Her "Baby Daddy" Destroyed Her Life

11 Oct 2023 · 57 min

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In short

Podcast Episode Notes: Her "Baby Daddy" Destroyed Her Life

Podcast Information

  • Title: Financial Audit
  • Description: A personal finance show aimed at entertaining and educating listeners about managing finances. Interested guests can reach out via email.
  • Episode Title: Her "Baby Daddy" Destroyed Her Life
  • Episode Description: Covers the financial audit of Jenna, a 21-year-old single mother from Oklahoma struggling with her finances amidst personal challenges.

Episode Timestamps

  • 00:00 - Job and Income
  • 04:12 - Worst Relationship in the World
  • 09:25 - This Is More Important Than Finances
  • 11:42 - SOFI
  • 13:48 - You Don't Have the Income for This!
  • 24:22 - Holy Checking Account!
  • 28:53 - There's No Excuse With This Spending
  • 34:18 - AURA
  • 38:14 - You Need a Budget!
  • 44:06 - Please Just Do This
  • 50:00 - Hammer Financial Score

Key Themes and Discussions

Jenna's Current Situation

  • Living and Job:
  • Jenna is a server at Buffalo Wild Wings, making around $1,200 a month.
  • Lives with her father after moving to escape an abusive relationship.
  • Custody and Relationships:
  • Has two children with her estranged partner, who has a history of abusive behavior.
  • Currently fighting for custody, facing difficulties in communication and visitation.

Financial Struggles

  • Income Issues:
  • Jenna's income is insufficient to support herself and her children.
  • Previous higher income as a manager at Arby’s but currently in low-paying serving jobs.
  • Debt:
  • Accumulated credit card debt to buy essentials for her children during difficult times.
  • Total debt includes multiple credit cards with high-interest rates.
  • Budgeting Challenges:
  • Jenna's spending habits include unnecessary purchases as coping mechanisms for her stressful life.
  • Emphasis on the need for a strict budget due to her limited income.

Mental Health Concerns

  • Impact of Relationship:
  • Jenna discusses her mental health issues stemming from her relationship with her children's father, including PTSD.
  • Importance of seeking therapy and mental health support highlighted throughout the discussion.

Recommendations for Improvement

  • Budgeting:
  • Establish a strict budgeting plan to manage her finances better.
  • Focus on essential spending and removing non-essential expenses.
  • Debt Management:
  • Suggested to prioritize paying off high-interest debt.
  • Importance of setting up an emergency fund for unexpected expenses.
  • Legal Support:
  • Recommended pursuing child support from her ex-partner to alleviate financial burdens.
  • Consideration of legal aid to ensure custody arrangements are legally sound.
  • Future Planning:
  • Discussion on the importance of contributing to retirement savings once stable, with emphasis on the potential for financial independence.

Key Takeaways

  • Jenna is in a precarious financial situation exacerbated by personal trauma and poor spending habits.
  • There is a critical need for her to establish a budget, prioritize debt repayment, and seek legal support for child custody and child support.
  • Emphasizing mental health is crucial for Jenna’s overall well-being and ability to improve her financial situation.
  • The episode highlights the intersection of personal finance with mental health, relationship issues, and parenting challenges.

Hammer Financial Score

  • Spending & Budget: 2 out of 10 (Poor budgeting practices)
  • Debt: 2 out of 10 (High debt compared to low income)
  • Emergency Fund: 0 out of 10 (No emergency savings)
  • Retirement: 0 out of 10 (No retirement savings)
  • Real Estate: 0 out of 10 (No real estate assets)
  • Overall Score: 1 out of 10 (Significant financial distress)

Conclusion The episode concludes with a hopeful outlook that with proper budgeting, legal support, and mental health resources, Jenna can improve her situation and build a more stable future for herself and her children.

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Transcript

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0:36I just give my stylist my size, style, and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required. And he sends just for me pieces, plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep what works and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today at stitchfix.com slash Spotify. That's stitchfix.com slash Spotify. My name is Jenna. I'm 21. I'm from Yukon, Oklahoma. and this is financial audit. Well, thanks for coming down from Oklahoma. So what do you do for a living up there? I'm actually a server. Sideway tables at a Buffalo Wild Wings. Ooh, I love me some B-dubs.

