How do you break the paycheck to paycheck cycle?

Transcript

Hello and welcome everyone it's great to have you today thanks for listening to Catholic money Mastermind I'm Ben

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martinek your host and today I'm joined with Phil franois from uh Foundation

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wealth planning Phil's out of the the Kansas Salina Kansas area in fact he shares and we have a great topic we're

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gon to be talking about uh what to do if you're living paycheck to paycheck and you're in that rat race and you're just

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you're struggling to keep up with your bills uh and you're struggling to get any traction and your finances and just

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what what are some of the Practical steps that you can be taken to to get some Headway and not be living under

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this really this burden or the weight of your finances to let them be liberating for you rather than a cause of of stress

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and worry uh so with all that said Phil I mean looking forward to having another show you let's have you just say hi and

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introduce yourself uh you know you've got your own financial planning practice Foundation wealth planning uh you know

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what uh what what brought you to start that planning business well first of all thank you Ben

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for having me and um I appreciate being you know in the network I'm still somewhat of a new member to Captain FL

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planer network but there's some great folks in there um and just really enjoyed kind of getting to meet you know

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other people trying to live out their faith through the business so uh really appreciate you having me all in here and

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when I started this uh business about two years ago I

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really had a desire to to kind of intermix you know the Faith Life within

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uh a financial because I think it can be uh very relevant right with how we kind

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of manage our our money and you trying to do it as best we can what God has taught us so uh I do a lot of of of work

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trying to integrate that been focusing on Christian families specifically of course Catholic families and and small

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business owners and so there's a lot of of topics that um just inter weave kind

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of FAP within it and and so I think it's um it's really been kind of a nice journey to have as I started up practice

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and I'm still trying to figure it out it's been about two years now but I I really had to start from

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scratch um so I started been a financial planet for about eight years or so started at a a large firm U was building

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a a you know a book of clients and pretty much left it all behind to start this about two years ago and so I am

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still um trying to to get that underway so I've been through a lot of times of of not a lot of money and and quite

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frankly I'm I'm not completely out of the woods on that yet so I think this would be an inent discussion um to kind

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of talk through some different strategies on on kind of how to make it through day by day and try to break some of those paycheck to paycheck

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Cycles yeah that's great I mean if for anyone who's been listening uh Phil uh to uh my prior Journey you know when we

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were first married my wife and I uh we were definitely burdened down with debt

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and you know our monthly debt obligations was basically as much money as we made not including like other

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living expenses is housing and and and the like and so you know I was just fresh out of graduate school newly

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married uh and quite frankly thankfully we didn't have any kids because that that just would have added to the stress

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and the challenge of all it was just the two of us but it was like Wow we've we've got some work to do this is going

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to be a long-term mess and so I I've been there in terms of living paycheck to paycheck I've definitely know the

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reaction and the response of of just the Challenger the struggle of that you know it it swirls in your gut and it causes

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you it's hard to sleep you're just really sick to your stomach you don't even want to look at your finances or look at your statements because you just

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you're I don't you just have it disgusted it's really hard to almost to express it if you haven't felt it directly before of just you just want to

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push it all away and and not deal with it but I think maybe both you and I would agree right Phil I mean what's

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maybe the first step that someone should take when if you're in a situation where it's it's a struggle right now and you

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are in that paycheck to paycheck cycle what's the first step that you you would recommend someone

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taken well I think you know the first step before you really do anything I think is to acknowledge the problem

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right um and so I when I first got in uh

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to dead I had to kind of acknowledge and confronted to and my my my journey was really that I um I I got into all my

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financial Mess by choice right I know there's some people listening here that through circumstances beyond their control with family or what have you or

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job or or the situation they were raised in um may be fighting through that and it wasn't always all on in them um I

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just made you know Silly decisions and I I found myself an amountain of debt with not a lot of income and so um so I think

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when you you have to first kind of confront the problem and just kind of lay out all your your debts and say you

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know where are we and and what led us to be in this point whether it was all you're doing or not um you still have to

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kind of take ownership to where you are um and and how you're going to get out of it so I think that's that's always

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the first piece is is just kind of figure out like what is exactly the problem because a lot of a lot of people I'm sure you've seen that then just

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don't even really know H what the damage is right how how

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many thousands of dollars of debt am I how much interest is ACR by not paying

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more than the minimum um you know there's there's a lot of things that go into that and so you kind of first just have to see you know how bad is it you

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know and then once you know the problem you can kind of be to attack it and some of that worry I think comes by not even

