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#HURDLEMOMENT: Essential Financial Wellness Tips With 'The Budget Mom' Kumiko Love · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Wellness does not have anything to do with the numbers.
0:03
Speaker 1: It's more about the confidence, clarity, and stability that.
0:08
Speaker 2: We feel with our money.
0:11
Speaker 1: The opposite of financial wellness is always being in a
0:14
Speaker 1: state of feeling scared or anxious or nervous or uncomfortable
0:20
Speaker 1: with our money. So really it's how we feel about
0:24
Speaker 1: ourselves and about the money that we have in our
0:28
Speaker 1: future goals.
0:43
Speaker 3: Hey Hurdlers, Emily ABOUTI here bringing you another installment of
0:46
Speaker 3: Hurdle Moment from Hurdle this week in honor of what
0:51
Speaker 3: should be the classic tax day on April fifteenth, which
0:55
Speaker 3: has now been moved to Monday, May seventeenth. I'm getting
0:59
Speaker 3: ahead of the game and bringing in some reinforcements. I
1:03
Speaker 3: am chatting with Comiko Love, otherwise known as the Budget mom.
1:08
Speaker 3: We are chatting all things financial wellness. Now. I know
1:13
Speaker 3: that money can feel a little bit taboo to talk about,
1:17
Speaker 3: but on today's episode, Love is talking us through the
1:20
Speaker 3: importance of our financial health and what that really means
1:24
Speaker 3: being that your debts are payable, you have emergency funds,
1:28
Speaker 3: retirement funds in the works. Basically, you can handle any
1:32
Speaker 3: financial crisis that may come your way. She talks us
1:36
Speaker 3: through her seven best practice tips for better financial wellness
1:41
Speaker 3: and gives so many great takeaways, everything from the importance
1:46
Speaker 3: of knowing where you're at, being upfront and honest with
1:49
Speaker 3: yourself about the current state of your finances, to the
1:53
Speaker 3: importance of being prepared for emergencies and how we can
1:56
Speaker 3: better take care of our future selves aka retirement. I'm
2:01
Speaker 3: telling you this episode is chalked full of so many
2:05
Speaker 3: excellent takeaways. I'm so, so, so grateful to me Go.
2:08
Speaker 3: I love that nickname for all of her insight and wisdom.
2:13
Speaker 3: I'm super amped because a week from today we are
2:16
Speaker 3: gathering to talk about the art of gathering for book club.
2:19
Speaker 2: It's at eight pm Eastern.
2:21
Speaker 3: Link to sign up for the book club is in
2:24
Speaker 3: the show notes, and there are a few days left
2:26
Speaker 3: for you to enter for your chance to win a
2:28
Speaker 3: month of athletic Greens by clicking the leave me a
2:32
Speaker 3: voicemail link in the show notes and asking me a
2:35
Speaker 3: listener question. I will pick one lucky Hurdler to win
2:39
Speaker 3: this giveaway on this coming Friday. Make sure you're following
2:42
Speaker 3: along on social It's at Hurdle Podcast. I'm over at
2:45
Speaker 3: Emily a Body and with that, let's get to hurdling. Today,
3:00
Speaker 3: I am sitting down with Kamika Love, known to her
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Speaker 3: over six hundred and sixty five thousand Instagram followers and
3:08
Speaker 3: many more as the budget Mom.
3:10
Speaker 2: How you doing today?
3:12
Speaker 1: Doing really good?
3:13
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to have you on the show.
3:15
Speaker 3: I wanted to connect with someone that, man, I don't know.
3:21
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like just to say that you're
3:22
Speaker 3: good with money would be would be an understatement. So
3:26
Speaker 3: someone that can help educate us on finances and everything
3:30
Speaker 3: that goes hand in hand with that, especially because tax
3:33
Speaker 3: Day is upon us.
3:35
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it is not a little bit of an extension,
3:38
Speaker 1: but not too much, not too much.
3:40
Speaker 2: So tell me tell the hurdlers a little bit before
3:43
Speaker 2: we get into some of your best practice tips for
3:46
Speaker 2: financial wellness, talk to me a little bit about how
3:49
Speaker 2: you got so interested in finance, in money and ultimately
3:54
Speaker 2: got to this place where you're educating millions of people
3:57
Speaker 2: all around the world about it on the regular.
3:59
Speaker 1: Well really started from my own struggles with money management.
4:03
Speaker 1: It came from a place of personal experience. Really, what
4:07
Speaker 1: happened to me was I went through a divorce. I
4:10
Speaker 1: went from having two incomes down to one, and it
4:15
Speaker 1: was also, you know my struggle with finding my identity again,
4:20
Speaker 1: not just as a wife or as a mom, but
4:23
Speaker 1: as an individual, as a woman. And I had to
4:27
Speaker 1: learn how to tackle my finances because I knew that
4:30
Speaker 1: ultimately I could not provide the life I needed to
4:33
Speaker 1: for my son as a single parent. I didn't know
4:35
Speaker 1: anything about finances or money. And it's funny because I
4:38
Speaker 1: actually graduated with a finance degree. I worked nine years
4:42
Speaker 1: in the finance industry with a financial advisor all around investments,
4:47
Speaker 1: but I had no clue about personal finance. And so
4:51
Speaker 1: I started sharing my journey. And really it was out
4:54
Speaker 1: of desperation to connect with other single moms who felt
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Speaker 1: like I did, who I cand go to and ask
5:01
Speaker 1: questions and talk about my thoughts and money fears without
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Speaker 1: feeling judged or feeling like I was a bad mom
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Speaker 1: because I didn't know how to budget sayer back to
5:11
Speaker 1: school supplies for my kiddo.