1:17Okay, servers, depending on the area. And Buffalo Wild Wings is honestly kind of expensive. You can be making some money. What would you say you bring in on average? Because I know a lot of that is tip-based. Let's think average on a monthly basis. Well, I haven't really gotten a good consistent average because I haven't worked there like that long. How long have you been working there? It's been like a couple months, probably like two. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what did you bring in last month? Probably about like$1 ,200. Yeah. No. Yeah, I know. I mean, maybe, but total? You're talking aftertips and wages?

1:52Yes. What's the minimum wage in Oklahoma? It's$2.13 an hour. No, no, no. What's the minimum wage? $7.25. $7.25. So if you don't make that after. Yeah. After tips then. Okay. So, okay. Wow. Yes. I mean, I just started. You live alone? Well, I live with my dad. Oh, okay. I live with my family right now. I just moved to Yukon. From where? From Weatherford. It's about an hour away. Why'd you move? um well i had a couple situations going on with my kid's dad so he showed up at my house and he wanted in he was being on the door and the windows and stuff and it really freaked me out we had been broken up we've been broken up for a year now so like that was only a couple months ago yeah and he has a new girlfriend and everything and so i figured the best way for me to be able to move on was to kind of like get away and so I moved to UConn because my dad lives there.

2:56I know you have two kids currently. Yes. Are they both his as well? Yes they are. So you moved away what's the custody agreement? We actually don't currently have one I am in the process of working on it we kind of both are I don't want to talk too much about it because he's kind of like keeping the kids from me right now so you don't have them no it's really actually it's heartbreaking it's terrible yes that is heartbreaking i am so sorry yeah um i've been begging to see them and he won't let me see them and you can cut this part of the conversation off at any time just let us know but like how has that conversation and relationship gone where it's just like okay he's keeping them from you it's our relationship has been awful um basically ever since i've known him uh like i said i was 18 when we met and he was 38 he already has three kids before me three before you and he has another one on the way with someone else that's being born today oh my goodness yeah so um really like my mental health has been really messed up because of this because i put everything into him you know i was 18 we met i'm only 21 i had both my kids before i turned 21 and um he's keeping them from me right now because he's scared if he lets me see them or take them that i won't bring them back but i've never done that to him you met him in 18 you did not meet him younger than that No, it was 18.

4:28Yeah. That's a lot of people do get, like, think it's sketchy. It kind of is sketchy. I didn't meet him until I was 18. But when you do the whole, like, time, because our daughter and everything. Well, the age gap. I'm just thinking, like, grooming and stuff like that. I mean, technically, yes, you're 18. You're an adult. Stuff like that. I'm just. Honestly, personally, now that I've been through it, I see it more. and like i wish i could have like seen it then but i see it now and it's really like it's been a struggle every day like this is a it's bad so he was banging on the okay so yeah so there's some fear and you moved home with pop.

5:19Okay. Yeah. You're far from your kids now. Were you seeing them very often? Before that, I had them all the time. Actually, I had them every day. Before this, so when we first broke up, he actually got arrested for domestic assault and battery in presence of a minor. Against you or someone else? Against me. While I was pregnant with my son. We had just found out I was pregnant with my son. and um he got arrested for that and we broke up and um we were broken up for a while and we got back together for like a week we broke up again and they revoked his bond because he well he wanted to talk to me I'd left his house and he wanted to talk to me so he asked me to talk to him he didn't want to talk to anybody like in front of everybody inside so he asked me to talk outside it was raining it was cold i was pregnant i was 18 weeks pregnant at this point so i sat in the car the door was open no shoes on my phone was inside and he drove off with the car door open and i fell off on the highway what the fuck yeah it's bad wow pregnant too okay so i mean i think okay first of all i there is absolutely no defense not even close yeah i know not even close when we're going into the court situation obviously we're probably going to hear another side of the story just because i i don't want to be someone who's just like you know i am not the court yeah but even just let's just assume just for the sake you're the only person here that everything you said is 100 the truth and there was nothing else at all and there's no excuse for any of that crap anyway violence not even close wow sounds like uh you should probably have those kids and it sounds like that's probably the direction that it'll go but wow that's i'm so sorry you've been through all that well it's so much worse that's just the beginning this last year has been the worst year of my life 100 wow i um after that happened you're only 21 yeah no it's awful i could only imagine like like sometimes i think there are probably people that are double my age that have not even been through i haven't this this my kid's dad has put me through like because i mean after that happened his bond got revoked and we only had the one car he told me it was a christmas present before that all happened and he left and he took it was it in his name or yours um he never even changed the tag into anybody's name so then it when he left i couldn't do anything about it well i walked everywhere that winter while i was pregnant with my daughter okay so like it's yeah okay again this is assuming that everything you said is 100 true and correct and it will be corroborated as so in the court of law yeah i'm gonna need you in that situation then to definitely get custody and then we're gonna need you to probably do some sort of restraining order and then there was one at one point it did get dismissed though because the way that it works is like oh sorry the way that it works is like he's from gansas city so that's where he ran off to when they revoked his bond well they couldn't serve him as papers and until they serve the papers you have to continue to go and i didn't have a car and it was like 20 minutes away so you have to go every two weeks and see and so it ended up getting lapsed over and dismissed.

