Financially Free Gen Z: Season 2, Episode 1

Financially Free Gen Z Season 2, Episode 1 Dollars & Sense: Naviga�ng the Holiday Spend Hangover 00;00;07;24 - 00;00;25;01 Rachel: Welcome to Financially Free Gen Z. My name is Rachel Munger and I'm super excited to be launching season two of our podcast today with my co-host, Joshua Herrmann. Joshua, since you're new to the show, could you introduce yourself and let folks know a litle bit more about you?

00;00;25;04 - 00;00;39;13 Joshua: Sure thing. Hi, I'm Joshua Herrmann and I'm a recent graduate of Concordia University St. Paul. I've been working at Coulee Bank as a Universal Teller since last May, and in my spare �me, I enjoy cooking, bowling and par�cipa�ng in the local theater scene.

00;00;39;14 - 00;01;06;29 Rachel: Well, if you followed along with us in season one, you would have heard us discuss a whole bunch of different topics. Some of them, including budge�ng, the rent versus buy debate, credit cards, and also re�rement accounts. This season, we want to take just a litle bit of a deeper dive into each of these topics and then take a look at what it really means to be a financially free Gen Zer. 00;01;07;01 - 00;01;18;21 Rachel: Joshua and I are both proud Gen Zers ourselves. Although I'm definitely on the older half of the spectrum, but we have been slowly finding ourselves naviga�ng through the world of finance.

00;01;18;27 - 00;01;39;09 Joshua: Yes, Gen Z is finding themselves on the cusp of some big life changes and decisions.

Some Gen Zers are currently looking at if and where they would want to atend college, while others are now in the process of paying back student loans. Some are buying their first cars or ren�ng their first apartment, or se�ng up a re�rement account for the first �me.

00;01;39;11 - 00;01;53;09 Joshua: There are so many big financial decisions that happen in your life from 18 to your upper twen�es. It can be overwhelming. We hope to answer some of your ques�ons and give you a launching pad to help support you in your burgeoning adult years.

00;01;53;11 - 00;02;04;26 Rachel: For sure. Today, we are going to be focusing in on budge�ng, post-holiday spending, and then se�ng ourselves up for success in this new year.

00;02;04;28 - 00;02;11;08 Joshua: I know I had some unexpected costs from the holiday season. They’re s�ll lingering on even a�er the most spendiest this �me of the year.

00;02;11;11 - 00;02;18;28 Rachel: Yeah, for sure. What did you find to be the most expensive part of the holidays this year? Was it like travel or food or gi�s?

00;02;19;01 - 00;02;29;23 Joshua: Well, for me it was the gi� giving and the various gi� exchanges that I par�cipated in.

Secret Santas buying something for my significant other. It's it's a difficult �me to navigate.

00;02;29;25 - 00;02;31;23 Rachel: Yeah, definitely adds up.

00;02;31;26 - 00;03;05;13 Joshua: Well, this holiday season, the markets, the from Black Friday to Cyber Monday AmEricans flex their dollars and and spent it all mostly on electronics. It propelled holiday retail sales into the stratosphere. Deals and steals kind of popped up and seemed to increase the fear of missing out all over the board. According to Gallup, AmEricans expect to spend upwards of $975 during the holiday season, which is up almost $200 from three years ago.

00;03;05;16 - 00;03;29;05 Joshua: The trend shows that the highest holiday budget increases occur amongst younger and middle income shoppers. And like I said, $21.7 billion are spent on electronics, which is by far the highest category of spending and the total spent in the United States during the holiday season was about $957.3 billion. That's more than five �mes the net worth of Jeff Bezos.

00;03;29;11 - 00;03;31;04 Joshua: So that's a lot of moolah.

00;03;31;06 - 00;03;56;16 Rachel: I can't even picture that amount of money. I feel like I saw a video once of somebody coun�ng out. It was either Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, one of them coun�ng out their net worth in like grains of rice and showing like this grain of rice is $10,000 and then showing how many grains of rice they had. And it was like your brain can't even comprehend how much money that is.

00;03;56;19 - 00;03;58;08 Joshua: It's just unfathomable.

00;03;58;11 - 00;04;35;15 Rachel: Yeah. Yeah. So before we even talk about strategies to recoup from all this spending, I do want to quickly touch on just some money saving strategies for future holiday seasons

because it's clear that we're definitely spending a lot. And so in order to kind of avoid that holiday stress or post holiday stress, I should say come January, it be great to address that root of that problem of spending and how can we really cut back while also being inten�onal and obviously celebra�ng our loved ones and gi� giving.