5:13
Speaker 2: So when I.
5:13
Speaker 1: Started sharing my journey, this amazing community was built, and
5:17
Speaker 1: that's really how I became the budget mom.
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Speaker 3: Well, it is pretty special, especially because I think so
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Speaker 3: many people can feel alone, like you said, in their
5:26
Speaker 3: financial struggles. Right, It's like it's one of those taboo
5:30
Speaker 3: topics like sex. I'm sure you hear that analogy all
5:33
Speaker 3: of the time. But you approached this new chapter of learning,
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Speaker 3: like you indicated, with a fair amount of debt. Talk
5:41
Speaker 3: to me about how you managed to pay that off.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so that the whole journey started with learn trying
5:48
Speaker 1: to pay off all of my debts so I can
5:50
Speaker 1: find some type of financial stability in my life. I
5:54
Speaker 1: ended up paying off my debt by There's a lot
5:58
Speaker 1: of ways. There's a lot of reasons why I paid
6:00
Speaker 1: off my debt, but mainly it was self examination. And
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Speaker 1: it was more importantly I think above self examination was
6:11
Speaker 1: asking the hard questions and being able to honestly answer myself.
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Speaker 1: It was looking at not just paying off my debt,
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Speaker 1: but why the heck was I in debt in the
6:21
Speaker 1: first place? What got me to this moment, to this
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Speaker 1: point of desperation where I couldn't even hardly put food
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Speaker 1: on the table for my child. So it was awareness
6:30
Speaker 1: number one, and then it was implementing and staying dedicated
6:33
Speaker 1: to a plan. I had to fight every day for
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Speaker 1: an emotional purpose, and what I mean by that is
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Speaker 1: every day I had to wake up and know exactly
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Speaker 1: what I wanted to accomplish with my money and tackle
6:46
Speaker 1: it in little steps.
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Speaker 2: At a time.
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Speaker 3: Wow, and we're not just talking about, like, you know,
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Speaker 3: a small amount of debt either. I think I read
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Speaker 3: that it was something close to eighty thousand dollars.
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Speaker 1: Yes, that's correct.
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Speaker 3: Wow. Okay, So what an impressive feet for you to
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Speaker 3: come back from that, which now makes me not surprised
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Speaker 3: at all that you have become such an expert in
7:07
Speaker 3: this area.
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Speaker 2: So now what we're.
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Speaker 3: Talking about today talking about financial wellness, as I said,
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Speaker 3: something that you know plenty about. Before we get going, really,
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Speaker 3: why don't we kind of like establish a broad definition
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Speaker 3: for what financial wellness really is.
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Speaker 1: So really, when people think about financial wellness, it's really
7:26
Speaker 1: easy to gravitate towards numbers, right, our income, how much
7:31
Speaker 1: money we have saved in the bank, how much money
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Speaker 1: we have saved for retirement. But really wellness does not
7:37
Speaker 1: have anything to do with the numbers. It's more about
7:40
Speaker 1: the confidence, clarity, and stability that we feel with our money.
7:46
Speaker 1: The opposite of financial wellness is always being in a
7:49
Speaker 1: state of feeling scared or anxious or nervous or uncomfortable
7:56
Speaker 1: with our money. So really, it's how we feel about
8:00
Speaker 1: ourselves and about the money that we have in our
8:03
Speaker 1: future goals.
8:04
Speaker 3: Okay, so now I know we're going to go through
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Speaker 3: seven different best practice strategies to have better financial wellness,
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Speaker 3: and our first one knowing your starting place.
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Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about that.
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Speaker 1: This comes down to the self examination. It can be
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Speaker 1: really hard to look at your overall debt balances and
8:26
Speaker 1: get over just paying the minimum payments. So this is
8:30
Speaker 1: what I mean by knowing your starting place. It's knowing
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Speaker 1: exactly where you stand with your overall debt, where you
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Speaker 1: stand with your savings, where you stand as far as
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Speaker 1: you're spending. You have to know the clear starting point
8:45
Speaker 1: at which you are beginning this journey in order to
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Speaker 1: grow and make progress. So that's like one of the
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Speaker 1: first little hurdles, and that can be really.
8:53
Speaker 2: Scary, oh for sure.
8:55
Speaker 3: And I mean I think to your point here, this
8:57
Speaker 3: can be so applicable to so many things in our lives.
9:01
Speaker 3: Right Like when we want to make a change, you
9:03
Speaker 3: have to confront where it is that you're at so
9:06
Speaker 3: that you can actually move forward with changing what's happening
9:10
Speaker 3: in this moment right exactly.
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Speaker 1: And like I said, you know, it's all about that
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Speaker 1: self examination mode and really looking at your financial journey
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Speaker 1: as a financial transformation, one that has a starting point.
