bunch more than that. And then his master class also is available. Yeah. If you want in-depth training on that. But it's it's a really good, it's a really good money tracker. So create a budget, set realistic goals. So there are fixed things like a mortgage or rent, utilities you can get equalized. Yeah. Yeah so that they're the same every month and it's not up and down through the spring, summer, winter, and fall. Car payment is always the same. But there are things that are flexible. So get your fixed payments down first and then all of the other things and make it work. Be realistic in your budget. And work within the money that you earn.

unknown 17:23

Yeah.

Protect Your Family With Savings

Debra 17:24

I mean, you would think that that would make that would be how you'd plan a budget, but yeah, the credit card isn't part of your budget. It's not part of your income. No. So work with your income and set a budget that works within that. Yeah. Don't spend above what you earn. No. Ever. Period. So it it's it's a lot easier to stay ahead of the game than to play catch-up. A hundred percent. Create a budget. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It helps you to know where your money is going. It gives you the guardrails. Yeah, they're great guardrails. It's not strict, it's just guardrails. It's like the Ten Commandments. They're not strict, they're just guardrails. Yeah. So use them. Use them. What's next? Wait, before we move on to the next one, you know we used to balance our checkbooks. Yes. Some people still do that. That's like with the actual checkbook. Yeah. Not just with their bank statement. Yeah. So you'd write down everything you spent, every check you wrote, every uh cash you spent, you'd write it in in your register, in your checkbook. It was this paper thing. And we just you could go back for years and look at what you spent your money on. And it's important to to do that, to track it and to see where things are going. Because you might think you don't spend a whole lot of money on eating out or on entertainment. But if you actually track it, you will see exactly what you're doing. And then you can make adjustments and use your budget to your advantage. Yeah. So these days we use your bank statement or your debit card daily transactions to keep track. Or Trevor's magic money. Well, that's where that goes from to. Yeah. It really is a good money tracker. He he spent a lot of time and he's fine-tuned it and trained changed it. Anyways, so use that resource. Number four. Concept number four is to protect your family. Have you ever thought about that in your finances? Protecting your family. Yes. So what do you guys do before I get into more? What do you guys do to protect yourselves? So we always make sure we have savings set aside. So and specifically an emergency fund for emergencies. We also have an automotive emergency fund set aside. Oh, that's a good thing. Separate from the other one because car stuff happens. It does. And it will quickly completely drain an emergency fund.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yes, it will.

