spk_1:   0:00
welcome to the prosperity gap where we discuss the financial gap that exists between where we are and where we should be. It's time to bridge that gap a prosperity nation Welcome back to another episode of the prosperity. Yeah, my name's staple. I am the prosperity guy So excited that be here to helpyou bridge the gap between the life that you're currently living and the one that you should be This is a crazy time. This is a crazy week You're getting me coming from my home again For my studio here, unfortunately, is not quite as design quite as nice as the one that we have in the office. Acoustics aren't quite the same, but we're still here to bring you great information to help make sure that you're able to deal with your finances as we go through this crazy time. Well, for those of you that have not yet had a chance to subscribe to our show, please make sure that you do so we want to make sure that every Friday we can bring you information into your inbox into your mobile device, wherever it is that you're getting the subscription that it can come to you so you can listen to not only the content. We haven't meet the amazing guests. We have a show. Today's show is being brought to you by E trends tax and accounting. If you've not yet had a chance to file your tax return or if you are looking for help with the various stimulus packages that are out there, please reach out to them. You go to see trends group dotcom, get the contact information you need, and they're here to help you. I'm excited about today's show. We're gonna take a little different spin because we are in little different times. We've actually brought a personal financial coach on the show with us today to talk about things we can do as we go through this crazy time that we're dealing with in the financial changes, You can make a better improve your life and to survive during these crazy times. So with that Kindle, very welcome to the show.

spk_0:   1:49
Hey, Dave, how you doing?

spk_1:   1:51
I'm doing great. It's great to have you with us today.

spk_0:   1:54
Yes, thank you so much for having me.

spk_1:   1:56
So generally, when we do this show, we usually take maybe 10 minutes going through talking about people's back story today. I'd like to spend most of our time actually talking about things people can do to help themselves during this time. But maybe with that, if you could begin, just give us a quick background of we got you to this point, how you got into financial coaching. And then we'll go into the tips that are really going to help our listeners.

spk_0:   2:21
That sounds perfect, Dave. Well, the background to my financial little journey is Ah, few years ago I was a young married couple with my husband, and I realized that we had quite a bit of debt. We had $53,000 worth of card, a student loans and credit cards, and we realized that even though we had really good income, we had nothing to show for it because we were going out. We were spending lots of our money, and we just weren't making very wise decisions around that time. I realized that I was really unhappy at my job, and there was no possible way for me to stay home someday with other Children. So we decided that we really needed to do something to figure out our financial situation. So we worked on changing our habits. We got on a budget, got on a plan to pay off our debt and paid off $53,000 worth of debt. And then we saved our six months emergency funds and a duck point. I was able to leave my job, which was an incredible gift, But I realized after a few months of being home that I really wanted to do something with my time and the thing that really brought me joy was helping other people have the stains financial freedom that we were enjoying. So that's when I decided to take a course to become a financial coach and start my own business, helping other people learn to manage their money more wisely and change their spending habits. And so I've been really enjoying that doing it for about a year and 1/2 and last year was an awesome here. My clients paid off a little over $318,000 or some debt, and so I was just thrilled to be part of their their financial journeys.

spk_1:   4:06
That's great, and I appreciate you sick sharing this story because it's very important that our listeners understand. Not only do we have it a book educated financial planner, but we've also got a life educated. We've got someone that's practicing what they preach that's able to apply the principles we're going to talk about today. That's what we find ourselves in a very unique time. We find ourselves in a situation where unemployment's skyrocketing, many people are having to be home. Things were changing in their abilities to only make money, But the way they spend money, let's start there. Maybe Kendall talking about some basic things people can do during this time to help them. Whether the financial storm that we're facing here,

spk_0:   4:45
yeah, so the first day I want to say is that I really want people to give themselves grace. We can talk a lot about the shades and what we should be doing there in this time, But I think we need to first acknowledge that this is something that none of us have been through before and that it's very stressful, very concerning time. So everyone needs to just be gentle with themselves. There's no one way to be feeling about this. There's no one right way to be handling this emotionally. And so some people are going to be more on the ends of like, high achieving with their anxiety and wanting to do a lot of things. And other people are going to be needing to just expend most of their energy just to continue surviving. So that would be my first little bit of advice. But as faras what we could be doing right now during this time, because we're in a storm, I have eight things that we could be doing. So the first is, of course, to remain calm. It can be really easy when we're watching the news or seen the stock market go up and down that we want to panic and make some rash decisions. And so my biggest piece of advice there is just tow. Ride things out. Don't make any rash decisions when it comes to your your retirement or your your investments.