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Speaker 2: I love that. I love that.
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Speaker 3: Now the next tip that we're going to talk through
9:29
Speaker 3: here where is your money going? Tracking your spending? And
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Speaker 3: this reminds me of keeping a food journal when you're
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Speaker 3: trying to examine a little bit about what you're putting
9:39
Speaker 3: into your.
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Speaker 2: Body and why why am I not feeling so good?
9:42
Speaker 2: It's the same thing with your money, it really is.
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Speaker 1: It's all about being able to make informed decisions and
9:49
Speaker 1: take that knowledge to take action. So the worst thing
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Speaker 1: that we can do is to go out and do
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Speaker 1: take all this action and put in all this fift
10:00
Speaker 1: effort if we don't have a clear understanding of where
10:03
Speaker 1: our money is going. Because what happens is we could
10:06
Speaker 1: be throwing our money at things that we don't value,
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Speaker 1: that doesn't bring us joy, things that don't align with
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Speaker 1: our financial goal. So we just did all this work
10:15
Speaker 1: without truly understanding where our dollars are going. I think
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Speaker 1: that tracking your spending is by far the most critical
10:24
Speaker 1: step when you are creating a budget or a financial plan.
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Speaker 3: That's a really good takeaway and I think oftentimes when
10:30
Speaker 3: you take the time to stop and keep a food diary,
10:33
Speaker 3: you don't realize what it is that you're putting into
10:36
Speaker 3: your body until you're tasked with keeping track of all
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Speaker 3: of it. So same goes with your spending, right. It's
10:42
Speaker 3: like you might not notice even that you are spending,
10:45
Speaker 3: you know, three to four dollars five times a week
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Speaker 3: on a coffee. It's just kind of like second nature.
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Speaker 3: It's become part of your practice. But when you stop
10:53
Speaker 3: and look at your spending and see what all this
10:55
Speaker 3: money is going to and see how it adds up,
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Speaker 3: it makes such a big difference.
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Speaker 1: It's a huge different I call it the slap in
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Speaker 1: the face moment. It's that moment where you're like, oh
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Speaker 1: my gosh, I just spend one thousand dollars this month
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Speaker 1: on new clothes and I don't even value like clothing.
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Speaker 1: I would rather travel than spend all this money on clothes.
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Speaker 1: And so it's just a big eye opener.
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Speaker 3: Oh for sure, for sure. So that brings us to
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Speaker 3: your next recommendation here, don't just create a budget, implement one.
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Speaker 2: Talk to me about that.
11:29
Speaker 1: So one of the number one mistakes that I see
11:32
Speaker 1: with people who are creating budgets in their lives, is
11:35
Speaker 1: that they're creating their budget around what they want to spend,
11:39
Speaker 1: not what they're realistically spending. This is the difference between
11:44
Speaker 1: a budget that works and one that does not. The
11:47
Speaker 1: only way to have a successful budget in your life
11:50
Speaker 1: that you can truly stick to is if you come
11:53
Speaker 1: from a place that's realistic. Now, it may not be
11:57
Speaker 1: a place that you're happy about, but that's the starting point,
12:02
Speaker 1: is what you are truly spending, and then you can
12:05
Speaker 1: tweak and perfect as you go along. It's the number
12:09
Speaker 1: one reason why I tell people, Hey, if you're spending
12:11
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a month on food and you don't
12:14
Speaker 1: like that, don't just cut your grocery budget to five
12:17
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, because that's a huge jump to go from
12:20
Speaker 1: one thousand to five hundred. Do it in small, incremental,
12:24
Speaker 1: achievable steps that you can dwindle down and get to
12:28
Speaker 1: the budget that you want, but it also works for you.
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Speaker 3: This is like going back to that idea of setting
12:35
Speaker 3: smart goals. I mean, obviously smart goals can be in
12:39
Speaker 3: any subject, any topic area, but here you're really homing
12:43
Speaker 3: in on making sure that your financial goals are specific,
12:46
Speaker 3: They are measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. These are
12:50
Speaker 3: all very central to it seems like what you're getting
12:53
Speaker 3: at here, Yes, exactly. Okay, So now let's talk a
12:57
Speaker 3: little bit about emergencies.
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Speaker 1: All of us I think have experienced, especially during the pandemic,
13:04
Speaker 1: how important savings really is, and even small businesses not
13:10
Speaker 1: being prepared with enough cash flow to keep up with
13:15
Speaker 1: the expenses in our lives. So having an emergency fund
13:19
Speaker 1: is critical because the last thing that we want to
13:21
Speaker 1: do is derail our financial transformation and progression with something
13:27
Speaker 1: that unexpected that pops up. So we really need to
13:31
Speaker 1: make sure that we focus on preparing for the unexpected. Now,
13:37
Speaker 1: preparing for the expected and the planned is a different story,
13:41
Speaker 1: but really what's critical is the unexpected expenses or life
13:46
Speaker 1: events that pop up. So having an emergency fund I
13:50
Speaker 1: would say three to six months worth of necessary living
13:54
Speaker 1: expenses saved. That way, we are prepared in the moments
13:58
Speaker 1: that we need it. Because let's be honest, real life
14:01
Speaker 1: is going to happen. If it's not this pandemic, then
14:05
Speaker 1: it's going to be something else in the future. And
14:07
Speaker 1: the best way to find stability in our lives is
14:10
Speaker 1: to give ourselves options on when we need them.
