Imagine a world where managing money as a couple is as sweet and simple as a Sunday morning in a Maroon 5 music video. That's the dream, right? This conversation aims to make that dream a reality. Tune in as Jessica and Brandon sit down with Ginger and Willis, a married millennial couple, as they share their journey of aligning their views on finances, the impact of emotions on money decisions, and their strategies for keeping their financial goals on track. This episode tackles everything from first money memories to outdated wills and dreams of beach houses. If you are a millennial (married or not) this episode will be refreshing, informative and relatable. Don’t miss out!
If you’d like to leave us a question to be answered during future episodes, you can do so at Speakpipe.
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon, and Oak City Financial
Schedule 30 minutes with Brandon
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Imagine a world where managing money as a couple is as sweet and simple as a Sunday morning in a Maroon 5 music video. That's the dream, right? This conversation aims to make that dream a reality. Tune in as Jessica and Brandon sit down with Ginger and Willis, a married millennial couple, as they share their journey of aligning their views on finances, the impact of emotions on money decisions, and their strategies for keeping their financial goals on track. This episode tackles everything from first money memories to outdated wills and dreams of beach houses. If you are a millennial (married or not) this episode will be refreshing, informative and relatable. Don’t miss out!
If you’d like to leave us a question to be answered during future episodes, you can do so at Speakpipe.
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon, and Oak City Financial
Schedule 30 minutes with Brandon
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Welcome to the Sugar Daddy podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm Jessica and I'm Brandon and we're the Norwoods, a married millennial couple, here to help you build wealth so you can live the life you've always dreamed of. Brandon is an award-winning licensed financial planner with over 10 years of experience and millions of dollars managed for his clients all over the US. Don't worry, we leave all the intimidating finance mumbo jumbo at the door Stick with us as we demystify the realm of dollars. So it all makes sense. While giving you a glimpse into our relationship with money and each other, we are so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 2:Well, today we actually have our first interview with a couple in regards to how to have proper conversations around finances.
Speaker 1:Yes, which is really exciting because we put the message out that you know we've been getting questions about having conversations. How do you start them? We've put a couple of like conversation starters out there and things like that, and so then we were like let's just go forward and let's see what happens. And Ginger, you instantly like responded and gave us your whole spiel via email and I was like, okay, this is really exciting. So, ginger, you were the first EarlyBrid gets the worm, so we were just really excited to see your information come through. And so really, what we want to talk about today as we start is Ginger, you had a reaction. Obviously. We put that post out asking for people who maybe want to work on their conversations around money. Right, this is not financial coaching, this is not financial planning. We are not your therapists or your counselors or any of those things. We are just another couple who you can talk to and hopefully we can help you leave feeling better and more empowered to have great conversations. But, ginger, why did you reach out so quickly?
Speaker 3:It just sounded like a fun activity. Honestly, we have been having a lot of financial conversations lately. I think I told you in my email I just changed jobs and we have two kids. We have an investment property. We've just been having a lot more conversations lately about our finances and what we want to do long term and what our goals are, both right now and 20 years from now. And then I saw Brandon's post and thought, okay, yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 1:I love it. Well, it sounds like you're already doing a lot of things right, and I think the first step is you're talking about all the things already, which is fantastic. Willis, what was your response when Ginger came to you and said hey, I sent this email to these people. What?
Speaker 2:do you think?
Speaker 4:I mean, I had kind of been bugging her. We need to find someone to help us with financial advice, and I know that's not what this is. But after this conversation I'd love to talk to you a little bit more about engaging you for your services. That was really where my head was at, but, yeah, I do a lot of video and audio work for my job, and so this sounded like a fun opportunity to pop on and talk to you all and open the conversation between the two of us.
Speaker 2:See, maybe down the line you can help us critique our audio and visuals.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yes, we can do like a little partnership. Well, it sounds like you're already doing one of the hardest things, which is you're having the conversations and you're already aligned in. Hey, we need to have these conversations, we want to align with our goals, we want to make sure we're doing things right, especially through the life changes and having the littles and the lack of time and the investment property. It's just so much and it's never ending, and I know we feel the same way. It's like when do we come up for air? When do we do this? So it already sounds like you're in a better spot than most people we talk to honestly, just in general life.
Speaker 2:So five stars. Majority of people. I can tell you, sitting down with a lot of couples in my own business, that you'd be surprised by people that don't have basic conversations around finances, even just the basic understanding of how you view money and what are your goals that you guys want to accomplish together. You'd be surprised by the number of people that actually don't have those and have been married for a good amount of time.
Speaker 1:Right, so you're ahead of the curb for sure. Great. So let's get into a couple of prompting questions, and we really want you all to guide this conversation. But, willis, we'll start with you. What would you love to leave with after our time is up today?
Speaker 4:I think we've almost already gotten it, which is like affirmation that we're thinking about the right things and what we're not already thinking about, what we should be, and moving towards that financial security that I know is really important to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's great. And, jinder, what would you say? What do you want to leave with and how do you want to feel at the end of this call?
Speaker 3:Oh, how do I want to feel, I don't know. I think I just want to feel good and like we're on the same page and that we're having the conversations that we need to be having.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there are probably conversations we should be having that we're just not thinking about, and just yes, yes, okay, yeah, so one big thing is the feeling aspect of it, because obviously you know a lot of people think of finance is just black and white numbers on paper and whatnot, when in reality everybody has a feeling and emotion attached with their money. So you want to make sure that you know you obviously have a plan in place and you're moving towards that goal, but you also want to make sure that you're feeling good about what you're doing, because that's also a big, huge part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, We've learned. I mean, you know, if you do end up talking to Brandon about actual financial advising, I will not be privy to those conversations. I am not licensed for those conversations. That is him, that is not me. But what we do talk about with our friends and, just you know, other people in this, this thin pod space now is it doesn't matter how much or how little money people have. Your feelings drive your actions. Right. You have multimillionaires who are driving to six grocery stores to save 37 cents on blueberries right. And then you have people with $14 in their account that are like, yeah, I'm going to book that vacation because I work hard and treat yourself right. So those are all feelings. It literally doesn't matter what's in the bank account, it's how do you feel about the money? What are your money values?
Speaker 2:Right, Like I can tell you that I'm literally dealing that with my mom, who thankfully, has done more for herself and she's a multimillionaire. But getting her to actually change her mindset and spend money now is very hard.