00;04;35;22 - 00;05;02;27 Rachel: That's also something that we typically enjoy doing and so not something we want to stop doing, but maybe looking at how we can get the most bang for our buck when it comes to holiday gi�ing. I consider myself a pro budget shopper. Basically, I'm prety good at being cheap, and so I thought I'd share some of the strategies that I use in order to save when I'm shopping.

00;05;03;00 - 00;05;27;22 Rachel: So, number one, something to consider would be think about the gi� giving season all year long. You can o�en find really good deals on things in like the post-holiday months, like January and February for things that you would typically be wan�ng to buy, say, come December, because consumers are typically spending much less in these early months of the year.

00;05;27;25 - 00;05;55;13 Rachel: So say you're wan�ng to buy a new Christmas tree. This was something that this year I just moved into a house from an apartment. And so I have kind of a sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree and was like, Man, I'd really love to get a new one. But if you can kind of hold off for a litle bit and wait un�l a�er the holiday season, you can typically get really great deals on things like that.

00;05;55;16 - 00;06;23;13 Rachel: O�en Christmas trees will go up to 90% off at places like Target when the few weeks a�er Christmas. And so that's a great �me to get some of those decora�ons. Christmas trees and also the same thing goes for gi�s. So things like toys or games, some of those gi�s for kids, there's usually big markdown seasons in January and February when you can go and get those things.

00;06;23;16 - 00;06;47;23 Rachel: Obviously, you're not going to know every single gi� you're going to want to get in December throughout the year. But if you're able to kind of take a look at what's around you as the year goes by and say, hey, that might make a great gi� for my mom, I know it's May, but if I'm able to get it for 70% off now and then gi� it in December, that's a great way to save on gi� giving.

00;06;47;26 - 00;07;11;08 Rachel: My second op�on, and this one gets some kind of he�y debate on social media but is second hand gi�ing. And so personally, I believe this is a great way to both reduce our environmental impact, but also reduce the stress on our bank accounts. And it's also I mean, you're able to find such cool and unique gi�s when you look in different places like that.

00;07;11;11 - 00;07;37;09 Rachel: There's obviously people who would not prefer to give or receive a second hand gi�, and that's totally okay. But I know like my sister or my husband, if he's been looking for some cool, really expensive sweatshirt, but I'm able to find it on say something like Poshmark for a beter deal. It's worth checking out those other secondhand areas to save some money on gi�s.

00;07;37;11 - 00;07;58;26 Joshua: Yeah, I definitely try to use Facebook Marketplace a lot, and especially I can find some great deals on like if I want to give a piece of furniture, if I want to find a video game or something that's a litle it's definitely cheaper on there than if I were to go and pick up the exact same thing at a store that sells it at market price.

00;07;58;26 - 00;08;08;02 Rachel: Yeah, for sure. I think like my whole en�re house is furnished from Facebook Marketplace, but you really can find some really good deals on there, so it's worth checking out.

00;08;08;05 - 00;08;33;16 Joshua: Now we're moving into regrouping post-holiday, according to an ar�cle from Discover.com. Nearly three quarters of holiday shoppers in 2023 plan to pay for their holiday gi�s with credit cards. I know I'm guilty of it and I'm trying to pay off that credit card debt. But a third of 2022 holiday shoppers s�ll haven't paid off the credit card debt from last year's holiday season.

00;08;33;18 - 00;08;52;15 Joshua: Now, if this is you, the numbers are showing that you're definitely not alone. But this can result in a lot of unwanted financial stress throughout the holiday season and the rest of the year. You can get yourself on the debt hamster wheel that feels hard to get off of. Good news is we have some strategies that can help us get back on track in the new Year.

00;08;52;18 - 00;09;13;07 Rachel: Definitely. So one of the first important steps to regrouping post holiday is to really assess where you currently are. Take a look at your total holiday spend and then any debt you may have incurred during this holiday season. If these purchases were made with a credit card, you want to make sure to get it paid off as soon as possible.

00;09;13;08 - 00;09;37;18 Rachel: Because with credit cards, you are usually looking at a higher interest rate. And so the faster you can get it paid off, the less you're going to spend on those purchases. Some other sugges�ons to help with that post holiday spend include doing something like a no spend month in January. I have some friends who have done this where you really only do essen�al purchases for the month.