14:16
Speaker 3: Such a good tip. And you said three to six
14:19
Speaker 3: months of living expenses, So why don't we just get
14:22
Speaker 3: a little bit more specific on what that might entail
14:25
Speaker 3: because someone might hear that and think, okay, just like
14:28
Speaker 3: three months rent. But it's bigger than that, right, it
14:31
Speaker 3: really is.
14:32
Speaker 1: Now what quote unquote living expenses? These are your necessityes live.
14:37
Speaker 1: It's your rent, it's your food. It's transportation to get
14:40
Speaker 1: to your guaranteed paycheck that you're going to receive. It's
14:43
Speaker 1: to put you know, clothes on your children's back so
14:47
Speaker 1: they can go to school. So those are my necessities
14:51
Speaker 1: for living. But my emergency fund is very different. I
14:55
Speaker 1: want to continue the same lifestyle that I have now,
15:00
Speaker 1: say if I lose my income, So my emergency fund
15:05
Speaker 1: is funded with enough money to include you know, oh,
15:09
Speaker 1: I'm super tired tonight. I don't feel like cooking. Crap happens,
15:13
Speaker 1: life happens. I'm going to eat out, you know, Oh,
15:16
Speaker 1: my my son was invited to a birthday party this month.
15:20
Speaker 1: I have it in my emergence. So it's those type
15:22
Speaker 1: of things. So essentially, mine is what's in my budget.
15:26
Speaker 1: Right now three to six months worth. But it depends
15:30
Speaker 1: on the person as well and what you're comfortable with.
15:33
Speaker 1: But I would say the bare minimum is those essential
15:36
Speaker 1: living costs three to six months worth.
15:38
Speaker 3: I do want to touch back for a second on
15:41
Speaker 3: the idea of a budget. I think that so often
15:44
Speaker 3: we hear like you should make a budget, and it
15:47
Speaker 3: just feels super overwhelming. I know that I've been to
15:50
Speaker 3: your website, I know that you have some great tools there,
15:53
Speaker 3: But talk to me about like, if you had to
15:55
Speaker 3: offer one the biggest tip to someone who's like starting
15:59
Speaker 3: from scratch with a budget, what would that be?
16:04
Speaker 1: I think the gosh, I have so many tips. The
16:07
Speaker 1: biggest tip would be to remember that your budget is
16:14
Speaker 1: an organizational tool, it's not an implementation tool. And what
16:20
Speaker 1: I mean by that is you have to do all
16:24
Speaker 1: the hard work of knowing how you're going to tack
16:29
Speaker 1: your debt, what priorities, your savings goals are in ordering
16:32
Speaker 1: them in order of importance, knowing where your income is
16:36
Speaker 1: coming in and where it's coming from, where are your
16:39
Speaker 1: expenses going out. You have to do all that hard
16:41
Speaker 1: work before you put numbers on a piece of paper,
16:45
Speaker 1: because it's all of that hard work that's going to
16:48
Speaker 1: answer your questions when you get to creating a budget.
16:51
Speaker 1: What are my budget categories? What should I assign for
16:53
Speaker 1: my budget limits? What debt do I tackle first? Oh,
16:57
Speaker 1: I came into some extra income, where does it need
17:00
Speaker 1: to go? If you do all the hard work, then
17:03
Speaker 1: your budget can be the tool, your roadmap on where
17:07
Speaker 1: you need to throw your money so you can assure
17:10
Speaker 1: that it's going to the places that matter most to you.
17:13
Speaker 2: Smart.
17:14
Speaker 3: Smart, And I think again you're talking personalization right. It's like, yes,
17:19
Speaker 3: you can go to a website and get a tool
17:21
Speaker 3: that can be super helpful, but then to implement that
17:24
Speaker 3: into your life, you need to We're going to keep
17:26
Speaker 3: going back to this theme, be honest and upfront about
17:29
Speaker 3: where you're at so that you.
17:30
Speaker 2: Can be smart about where you're going.
17:33
Speaker 1: So really, what I learned on my financial transformation, especially
17:38
Speaker 1: around the world of retirement, is it was really easy
17:41
Speaker 1: to detach myself from my future self. It was very
17:46
Speaker 1: easy for me to say and look at it like, well,
17:48
Speaker 1: that's a really long ways away, I can't relate to
17:51
Speaker 1: that individual. But what I realized is is that we
17:55
Speaker 1: are basically preparing and saving and investing for retirement. Now
18:00
Speaker 1: this younger version of myself, so I can give a
18:03
Speaker 1: paycheck to the older version of myself. And that's the
18:07
Speaker 1: way I like to look at it as retirement. I
18:10
Speaker 1: am taking care of me in the future, and that
18:15
Speaker 1: made it a little bit more easier, I think, for
18:19
Speaker 1: tucking away money when sometimes it can feel like, well,
18:21
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be able to access this for
18:22
Speaker 1: a very long time. I have a really long time,
18:25
Speaker 1: so what's the point. So that's what I mean by
18:28
Speaker 1: taking care of yourself in the future, and I always
18:32
Speaker 1: recommend the earlier that you can start, obviously the better, right,
18:36
Speaker 1: we have compound interest on our side when it comes
18:39
Speaker 1: to saving and investing for retirement. It's the number one
18:43
Speaker 1: reason I recommend that even if you have debt. Now,
18:47
Speaker 1: that's the number one question I get, Miko, Should I
18:49
Speaker 1: invest for retirement even though I have debt? Yes, and no.