Speaker 1:And we're talking little things, right, like you can bring a luggage on your next flight and not have to shove everything into a carry on because you don't want to pay the $25 fee, right, but that's not what we're here to talk about today, so we're going to start with. Now that we know what you want to leave with and how you want to feel, let's start with your first money memories, because we really feel like our childhoods and our first impressions of money really seep into our lives as adults and how we look at money, how we handle money, how we use money. So, ginger, what's your first money memory?
Speaker 3:I think my first money memory is my grandfather passed away when I was four and I have this very vivid memory of being at the funeral home and my dad and I can't explain why or how this happened, but my dad handed me a folded up dollar bill and told me to go give it to my grandmother who was, you know, understandably grieving her husband and like I just have a very vivid memory of walking up to her and her giving me a big hug and like handing her that dollar and fast forward to after I graduated high school and she passed away, we're cleaning out her things and I found that dollar Still folded up neatly in her drawer. And so that's really the first memory I have about money and maybe why I feel a little bit more sentimental about money, because I guess my first exposure to it was something that was more sentimental and completely unrelated to actual purpose of money.
Speaker 5:Oh my gosh, is your dad ever telling you what? No, I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Is that something like a tradition, I guess, maybe within your family?
Speaker 1:It's probably a distraction, right Like go give your family a discount.
Speaker 3:It probably was just something tangible that I could. I could do and go give my grandmother and show her some love in that moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the fact that she kept it all those years. Right, I mean that in itself. Yeah, the sentimental aspect, that's huge. So do you feel like that has impacted how you spend money? Like, are you a gift giver? Do you like big, grand gestures? Is that are those important things to you?
Speaker 3:I'm not sure that I'm a big grand gestures person, but I am definitely a gift person. Like that's not my love language, the way that I like to receive love, but it's definitely the way that I like to give love. I'm gonna learn for me to target and picking up you know something in the dollar spot, because I know my kid will like it. Oh guilty.
Speaker 3:Even though she doesn't need it at all. So, yeah, I think maybe that's why I like to, just, you know, give gifts and pick up things for people that I know they'll like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, if you have that memory of that being something so small but so meaningful, and then years later, decades later, it sounds like seeing that she kept that dollar for all this time, I mean it clearly meant something to her right, so I think that's really special. I love that. We're not gonna cry. Willis, what is your first?
Speaker 5:money memory. Well, I'm hurt for sure, I know right, we'll plan that better next time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's funny, we like open the invite. When I saw the money memory and I was like, oh, we haven't planned this at all but a couple things immediately came to mind for me the.
Speaker 4:There's two, and I don't know in which order, so I'll give you both. The first was the Baskin Robbins in what's now called the Village District here in Raleigh. We were in line, me and my half brother and I looked down and there's a $5 bill and like at that age I was like I am rich, like this is the most money and like what can I possibly get? Like we were in a shopping district, so like what can I go spend this on? Yeah, I can treat myself, sort of thing. And then I've got another.
Speaker 4:I used to do a lot of work for neighbors when I was really young and one of them wrote me a check for $15. And I it was for three hours of work at $5 an hour. And I right, that's how little I was and I didn't know that like a check wasn't the money right? And I held onto it for months. And you know, months later he was balancing his checkbook and he saw this $15 outstanding and he's like hey, did you ever deposit that check? And I'm like no, like what are you? I don't know what you're talking about. So then my parents were like we have to go deposit this, and that was my first memory with like how a check works. So those are my two.
Speaker 1:Those are great. How old were you with the Baskin Robbins $5 bill one and then the $15 check one?
Speaker 4:Both would have been early elementary school probably, so yeah, and did you spend the $5? Oh, heck, yeah, I don't even remember what I probably went to like the comic store and got like a packet of cards or something totally useless like comic books for a card.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah Right. So with the check incident, when you went to your parents and they started to explain to you, you obviously have to go ahead and cast check. Did that open up the door to any other conversations around money and finance, or was it just kind of like to that specifically?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't think so. I think it probably just ended with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you remember? Either one of you can answer what do you remember about your childhood if anything, about money conversations, or what did you witness about money in your home growing up?
Speaker 3:I don't remember a ton ton of conversations, but my dad is an accountant and has been my entire life and has worked as an accountant all my life and so he worked for and it was Carolina Power and Light when I was growing up. It's now Duke Energy. But he always did income taxes on the side every tax season out of his home office, and so every spring we always had people coming to our house for him to do their taxes, and often if they had children, they would bring the children and they would play with us, and so it was kind of a fun thing. So I remember always a lot of conversations about money during January to April every year, but also my dad loved to just like the only person that did.
Speaker 3:taxes are fun yeah. Well, we have a good degree. I remember my dad dropping a lot of just random pieces of advice. He would just always, if it just kind of came up, he would try to give me some advice, especially as I got older, more into teenage years, he would kind of try to tell me oh, when you get a job, you need to make sure you're contributing to your retirement account and little things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and when I got my very first checking account as a teenager, they made sure to set me up with a money market account because it had better interest than the regular savings account and just little things like that. So I feel like there were little tidbits throughout my life of my dad trying to kind of subtly infuse some financial literacy there.
Speaker 1:I love it, go dad. So talking about money in your house was not taboo or foreign. Not at all. That's great, willis. What about for you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't really know. We may have talked about it, but it's not something that necessarily stuck with me. I think, to go along with my earlier story about earning $5 an hour for three hours of work, I did a lot of work for neighbors and eventually, when I turned 16, started my own landscaping company and sold that business when I graduated college, and so I think with my parents probably saw my interest in earning money and then my general responsibility with it and kind of just let me go.
Speaker 4:I don't remember a lot of specific financial advice, but I do remember them being very risk averse, which I think has translated to me. And making sure that I had the proper insurance and stuff if something went wrong, and that has stayed with me very much. So as far as making sure that we've got backup plans if something goes wrong, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so maybe not as out there as prevalent as in Ginger's home, but not completely away, like not hidden in any way, yeah, and it was never a taboo subject.
Speaker 4:I remember my mom telling me at one point that she made I don't even remember X amount of dollars an hour, and when she told me that at that age I was like you can't even make that much money.
Speaker 1:Like what are you talking about.
Speaker 4:She's like, oh, that's a really normal amount of money to make. And being older now, that's like, oh, yeah, you're right. So it wasn't a taboo subject, just something that I don't recall us having lots of conversations about.