00;09;37;19 - 00;10;17;29 Rachel: Obviously you have to spend some money. We s�ll have to eat and have a place to live, but limi�ng some of those purchases like clothing or entertainment, any of those unessen�al things. There are also opportuni�es to poten�ally return any unwanted gi�s. That's a way to kind of recoup, get back on track. Also, if it makes sense for you and you have a really clear plan for this, you can poten�ally transfer your holiday debt from other credit cards on to a balance transfer credit card that has typically a 0% APR for about 12 months.

00;10;18;02 - 00;10;39;06 Rachel: So if you were to do this, you'd obviously want to have a plan to really tackle that debt in those 12 months, because once that intro period is over, you're usually looking at a higher rate in somewhere of the like 16 to 24% range. And we obviously want to avoid that, if at all possible. But then lastly, if you aren't already.

00;10;39;08 - 00;10;41;16 Rachel: Definitely start budge�ng.

00;10;41;18 - 00;11;04;10 Joshua: Yeah, one great way we can get back on track for 2024 is do just that. Develop a budget.

We're going to quickly walk through a few different budge�ng strategies so that you can see if one or two or a mul�ple can work for you. If you're wan�ng to hear a much more detailed budge�ng talk, you can check out the first episode of Financially Free Gen Z, where we really delve into this topic.

00;11;04;13 - 00;11;26;04 Rachel: Yeah, I think budge�ng is really great because the process is so customizable from person to person. What works for me, for example, may not work for you and vice versa. And so it's something that it's great to educate yourself on all the different op�ons that are available to you so that you can really build out a system that works for you personally.

00;11;26;06 - 00;11;56;26 Joshua: Well, one very popular budget that I've read and learned about is the 50/30/20 budget.

This one has you allocate your budget as 50% for needs, such as groceries, rent or mortgage, u�li�es, insurance and loan payments. 30% for wants, such as monthly subscrip�ons, entertainment, travel and ea�ng out. And 20% for savings and debt repayment. This category includes emergency funds, investments, IRAs, and paying down debt.

00;11;56;28 - 00;12;15;19 Joshua: Star�ng with your highest interest accounts first. Now, if you are finding yourself stretched in each holiday season, you can either try to adjust your spending in the future so that you limit yourself to 30% for holiday spending. Or you can allocate a chunk of that 30% each month to save for future holiday expenses.

00;12;15;21 - 00;12;43;07 Rachel: Yeah, that's a really clear cut way to think about things each month, while also definitely priori�zing saving. Another budge�ng op�on that I tend to see on Instagram actually is the envelope system. And so this one is a great op�on for those chronic over spenders who can o�en�mes atribute their overspending to kind of an out of sight, out of mind mentality.

00;12;43;09 - 00;13;16;24 Rachel: But in this budge�ng system, you fill different envelopes with cash for different budget categories. So, for example, you would have one envelope for groceries, one for gas, one for holiday gi�s, one for entertainment, and then all the other different areas you have. Once your envelope is out, you're done with spending for that for the month. So if you allocated $200 to spend on gi�s and you have no more le� in your envelope, that's all you can spend for that month.

00;13;16;26 - 00;13;39;20 Rachel: It really limits you into staying into those categories rather than just being able to freely swipe your card. There are obviously limita�ons to this strategy because we definitely have bills that can't always be paid with cash, like maybe your mortgage or your u�li�es or your rent. And so you have to be strategic with how you get this one set up.

00;13;39;22 - 00;13;45;14 Rachel: But it can be a great op�on for those who are looking to limit their impulse spending.

00;13;45;17 - 00;14;07;19 Joshua: That's a really good way to do it. Now, a third budge�ng strategy is what I personally do.

It's called the zero based budget. With this budget, you allot every dollar from your monthly income to a specific spending category, including savings. I usually put it all into an Excel sheet or I write it out on a piece of paper.

00;14;07;26 - 00;14;40;00 Joshua: I look at my income because it's usually prety steady from pay period to pay period.

And I look at it and I allocate, okay, I'm going to spend this month much on that. The expenses that usually stay the same. Like my rent's not going to change un�l my lease is up. My energy bill is a litle bit fluctua�ng, but I know there's other fixed expenses like my student loan repayments or other loan payments that I have that are prety consistent month to month that I can count on.

00;14;40;02 - 00;14;50;08 Joshua: This requires me�culous planning, but it can be a helpful strategy to avoid overspending. And there are some apps that can help you achieve this method, such as every dollar.

00;14;50;11 - 00;15;11;14 Rachel: That that does sound like a great op�on. I tend to struggle with those kind of ones where you're planning everything because then I feel like when I get thrown off, like, man, I've got to start all over, which isn't the case. Obviously, they're not. Every month is going to be perfect according to plan, but that's, that's life.