18:54
Speaker 1: You should invest and save for retirement up to the
18:57
Speaker 1: employer match that you are given. Anything outside of that
19:01
Speaker 1: can go towards your higher interest debt. But the worst
19:04
Speaker 1: thing that we can do is not only leave free
19:06
Speaker 1: money on the table, but really, if you think about
19:09
Speaker 1: an employer match, that's your pay for what you do,
19:16
Speaker 1: that's your contribution for the value you bring to your employer.
19:20
Speaker 1: You should take it. It's there, they're offering it to you.
19:24
Speaker 1: So that's my only one exception. When you have debt,
19:26
Speaker 1: and if you're wanting to invest for retirement, always do
19:29
Speaker 1: up to what your employer is willing to match.
19:31
Speaker 2: Now, what if you're a contract worker.
19:34
Speaker 3: I mean I know that I don't have one boss,
19:36
Speaker 3: So what do you say to someone who is working
19:39
Speaker 3: off of ten ninety nine's for example? Right?
19:42
Speaker 1: So I always say, hey, if you can at least
19:45
Speaker 1: do you know this isn't speaking. If you have debt,
19:48
Speaker 1: try to do at least seven percent start there, give
19:53
Speaker 1: yourself a realistic number, and give yourself some grace, and
19:57
Speaker 1: remember that fifty dollars a month is better than nothing.
20:02
Speaker 1: So if you're putting in fifty dollars a month and
20:04
Speaker 1: you say to yourself, well, you know what, geez, that
20:06
Speaker 1: person or that person is doing like fifteen percent of
20:10
Speaker 1: their income, that's okay. Everyone has to start somewhere in
20:14
Speaker 1: your realistic starting place is at fifty dollars a month,
20:17
Speaker 1: and that's still taking action, which I still consider a win.
20:22
Speaker 3: Now, when you say like seven percent or fifteen percent
20:25
Speaker 3: of your of your paycheck or your annual income. For
20:29
Speaker 3: those that may not be saving just yet. When you
20:32
Speaker 3: say putting that aside, are you putting that into a
20:34
Speaker 3: bank account? Are you putting that into an IRA? What
20:37
Speaker 3: are you doing with that?
20:38
Speaker 1: Well, you can put it into your employer sponsor retirement account.
20:42
Speaker 1: That could look like a four toh one K. If
20:45
Speaker 1: you're self employed, that could look like a wroth IRA
20:49
Speaker 1: that you were managing on your own through a platform
20:52
Speaker 1: like Fidelity or Vanguard or td Ameritrade or schwab. So
20:58
Speaker 1: it could be any of those things. When I say invest,
21:02
Speaker 1: I'm usually talking about your retirement, remember, preparing to take
21:07
Speaker 1: care of ourselves. You can also invest outside of retirement,
21:11
Speaker 1: but I really do think that's a later goal. We
21:14
Speaker 1: need to be focusing on our retirement goals first. And also,
21:18
Speaker 1: like I said, your emergency savings, which can be in
21:20
Speaker 1: your checking or in your savings account, or in like
21:22
Speaker 1: a high yield savings account.
21:33
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Speaker 3: your entire first purchase today. I know our second to
23:26
Speaker 3: last tip here having a clear plan to pay off
23:29
Speaker 3: debt and save for financial goals. Let's talk for a
23:32
Speaker 3: second about setting financial goals. Any best practice tip that
23:37
Speaker 3: you can offer to someone who's maybe never really set
23:40
Speaker 3: a financial goal before.
23:42
Speaker 1: Yes, And like, I love when you talked about smart
23:45
Speaker 1: goals because I am the smart goal person. I do
23:48
Speaker 1: it in every aspect of my life, not just for
23:51
Speaker 1: my finances. I'm a huge believer that they have to
23:55
Speaker 1: be descriptive and they have to be specific. If you
23:59
Speaker 1: come out and say, Mico, I want to buy a
24:02
Speaker 1: new car, well, that's a fantastic goal, but we didn't
24:06
Speaker 1: give a lot of detail to that goal. When do
24:08
Speaker 1: you want to buy the car, Why do you want
24:11
Speaker 1: to buy the car? How much can you realistically save
24:14
Speaker 1: to buy the car, which is going to determine maybe
24:16
Speaker 1: what type of car you get. What are the values
24:20
Speaker 1: around the car. Are you looking for dependability or what
24:24
Speaker 1: are you looking for? Are you looking for size a vehicle?
24:26
Speaker 1: Maybe your family has grown, so descriptive goals come first.
24:32
Speaker 1: The next important thing that comes with financial goals is
24:36
Speaker 1: you have to prioritize them in.