spk_1:   6:06
So you talk about staying calm here. I know that's one of the issues inside our home. They were facing little bit. My wife suffered from depression for a number of years, and this has become somewhat overwhelming to her and I know for her she's actually had to turn off the news. Basically, whatever information she's getting is coming through me in a dumb down. Not necessarily even dumb down but a filtered approach toe where I know she can handle what I'm going to share with her. And it just doesn't put her in a panic. Are you seeing this with other people? And that we do have to be very careful spending our day watching the news?

spk_0:   6:42
Yes. And And I find this in even for myself that I when I feel more anxious and stressed, and when I hear negative things over and over and over again, it can paralyze me or cause me to panic. And so you know, we all know what's going on right now. Yes, things are changing every day, but the basics of stay at home wash your hands, et cetera. Those things aren't changing, so I I would agree with you that turning off the news, especially if it's a trigger for you for anxiety, depression and and stress is a good, good plan. And then, you know, relying on each other toe to get that news that we we need

spk_1:   7:22
can know. What's number two? So what's number two on your list?

spk_0:   7:25
So reducing expenses now, thankfully, during this, uh, stay at home order that were under, at least here in Pennsylvania, we're not going out to do a whole lot of things, but that doesn't mean that expenses aren't going to creep in. I I ask people to think about. They're spending triggers right now. So often we can be triggered to spend when we are frustrated, stressed board. And so we need to be thinking about doing things like taking the shopping axe off our phone and really going back to our budget to see what is necessary during this time for so many people who are facing job lost, start cutting back your expenses to just the basics. Now an anticipation for when you're really gonna have to be living that

spk_1:   8:15
I know. I've seen a big time in our family. Amazon used to show up every day to my house, and they haven't been here for a week. So if it's gotta have helped our budget, it's got helped us save money. But it really, as you say, is so important that people start cutting back and realizing to weather. Money's going now, unfortunately, Prosperity Nation, some of your largest expenses are gonna be your home in your car things, so you're probably not gonna be able to get rid up. But if you can cut these other costs and understand what they are, it can really help you when you have uncertainty about the amount of income you've got coming.

spk_0:   8:48
Yes, that is the Four walls approach. So four whiles our housing transportation sued and utilities and those air. The main things that you need to be focusing on during this time and everything else is kind of It's not the absolute necessity right now. So, you know, make sure your four walls are covered and then make a list of the next important things that you need to cover with your income but cut back as much as possible.

spk_1:   9:14
Absolutely. So what's number three?

spk_0:   9:17
Number three is increased your emergency funds. Now we're in the middle of an emergency, so you may already be tapping into your emergency funds, but we've got tax returns coming back. We've got a potential stimulus check that could be coming in, and so every extra dollar that you can eat out of your your budget by cutting back your expenses or by using any extra income that's coming in. Should be going to your emergency fund. We don't know yet how long this is gonna last, and the more you have in savings, the more secure going to be. Hey, I'd rather have Maurin savings now and that nine months from now be able to put some of that towards extra house payments or something else. But better to have it on hand.

spk_1:   10:01
This is one of my top recommendations to people and is a C p. A. Obviously, I'm a first hand person to see what happens to the money. You know, typically, we get these large factory funds or individuals do, especially they're getting earned income credits and other things. They go out and immediately start buying assets. My new furniture by big screen TV spend it on things that are not providing long term value, necessarily. And I agree with you 100%. Kendall is if you're getting money that you don't need, you need to put it aside for the future, because if you think this is the only pandemic we're gonna experience in our lifetimes. If you think that it can't get worse, Why I hate this isn't about depression and trying to get you discourage, but we have many things ahead. And if we're prepared, we don't have to worry. We don't have to have fear because we put stuff away. So if you are able to put these extra funds in it, some type of an account, 100% agree with Kendall. Let's get him in there and have him for a future rainy day. That may be much worse than over facing now.

spk_0:   10:57
Absolutely so. It's hard to picture anything that's worse.