00;15;11;17 - 00;15;12;09 Joshua: Yeah.

00;15;12;11 - 00;15;36;01 Rachel: So each of these strategies definitely offer a different take on budge�ng, but they all ul�mately have that same goal of allowing our money to work for us rather than us having to feel stressed about how we're going to come up with enough money each month. Coulee Bank actually has some great budge�ng resources, and we have folks here who are willing to talk with you about budge�ng.

00;15;36;08 - 00;15;59;18 Rachel: So if you ever have any ques�ons or anything, if you just give us a call over at Coulee Bank, we can definitely have a chat with you about this and go kind of deeper into it. Next up, we have a guest from Coulee Bank who I like to say is a bit of an expert budgeter. With us today we have Eric Gatz, Retail Banking Manager at Coulee Bank.

00;15;59;21 - 00;16;03;05 Rachel: Thank you, Eric, for joining us today and sharing your knowledge with our audience.

00;16;03;10 - 00;16;18;01 Eric: Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me. And I like that you introduced me as an expert in something that I s�ll feel like from day to day, month to month, year to year, I'm s�ll working on becoming beter at.

00;16;18;04 - 00;16;34;01 Joshua: It's not something that everyone can be, you know, the best at. But so in the past, have you ever experienced a holiday where you felt stretched too thin, whether that be financially with your �me or any other areas? And how did you combat that?

00;16;34;01 - 00;16;54;00 Eric: I feel like at my age and I know this is financially free Gen Z, so maybe I should let the audience know that I am and a millennial I call myself actually an essen�al because I'm kind of a mix between Gen X and Millennial.

00;16;54;02 - 00;16;57;23 Rachel: A Millenial! Man you’re not welcome here...

00;16;57;25 - 00;17;23;10 Eric: And so I've I've lived, you know, a litle bit more life than likely most of the audience that might be living. But because of that, that means that I've experienced more Christmases and I feel like you're not an adult. If you haven't felt stretched thin if you haven't either with your �me or your finances. So, yes, I absolutely have a couple of good examples of that.

00;17;23;12 - 00;17;48;07 Eric: One would be stretch for my �me in the past before. So I have three boys and before I had three boys when it was a litle more simple, when I had just one. And even before I had children, I felt like I needed to make it to just about any Christmas thing that was available. And so that meant traveling back to South Dakota to see my family, because that's where I came from.

00;17;48;09 - 00;18;13;09 Eric: And we'd have three or four Christmases. Two of them would be inside of the city that I lived in. A couple would be outside that city. Maybe it would be trying to see friends while I'm there, too. And then, of course, coming back to my hometown here and having Christmas with the in-laws and having Christmas with church friends and having and so, yes, feeling completely stretched thin.

00;18;13;09 - 00;18;38;19 Eric: And at the end of all that, exhausted because I didn't get to enjoy the holidays, I just spent it jumping from one situa�on to another. And that fits really well with financially as well.

Some�mes I feel like when those holidays come around, I've got to spend a litle bit extra. I've got to get that gi� for each and every friend, each and every person.

00;18;38;21 - 00;18;51;24 Eric: But at the end of the day, when I look at my bank account, my bank account goes, No, you can't do that. And so what I've figured out, the best way to combat that is just to use that really simple two leter word, No. 00;18;52;19 - 00;18;56;07 Rachel: That's a scary one.

00;18;56;10 - 00;19;13;07 Eric: Exactly. And I had to insert that into my regular language when it comes to, hey, can you come to each and every one of these Christmases? And also, can you purchase everything for each and every person that you care about during this season?

00;19;13;09 - 00;19;26;25 Rachel: Dang, that's that's some words of wisdom right there. No, no, it's just I'm a people pleaser. It's a hard word for me. But I mean, there is a lot of wisdom in that. But it really can be that simple of se�ng up boundaries

00;19;27;08 - 00;19;29;26 Rachel: For yourself and respec�ng them.

00;19;29;29 - 00;19;49;28 Eric: You and I are the same when it comes. I love when people are happy, and if that means saying no, hopefully they'll respect you at the end of the day. And I feel most people do. But it's just inside of you, you know, I really want to keep everybody happy. Exactly.

00;19;50;00 - 00;19;56;25 Rachel: Definitely. So, Eric, how do you set yourself up for success financially then in the new Year?