Speaker 2:With you saying that your parents were more or less risk averse, and that was kind of where a lot of those conversations revolved around. Did you ever maybe find out why, like, something bad happened to them, or that's just how their parents were, maybe, and that's why they were passing that down to you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it was just more who they were and how they were raised. They both came from relatively lower income families, not a lot of financial means on that side of things, and I think that that probably played into it, making sure you could protect what you had earned and that sort of thing, and then you know when you think about running your own company, especially a landscaping company where injury is possible, like it's totally fair to think.
Speaker 4:you know, if my son has an employee that gets hurt on the job, we could lose everything, everything, and so I think it was just common sense. Really, from that standpoint, what would you?
Speaker 1:guys say I mean, it sounds like you're good communicators, you have a good foundation in your email, ginger, it doesn't sound like there's anything glaring, right? You didn't say like we're hundreds of thousand dollars in debt and we're, you know, about to lose our house, which you know. I mean, thank goodness, what do you think you're doing really well when it comes to communicating and your finances and kind of the track that you're on now? What are the positives?
Speaker 3:I think, one that we are open about money. You know we're very open about how much we have. You know, we each have our own checking accounts, but we also have a joint account. We each have our own credit cards, but we also have a joint card that we use to pay for all things family and household, and but because we both have our own finances, I don't think I think there is room there to hide that, but we don't. Like I said, we're both very open with how much money we have and what we're spending it on.
Speaker 3:You know, neither of us are generally the type to go buy something expensive that we know the other one wouldn't really be okay with and then like not say anything about it or try to hide it. You know we just don't do things like that. So I think I think that is probably the first step in just being open about it, and I think we have a lot of the same goals longer term. But we also don't really try to police how one another spends their money either. You know I'm not really going to tell him my opinions on how he spends the money. That's his money, as long as we have no problems paying all of our bills.
Speaker 4:And another thing that I'm really proud of us for doing is, you know, as soon as our children were born and setting up a 529 for them, that always felt like something I wanted to do. But you know you get busy and things. You know you don't do it, but we did and I'm really proud of that. So that's one thing that I think we nailed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're definitely good at putting all things in procrastinating, and that is one that we did not procrastinate on, and, yeah, I'm pretty proud of that one too, because our son is getting close to a year old and we still haven't updated any of our wills or estate planning to reflect that we have two children now.
Speaker 2:So you're in the boat with a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Put that on the top of the priority list.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're really good at putting off important things, but that wasn't one of them.
Speaker 1:Right College planning. We're good. So you guys have been together since 2017, married since 2018. You have a two year old and an almost one year old. How has the dynamic in the conversation and in talking about money changed since you started your relationship? Has it been about the same? Is it getting better, stronger?
Speaker 3:I think, getting better. It also helps that we have more money than we did when we first met, that's always the plus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, neither of us would make much money at all when we met and we both had credit card debt. And it only got worse after we got married because we met and married in under a year. So we spent a lot of money on a wedding and a honeymoon and all of that and came out of it with a decent amount of credit card debt, honestly, and I was really proud of us for working really hard to pay all that off and be in much more sound footing when we had our first child, and I think it's just only continued to improve.
Speaker 4:So yeah, Financially the pandemic actually was really great for us because we had to go out and spend money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for a lot of people, if you didn't lose your job, it was actually very beneficial because, as you said, we were inside a lot of things that you spent money on. You couldn't spend money on.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I started saving a lot of money on gas because my commute was pretty terrible for work, and got a great deal on a new car before we had our kid. You know things like that. So, yeah, the pandemic actually really, really worked out well for us.
Speaker 1:Did you know when you got married and you planned the wedding and the honeymoon, were you on the same page of we're just going to put it on credit cards and we'll figure out how to pay it off later, or was it? Hey, we're in love, we're excited, we're just going to do this and we'll figure it out whenever the time is better. What was that process?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think we paid for what we could and we knew, kind of going into it, like you have X amount of credit card debt, I have X amount. It wasn't great but it wasn't the worst. And we both knew that, like if we could just kind of get past the wedding and the expenses, that it would be pretty easily to kind of hold one another accountable and like buckle down, as they say, and just knock it out. And we did, and it wasn't. I don't know that it was hard. I don't feel like we really cut back a lot, a lot.
Speaker 3:But we were just a lot more mindful and we did sit down and have those budget conversations and look at how much money are we putting towards X, y and Z every month and kind of working out I owned the home, or I owned a home before I met him and he moved in with me. So then we kind of had a lot of conversations about okay, well, you make X amount, I make X amount, this is what's fair for you to contribute to, because all the bills and everything I was already paying. So just kind of working out what's fair for him to contribute and how we could each contribute to our joint expenses but also work on paying down our own things on the side. So it honestly.
Speaker 2:Honestly, it sounds like you have been doing a lot of the right things for quite some time, because I could tell you majority people you know, when they sit down and especially if they were meet and married in under a year that they didn't sit down and really plan out how much they were going to spend on, you know, a wedding and whatnot, and then also even have a talk about playing afterwards on how to pay it off. So I mean, I I could tell you that's not the norm, like you've seemed like you guys have good open communication and you're proactive about it. You say you're a procrastinator, but you are proactive in regards to the conversations you guys really have.
Speaker 1:You're procrastinating the action items, but the conversation, which is the hardest part is is getting done, which is really fantastic. Talk to us about how your bills are paid now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, mostly set up on automated things drawn from accounts that we either jointly own, or if it's like an individual bill, then you know it'd pull from me if it was my, you know, my bill or whatever. I can't even think of one that I pay on my own. So they probably all come from the joint expense account that we hold and they're just set up automatically to draw. I think we need it, or that's what I've encouraged you to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm an automation person. We're all made of people.
Speaker 3:I still have a lot of the home like utility type accounts in my name and they come from my personal checking and as well as our mortgage. But then we I think everything else is either a split of our joint checking account or a joint credit card, kind of depending on what it is and you know what we can get points and money back for on our credit card.
Speaker 4:Yeah, our childcare and mortgage are about the same, so I had covered childcare and she covers the mortgage and that's just kind of how we split that particular large part of our overall budget.
Speaker 3:So the two biggest expenses every month.
Speaker 2:The fun daycare bill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so before we moved, now it's about equal, but before we moved our daycare was almost twice what we paid for our mortgage, which is so painful.
Speaker 4:That would have been the case if we were still at our other house, so yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it.
Speaker 1:We understand fully. It is so painful. So, ginger, you mentioned you have a couple of bills that are still coming out of your checking. Is that something you all have discussed about putting together so that all utilities for both homes and everything is kind of coming you're making a face Willis coming out of one pot, or did you actively decide we're going to keep that separate for some reason?