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really fully knowing you just know you got debt collectors's call you've got credit card bills that are off the off the charts you don't have enough money

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to cover it um but you don't even have a full grasp of the picture so you got to kind of zoom out a little bit and figure

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out okay how much do I actually have what do I actually have in income and then you kind of make a plan from

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there yeah I would totally concur it's as difficult as it is and this could be a reason for you to reach out to a

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financial adviser or planer to get help on this because there is an emotional barrier here and you will intentionally

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well really on more subconsciously but you may be intentionally avoiding or or delaying or ignoring this issue because

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of that emotional barrier and I think as we all know uh you know on a rational level that problems just don't go away

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on themselves and so getting the help to get around to the other side of this and start to come up with a plan and to to

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confront the emotional barrier really could use uh the benefit or the need for a professional adviser who who has just

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you know minimally just the Detachment from your situation and start to think about this in a more rational level and

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doesn't carry all the emotional baggage or weight uh that that you may be facing

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uh so something to keep in mind go too and that can go two ways sorry I didn't mean to cut you off but I can go two ways in the sense of uh it might

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actually once you get a third set of or a second set of eyes on it that it's it's you know worse than you thought and

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you can actually begin to take the appropriate action because you may just be kind of slow walking you out of it or

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you could be causing yourself a lot of stress and really if you just have someone look at it it might there might be a plan to get out of it relatively

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quick but you're just stress yourself out because you just haven't fully seen the problem so I think just getting a full diagnosis of how how bad is it

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based on kind of what your circumstances are and you can kind of go from there so I just want to add that point in that um

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just to kind of read it what you were just saying now I love that because I mean it couldn't be the other more positively maybe you think things are

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worse than what they are we'll see that with some of the clients were working out where they they think they're way behind in their finances and this isn't

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necessarily maybe a paycheck to pay check cycle but they still feel like you know they're not as far along as they are and having someone else be actually

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you're doing pretty good uh you should feel good about yourself you've made quite a bit of Headway like it's it's

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really remarkable I think uh our lens of interpretation and perspective and how

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much that can shine on things and skew the reality which you're dealing with for good or ill you know either way

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exactly yeah so I think yeah that that you know there's helpful calculators out there you could you could look at a

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budget right you know we we've got some budgeting Solutions we could chat about in a moment you know just simply getting

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us everything out on a spreadsheet if we're going to be real focused on on debt uh vertex 42 I'm not sure if

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anyone's heard of this website or that that Excel spreadsheet designer I believe his name is John Whittier but he

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uh he's got a debt reduction calculator on there it's super helpful with helping to analyze these putting these debts in

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order and start to figure out more rationally like how can we pay this debt back or what would it take what's the timetable but uh you know I think some

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of this is just having not just an awareness of the debt but maybe just an awareness of everything an awareness of the income an awareness of of your

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obligation debt obligations but also an awareness of your expenses and so naturally enough part of that awareness

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I think has to come the next step would be to to to pick up budgeting Phil do you have any preferred budgeting uh

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Solutions or options that you you like to refer or recommend to your clients

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well there's a there's a slew of them out there uh you know when I first

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started uh I use mint as a way to track my budget and you know if you are

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listening to this and you have mint you may be looking for a new solution because we're gonna have a moment of silence for mint as they are merging and

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the the app we knew as mint is no longer going to be so after the moment of silence we can

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move on to some that are still around and I you know there's a a really good app obviously if you have heard of some

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of the Dave Ramsey stuff he's got a actually a pretty wonderful app called every dollar um that one is is really

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good I've been seeing a lot of people talking in the finance World about one called Monarch money I haven't actually

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investigated that one but that one's been kind of hot I've heard people recommending now that mint is out hav

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personally tried that one I know if you really like spreadsheets but you want some automation to it uh tiller money

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can be good um so you know those are a few options I know you have uh a

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favorite of yours then you can kind of talk about your your favorite but yeah folks you may have already heard on the

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show uh just because I'm a staple on this but wab uh you need a budget uh now

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Phil you and I were talking about this off show you're like you know for you to get into wab you have to like a cult is

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probably a little too strong of a ter but it it definitely requires like a change in how you maybe you we have have

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been managing your money and you have to adopt their system which I think is a great thing to adopt just so we're clear

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on this I I love yab I've been using it for eight years but there will be sometimes be a barrier to entry to folks

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in adopting that because it's just not what they necessarily expect they do approach things differently I do think