00;19;56;28 - 00;20;27;22 Eric: This is a point of conten�on, I feel like, every year. And that's simply from the standpoint of going through the budgets to see where things are at. And also listening to you guys here a litle bit earlier. Se�ng aside money on a regular basis, knowing that the holidays are going to hit at the end of the year. That's the crazy thing is people get to December and they spend like crazy and then they go, no, what happened?

00;20;27;25 - 00;20;30;00 Eric: Interes�ng thing is, December comes every year.

00;20;30;06 - 00;20;31;27 Rachel: It's prety consistent.

00;20;32;00 - 00;20;59;15 Eric: It is. And if in January, February, March, April and all the rest of the month, you're planning and you're se�ng yourself up for success so that when you get to December, things fall in line like they're supposed to. Then you don't get surprised at the end of the year with a gigan�c credit card bill or a bank account that wishes you would have kept a couple hundred or a couple thousand extra inside of it.

00;20;59;18 - 00;21;20;06 Joshua: Well, it's kind of kind of you know, it's consistent every single year. Yes, we know Christmas is coming. We know that holidays are going to be coming up. What budge�ng strategy have you found to be the most effec�ve in your life to kind of plan for those events that come up or, you know, birthdays happen every single year?

00;21;20;12 - 00;21;46;03 Eric: That's right. That's right. And as you as you do age, you tend to ignore the fact that maybe your birthday is on its way. Of course, for me, I just take it in and soak it in and take every day and enjoy every minute of it. When it comes to a budge�ng strategy for myself. I've tried a lot of different budge�ng strategies and I don't think that there's one that's perfect.

00;21;46;05 - 00;22;24;22 Eric: But the one that I've seen more work most effec�vely is what's called the zero based budget. And you may remember me bringing this up, Rachel, in the first �me that you had me on. And that's a lot of people have heard of and know of Dave Ramsey. That's really his system and the one that he uses. And the biggest part about this strategy, I think that most people struggle with is they try it for one, two months and they struggle with it and struggle with it or something comes up in the middle of the month, throws them off and they throw it out the window.

00;22;24;24 - 00;22;46;26 Eric: But what happening with this strategy is you have to give yourself 90 days and you have to give yourself a litle bit of grace because things are not going to turn out perfectly. You just have to plan for things to mess up at some point or another. And whta I mean by a zero based budget strategies, that is at the beginning of the month.

00;22;46;28 - 00;23;17;28 Eric: Yes, that's right. The beginning. You sit down and you spend �me strategizing. How much money are we going to make this month? Now, of course, those that make different money each paycheck or maybe they're more commission based, they've got to figure out a slightly different strategy. But those who quite regularly sit down, figure out how much you're going to make, and then you put a name to every dollar to the point where you're at zero.

00;23;18;01 - 00;23;41;10 Eric: And that means if you have let's just say all of your bills are paid, all of your streaming services are paid, you have an idea of what you're likely going to be spending on food and all those things that might fluctuate a litle bit throughout the month. You give yourself a litle bit of grace in those areas and you've got $800 si�ng over at the end of all of that.

00;23;41;13 - 00;24;08;14 Eric: You then name what you're going to do with those $800, well $400 is going to be used for saving for this, $200 is going to be maybe that's for Christmas in December, $100 is going to be for extra money that I throw toward a specific debt, whatever it might be, to the point where you get to zero. And if you have something happen in the middle of the month, you stop.

00;24;08;14 - 00;24;23;22 Eric: And if you're a single individual, you stop and you have a mee�ng with yourself. If you're married, you come together with your spouse and you look at each other and you say, okay, we had an emergency. What are we going to do to change this zero based budget and pull from a certain area to make sure that everything is covered?

00;24;23;24 - 00;24;33;22 Eric: And at the end of three months, you stop having those emergency mee�ngs on a regular basis because you've kind of assumed that things are going to happen and you build that into your overall budget.

00;24;33;25 - 00;24;34;13 Joshua: That's great.

00;24;34;20 - 00;24;49;24 Rachel: Yeah, so definitely a lot of planning that goes into it with this strategy since you are really like determining where every dollar goes. Is it recommended to have some sort of emergency fund set aside?

00;24;49;26 - 00;25;34;24 Eric: Absolutely, yes. You've got to have, at a minimum, $1,000 that's labeled emergency fund. I feel like with infla�on and everything that's happened over the last three or four years, that really should be 1500 to 2000 because most people can sneeze. And $1,000 is it's an emergency these days. So, yes, you do have to have something set aside where you go if the car breaks down and you need to replace all the �res, you need to fix something in the engine, whatever it might be, you have that specific money set aside that you've labeled as an emergency fund, only dollars that you can use.