Speaker 3:So previously we actively decided to keep it separate, simply because they were just already set up on my account and I was happy just leaving it that way. It was fine. However, because I did just change jobs and my income is going down a good bit, I do intend to procrastination and transfer them over to where they're coming out of our joint checking account, and then everything for the other house is actually in a completely separate account that neither of us generally touch.
Speaker 4:That just makes it easier for tracking income and expenses for that property. So absolutely.
Speaker 1:And Ginger, from your email it sounded like the property that you guys moved out of the home that was yours initially. That is now a rental property. It sounds like you're breaking even right, because you said some of that money is going back into maintenance and upkeep and where are you profiting? Is that a profiting?
Speaker 3:We technically are profiting. We let the money build up. For maybe a year. It needed a new roof, so we basically didn't touch any profit. We made from that property for a year, maybe a little over a year, and then used all of that money to put a new roof on the house. And right now we're just letting it make money and it just sits in that account where we don't generally touch that income right now.
Speaker 4:Because we did just pay for half of our beach house rental for our upcoming vacation with that money.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have an upcoming vacation and we had to make the second half of the payment on Airbnb the other week and we were like, yeah, we're just going to use this money for that, because we generally don't touch that money.
Speaker 3:I want to have a certain amount in that account just as a safety net in case we do have a larger expense. But with that house we're getting to the point where we're running out of things that would need to be replaced. We replaced the water heater, the roof, the HVAC is probably any day now. Hopefully the home warranty is going to pick that one up, but we'll see.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that sounds like that's probably why we don't touch that money so much as we want to have it there in case we have a larger expense with that house, because it is an older house with a lot of original things that are at the age where they need to be replaced.
Speaker 4:And when we get to a certain amount and all those major systems have been covered, we're planning to use it for fun money, anything that we bring in. So I envision a world where that's what we pay for vacations from. So just haven't quite gotten there yet. Probably another year or so I think we'll be there.
Speaker 1:It sounds like again, you're planning really well for future expenses, those hidden costs that we don't think about as homeowners, right? Something's always going to break or need fixing or have somebody come out to look at, right, and I think having the plan of maybe a year, 18 months from now, to have that money be the fun money, the vacation money, the Disney money for the kids, right, that's fantastic. I think that's the way rental income should be. I think it should be used.
Speaker 2:We're also really big on the aspect because I think a lot of times when people talk about finances, they talk about things that aren't fun and, like you know, they talk about the bills and saving and also like retirement, which is, you know, 20 plus years into the future, and they don't have enough conversations on what can we do this year and plan for that's going to be, you know, be fun things that we can enjoy. So we're really big on making sure that you guys do you know people in general build things into their life that they're going to enjoy now and not just focus on delayed gratification.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to go back to Ginger. You said so. Some of those bills are still in your name. I get it. I had a house when we got together, he had a house. Then you get rid of the houses, you combine the things. You're like, oh well, you already own the cable bill, I'm not going to mess with that, right? So I, I get it. It's. It's a process. It's time you have to be intentional. My reason was not about where is the money coming from. It sounds like you've got good cash flow in, good cash flow out. Everything's getting taken care of. My. My thought behind it was sometimes there's a visibility gap, and we face that in our relationship too, because for the most part, we do have separate accounts. So we do have one joint credit card, we have a joint savings, but everything else is separate. So Brandon wants to go and spend money on gap. That's on him. That's not on me. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Express, express, okay, so same as you know, if I go to target or wherever you know, he doesn't, he doesn't see it unless the box shows up or I'm like, hey, look at this new thing. But I do feel like that and we've talked about this for ourselves is it causes a visibility gap, right In, hey, I actually have $500 extra coming out of my account every month that you didn't realize, and it's not for fun stuff or a target run or new boots, right, it's for keeping our lights on keeping the mortgage going. You know they're they're important bills that are being paid, and so I'm wondering do you, ginger, or you, willis? How confident are you in all the bills going out every month for both of you separate combined? You're shaking your head, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Like Ginger's answer is probably like I've got it Like if something happened to me. Ginger's 100% good right. If something happens to Ginger, I'm screwed. I have no idea what's going on.
Speaker 4:Obviously I would figure it out, but I don't it would be a lot of work for me to like figure out what bills she's paying from what accounts. And we have a sheet that we started where I've outlined like if something happens to me, every single account where I've got it, how she can generally access it not passports and stuff and then I've asked her to do the same and you've started, I've heard, but I don't think you've fully completed it, and so that was something that we had done to help bridge that gap, but across the nation, I suppose. Yeah. It's good that you started though. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I'm, we have, we do the, I do the same, we do the same thing, and then I do the same thing with my clients. Is you know? You periodically update it so that you have an essential location. You know if something happens to the other person, you know where everything is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't want to be scrambling when you're already in a crisis and already mentally tapped, probably not sleeping what you know. If it's something tragic, it's like this is the worst time of my life and now I don't know my husband's password or my wife's like who, who's our provider for our lights and our air conditioning, and you know it's. I mean, even I have to go back, especially and it is sometimes a problem when you automate so much. It's like we had to fill out paperwork for our daughter to go to public school kindergarten. She came from private pre-K and you know you had to do like the statement of residency or something, and it was like we need a electricity bill or a utility bill and I was like, oh, is that Duke, is that PNC, is that? It's like it's it's not something that you constantly think about, so you have to have it written down somewhere, especially for you know the moments.
Speaker 1:We hope to that we never have to go through an experience. So okay, so far I've heard we need to update our will to reflect that there are two children in your home now and we need to continue working on those spreadsheets or that Google doc, whatever that might be, to where you guys can understand each other's accounts potentially passwords or some sort of password code, right so that the other person knows how to get into that account. But I know, for me there are times where I'm like, hey, did you like I'm paying pest control, I'm doing all. Those are things that Brandon has never touched since we've been together, right Like we just don't have bugs and he enjoys that life. Who's our pest control provider?
Speaker 2:I'm figured out.
Speaker 1:So let's put it down on the paper right, so that we don't have to figure it out, but also for that visibility of especially Ginger and we're going to get into this. You've mentioned you know you're taking a different role, work wise so that you can spend more time with the kids, which is huge, and I love that you're doing that. But I'm sure that's going to come with adjustments that need to be made financially right, because stepping back usually means less money. So now we're working out of a smaller pot to pay the same bills. So we're going to get the will together. We're going to add the passwords to the page. Talk to us about where you think you need to make adjustments now that you've taken a pay cut.