spk_1:   11:01
Yeah, definitely is, especially for those that are going through the hardest part of it that have lost their jobs. I have no income business owners, and we have thousands of business owners that we work with, and we're seeing many of them have everything they've worked their whole lives for. Taken away from them in an instant. Now there are a number of programs with business owners that they can get access to. I mean, for some of my clients I got when my clients is gonna get almost a $1,000,000 I paid to help his business well, it's a that's very desperately needed aid that he needs to be able to apply the keepers with ways working. But there are programs, and if you're a business owner listening to this, make sure you understand what those programs are because there may be money available to you that you're not aware.

spk_0:   11:42
That's good advice, Steve.

spk_1:   11:43
So what about number four?

spk_0:   11:46
Number four is stocked up on essentials. Now I know there's also some jokes out there about stocking up on toilet paper, but I have to say, I think a little bit of our emotional peace and security during this time is knowing that we have enough and so use some. Put aside some money in your budget to go and stock up on some extra things that you know you're gonna need because we don't know what could happen if we end up getting sick and were not able to get out to the store or if we lose our jobs. It's always a great idea to stock up on food, water and medicine to have just in case you need it. So I would definitely recommend using some of the money in your budget to stock up on some things he might need.

spk_1:   12:29
And there's a lot of calculators out there where you can calculate how much you need. You know, for us we already have a bunch of toilet paper. Our family's been putting stuff aside for a long time. It's been something our churches, sawdust for years and years since I was a little kid. So we've had these stockpiles of stop. It was interesting and toilet paper. My daughter did calculation. And even with what we had, we had a three month supply. It was really not a need for us to go get Maur. So why should we go out to the problems existing out there? And you could do calculations on that? Your food really look and see the amount of food that you need to live isn't necessarily as much as you might think it is that if you get down and start eating some of the stuff in the coverage that maybe you haven't for a long period of time, our families actually done that recently because we're in the process of movie here within the next few months. So he said, Hey, let's just start eating down a lot of our food, but we went almost a month without even buying anything because we had so much of a stock up in the cupboards, and many times you just don't realize what's there. And if you'll do the math in the background, figured out. So Number five. Let's go to number five.

spk_0:   13:32
Number five is keep cash on hand. So we're so much of, ah, techie society. I don't typically carry cash with me. I don't typically have cash on me, but we don't know how things will play out. I'm not into, like, injecting fear into any sort of situation, but I do think that having cash on hand is always a good eye idea. So we have a safe, a little black box and you've got some cash and they're So if something happened and we couldn't get to the bank or our debit card wasn't working, we could still use cash to pay for things

spk_1:   14:09
such great advice. We don't realize how quickly things can change. I saw it in Puerto Rico because we were in a situation a couple years ago when the hurricane happened, that we could not get access to these Elektronik forms of money, and it was very important for us to have cash in many places. Even if we could. Many of the places would not accept the electronic forms of payment, so you had to pay in cash and during that period time and went through thousands of dollars because everything we had to buy for almost a two month period of time to almost three months was all cash. So very important to have that now we don't expect that during this pandemic we don't expect the systems to go down to that level. But it is such wise advice because it can't happen. We've experienced are absolutely number six.

spk_0:   14:56
Number six is gather your important documents and have them ready. So it's like, always a great idea to have gone to a fireproof box that has all of your important papers, your passports, all of that. But right now I would even say, Go in and have a list of all your passwords, your 401 K information, your banking information, all of that in a place where you can find it easily. It's needed. You're will's know where they are so keep that important information

spk_1:   15:29
and something that you don't realize how important is either until you go through one of these situations and its unique for me because I've already lived through something very similar in the sense of completely destroying the economy. Puerto Rico completely making it where we couldn't get these things. And it is important that you have those documents available. That other thing you've got to realize we're not just dealing with the pandemic now we're dealing with tornadoes were dealing with earthquakes there, Supposedly this year is gonna be one of the highest possible years for having a hurricane, especially out in the Atlantic Ocean. They expect that there's like, a 95% chance that at least one of them will hit the U. S. Mainland. So we've got all these things that were going on with Mother Nature that can affect us, that we just need to prepare ourselves for absolutely. Number seven,

spk_0:   16:16
Number seven in You know, your company's policies on sick days, vacation time, unpaid leave and working from home. You've probably had these conversations already by this point, but knowing how much you have for sick leave, how long we're gonna be paid for vacation time and just know what your company's policies air on all of this. And I kind of said one of the other points as well, which was no, your health insurance coverage, which is important right now. What are the co pays? What does your insurance cover it?