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Debra 20:06

So we do separate. We also have, I'm going to say a longer-term emergency fund that's a higher dollar amount that's in a high yield savings account. So the basic ones just live on our regular bank. Okay. But the other lives in a high yield savings account. And that is like generally it's going to be a three to six month savings for your fixed hard expenses. So if everything falls through, you can live off of that for that period of time. Perfect. Yeah. That's great. That's mostly what I was going to tell. So you're going to tell us to do? Uh-huh. Okay, good. So have an emergency fund. One to two thousand, not one dollar. One thousand to two thousand dollars-ish. Yeah. Are is a good place to start. It's it's good for most car emergencies, some health emergencies, like it's it's it's good. It's not an emergency that you need new shoes. No, that's never it's not an emergency, that's what we want. We did an episode on wants and needs. I was gonna say, unless you're still in the young child rearing ages, and then sometimes they just need new shoes. Yes, but that's part of the budget. Yes, it should be. It's not an emergency. Clothing for children is part of the budget because they grow. It's not unexpected. Yeah. Emergencies are unexpected. Yeah. And in addition to that, save a portion of your income. So growing up, we learned pay 10% tithing, put 10% towards saving, and then the rest is for spending. So it doesn't matter what that percentage is, just get a percentage and save that on a regular basis. You can do an automatic draft from your checking and put to your savings automatically every month. You don't even have to even have to think about it. That's how it should be, because if you have to think About it, you're less likely to do it. Right. You'll find a reason not to do it. So put it in your budget and make it an automatic draft. Like my health insurance, it's an automatic draft. If I had to write that checkout every month, I would be griping and groaning. So just make it automatic. So you said it doesn't matter what the percentage is. And I just was gonna say, I remember one time I was talking to someone who I'm gonna say he was in his late 40s and was completely financially set for life. He still worked full-time, but he didn't have to work. He didn't need to work in any way. Because in his earlier years when he was single, he did a 10% tithe, 50% to savings. Wow. And lived off of the 40%. And I was like, I could have done that. Like it never crossed my mind because we were taught 10% here, 10% there. You can vary it. And when you have less, I'm gonna say responsibilities, that percentage can be high and it can really set you up for your future. That's true. Yeah. So the percentage doesn't matter. You can work. You can work on whatever number you you you decide, how high or how low. Yeah. But that's up to you. And it's not to play with, it's to protect yourself and your family. So set some aside. I want to talk to you about my ice cream I have almost every night for dessert. I started making it about six months ago with some of my very favorite protein powder. It's from Equip Foods Prime Protein, and it's one of the safest, cleanest doctor-formulated protein powders that helps to build muscle and tread fat that won't leave you gassy or bloated. That's one of the problems I have with other kinds of proteins. Anyway, it's 100% grass-fed and finished. I make my protein out of their chocolate and their peanut butter. So it's my amazing peanut butter chocolate protein ice cream. It helps me meet my protein goals and taste amazing. To get a nice discount, go to equipfoods.com slash DX2 to get 30% off of a subscription order or a nice 15% discount off of a one-time order. You'll love it. The other thing you need to do to protect your family is insurance. So you need to have health insurance. Health costs bankrupt people every single year. Yep. Because you don't have health insurance. Health insurance costs a lot. And no health insurance also costs a lot. Yes. So pick your a lot. So get some health insurance, even if it's a high deductible, just pick something. The other kind of insurance you should have is life insurance. Because you never know. And you don't want to leave your family in alert because you didn't anticipate you were going to die. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. We are all going to die. Yeah. And that's something that my husband has been really good about in his professional life is to have life insurance. He was the provider, is he is the provider for our family. So he always had health insurance. So if he died, I wouldn't have to freak out about the family would still be protected. Anything, yeah. So life insurance. And then also disability insurance. Disability insurance is not very expensive. And it can help save you if you have something happen that you're not planning on, that's not you're not dying, you're not dead, but you're unable to work for a while, disability insurance can fill in those gaps. Yep. Same thing with car insurance. Get car insurance. Yep. You never know. You need car insurance to help pay for that expense. Don't leave your family in a lurch because you didn't plan on that. So those are all just protections for your family. Gives you peace of mind. Yes. And as a as a woman that stayed home with the kids, these things I'm talking to you about helped give me peace of mind. Like it helped me have peace of mind that we had an emergency fund. That if something happened that I didn't have to stress about it, we could take care of it. If something happened to my husband, we didn't have to stress about it, we could take care of it. So it is all about protecting your family. And one thing that has a little bit to do with money, but more about to do with just preparing is have some food insurance. Yes. So have some stored food that you can have. If it's canned gamble soup, it's something to eat. It's a bag of dry beans. Yep. Or some pasta or some spaghetti sauce or something. Like have some emergency food that you can break out if you're out of a job. Or if there's some kind of world event that closes down the grocery store. So if I was going to say things literally happen. Like we saw it during COVID where you couldn't pay to get toilet paper. Right. Like there were things that you just couldn't get. And like we've seen it with natural disasters, where all of a sudden there is no access to anything. Hurricanes coming and all the shells are bare.

unknown 27:20

Yeah.