Speaker 3:I think overall we're not going to have a ton of adjustments. I do intend, like I said, to transfer all of our utility bills into our joint checking account, so that's not coming out of just my paycheck any longer Because honestly I'm not confident that between the mortgage and all the utilities and my money that I'm going to be able to cover all of it. So I think that's really where the adjustment is. But I think I kind of feel like we're in a good place where we're not going to really have to significantly cut back. We don't have Jumping yeah, you jumped in.
Speaker 4:So leading up to this job change, we were doing a lot of house projects.
Speaker 4:And so extra money was going to that and those aren't projects that we have to do. And so we finally got in the house, I think in where it'll probably be for the next couple of years, and so that extra money was going all toward that stuff. And then, when we knew Ginger's job was going to be changing, we sat down and kind of re-looked at everything and made sure that we had the money coming in that we needed to cover our finances. And, to her point, things looked pretty solid and still do and so we feel fairly confident moving into this next phase as far as that goes, and we just don't have as much extraneous money to spend on home improvements and things like that. But, like I said, we've gotten home in a pretty good spot, so feel good about it.
Speaker 2:So, with the job change, specifically to spend more time with the kids while they're little.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, yes, well, that and a lot less stress, so benefiting the kids in more than one way. But yeah, I was just in a position where I was feeling incredibly burnout and stressed, a lot with work and I could see it bleeding into my home life. And so now I'm in a position with a lot less stress and I am not working five days a week anymore.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how long do you plan on staying in this position? For how long do you plan on staying in this position before maybe making a change one way or another in the future?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would like to stay in this sort of position at least until our youngest starts kindergarten. I think at that point I may consider kind of going back. I was much more in like leadership track management and administration, and I've, I'm in, I work in healthcare, so I'm back into patient facing role now and so I would like to stay there at least that long. I may decide that that's just where I want to be long term and I may decide I want to get back more into management at some point. But I think that's so at least the next five years.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you've switched your hours, maybe your company, but you're still the same field, okay. So hours company, but same field. You're not starting over and learning something. Okay, okay, excellent Willis, how did you feel about gender wanting to take this step back?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah Like this is, you're never going to get to spend more time with your kids, and I always say the time is your most valuable resource. And if I can trade some money for some time, like I'll do it in a heartbeat If it means I get to spend time with the kids on the weekend, or you know, I generally like yard work and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:But we've all floated that to a neighborhood kid Because you know, if I can spend that hour that I would have been out doing the yard with the family. I'd much prefer to do that and it's really great to be in a financial position to do that. And I forgot the question, so I've just kind of ran.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:No, that's perfect Now are you very meticulous in regards to how they do your grass, since obviously you had a company.
Speaker 4:No, I'm actually kind of swung the complete opposite way. I'm like I just I've done this my whole life. I don't care. Pardon my friend, I don't give a shit, Like just know it. It's fine. You should see our front yard right now. It's bad.
Speaker 1:Tell that kid to come, come over this weekend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no I think that.
Speaker 1:I think that makes so much sense and we talked about the same thing and it must have been last weekend. Our neighbor was getting her yard done by a company we typically do our own. It's not that massive and I, straight up, we had friends in town. It was, you know, one of those hundred degree days and I just said, hey, do you have time to come over and do this? And so he like walked a lap, gave me a price, and I was like sold, here's a check. Thanks, no regrets.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like and and Willis, you say it's an hour, but it's like, okay, you got to make sure everything's ready to go and you've got your materials. And like we have an electric lawnmower, is everything charged by the time you're done with all of it and you take a shower and then you want to sit down and like have a big bottle of water. You're an hour and a half to two hours in right that you could have spent with your family doing something fun where you're making memories with your kids. So we're on the same page now.
Speaker 2:I really liked that. You said that you value time and you have no problem spending some money to get time back. And you know, from everything that you guys have said, I feel as though, like you guys, both really do view money the same way, in the sense of how you, like I said, you value time over money, because you'd be surprised, no more people that value money over time. Where they'll you know they can save some money, even though it takes a lot longer time to do it, they prefer to do it that way.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of that, you know.
Speaker 4:I guess, now that I'm really thinking about it. It's the big projects though. Like like reinstalled hardwoods upstairs and like that probably would have cost $20,000 for us to have someone do it and it cost me five grand to do it. And so I would agree with that one as well. I'll jump in on that. And yeah, those bigger projects are things that you know.
Speaker 2:I'll try to keep yeah.
Speaker 3:But like our house cleaners, every month take my money. Yeah, yes, gladly.
Speaker 1:Yes, take it, please take the money. No regrets. So we're coming up on time. So I just want to. I do want to be mindful. Let's talk about your goals. Right, you are communicating. We're going to talk about what kind of plans we can put in place, because it really sounds like time is the biggest factor in moving you guys forward to meet your goals. So let's talk about what those goals are and really paint a beautiful picture of where you want to be. You know, two years, three years, five years, 10 years what is that vision?
Speaker 4:from both of you.
Speaker 4:I didn't share this, but about five, six years ago I started over completely financially job-wise home, everything Just a big change in my personal life, and so for me right now it's kind of playing catch-up, making sure that we're making the right choices that are going to lead to a secure financial future. I think we've made a lot of headway toward that. Part of it has been my career path has been very fruitful, and then some of the choices we've been able to make because of that strong financial standing, like keeping the other house and stuff like that I think that's really allowing us to catch up and so when I think about kind of our ideal financial future in the next couple of years, it's continuing to make those strong choices that are going to lead to that financial security that I think is important to us.
Speaker 2:As far as the security sorry, when you say financial security, what does that actually mean to you?
Speaker 4:That's a great question. I think about not having to look at the prices at a restaurant is kind of my benchmark maybe, where I know we can go out and have a meal and like. If it says market price, I don't have to ask the waiter what that means Like, because it's probably not going to have a comment in it. Right, right, how much is?
Speaker 1:the lobster today, sir yes.
Speaker 4:But like those are the sorts Like if we go out to have a good time, like just knowing that I don't have to worry about where the money is coming from. I don't know, that seems silly, I guess.
Speaker 2:No, no, it doesn't seem silly at all. The reason I ask the question is is that I think when people I think it's a very common answer people said I want you to know if you'll find it I'm actually secure and if you don't know how to specifically define it, how do you know if you've gotten there? That's true, and that's really what the focus is. Is that you want to. When you have a goal, when you're putting a goal in place, you have to have quote unquote an end mark, and if you don't understand what that end mark is, then you're kind of just aimlessly moving forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and longer term, I think financial security means that we can retire at a reasonable age and feel confident At a reasonable age. I think like 60 to 65 probably is about when I'll feel done working. But you know, if that doesn't mean I wouldn't do like some sort of fun job, like work at Looser Home Depot, that's fun for me.