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once you fully adopted it and get your mind around it your head around it as you have you shared offline it it'll

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change your life but you know to each their own in this sort of thing you know why not May doesn't necessarily have to

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be the solution it's not for everyone but it is a great solution if you can get into it it's a it's a cool option um

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I remember there was in the past I had tried it and I think my bank was having some trouble with it or something that's been a few years I'm sure they've kind

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of corrected a lot of that a lot of the bank Integrations have gotten so much better with those applications over time

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um but it's it it is a cool it's a cool system um but yeah if you want to think about things in a more um traditional

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sense you might go to like I said I've heard good things about Monarch or or tiller um or even there's there's a lot

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of them now have got budgeting tools kind of built into bank apps and things um but those might be more for tracking

11:37

I think wab is good for kind of forward planning and making sure you've got money to cover certain future

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obligations so um there's some really there's some really good stuff with with that but it does take a little bit of

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time um and if you're paycheck to paycheck it does take a little bit of time to kind of get it started and

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funding some of your future obligations so potentially if you're really under

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the gun with expenses versus income might be hard to get started a little bit there um but again I would encourage

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you to check it out because it is a cool system once you get into it yeah I hear you on that Phil I think there could be

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a challenge if you're in that paycheck to paycheck cycle on which yab is going to be the immediate solution for you but

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the point being here more so is look in order for us to start making improvements in your finances if you're

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in this situation you got to bring awareness to what's going on start to an

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understanding get a scope of what's taking place so that we can start to be more strategic or thoughtful with the

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decisions that we're going to employ uh and the plan that we're going to execute upon to get you out of this uh you out

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of this situation and and get you in a better place better place to be and there really it's it's simple as just

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writing it down right I mean it could be it could just be like a that's all you need a notebook paper

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right paper and go back and pull your last three months of bank and credit card statements and just go through it I

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mean that's how when I first started that's that was the first way I did it right was mint was good for tracking but

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in order to kind of get started and again this was a long time ago now um before some of these systems were even

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better but it's still valid today and just go back through and just look at every single transaction charge because

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not many people use cash anymore so pretty much everything's track right there in your credit card or bank statement and just lay it out you know

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you got all exactly what dollars came been exactly when dollars went out and you just you lay out what it's been the

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last few months and start to get a trend um and that's how you kind of start to build from there yeah you're

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GNA get some brutal honesty I mean we all like to think oh I only spend x amount you know only go out to eat a

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couple times a month and it's I don't know $150 or $200 it's not very much you know and where where whoever you are and

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wherever you are I have yet to find anybody who's simply is assessing or monitoring this on their own in their

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head with actually no you know literal hardcore tracking they're never right

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like it's at least 2x whatever you think you think you spend $200 a month going out to eat just go ahead and double it I

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guarantee you it's $400 or more nobody is accurate just going off your head on

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what you think you're spending maybe your mortgage payment like or your rental payment or whatever your car payment maybe you've got those detailed

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pretty well everything else your numbers are off in terms of what you think you're spending versus what you're

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actually spending and so going through this statement it's you know just be ready for some brutal honesty it's it's

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going to hit you like a cold shower in the face of like wow wow okay maybe this is why I can see why we're paycheck to

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Chay check I'm spending a lot more money than I thought I was spending and that's yeah you that's why we're we're running

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tight every month so or every week yeah you gotta be ready to confront the facts and one one place that I saw that when I

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did that the first time was how much I was spending at convenience stores the gas stations right you just stop in on

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your way by either whether you're getting gas or not you want a coffee dut a breakfast sandwich whatever and the

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markups on those places are obviously very high and you can spend a lot of money um and probably even worse now

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with as much as kind of cost of living that's gone up with various Ventures but that was you know 101 15 years ago was

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just I was shocked when I finally added up over a month wow I'd spent a lot

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there didn't know that was happening well and I think the other thing that comes up Phil too we've seen

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this I'd like to get into what's the next step after we've done you know done the budgeting but you know just to speak

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about this mental accounting you know we'll have folks who maybe they get a five or $10,000 bonus or something you

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know maybe it's a lot larger than that it comes in and uh you know without really being careful thoughtful you know

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intentional about what you're going to do with that you'll spend that bonus three times over right i' got a $5,000

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bonus and I've come up with $155,000 of things I'd like to spend it on and uh you're you're like wow I thought that

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bonus was going to help me out and now you're like well it's you spent it three you know it can only be spent if it's a