Get Out Of Debt Faster

Debra 27:20

Well, have it before the shells are bare. Yeah. It will give you peace of mind. And I think the easiest way to do that is to just get a little extra every time you do your grocery shopping. And every once in a while, like we run the paychecks in our house. They're every two weeks, but I think of it about twice a month. And every year there's a couple of months where an extra two weeks will land. So there's literally an extra paycheck. That goes to this security, whether it's food or savings or whatever, it gets set aside because it's not part of the norm. The norm. Yeah. And during different times of the year, different things are on sale. Yep. So stock up when they're on sale. Food insurance. It will give you peace of mind in hard times. Prepare before it happens. Yes. Okay. Concept number five is getting out of debt. And I think it's important to ask ourselves how much does debt actually cost you? Because interest never sleeps. Never ever sleeps. And there's always interest on debt. Always. And it's high, right? So credit card debt is 20-ish percent. Uh depending on your your card. Your credit score. It can be 15%, it can be 35%. So your average is 20%. Yeah, the average is 20%. 20-ish. Yeah. So how much is your debt actually costing you? There are all kinds of online calculators that you can do to see if you just make the payment, how long is it going to take you to pay off your card, your credit card? And if you just make the minimum payment, you're going to be paying on it for like 50 years. So don't do that. Don't do that. Work it into your budget to make extra payments on one debt and get that down to zero and then roll that over to your next debt, like a snowball. Just make it bigger and bigger until you can get your debts paid off. What are some good things? What are some okay things to go into debt for? To me, there are three. The home? Yep. Transportation. Reasonable transportation. Reasonable, not fancy. That's my caveat on transportation. It can be a 20-year-old car. Yep. If that's what you can afford. Number three? Education for sure. Yeah. We're on the same page. Yep. No, I think that those are, and I I don't want to brag or anything here. I never no, that's not true. I was gonna say I never went into debt for education ever. I always paid my way. But there was one semester when I was in chiropractic college. I did. And I paid on that student loan for way longer than I ever would have thought. Your one semester cost you five semesters, didn't it? Yes. Like it it just lags. But it's a worthwhile thing to go into debt for. Just don't go beyond what you need to. You don't have to go to an Ivy League college. And you don't need to get a degree in something that's not actually practical to use in real life. You can go to a trade school that's not they're not expensive. You can go to a state school, they're not expensive. Like you don't have to go to the most expensive school because in the end, it doesn't matter. It does not matter. So get a reasonable, affordable education and work hard. Work hard to pay for it, work hard for your grades. So you can get scholarships. There are a bunch of scholarships you can get for all kinds of things. And grants. And grants. Like just apply for things. My son has done that in his schooling. He's applied for scholarships from engineering companies, and he's gotten them and it's paid for half of his tuition. Like that's fantastic. Amazing. So apply for scholarships. So we you said you, we said the three things that are like legitimate reasons to go into debt are home, car. You said reasonable car. I'm gonna say reasonable home as well. Yes. Like don't go beyond your means. Yes, there's always a dream home, but there's also a starter home.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Yeah, there's a starter home.

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Debra 31:41

Keep perspective in mind and know that your first house isn't your forever house. Your second house probably also isn't your forever house. There's probably gonna be other homes involved and start with where you should, not with what the dream is. So there's a term called house poor. It applies to being car poor and education poorer. Like do what you can afford and not the max that you can afford, right? Don't go in to a lender and say, I can afford this amount of payment because they're gonna push that above that payment. They're gonna push it above that. And then there's always gonna be home repair and maintenance. There's always gonna be car repair and maintenance. So don't spend the max because then you're overextended when those repairs come along. Yeah. So a good-ish number to have for home loan, like for your home your house payment with your insurance and escrow and everything else, is about 20 to 25% of your income. Gross. But that's up to you. Gross. I would say net because that's what you actually get to take home and spend. So I would say net. So look at what you actually can afford and then go just a little bit less. And put some aside for that maintenance and repairs. Because your roof is going to need to be repaired. Your hot water heater is going to need to be replaced. So dude, we with within six months of when we bought our house that we're in now, we replaced the we had to had to replace the water heater. We had to replace the garage door. Straight out the gate. And we're still buying furniture. Yeah. So like there's ex there's associated costs. It's not just I'm buying a house. That house payment will be the lowest you ever pay per month for your house. Yep. Reasonable, reasonable home, reasonable education, reasonable car, and pay attention to how much your debt is actually costing you. And how you can pay it off as fast as possible. Never beat a dead horse. That saying has been around for a long time for a reason. People that are drinking energy drinks all day long just to stay functional, that's what they're doing. They are beating themselves up like they were a dead horse. We gotta stop doing that. The only energy drink that I recommend to my clients is update. It's clean energy without caffeine, so you don't have jitters and chaos and like the problems that caffeine causes in the body. And it also helps to give you focus and a clear mind. It's really the one I use and the one I recommend. To get a discount off of your order, go to drinkupdate.com and use the code DX2. That's D times two. That's us. So drinkupdate.com and then the code for your discount is DX2. Okay, concept number six is invest for the future. Yes. So there's a difference between investing and saving. Our concept number four was saving. This is about investing. This is about taking your dollars and making them grow. Interest never sleeps, besides but interest never sleeps on your investments either. Yeah. So it's a good, good win there on that side. That sword cuts both ways. Yes. We wanted to cut the growth way, your growth way. Invest as early as possible. As much as possible. So if you have children or grandchildren, did you know that you can open a Roth IRA and put money in it, tax free to put it in. It's pre-tax when you put it in. It will grow, and when they take it out, it is tax-free when they take it out.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Did you know that?