Speaker 1:We will see you in the garden section, sir.
Speaker 4:You've heard my passion for home projects and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:That's sort of something that's always been exciting for me. But yeah, around 60, 65, being able to know we can make it to end of life and comfortably provide for ourselves and hopefully our children are relatively financially independent by that point. But the world's changing. It feels like people get a lot more support from their parents than they once did, and I don't want to exclude that. That's a possibility. But hopefully, like I said, we're setting them up to fly free and be strong on the run, but anyway.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's something too you could even talk to Brandon account, for example we put 20, we each put $25 a month into a retirement account for our kids that we're going to stop contributing to when they turn and correct me if I'm saying any of the strong, but I think we're going to stop contributing when they're 18 and just let it sit there and grow. So then they'll have minimum a million dollars by the time they turn 60. Right, and that's on top of what our grandparents or their grandparents are doing for them and, yeah, what we do expect them to do on their own as they mature and grow. And we have all those conversations. I would like and you don't have to do it today, but I would like for you to have a little bit more of a grand vision of what those goals are. So I love, hey, I don't have to look at the price on a menu, we're totally there, right. If a friend or a couple invites us and says, hey, can you come to dinner, can you come to this show? We don't want to be crunching numbers like, uh, can't it? No, like yeah, we'll be at dinner, that's great, right. And we don't want to have to be like is this going to bust the budget? Is this, is this going to you know, our lights going to be on tomorrow because I got the steak Right, so we totally hear that.
Speaker 1:But what else Right, like, could 60 or 65 be, 50 or 55? Right, and would it be? And I'm just spitballing based off of what we've talked about and what our goals are. But what if that's four really nice vacations a year, right, maybe two as a couple and then two as a family? Is there anything else on the list for home improvements? Or maybe the next home, or you know things you might want to do with your extended families, things you want to do not only for your kids but for your parents as they continue to get older. Really build out a grand vision, right, and it can and it should be over the top. I want it to be more beautiful than I don't have to ask the waiter about what the market rate is, right. So that's something.
Speaker 2:If you're a foodie, maybe it's like, hey, let's take a flight to Italy to get some pasta.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean, it can be anything you want it to be. There's no judgment, there are no rules. It can be whatever. Right, hey, you want the your lawn to be done every week by the neighbor kid down the street, and that's part of your, your vision. Great, put it on the list.
Speaker 2:Right. Honestly. Think about it in the sense of if you were to win the mega million tomorrow, like what would you do? Oh, we talk about it all the time, I think our favorite thing also is Get very granular as far as you know the different things, because I think when you start to really talk about those things more often they don't seem so farfetched.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It really is a psychological aspect to it, Like when you start talking about a regular basis, like these grand things that you want to do with your life, you're like I think we actually can do these things as long as we plan for it.
Speaker 1:Because then it'll be top of mind, you'll continue to talk about it and then that's going to eventually translate into action. Right, how are we going to get there? How are we going to make those four vacations, the new car, the trips, the whatever? How are we going to get there, right, when it's always top of mind, you know, you turn into like that ask, believe, receive, and you're affirming, hey, like this could be, this could be done. We might not fly first class to Italy, but we can get to Italy and do all the things once we're there, right? So, um, so think about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we do some of that. We have, you know, like our kind of like not I wouldn't say bucket list, but like like we want a beach house. Um, we want to completely renovate our master bath and pay someone to do that.
Speaker 1:Um, we have a great contractor for that, if you need one. Good to know.
Speaker 3:Um, we have the house that we're in now. Um came with a hot tub that was very old and died almost immediately after we moved in. We used it what? Twice maybe? Um, and so I have this like grand renovation plan for that, um, that portion of our, the back of our house, and a new hot tub to go in it and and all of the things. Um. So those are things we talk about. Um, those are kind of, like I said, maybe not bucket, bucket list, because there are more attainable Um, so one that's unlikely to happen without the mega millions would be a commercial real estate purchase or two.
Speaker 3:Yes, but that's also on our list. Well are you playing?
Speaker 1:Say again Are you playing the lottery?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, we do.
Speaker 1:You like crackers, and then I like when we win the lottery and I'm like did we buy a ticket?
Speaker 2:I think it's the other day for the mega million. I want you to suck a billion.
Speaker 3:I'm like what the heck, we bought tickets for the mega millions because I saw them lose. It was one point.
Speaker 1:I'm like you know we can't win if we don't play. But okay, so in all honesty.
Speaker 2:Like this entire conversation, it sounds like you are doing a lot of good things, like five stars. So what is the things that you think that maybe you're not doing well, or you know something that you can improve upon? Do you have any idea specifically what those things might be in your mind?
Speaker 3:To me, top of mind is probably what we talked about earlier and just more transparency about, like our monthly expenses and what those are and where it goes and how much it ends up being altogether. And I'm not trying to gatekeep intentionally, it's just I've always handled it and I just keep handling it. But I do recognize that he almost never has any idea how much money is even in our joint checking account, unless he asks me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, our joint credit card. I'm forever like what's the balance this month on the joint credit card, because I just, I just don't have access to that particular account. I do have access to our joint checking account, so that one's on me.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's where this works.
Speaker 2:It's the same it honestly happens, especially if you're getting married later in life. You know you guys live two completely separate lives up to that point, and so you just kind of get used to doing things and handling on your own. In my day with us, I was 33 when we got married, so yeah, yeah, so we get it.
Speaker 1:It's just you. You fall into a natural rhythm of like this is how I've done it. I've I've been keeping my own lights on my own water on for all these years. We're good, and so you really have to be intentional about you know, sitting down, having that dedicated time, because I know and this is, this is for our scenario we have these constant fleeting conversations, right? And so I told him because we've had so many things you know, I work full time, he works full time, we have the podcast, our kids are have more active social lives than we do at this point, right, there's just so many things.
Speaker 1:And so I told him a couple of months ago we need to get organized. This is no longer working for me. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I don't feel like you know what's happening with these accounts, how much money we're spending on all of these things. Right, lights are on, water's on, mortgage is getting paid, but we could be doing better, right, and that better part for us is let's communicate and let's make sure that we both know what's going on. And so one of the things we started and this is just super high level and surface is we both have iPhones now that he's finally switched back, and so we created an issue for a while that my bubbles were green and not listen, it was cause for divorce, okay, Um, so we, we did it.