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$5,000 bones it can only be spent for $5,000 worth of stuff but if you're not careful you'll spend it much for much

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more than that and and then you find yourself actually further behind rather than ahead despite maybe a bit of extra

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money coming in and it's just human nature I do you have any thoughts I have you seen it or had any experience other

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than this like if you're not being very intentional about how that money is being allocated but it just kind of it

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gets leaky and it flips right on through the system yeah it's it's it's um it's like a black

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hole you know if you are if you're not diligently tracking it or or at least

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you know if you're so if you're kind of in the paycheck to payche you got to kind of monitor everything you're

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spending right to try to get out of it uh once you get a little bit more buffer you have the the the luxury of maybe

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just focusing on a couple categories right so really focusing on how you're spending eating out or anything whatever

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your you clothing whatever kind of your things that tend to be higher you try to be conscious really hardcore in some of

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those but um if you're not tracking it's it's shocking how how much it can just get out of um out of hand

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and and this is pretty relevant now because again costs of things have really gone up a lot over the last year

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or two I think a lot of people are feeling this in their paychecks and one reason you might be feeling it is

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because you're just not tracking it and maybe you haven't you've heard the costs are up but you haven't really do to see

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oh that's where the money is going and that's why I'm feeling the pinch yeah totally man I I I hear you so

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I mean in our own situation we've we've had to make adjustments and uh I think that's just the beautiful thing of of

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having a robust budget is it allows you to be aware of it allows you to adjust and you can keep yourself you can

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determine what trajectory you need to be setting yourself on and then you can make uh adjustments to that heading I do

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some saling and I think some relevance here with saling is the wind always is Shifting or blowing if you've ever sailed you you certainly know this uh

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but you have a point out on the horizon that you're you're sailing towards for two and you know there's a a great

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expression that you know if the wind adjusts you just got to adjust your sales you know I mean so if the wind isn't quite blowing the way it used to

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you got to adjust your sales and and really your budget at least in this analogy is is your sale so expenses have

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gone up we've got to make some adjustments and you can really dial in on what those adjustments could or should be uh within within that budget

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love that analogy is that great isin't that great a I I love sine too folks if you ever want to go sing just come up

18:35

our parts we we'll take you out it's a it's it's a fun hobby something I picked up a few years ago just makes for a good

18:41

summer activity uh so okay so we're we're in that paycheck to paycheck moment we have

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done the awareness you know we we've dialed it all in we we have a sense of where we're at but reality is is as soon

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as I make that next paycheck I've got all these obligations and you know it's

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just gone it's it's out right back out the door like we need to get some breathing room right something of a gap

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in the in the situation like the strength of a financial situation really is your what

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we call is positive cash flow I mean just the extent that there's left money left over uh so what are some ideas Phil

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I mean what if you come across to someone where as soon as the money comes it goes right back out and they just doesn't like they can get ahead outside

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of just having awareness like what's the next step to start getting a gap in there and start to break that

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cycle right well there's a few things that I would I would point to obviously

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that that there's two levers right and that's either make more money or spend

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less money right and so the one that we've been focusing on

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to this point has been cutting expenses and I think to maybe just to highlight

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that before we go on to the the other pendulum um you know once you kind of have your your awareness I mean you

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really do then have to have some sort of game plan right so figureing out based on the income that we have then we

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actually need to put a spending plan together that fits within that as best we can and um you know I think a lot of

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people also another hidden one would be like subscriptions right everything has a subscription service these days so one

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thing you could try is just cancel all of them right try to go a month without you know YouTube TV Spotify

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Hulu um and then just maybe add back in one or two that maybe you really need but that could save you you know 20 50

20:33

bucks but I've seen some people have $100 plus in subscriptions right I mean that's and that's a significant amount

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of money so that's just one other maybe a little practical tip look at your subscriptions because everything's on a subscription model these days and it

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really it really adds up um so so but then you know once we've got

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the money and we've kind of figured out okay I can cut subscriptions I can maybe

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you know make more I'm going to I'm going to get some crockpot recipes out the crockpot is just one of the greatest

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inventions that you can have it at all times but especially when you're kind of in Frugal mode uh it can make cheaper

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cuts of meat taste great it's easy um you can make some good healthy auction so dust off the crockpot right you may

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not have had that much um and then once you got because that'll really fre up a little bit of time to really figure out okay how do we get a little bit more um

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aggressive on the the other income side right and and most likely um you know