24:38
Speaker 2: Order of importance.
24:41
Speaker 1: This is really critical because it answers the question, Miko,
24:45
Speaker 1: what do I do next? I paid off my debt?
24:48
Speaker 2: What now?
24:50
Speaker 1: Right? Or Miko, I got a bonus from work, where
24:53
Speaker 1: do I do with it? I got a third paycheck
24:56
Speaker 1: this month? Where does it go? Well, if you prioritize
25:00
Speaker 1: your goals in order of importance, you know exactly the
25:03
Speaker 1: game plan on where your money needs to go when
25:06
Speaker 1: you have extra income.
25:08
Speaker 2: Right right?
25:09
Speaker 3: So I think that some people probably struggle with like
25:12
Speaker 3: prioritizing which goal comes first, right, or which thing is
25:15
Speaker 3: the most important. It's like, yeah, my retirement's important, but
25:18
Speaker 3: so is like my mental health, And like sometimes I
25:21
Speaker 3: want to think about putting money into an account for X,
25:24
Speaker 3: and then money into a different account for why. Something
25:26
Speaker 3: that I've started to exercise is actually having different bake
25:30
Speaker 3: accounts for different goals. So I have and I've talked
25:33
Speaker 3: about this on the show before, But I have like
25:35
Speaker 3: an Italy account that's just like waiting for me to
25:37
Speaker 3: go to Italy whenever I can go back there. I
25:40
Speaker 3: obviously have a I as a contractor, I have a
25:44
Speaker 3: roth Ira like, so I have different things that I'm
25:47
Speaker 3: mindful of what I'm contributing to them. But I think
25:50
Speaker 3: that again, it's hard to make that priority list when
25:52
Speaker 3: you're like, there's just so many things I want to do.
25:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me give you my biggest tips with that.
25:57
Speaker 1: So that's so true, Miko. How to so I save
26:01
Speaker 1: for things or have financial goals when everything seems this important,
26:07
Speaker 1: everything seems equally important. Here is my number one tip.
26:13
Speaker 1: Go at your financial goals with trade offs, understanding that
26:19
Speaker 1: if you prioritize one goal over another, you are essentially
26:23
Speaker 1: just you're making the conscious decision to spend your money
26:26
Speaker 1: one way instead of another. What are you gaining and
26:29
Speaker 1: what are you losing? So when you have a clear
26:34
Speaker 1: picture of your trade offs, it might become clear to
26:38
Speaker 1: some individual what's really most important when we get down
26:41
Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty. But like you said, it's also important.
26:45
Speaker 1: I'm a huge believer and recommend that people have a
26:49
Speaker 1: dedicated purpose for the money of that they're saving or
26:52
Speaker 1: that they're investing. Like you, I have fifteen different savings accounts.
26:59
Speaker 1: Yes I do, I have, and that's you know, I'm
27:01
Speaker 1: debt free. So my goals might look a little bit
27:04
Speaker 1: different than others.
27:05
Speaker 2: But I did that.
27:07
Speaker 1: So when I go and spend money for the Disneyland
27:10
Speaker 1: trip for my son, and I go to spend it on,
27:13
Speaker 1: say a new jacket, I know, and it's clear I
27:16
Speaker 1: am giving up part or a lot more time of
27:20
Speaker 1: me saving for that goal for my Disneyland trip with
27:22
Speaker 1: my kiddo to get a purse. Am I okay with that? Well,
27:27
Speaker 1: then then you're going to make that personal decision on
27:30
Speaker 1: what you're okay with and what you're not by. But
27:33
Speaker 1: dedicating your savings goals gives you that clear trade off.
27:37
Speaker 3: And I love your last tip here for better financial wellness.
27:40
Speaker 3: Recognize your earning potential. I think this is something that
27:43
Speaker 3: a lot of people do not do at all, especially
27:48
Speaker 3: for those that may, you know, feel really satisfied with
27:52
Speaker 3: their regular day job. If you happen to be, you know,
27:56
Speaker 3: a full time employee, you don't often take a step
27:59
Speaker 3: back and ask yourself what else could I be doing
28:02
Speaker 3: to you? Know, make some sort of additional revenue stream.
28:05
Speaker 3: So talk to me a little bit about this last
28:07
Speaker 3: tip right here.
28:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, So for a really long time, I restricted myself
28:14
Speaker 1: basically by my regular paycheck. I told myself, this is
28:18
Speaker 1: how much I earn, and this is what it is,
28:21
Speaker 1: and what I earn is dictated by what my boss
28:25
Speaker 1: decides to give me, and it just is what it is.
28:27
Speaker 2: Right.
28:28
Speaker 1: It wasn't until after my divorce and I was forced
28:31
Speaker 1: to come up with different ways to pay off my debt.
28:34
Speaker 1: I knew that if I wanted to be debt free,
28:36
Speaker 1: my income that I was making was not going to
28:38
Speaker 1: cut it. I was literally pressured into finding additional income streams.
28:45
Speaker 1: What that looked like for me was getting out of
28:47
Speaker 1: that scarcity mindset and thinking to myself, you know what,
28:50
Speaker 1: I am capable of earning money outside of my day job.