Debra 35:31

I did know that. Like you could put$1,000 in a Roth account for a child or a grandchild.$1,000 a year by the time they're 20, they'll have enough to pay cash for their education, pay cash for a car, nice down payment on a house, they will be set nicely. Because of that magic of the interest cutting the right way. Yep. So that's for your kids. For you, since you're an adult. I'm assuming you're an adult if you're listening to us. Odds are. Odds are you didn't have someone put in money for a new Roth IRA when you were two. So take it if you work for a company that offers a 401kline, take advantage of it. Yep. They will usually match up to a certain percentage, 7% or 10%, or 3%. Or 3%. It varies. But take full advantage of that match, put in at least that much so you get the full match from your employer, because that's free money. Yeah, that's that's money they're putting in for you. Yeah. So if you look at the 10% that we said at the beginning, save 10%. So invest 10%. If you yourself invest 10%, whatever your employer matches, whether it's three or five or ten or whatever, that that increases your retirement savings exponentially. Exponentially. So take advantage of that.

unknown 36:55

Yeah.

Debra 36:56

If your employer does not offer a 401k, did you know that you can open your own?

unknown 37:02

Yeah.

Choose Fiduciaries And Avoid Fees

Give More Through Financial Stability

Debra 37:02

And you can have your own 401k or Roth IRA and grow your own retirement account. And it's tax deductible. Yeah. It's not pre-taxed dollars, but it's fully tax deductible up to certain amounts. Yeah, up to a certain amount. It's more if you're married, less if you're single. So I would talk to a CPA about that and see how you can tap into that and start saving. Even if you have a 401k, you can also open a Roth IRA. Yeah. So those are things to look at to increase and boost your investing for the future. So that's one of the things we've talked about in the past is like having goals. Okay. And there's short-term goals, mid-range goals, and long-term goals. And sometimes it's difficult to keep those long-range goals in mind. So when you're investing, that's kind of a longer range goal. And it just may seem like I'm giving my money away, I'm putting it away, I never get to use it. But you do get to use it. And it's to your advantage. My husband watches that number all the time. I was gonna say, I think it's exciting to watch that. He watches it go up and up, and when it goes down, he gets all mad. Then when it goes back up, he's all happy. But we know that when he reaches a certain age, he can quit working. Yeah and we will be fine. Have enough money. Like that's something that you look forward to. Yeah. So don't put it off. Even if you're in your 20s, don't put it off. Start start in your 20s. Oh my gosh. Just no. Yes. If you put$1,000 a year in either a gross stock mutual fund or a stock index fund, those will grow. Yes. You don't have to do anything with them. They will grow. They will automatically grow. Those are safer, easier, long-term retirement, income, investment funds. Those are good things to use. So I would talk to a reputable investment firm. Make sure they're a fiduciary because not a financial advisor with no credentials, an investment firm. Yes. If they are a fiduciary, that means that they have your best interest in mind. They want to see your investments grow because then they get paid more. Some places will move you from stock to stock or fund to fund because every time they do they get a commission. And it's better for them, not necessarily better for you. Make sure that they are a fiduciary. It matters. It matters. It matters. Don't just go putting your money in with your best friend's brother's cousin because they're your best friend's brother's cousin. Make sure that they have all of the credentials that they need to be a safe place to work with. Okay, number seven. This is the one that I look forward to. Okay. So number seven brings us back to the beginning. We want to live our lives, get out of debt as fast as we can, and have good investments so that we can give to others and bless others. Back at the beginning, we talked about how everything we have is a blessing from God. And if we are good stewards and take good care of it, it will grow. Even if it grows just a little bit, it's gonna grow and we can give and bless others. Which really is