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there's going to be some things that we can we can sell um within our heal because we are consumerism consumer

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Society so maybe that's a video game system maybe it's a some extra Furniture

21:45

a bike you know I don't know they want to sell a bike if you're going to actually use it not not hating on the exercise but if it's collecting dust you

21:51

can may get a little bit of money for it so just something to get some momentum I think what we're looking for is once we once we acknowledge the problem

21:58

and we've looked at our budget probably feel a little bit dejected right so by selling something that you have that if

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use a little bit of cash it just kind of gets gets the ball rolling you you feel you feel good like hey there's a little

22:10

bit of extra money we just got right there um and and that's that's a really good place to just kind of kickart

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because to this point it's been maybe slightly depressing but then once you kind of

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have a plan and you get a little bit of infusion with a little bit of of cash um I think that's a a really good place

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um to start and I know you had uh kind of really some we were kind of talking

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about some ideas with a two large expense items maybe you want to kind of go into um some of that piece because

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that's maybe more the expense side but I think I think getting getting something sold um because there's a whole other

22:45

other element of how you can make more money but in the short term you're trying to break a cycle you're trying to get 500 bucks in the bank there's

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probably things around your house you could sell maybe work a little over time but um but that that's just what it

22:57

kiars and past momentum I think yeah for sure Dave Ramsey's all about that uh you know other budgeting are Frugal uh folks

23:04

are looking to help your money management if you're looking for a Catholic alternative outside of Dave Ramsey there's wallet win with John and

23:10

Amanda teera great great organization good Catholic couple there's also uh Catholic Compass which is another uh

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kind of a scripturally based uh money management program uh that could help in

23:22

in these details but you know on the expense side I think you're right Phil I mean some of our bigger expenses are or

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a house purchase or maybe your rental you know where you're living could be a a home or a car purchase and then it

23:35

could be some debt obligations you know we've talked about credit cards but it could be uh you know maybe uh you know

23:41

student loans uh or other commitment student loans would probably be the most common regular large debt obligation

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outside of a mortgage that you have or or car purchases maybe have you got a boat to or you know some other fun

23:54

recreational activity uh the point is is if you're on a paycheck to paycheck cycle the reality you've you've you're

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spending too much like you know no one wants to be in a paycheck paycheck cycle let's just stop you know that's kind of

24:06

a Dave esque thing like just stop it you know stop misbehaving you got to stop um

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so and some ways which we to free up money and get you back in a good way where you're getting traction again and

24:18

not all that money is going right back out the door you you could seriously need to be looking at changing your living arrangements quarters looking at

24:25

changing uh your your car Arrangements and maybe even going to so far to restructure some of your debt or look at

24:31

new repayment options specific to student loans uh as a way to get to you know to push paws on some of those

24:38

payments and to to free up uh some money now the danger of pushing paws on any

24:43

debt obligations is like look it's great to give you a little bit of breathing room and yeah we've got you know we

24:49

freed up some cash flow and we can pay off maybe some other commitments and get some money saved up but you know that

24:55

that payment has to come back and we still actually maybe quite literally need to pull down on our expenses like

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it's not a longterm not a long-term solution for you so have you uh have you seen it thankfully I I don't know if

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I've seen any clients who've had to go and and move Dave Ramsey's just got a whole show of this it's like every time

25:13

you listen to D gu like yeah you gotta move or get another car or sell it or something Have you had you had have you

25:19

coached to fill someone through maybe a larger you know purchase transaction it has to get undone or changed because

25:25

it's just too much for their situation um you know I think when when they by the time most

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people reach out to a planner they've at least got um an income that is um

25:40

sufficient right to accomplish goals now you may be out there saying well I've got enough income but I'm spending too

25:45

much A lot of that could be typically tweaked within lifestyle and I haven't really come across people that have been

25:52

so outlandish with their rent or mortgage compared to their income but I know they're out there and so if you're

25:57

in that boat um I personally did it right when I was when I was younger but

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I was in a one Bender apartment that was not anything fancy I was I was already

26:09

by maybe many people standards living pretty modestly um but I I opted

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to because I was so tight when I was young before I was married that I opted to move to a small studio apartment that

26:24

was about 300 square feet and and that saved me probably three or 400 bucks a

26:29

month um and that that got me breeding room to pay off debts uh also helped me

26:34

save for an engagement ring to my amazing wife so that was there was a kind of a double motivation there but

26:39

but I that was a good call what's that I said that's a good move good call on you