28:56
Speaker 1: I have that value. I have the skills and knowledge
29:00
Speaker 1: to learn a new skill. I can do that, and
29:03
Speaker 1: that's what I did. I had a passion and love
29:06
Speaker 1: for photography. I taught myself how to do real estate photography,
29:11
Speaker 1: and in fact, that's how I made my first extra
29:13
Speaker 1: debt payment ever was from side income that I made
29:16
Speaker 1: from taking pictures of houses, you know, so I sold
29:20
Speaker 1: my own artwork for a long period of time. So
29:24
Speaker 1: when I say you have to learn, you have to
29:27
Speaker 1: learn and recognize the opportunities when they present themselves for
29:34
Speaker 1: you to make more money. And my biggest thing with
29:36
Speaker 1: this is if you feel like any skills, hobbies, or
29:40
Speaker 1: passions that you're currently doing will not bring value to others,
29:44
Speaker 1: that they're not worth paying for, that's how you feel.
29:49
Speaker 1: But I guarantee that people will value and there is
29:53
Speaker 1: a market. Like I get a lot of people that said,
29:54
Speaker 1: when we go, you know, I make these handmade bigs,
29:57
Speaker 1: but no one's gonna want them. Well, you don't know that,
30:01
Speaker 1: don't undervalue yourself, and so that that's really what I'm
30:05
Speaker 1: talking about here, is recognizing the opportunity and your true
30:10
Speaker 1: growth potential when it comes to your income.
30:12
Speaker 3: I think also like making sure that however you could
30:16
Speaker 3: make money is something that actually feels really purposeful for
30:20
Speaker 3: you as well, something that brings you joy if you're
30:23
Speaker 3: just chasing dollars, and that's you know, a guaranteed recipe
30:28
Speaker 3: to burn out rather quickly.
30:31
Speaker 1: Right exactly. You know, That's how I started the budget mom.
30:33
Speaker 1: It was out of true passion and a sense of purpose,
30:37
Speaker 1: like I felt like I was put on this earth
30:41
Speaker 1: to share this knowledge and what I learned to help
30:43
Speaker 1: other people. And it was that passion that got me
30:46
Speaker 1: through some of the hardest moments on my business journey.
30:50
Speaker 1: And so I definitely think passion plays a role because
30:54
Speaker 1: you ultimately get to decide which is wonderful.
30:57
Speaker 3: Aside from paying off nearly eighty thousand dollars worth of debt,
31:02
Speaker 3: what would you say has won has been one of
31:04
Speaker 3: the biggest financial wins for you over the last handful
31:08
Speaker 3: of years.
31:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, you know, it's funny, you know my story.
31:15
Speaker 1: I just this last year, I hit one of the
31:18
Speaker 1: biggest goals that I had, and that was to buy
31:21
Speaker 1: my dream home with cash, and I got to reveal
31:25
Speaker 1: that to my kiddo, which I think, to me that
31:27
Speaker 1: moment outside of the goal was probably the most rewarding.
31:31
Speaker 1: Was seeing the look in tears just streaming down his face,
31:35
Speaker 1: just so happy that I was able to, you know,
31:39
Speaker 1: hit this goal because he was there with me when
31:41
Speaker 1: I was working through this goal. My son was with
31:43
Speaker 1: me on the whole journey. That was a huge milestone.
31:47
Speaker 1: But when I look back at it, I think that
31:50
Speaker 1: one of the most rewarding things was all the skills
31:54
Speaker 1: and knowledge that I've learned along the way that I'm
31:57
Speaker 1: now able to implement in the fit into the future
32:01
Speaker 1: and pass down to my child. You were talking about
32:05
Speaker 1: changing our family story generational wealth, right, and it starts
32:12
Speaker 1: with knowledge, and I'm passing that down onto my kiddo,
32:16
Speaker 1: which will pass that down to his kids and so
32:18
Speaker 1: forth and so on. I think that for me, knowing
32:20
Speaker 1: that is the most rewarding.
32:22
Speaker 3: As we stated earlier, aside from being a little bit
32:25
Speaker 3: taboo to talk about money, money can definitely be something
32:28
Speaker 3: that causes a lot of anxiety for people. So do
32:32
Speaker 3: you have any you know, recommendations or thoughts when it
32:35
Speaker 3: comes to taming the anxiety that can go hand in
32:38
Speaker 3: hand with our finances.
32:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely, with that support is number one. It's the reason
32:46
Speaker 1: I started the budget Mom community someone to talk to.
32:51
Speaker 1: And you know, I have a wonderful private Facebook group
32:55
Speaker 1: that's over one hundred thousand amazing individual rules, mostly women
33:01
Speaker 1: who are on this journey to get better with managing
33:03
Speaker 1: their finances. And even if it's a friend, or maybe
33:09
Speaker 1: it's a parent or a sibling, but community and support
33:14
Speaker 1: is key. You can't hold this in, and you don't
33:18
Speaker 1: have to do it alone. I felt alone for a
33:22
Speaker 1: very long time and it was very scary, and I
33:27
Speaker 1: got into some moments of desperation where I didn't think
33:30
Speaker 1: I was going to come out. And so you don't
33:33
Speaker 1: have to do alone. Find a community, even if that's online,
33:38
Speaker 1: even if that's one person, that's going to help a lot.