kind of the point of life. It's not to buy all the fancy things we want because it's not really gonna make you happy. No. But could you imagine being able to help others set up a scholarship fund or something to help kids get to school? Yeah, see for school. Tom and I have talked about that a lot. And we that's one of the things we would love to do is set up scholarship funds for trade schools, for colleges, like different things for different avenues that young deserving people. They just need some help sometimes. Yeah. Just help them get a leg up. Yeah. The people in the middle, the kids in the middle, don't have opportunity for a lot of scholarships because their parents make too much money or and they don't qualify for grants. Yeah. So scholarships are anyways. That's one of my dreams, set up a big old scholarship fund for different things. Another way to bless others besides scholarships is tithing. So tithing is you being able to give back to God part of what he gave you in the first place. So if you belong to a church, then I would encourage you to tithe. If you don't belong to a church, I encourage you to find a good one. But if you don't, then find a really good, reputable, charitable fund. There are many of them. But you can tithe to. Yeah. That you can tithe and bless people. And they don't know it comes from you, but you know you gave and it gives you a sense of fulfillment and that you don't find from buying all the things. Yeah. That's sweet satisfaction. That's the last one. Give and serve others. When we put ourselves in a good, stable financial place, then God can use us to bless others. Yeah. And that takes you back to gratitude. Like you're grateful for what you have and you're grateful that you're able to serve and bless others. Be a beautiful blessing to the people on this planet who need help. Yeah. Can I give you an interesting study that was done about that? So there were there was a massive study that was done. I'm sorry, I don't have any resources or citations to give to you, but it was literally proven that people in lower socioeconomic stations contribute a higher percentage of their means to charity and to others. And I think it's so interesting because when you are more in a place of lack and want and need, you see that more in others and you want to help more. At least that's what it seemed like the study proved. Whereas the further you kind of get away from that, the more you're mentally away from it. But it's also if you're giving the same kind of percentage, it's a lot more dollars. So you're very aware of that going out. But I think it's like be humble, be grateful, and be giving. For sure. Yeah. And if you don't have very much money, it's okay. You can still give. Sometimes you're giving time. Yes. Sometimes your tithing is time. Yep. Sometimes you're giving things in your home that you no longer use, and you can give them to a charity. The important thing is to realize everything does come from God. And we are humble. And we are grateful, we are more willing to share. And there are poor people that are willing to share. There are rich people that are willing to share. There are poor people that hold on to everything they have and rich people that hold on to everything they have. Be a person that is willing to give.

unknown 44:16

Yeah.

Listener Call To Action And Resources

Closing Disclaimer And Goodbye

Debra 44:16

And bless others. Beautiful. Okay. If there's been anything in this episode that resonated with you, please let us know. Leave us a comment and review. And also share it with someone that you know would benefit from it. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you get notified when we upload new podcasts. And visit our website, dtimes2podcast.com. We have resources on there that are free. Yeah, free resources and then discount codes also for the things that we love. Yeah, so that you guys can get better deals. Yeah. Yeah. And seriously go on there and check out the money tracker that Trevor, good Trevor put together and shared with us so that we can share with you. There's a tracker on there. And then if you want to learn how to use it really well, there's a masterclass there for you to use it. And until next time. Keep your wheel rolling smooth. We'll see ya. Bye. Thanks for listening to the D Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us. And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.