26:45

yeah to go it was totally worth it uh absolutely um but but that that has been

26:50

a move that I I personally did make and that's not feasible for everyone it's harder to make that move with with kids

26:56

or uh you know depending on where you already live maybe you're having to move into a less safe area and and there's

27:03

certainly concerns you got to have with that but if you need to go a little more

27:10

extreme I don't think it's off the table especially in this world of kind of this Catholic World we're in and wanting to

27:16

support our family I I don't think it's off the table to think about asking your parents to move back in with them if if

27:22

the situation Wars now I'm not saying that that makes sense for everybody or that everybody has that opportunity but

27:27

you know if you really paycheck to paycheck I don't I don't think going home for six to 12 months um would be

27:34

off the table to kind of build up a little bit of a cushion uh then you got make sure you take advantage of that and stop your spending elsewhere and really

27:40

actually build up some savings um so if you're going to do it make sure you commit and play through and say I'm

27:45

gonna leave on X date with this much money in the bank um but but I think that there's there's things like that

27:50

you could do and I I I had a a family member that was selling a was it a

27:58

2000 Ford Explorer I think um and I traded in my you know newer vehicle and

28:05

and you know bought that really cheap from them and that kind of helped also relieve some obligations that I had a

28:11

loan on that I didn't need to have um so so again thankfully I haven't had a lot

28:16

of clients that had to also do that but I know that they're out there because I did it and I just want to encourage you

28:22

that if if those things are on the table maybe talk to somebody I think wallwind has some as you mentioned has some

28:28

coaching programs Ramsey has some coaches financial advisor could be a good option but but if you're thinking

28:34

about making a drastic Choice maybe talk to somebody first and just see if it actually needs to be done um but it's

28:39

it's certainly out there it's it's it's it's maybe needed um in a second opinion

28:45

before you make that move because it could be a little bit radical you know if you need to do that

28:51

yeah I feel I'm going to use that as a great plug actually for the Catholic financial planners Network so you go to Catholic planners uh.com if you want to

28:57

go and look to see any of the advisers in our Network who are working looking to work with Catholic clients so we're

29:03

Catholic advisers looking to work with Catholic clients that fits the bill for you you don't have to be Catholic but

29:08

you know it's it's great you know it's a nice point of connection if you are uh please reach out we'll see if we can't uh you know help you on your way or at

29:15

least direct you to someone who can uh you know I think your point you know in my own situation Phil I uh you know in

29:22

the early years of our marriage we uh we didn't change our rental Arrangement where we moved to a smaller location but

29:28

we did bring in roommates uh so depending on where you're at in life maybe that's the feasibility of that is

29:34

not as easily uh accomplishable especially if young children are at in the home but for as the way in which we

29:40

moved ahead uh because you know as a bit of my background I my wife and I got married we had about $150,000 in debt

29:47

altoe a lot of that in student loans but some of it car payment some of it credit cards uh you know we were up upside down

29:53

and as I said at the beginning of the show we had more debt obligation payments than what we made uh per month so we really were in a bit of a mess and

30:01

we had a push pause on a lot of those debts uh as we started to make income

30:06

through other means and uh eventually pay down some of those commitments the beautiful thing about a debt repayment

30:12

strategy is that some of those credit card and other payments are finally paid off and we lose the need to make payment

30:17

on that debt anymore because the debts not there now we freed up even more money and you have this Snowball Effect

30:23

as they like to call it and that that's exactly what happened for us just one by one we started paying the debts off Bam

30:29

Bam Bam more money was freeing up because we didn't have that debt monthly payment any longer and it you know it's

30:35

slow in the beginning and it's painful and you hate it I mean really you just hate it but you do it's it's what you

30:41

got to do sometimes you just have to push through that pain to get some traction uh to make things happen and we continued on with that it wasn't just

30:47

simply in repaying our own debts it was uh you know once we got ourselves in a

30:52

better position we started inviting others into our home even though we were married and we had roommates and folks

30:58

living with us to help cover that that rental cost keep that expense down uh when we bought a house uh in our

31:03

situation we actually went so far as to start running all the rooms of our house out for the local that we were living in there was a high demand for for housing

31:10

and so we made it work and that was a beautiful thing it actually took our house from being a liability and a cost

31:16

to us to something that was producing income we went from need to just pay money we still had our mortgage payment

31:21

but we were actually you know profiting having some net home take them and and we did that for a number of years

31:28

uh and that was all part of our our take and just really what we had to do to right siize our finances and get us out