00;25;34;24 - 00;25;35;12 Eric: And dig into.

00;25;35;13 - 00;25;55;20 Rachel: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Definitely a lot of planning that goes into it, but I could see how that would be really beneficial for like priori�zing savings or or re�rement accounts or those kind of things because you are naming all those dollars with that extra money that's maybe just going to sit in like your checking account.

00;25;55;23 - 00;26;13;17 Eric: Correct. And the thing that I think is one of my favorite sayings that absolutely I stole, so I won't claim it as my own, but that is when you at the beginning of the month can tell every dollar what to do. You don't get to the end of the month and just wonder where your money went.

00;26;13;20 - 00;26;20;26 Rachel: So for those of us who do feel that we overspent this holiday season, how can you get back on track?

00;26;20;27 - 00;26;49;24 Eric: Yeah, there's a lot of different strategies that you can use to get back on track. You know, first and foremost, I believe Josh was the one. Joshua, you were the one that men�oned this.

And that is the fact that you need to label your debts and you need to start paying those off.

Whether you use the strategy of paying the smallest one off first so they have a win, or whether you decide to pay the highest percentage credit card or whatever you might have under your name and pay that off as quickly as possible.

00;26;49;26 - 00;27;09;29 Eric: There's a lot of different ways to do that. Number one is, again, ge�ng your budget so �ght that you can throw those extra dollars toward what you overspent this holiday. And number two would be pick up a temporary side job. I know that there's a lot of places out there that are looking for somebody who might put in some part �me work.

00;27;10;06 - 00;27;34;19 Eric: There's also a lot of these GrubHub, DoorDash, all those different kind of jobs as well that you can pick up just to make up a litle extra money, extra spending money to pay down those debts and poten�ally, if you enjoy doing that, you can then build some of that into your next budget for next year so that you're back on track and maybe even ahead for the next holiday season.

00;27;34;25 - 00;27;55;29 Joshua: I know, Eric, that, you know, a�er spending so much on the holiday season, especially if it's a credit card, what I do is there's a func�on at least on the credit card that I use, that I can freeze the card and then I just keep it frozen like I know I can go into the app and change it at any point.

00;27;56;01 - 00;28;19;01 Joshua: But that way, if I try to run my credit card anywhere, it makes me think, Do I really need what I'm buying it? Like should should I pay like cash or should I or do I actually need to push that buton, go into the app, log into there and switch it on so that because it's something that I need, it really makes me think.

00;28;19;04 - 00;28;50;04 Eric: Yeah, that's, that's fantas�c because that's an extra layer of accountability for you to know and to think through instead of making a, Wow, This is a great idea and making that decision on point versus this is a great idea. And then you have to take a few extra steps. By the �me you get through those extra steps. Are you s�ll thinking it's a great idea or are you star�ng to doubt whether or not you should purchase it versus the credit cards there?

00;28;50;04 - 00;28;57;07 Eric: You swipe it, you get to the end of it and then you have what's called buyer's remorse and you wonder whether you should have done that in the first place.

00;28;57;09 - 00;29;23;25 Rachel: Yeah, that was great. Thank you, Eric. Definitely a lot of wisdom in there. I think for me, the biggest thing was just so simple with saying no. Like, if if you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed or like you're stretched too thin, whether that be �me wise or financially being comfortable with se�ng up boundaries and and hopefully those around you will respect them.

00;29;24;02 - 00;29;33;20 Rachel: I think that's a really powerful piece of wisdom. How about you, Joshua? What what was your favorite piece of advice?

00;29;33;22 - 00;29;59;12 Joshua: Well, my favorite piece of advice was just se�ng up a budget and trying to s�ck to it as as best as possible, especially se�ng up that emergency fund. I know I had some troubles over the last year. My I got into a litle car bump bumper. But what is I don't know, like a bumper to bumper situa�on. And it was just I didn't have a fund set up because I was just star�ng to work out.

00;29;59;12 - 00;30;24;16 Joshua: And it was it was a difficult �me. But if I had had, you know, a thousand or or 2000 available, it would have been great to help offset those costs because insurance doesn't cover everything. Well, thank you, Eric, for si�ng down with us to discuss budge�ng in the new Year.

It was great talking to you and also to our audience.

00;30;24;16 - 00;30;35;09 Joshua: Thank you for joining us. We encourage you to follow our podcast wherever you are streaming so that you can be the first to see what a new episode drops. We look forward to talking with you again next month. Thanks for listening.