Speaker 3:That was me for a long time.
Speaker 1:You were the green bubble.
Speaker 3:That was the green bubble for a long time.
Speaker 1:It's like got rushing. So what we did is we created a note. It's just called Sunday night meeting. We have Monday, tuesday, wednesday, all the way to Sunday, and we each go in during the week or on a Sunday night and we plug in what's happening. What meetings do you have? What extracurriculars do you have? Brandon just started like an evening soccer, co-ed, soccer league thing.
Speaker 1:Do I have dinner and brunch with a girlfriend or do I have a work event? Right, everything goes in there. Hey, our kid has splash pad. On this day we can't forget to put him in his splash bed, you know, his bathing suit or whatever. And it just whatever. It is open house.
Speaker 1:There's so many things, there's a million things on this list at all times, right, and it just felt like, even though I work from home, he works from home, we're literally together all the time. It was still this like ships passing in the night, feeling of like, oh, I didn't know you were going to the chiropractor, I didn't. Oh, you didn't know I had a dentist appointment. Well, I'm going to be gone for three hours, right, and it just I needed us to get centered again and we used to do that really well. But then, yeah, you come out of the pandemic, you have two kids that now have their own lives, and it just gets busy, and so that's one thing that we've done, and it's so simple.
Speaker 1:He puts his notes in. I put my notes in for every day of the week and then on Sunday nights, and it's not this big elaborate thing. We take 10, 15 minutes. We go through. What questions do you have? How can I support you? What else are we missing, right? And then it turns into a lot of the logistical. Oh well, my dentist appointment is actually over here at this time. By the time I'm done, I can probably go pick up Roman for daycare, so you don't have to do it. Okay, great, that gets added in in a note Jessica, to pick up Roman from daycare, and it just has helped us get more organized, get more on the same page, and it sounds like you guys are on the same page and you're doing so many things well. I think that we do so many things well too, but that doesn't mean that it feels perfect, right, there's always room for improvement.
Speaker 2:And I would also say Willis, if Ginger is anything like Jess in the sense of a thousand things going through her head at all times, this helps with her stress level. Just having it like the fact that we both might be thinking about it, but to know that we have it outlined on paper and we've talked about it significantly yeah significantly de-stress us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it gives me a sense of I know what's happening, I know what to look for the next day. If I have any follow up questions, I know that I can ask them in that time and it takes away from that like what I don't remember. Right, you didn't tell me and it's like, but I did tell you three times, right? I mean, we all do that, so it helps eliminate that, which I think is great. And another layer that you guys could add in, if that sounds like it's something that would be helpful to you, is where else can you then pocket dedicated time without the kids, because we all know you cannot have any kind of productive conversation with the kids around.
Speaker 1:When can you have conversation to sit down and write down your to-do list? Because, even on this short call, we are walking away with a couple of things that you guys wanted to do, right, some of which, like Ginger, you moving your accounts and your drafts to the joint account. That sounds like it's probably going to be a you thing, right? When can you actually sit down, take 30, 40 minutes and get that done and then tell Willis hey, this is the amount of money that's now going to be coming out of our joint account because you're adding a whole another layer of money coming out, right? So do you want to do that every two weeks? Do you want to do it once a month?
Speaker 1:And then you guys assign yourselves or each other a task to say, hey, when we check in next month, these things will be done. Right, we're going to move the expenses from the rental into the joint. We're going to meet with the lawyer to update our will. Does that include any kind of hey? We need to update our life insurance, right? You know that could be something that might need to be looked at. So what things can you commit to to get more structured around? Having time for the conversation, because you're talking it sounds like your communication is wonderful. It's that dedicated time of when and what needs to be done.
Speaker 2:You literally have to open up your calendar and your phone and schedule it, because that's how we do it.
Speaker 1:We like you know hey this Sunday at this time.
Speaker 2:Let's both put on our calendars. It's there so that we know that's going to occur and then we can prepare anything that we need to talk about leading up to that point.
Speaker 1:That's the part too, right. That's not the time to then be like what's the password for that account? I can't get in, I don't right. Get your notes, write it down If you're. You know re-budgeting if you're working on a new budget, like have your numbers ready, right, come to the table, come to the meeting prepared so that it can be productive. Doesn't look like there's a lot of stress between you two. You obviously have been very open on this call, so I think a lot of what we typically hear and see is there's a lot of anxiety and stress around having like conversations like this.
Speaker 2:You don't have that you don't have that.
Speaker 1:It's really just about finding the dedicated time and getting organized so that your time together whether you choose for it to be 30 minutes, 45, an hour- yeah, I wouldn't do anything longer.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't do anything longer than an hour. That'd be the max, because then it just often becomes un-pernested. Exhausted A time period and then also you dread it Like if you were like scheduling a two hour meeting. Who wants a two hour meeting at you? Nobody, yeah, nobody, nobody.
Speaker 1:Nothing. If you schedule it right the first 30 minutes, like let's get to business. Last 30 minutes, let's have lunch, right, or let's go and get a dessert or whatever it is right. That'll make this an experience that you're looking forward to, that you know you're going to leave with in a positive light and it's not this drag, daunting thing. So what do you think would make sense for your schedules and what you can realistically commit to?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I really like your idea of connecting on Sunday. We do what you do to a degree, but just with the things that are different in our weeks, and we just use Google calendars to make sure that those are on our shared calendars. But yeah, I mean honestly, with you starting the new job. We've kind of been doing that anyways on Sunday. It's verbal and that is not as good for me, because I think you saw our faces. I'll forget things, and so I really like the idea of being intentional and writing things down and making sure that we're covering our schedule, and then that gives us time, too to talk about finances and financial goals and stuff like that too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I almost feel like we could make that Sunday night meeting. First 15 minutes has run through the week really quickly and all the things. Like he said, we generally just focus on what's different. That's not our normal routine of who's dropping off and picking up kids and whatnot. But then maybe take the other 30, 45 minutes and knock out something from our to-do list, or at least make plans for knocking out something from our to-do list.
Speaker 1:Do you think you could? So to me, sitting down and talking about finances weekly feels like too much right.
Speaker 3:Because there probably hasn't been too much of a shame, but you're starting to feel so I meant like taking maybe not necessarily talking about finances, but like at least looking at our to-do list and saying, okay, well, ginger, you still haven't moved the things from the joint account.
Speaker 1:So just the actions.
Speaker 3:We have 45 minutes left in our one hour Sunday night meeting. Do you want to work on that now or do you want to schedule some time for yourself later in the week to do that and actually put it on your calendar and make sure you do it? That's kind of what I meant.