31:34

of really what was for us in the early years a paycheck to paycheck Arrangement so I think what I would just encourage

31:40

to you folks is sometimes it takes radical measures you know if you're in a paycheck to paycheck uh cycle I think

31:47

nothing is off the table like you have to look at everything that you are spending your money on and say do you

31:53

really deserve to be here uh do you do you have have a rightful place in my home and if you don't it's time for you

31:59

to go because you're not serving me you're not allowing me uh to live the life that I desire really the life that

32:06

we you know God desires of us and it's it all is on the table to go it absolutely is and and you had you know

32:13

just what a a humbling story you had I appreciate you sharing that and and

32:18

really yeah you're working on the virtue of of humility which really is um something we could all take a a check on

32:26

from time to time um and so you know when you're working on trying to get out of these tough situations it is a test of faith and and

32:33

certainly want to be uh humble and and yeah these options are on the table and but sometimes we're too proud to make

32:40

some of those moves and but some also when it takes yeah but I think the other side of

32:45

this fill you know expenses are are one thing and yeah you can get some wins here cutting your expenses back it's

32:51

kind of like you know getting some wins on the income Side by just selling something and look again either thing

32:56

that's you you know if we cut some expenses cut back or just sell some crap you know let's get it out of your life you don't really need it truly you need

33:03

it less than what you think you do we we are counteracting this thing called the endowment effect that we tend to think

33:09

things are more valuable when we own them than otherwise and so we don't want to sell it because it's because I own it

33:14

it belongs to me how how can I let it go it's like just just get rid of it folks you don't need it it really isn't is as

33:20

valuable as you think it is but the long-term solution here if you're in a paycheck to paycheck Arrangement the

33:26

long-term solution isn't cutting expenses right Phil it's probably increasing income uh do you have any

33:32

thoughts have you done some maybe career coaching or what's your experience with just helping people you know to find that next thing in life that could start

33:38

to really see a win for them in their finances yeah I you know I haven't been

33:46

in in a a career coaching um um relations or you know situation so I

33:52

wouldn't say that anything that I have is is any sort of

33:57

highlevel professionally vetted advice but but I can have a few thoughts on on

34:02

how you can go about that because you know in this day and age of you know

34:08

we're currently we've been in the labor shortage for the last few years and so if you

34:13

can you know focus on showing up you know and actually doing the job right

34:20

that's that's going to uh take take you a long way and if you actually like the job and you like

34:26

the company you know having a discussion with your boss to say hey I I like it

34:31

here um but what what would be helpful or what could I do here that would be

34:37

more you more valuable right you're trying to create more value right that's ultimately God has giving you gifts to

34:43

use in the world and I'm sure you have some wonderful ones that that probably are being used to their full extent and

34:49

so if you're in a job that seems like it's um either meshing or the company's meshing or or you like the company but

34:55

maybe there's a slightly different role talk to your manager about that about how you can you know do certain things

35:01

or maybe you can you ask them what they need to to create more Val and that's going to eventually get you uh the raise

35:06

that you want you say I I want to be able to make 100,000 sounds like a nice round number I want to be able to make

35:11

$100,000 here this company with you like what what would I need to do to be able to get to that range I'm demanding a

35:18

raise right again having some humility when you're going to ask well how can I help you know around you to help get

35:23

that that job um did to get the income that I want uh and that's that that will

35:29

work with with pretty much any job and then I've done a lot of sales jobs in the past so the the path to higher

35:34

income is typically pretty clear so you could also get a sales job or if you're in a sales role figure out how you can

35:40

be you know more effective in that role to grow your income those are those are honestly a lot more direct paths to

35:47

Growing your income but so either find a job that is in sales or which within a company um just find out where where the

35:54

value is and then how you can provide that and that's that's going to ultimately be the point the way that's going to get your income up in a in a

36:01

really valuable meaningful sense versus just doing a job on the side a second

36:07

job at McDonald's now maybe in the short term you got to deliver pizzas or whatever but but you know you also while

36:12

you're short term making your expenses work with that second job finding can in your real full-time job increase your

36:18

income sustain yeah I maybe you don't have to change your career at all or your

36:23

current job maybe it's just you pick up a side hustle and you're waiting on tables or you're doing something off the

36:29

internet you know there's uh an organization called choose fi uh has connections where they will give you a

36:35

list of a hundred potential side hustles and so what just something you could do that has low low cost to get it going