spk_1:   16:51
But I think it's important that you understand what your rights are, too. I know I've had a few people call me that are saying my employer is doing this to me and like cutting their our substantially. It's like like I'm only working maybe two days a week where I was working five days before. What are the rights that I have so I can actually build that gap? I'm in a situation. I've got to fill that gap. I can't afford to live off of just two days a week. So I agree. In addition to knowing your company policy and talking to your HR department, making sure that you understand what they're doing understanding to what your rights are that if they're making adjustments to your compensation, if they're making adjustments, your workload, do you understand what benefits are gonna be available to you? through state and federal governments to help you, whether this storm and get through it.

spk_0:   17:35
Yeah, absolutely.

spk_1:   17:37
Okay, so, Kendall, later, let's go to number eight, the last and Final one.

spk_0:   17:41
Great. So my last piece of advice is to create an emergency action plan with your family so that everybody knows what the plan is. If something becomes a bit more of an emergency for your family, that includes being able to communicate with everybody sitting down and talking about the situation that we're in. Of course, being aware of the different ages of the people in your family and the kind of information that they can process right now but letting everybody know, Hey, this is our plan if an emergency happens but also we might be in this situation for a while and we're going to be cutting back on expenses and the things that we're doing and just make sure that everybody's on the same page so that you can get through this together.

spk_1:   18:26
Such great advice, something that's not often talked about in the financial world. But it's getting yourself prepared having a plan. I mean, we talk a lot about financial planning. You need to make sure you have life plans and write and how Prosperity Nation is such a great time to do it, because for many of you you have tons of free time. Now you are filling it up with Netflix and watching the Tiger King with the rest of world. Maybe, but you want that drama in your life may be watching the news, but now is it ray time to do it? I know many of my guy friends Ask them what they're doing in their spare time like I'm doing Honey do jobs that I was supposed to have done years ago, that I just not a time for now. I have the time I'm getting them done and establish those plans. Spend the time with the life of kids or the husband and kids or whatever your family situation is. Spend time together. What a great opportunity to make sure you're all on the same page or prepare and that you're getting feedback from your family on things that could be done different to help you. Whether through this, it's not about one person having all the ideas and giving the direction. It's about people working together to find solutions to the problem.

spk_0:   19:28
Totally agree.

spk_1:   19:30
So, Kendall, for those of our listeners that want to get a hold of you and to follow what you're doing to maybe look into getting some individual coaching I know you do a lot of coaching online. How can they do that is the best way for them

spk_0:   19:43
S So if you're on Instagram, you can follow me at Berries on a budget. You can also look me up on my website, which is www dot very personal finance dot com.

spk_1:   19:57
That's B o R R Y correct?

spk_0:   19:59
Yes, like the freight.

spk_1:   20:01
Okay, just want to make sure those listeners you get a correct. I know that there's many ways sometimes that people will spell these things, but yeah, take the opportunity to follow her. You've got some great pose, great information. You gotta be need additional coaching, a great opportunity for you to set with someone where they can help direct you through this time. One of the last things that I would like to comment on is just making sure that you have a budget together and you understand your finance. We talk about up making sure we understand our expenses. But you want to be planning out. How long can I last? I'm out of work. How long can I last before? I have a real problem. It's very important that you know this because it could help you plan? Yes. There's government stimulus packages. Yes, there's checks that are gonna come to most of America. But you need to understand how you're going to get to the points until they come. Or unemployment comes with these other things. How you're going to get to that point. The more knowledge you have, the better prepared. You gonna be absolutely well, Kendall, thank you so much for being on our show today.

spk_0:   21:01
Yeah, Thank you so much for having me days.

spk_1:   21:04
Prosperity Nation. You have been listening The prosperity gap. My name's day, Paul. If you've not yet had a chance to subscribe our show, please do so bringing you great information every Friday to help you with your finances. If you've not yet had a chance, file your tax returns or if you need help better understanding the stimulus packages that are out there and how you and your business might benefit. Go to eat french group dot com, where they're happy to help make sure that you get the advice that you need. So Prosperity Nation is we go through all this time together. Let's wait work together to make sure that we can provide the lifestyle that we should be living rather than one that we currently are. See you next week.