Speaker 3:So like look at our to-do list and all of these random outstanding things that we just kind of never get around to and actually make some plans, some action plans With my patients. I'm big on smart goals and goal setting and small things.
Speaker 2:I see the same macro, so I have to do the same with myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think this is so great and I'm hoping that you guys are feeling positive about this conversation because I feel like it's been really great. I mean, you're doing so many things so well. So it's Friday now. Do you think that both of you by Sunday whether you decide to do the notes list, add more to the calendar, whatever it's personal to you, right, what works for us is not going to work for you. You might be able to take some things, leave other things, it's totally fine. By Sunday, do you think you could have a dedicated time on the calendar to have your first meeting, decide on the length of that meeting and the action items of what you want to leave with, since you're going to be building out that to-do list?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, then, from there, based on the smart goals, obviously, you know we need to set dates right. So, and I like to work in like the oh, this one's easy, I can do this right, like, and then get it off the list, strike it through. I love, like, getting it off my list. So, in whatever way, you want to work right, set yourself up for success. Again, smart goals, you get it.
Speaker 1:You don't want this to be something where you're just writing it and then you end up putting it off. Putting it off, and instead what can you check off your list? And then how are you going to celebrate, even if it's something tiny, I really think it's important, especially since you've both said we're kind of procrastinators. We know what we need to do, but we haven't done it yet. I think it's really important to celebrate your check, your checkbox in a could be a big way, could be a little way, could be a hey, by the time we have these four things done, we're going to do a staycation, we're going to do whatever that looks like for you, right, like, dream big again, but I want you to think of a way to celebrate that you're moving your goals and your plans forward. I think that's important, wouldn't she say?
Speaker 2:Oh 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think too many people just think about the negative aspects of the goals and none of the positive parts that come with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think it's that will help you celebrate together. It helps you stay connected, it helps you prepare for the next thing that you're going to check off your list and then get excited about, right. And maybe, as you progress it, those rewards for yourselves, those celebrations, get a little bit bigger, right? Maybe they don't, because you want to roll that celebration into something even bigger, right? You're like ultimate beach house, right, whatever that is. But take the time to affirm each other and hey, you did a great job. I'm really proud of you that you knocked it out ahead of schedule or on time, you know, based on what we decided, and then celebrate so that you can be prepared and energized to knock out the next thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a part of that too is the psychological aspect behind it. Like, if you're celebrating, you know the things that you're doing. Then maybe moving forward, you won't procrastinate as much and you'll start to be get them done quicker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I like that. I'm a natural procrastinator too. So I.
Speaker 2:I understand that.
Speaker 1:He is yeah, okay, do we feel good? I mean, we have a plan, right? Yeah, sunday night meeting you're going to outline everything on the to-do list, put some parameters around it, put some dates that you want these things accomplished. Right, Like the will is probably pretty important, maybe put that I did start that this week Like we've got the lawyer engaged.
Speaker 4:I've done all our previous paperwork and he sent the worksheet that you have to fill out because, as it turns, out, I want information from you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in a way so neat right. I know they do too much. Okay, so you're already. You're already moving in the right direction, so that's perfect.
Speaker 4:That one had been on my list for like literal, I mean, since he was born, so nine months and that's on me. So anyway.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, at least you have a will. I meet a lot of people who have like three kids and have zero and don't have a will period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or not updated their life insurance, since they were, you know, just married and now it's like you have three kids and you haven't looked at your life insurance.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I said I talked to a lot of people. I can assure you that you guys are You're doing great, doing great and you're having conversations Like I mean, like I'm very happy that this, you know, first go around with this was like this because, as I said before, I've sat down with couples and literally you could you get I through the computer, I could see the tension like, cause you have people that are on two opposite sides of where they want to be.
Speaker 1:So he's had. He's talked to couples who somebody went out and bought a car like a beat, Wasn't it? Was it a Tahoe or a BMW?
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't BMW, it was Mercedes.
Speaker 1:Oh, but without talking to their partner Like and I could we have like a threshold?
Speaker 2:See the anger on her face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, $200 or more and we're probably going to talk about it, right? Unless it's like household stuff or stuff for back to school or whatever, right? Hey, nobody in this relationship going out and buying anything that has a motor without talking to the other person, right?
Speaker 2:So all your conversations you guys are having seem well, though like the thing that I just, like you, know from our, you know, our conversation, I think that you're probably looking for is a high level view on how everything, from a strategy standpoint, interacts with each other. So, like you know, how does you know? A lot of people often view their finances in silos and they maybe don't see how, like, one area rolls over and affects the other area and how that you know, by having that view, you can see the long-term plan in place in the long-term. How do we achieve those long-term goals and that kind of seems like where you're at.
Speaker 1:They said that talking to a financial advisor is on their list.
Speaker 3:It is. It is one of our action items. They can't do them.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we're going to do an episode on how to spot red flags and what to ask for in a financial advisor, so you should listen to that episode. Obviously, you can reach out to Brandon, but if you didn't want to do that, that's okay too.
Speaker 4:I was like we're probably just going to reach out to Brandon and just yeah, honestly, brandon, if you just send us some dates and time for like an initial consult or whatever is normal, like we're ready to take that step.
Speaker 1:Seriously, we'll send that in our follow-up, so that's perfect.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:So how do you feel, now that we've had this conversation?
Speaker 3:Good yeah, I feel a little bit more motivated to chip away at that to-do list than I have previously. Good yeah.
Speaker 4:And, like I said at the beginning, like some sort of affirmation that we're doing the right things or having the right conversations, is what I was hoping to get out of today, and it sounds like we're generally on track and that we've got some areas for improvement. And yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. I'm glad you said you wanted to feel good, ginger, at the end of this call. You just said you feel good and, willis, you got your affirmations. You're doing a ton of things right and I think that, with just a couple of minor tweaks on getting organized and really setting dedicated time to sit and talk, it's going to be a game changer and you guys are going to do great and your task list is going to get done with no problems. You might add to it, you know, over time, as those tasks lists never seem to go away, but you're going to celebrate your wins and your achievements together.
Speaker 1:It's going to motivate you to get those other things knocked out. Beach house is very much in your future. I can see it and we just are so grateful that you were willing to come on here and be vulnerable and essentially talk to strangers about having better money conversations.
Speaker 2:So we're really excited to have had you on. I'm really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm so glad you're here.
Speaker 3:Thank you Thanks for having us.
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