36:41

it's just a matter of some Sweat Equity let's get in there and get the job done and there's demand in the market out there these days now you know the

36:47

different apps out there whether you want to be you driving people or driveing through or there's different

36:53

companies where you can like move furniture I mean there's just you can plug in all that kind of stuff Stu fairly easily um as as a nice side gig

37:01

um but I would also encourage you to also like work on your your your full-time job that a career um but those

37:06

side jobs are are are plentiful and you can really plug in tomorrow and get something going yeah we just need to

37:12

make sure it's a net positive right so there could be a tendency where it's like oh yeah I'm making more income and they're like oh wow that thing over

37:19

there looks pretty enticing let's go spend some money you know discussion that spending plan yes

37:26

yeah that's right you still have to take discipline to the spending folks it's great to have the extra income but let's not just go and blow it away and then

37:32

you're in the same situation and now all you're doing is just working more like that's not that's not helping you out

37:37

you know so it's it's happened we we we laugh but sadly that that does happen it's you're not intentional with it um I

37:44

mean intentionality is probably a big theme of this discussion point but just be intentional with every new dollar who

37:49

comes in where where's it going to go yeah boy I tell you what that starts to sum it up pretty well Phil I mean it's

37:55

it's a matter of awareness it's a matter of of commitment it's a matter of discipline it's a matter of this is my plan and this is what I'm doing because

38:01

you know we live in a society that is consumeristic as you've alluded to and that is you know the marketing is meant

38:07

is there for a purpose because everyone wants your dollars and so there's always something that's just a little Out Of Reach and so there's always something

38:13

that's a little enticing and you're always thinking oh man if I could just push or grab a little harder I could just get that thing and then we always

38:20

like to think you know whether it's just our human nature or if it's good marketing we always like to think that's going to make us really happy and sad

38:26

ified if I can just get this now I'll feel better just got to put all that away and say like no I mean if you're in

38:31

a paycheck to paycheck cycle I don't know if I really even need to tell this to you you're probably man I'm I'm not happy or I'm miserable or this stinks

38:37

like like just put that front and center like a change needs to happen and I'm gonna make it and we're we're GNA do

38:42

this and I'm not living this life anymore I'm not I'm done with it and you gotta swear it off and say it's it's a

38:49

new day it's a new me and we're gonna we're going to push ahead right so so

38:54

Phil do you have any any additional thoughts on the matter as we close it out with the audience on what uh you

39:00

know if you were in that paycheck to paycheck cycle uh what you'd like to tell everybody yeah well I would first just

39:08

like to say that that there this just say that it's There's Hope right so if

39:13

you're in that cycle and maybe it's it's really bad and you truly are paycheck to

39:19

paycheck or maybe you actually have a decent income but you feel like you're paycheck to paycheck and you just need to adjust some things there is hope I

39:26

mean Ben and I both have examples in our life and we certainly are not the worst situations out there but you know we've

39:33

we've paid off debt you know we've we've kind of forged ahead and there's countless other stories that are are

39:38

even more you know heroic in a way than us um and so i' just like to say you know be

39:45

hopeful but but use some of these practical tips and and actually know where your money is going and and have

39:51

be intentional with it and um you know you can you can do it I mean it's it's

39:56

it just takes it just takes some a little grit a lot of faith and and you

40:02

know some maybe some creativity and intentionality and and you can get it you can get there yeah there you go

40:08

trust the process brother that's what I like to say trust you got to trust the process and like look this game plan will work we it's gonna let's just

40:14

execute upon it and it's it's going to get this there so uh it's been great having your thoughts on this Phil I'm

40:19

glad you're able to join on the call uh so for anyone who might be interested in reaching out or following up with you or

40:25

just learning more about your where should they go to learn more about you you can go to my my website will be

40:32

probably the the easiest way to find that which is just simply Foundation wealth playing.com

40:38

awesome so that's Phil Francois guys not Francis Francois because it's you know he's still French even though Phil was

40:46

tell me doesn't talk speak any french which is fine I'm from Bohemia originally I don't speak a liqu of Bohemian so but here we are we're very

40:52

American aren't we yeah very much so yes well that's all good well Phil it's been great having you for everyone

40:58

Thanks for tuning in hopefully this this uh episode was help uh helpful to you please reach out to the network if we I

41:04

can be of assistance or give you some direction we're here to help that's what what we're all about and until next time

41:10

keep tuning in and God's blessings to you take care thanks Ben have a good one see you man.

Phil Francois

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