33:41
Speaker 1: My next recommendation is, don't focus on all of the
33:45
Speaker 1: things that you feel like you have to do. Create
33:48
Speaker 1: a plan of attack for your debt, budget, save, save
33:51
Speaker 1: for retirement, investment. You don't worry about about all that.
33:55
Speaker 1: Focus with one thing at a time, and that's knowing
33:59
Speaker 1: your STUF place. I think once you take that first
34:03
Speaker 1: initial step, a lot of that anxiety and stress goes
34:08
Speaker 1: away because all of a sudden you're aware of the
34:10
Speaker 1: mountain you need to climb. I always say the unknown
34:16
Speaker 1: is so much worse than knowing. The unknown is what
34:22
Speaker 1: causes fear and anxiety. So when we know, then we
34:27
Speaker 1: can take steps to grow and to change and to transform.
34:32
Speaker 1: And so those are my two biggest recommendations.
34:34
Speaker 3: And again releasing this around April fifteenth tax season, a
34:39
Speaker 3: lot of people when doing their taxes talk about anxiety.
34:43
Speaker 3: Either have to pay money that maybe they weren't prepared for,
34:47
Speaker 3: or could be getting back some money that they didn't expect.
34:50
Speaker 3: So for either of those circumstances, what would you What
34:54
Speaker 3: do you tell people when they're like, oh, shoot, this
34:56
Speaker 3: time of year.
34:57
Speaker 2: Right right?
34:59
Speaker 1: So my thing is always try to plan ahead. Now
35:02
Speaker 1: I know what your taxes. Sometimes you're not going to
35:04
Speaker 1: know exactly right. You're not going to know the exact
35:08
Speaker 1: dollar amount, but you have a good idea if you're
35:11
Speaker 1: going to owe or if you're going to receive. Now
35:15
Speaker 1: what I say when if you're going to receive money
35:18
Speaker 1: back people ask me, what do I do with my
35:19
Speaker 1: tax return? Go back to your listed financial goals. Take
35:25
Speaker 1: care if you're behind on bills, take care of your bills. Next,
35:29
Speaker 1: make sure you have that emergency fund established. And then
35:34
Speaker 1: with the rest of the money I could, I would say,
35:36
Speaker 1: throw it out your number one financial goal, whether that's
35:39
Speaker 1: paying off debt or investing or saving for a specific
35:42
Speaker 1: financial goal. If you owe money, this is the great time.
35:48
Speaker 1: Like I said, I especially if you're completely blindsided and
35:51
Speaker 1: you had no idea you were going to owe money.
35:54
Speaker 1: This is why that emergency fund is so important. Financial options,
36:00
Speaker 1: the freedom to choose. It's the worst feeling in the
36:04
Speaker 1: world to be put up into a corner and feel
36:07
Speaker 1: like the only option you have is to use debt
36:11
Speaker 1: or to use a credit card. You want to give
36:14
Speaker 1: yourself cash options to prepare and so also, you know,
36:18
Speaker 1: make sure that when you're doing your taxes to not
36:24
Speaker 1: only one keep those documents for seven years. I have
36:27
Speaker 1: a lot of people who say, well, I don't like
36:28
Speaker 1: they just shred them, They're just gone. So organization plays
36:32
Speaker 1: a huge key into doing your taxes. The more that
36:34
Speaker 1: you're organized, the less anxiety you're going to feel. It
36:39
Speaker 1: really is truly organizing and finances go hand in hand.
36:42
Speaker 3: Those are some good recommendations. What are you excited about
36:46
Speaker 3: right now? What are you working on right now?
36:48
Speaker 1: So we are working on a really ginormous project. It's
36:52
Speaker 1: the biggest project in my business's history, my very first course,
36:56
Speaker 1: and I'm going all out. So this course I'm hoping
37:00
Speaker 1: to release at the end of this year, and then
37:03
Speaker 1: I have a brand new book that's going to be
37:05
Speaker 1: published and released in the beginning of next year. And
37:09
Speaker 1: that's something that I've poured my heart and soul into
37:12
Speaker 1: over the pandemic period this last year, and I'm absolutely
37:16
Speaker 1: excited for it to change lives.
37:18
Speaker 3: I love to hear it, we love to hear it,
37:20
Speaker 3: we love seeing big things. I'll make sure to link
37:22
Speaker 3: out to all of your platforms in the show notes
37:25
Speaker 3: give me the information, Camiko on where the Hurdle community
37:30
Speaker 3: can follow along with you and keep up with you.
37:33
Speaker 1: You can find me I am on every single day
37:35
Speaker 1: on Instagram just at the Budget Mom. You can find
37:38
Speaker 1: me on Instagram. We have wonderful step by step informational
37:42
Speaker 1: videos on YouTube also at the Budget Mom. We're also
37:45
Speaker 1: on Facebook mainly just search for the budget Mom. You'll
37:49
Speaker 1: find us on all the social platforms.
37:52
Speaker 3: On All the Things, on All the Things, I'm over
37:54
Speaker 3: at Emily a Body, and at Hurdle Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
37:59
Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time