8:57I didn't get a car until February this year. That might be something we're looking at again, though. If there is violence and, you know, constant communication reaching out. Sorry, this is not how I expected this to kick off. So you said you bring in$1 ,200 last month? Was that the number,$1 ,200? Yeah, but that's not normal for me. Like, before this, I was a manager at an Arby's, and I made double that. is there an arby's in the area um there is and i have been asked to go over there it's just i've been i was feeling out serving at buffalo wild wings you know sure because i just started all i'm saying is if we're building a life and then the kids come back 1200 it's gonna be hard to live off of even in a low cost of living area that's gonna be well i've definitely 13, 14 a year.

9:48I've definitely been making more lately, like, but it's just really inconsistent. I've been thinking about doing something else, obviously, because the area that I live in is way more expensive than where I'm even from. Sure. But what I was going to also say is child support. We should probably seek that as well. Again, assuming everything and anything that you've said is correct, we're only hearing from you. but it doesn't matter either way if any kind of abuse or anything did happen. There's no excuse for that regardless. I want to make that crystal clear. But just assuming anything and everything you've said is the truth, yeah, we need to do restraining order.

10:27We probably need to have some child support and stuff like that because this is going to be hard for you to live off of with two kids. Now, did you all plan on having children? No. Okay. Wow. So, I mean, I guess that kind of probably explains why you're in debt, right? Okay, so we didn't have a lot of money. There's just been craziness in life. Well, I opened the credit cards originally to, like, help with my credit. And then I got pregnant with my son, and my kid's dad didn't help at all. Like, he disappeared. He left the state. he like I still had my daughter and he wouldn't he didn't buy anything and like so one of one of those credit cards the whole day is just to buy baby things for my son so that he had everything he needed before he was born and so like I'm in this hole and I feel like I'm drowning but it was all just to like make sure that I had like what they needed you know and they always they've never gone without like even now like my numbers are messed up with my kids like how were how were your uh your parents in this situation um they're a lot more supportive than they used to be like because in the beginning there was a lot of he says he say she say but then my kid's dad he left and he quit helping and it was very obvious like he didn't get my kids he didn't get my daughter or anything for Christmas, even though he was here.

12:05This dude sounds like a complete piece of shit. It's not, yeah, he's not great. But I was, like, I was so, like, we had created a family. He needs to be an adult. I mean, what, he's, like, 40-something right now? 41, yeah. Be a fucking adult. My goodness, this man. Oh, yeah, I go through it every day. Like, I beat myself up because I should have known. No, don't beat yourself up. You were 18 and this dude was basically 40. Yeah. I was just, you couldn't even drink yet. So I don't know. People always ask me, what high yield savings account do I use for my own money? Some of you know by now it's SoFi.

12:48I love them. It's great for my checking account needs. It's great for my high yield savings account needs. And right now I'm getting 4.5 % interest on my monies. I love that rate on my monies. So if you want to get a great rate like that on your monies, just check out the link in the description below. I have a paid affiliate link there. You can get bonuses all the way up to$250, and I took advantage of that, and you should too. I don't know. That pisses me off. So I get why you went into the credit card debt. Obviously, your goal now is to get out of the credit card debt. Get out of the credit card debt.

13:23The car you have, is it paid off? It is paid off. Good. I bought it with my taxes this year. Oh, how much was it? It was$3 ,500. Okay, that's definitely very, very cheap for any kind of used car these days. Miles on it, and what's the car in make? It has like$167 ,000 miles on it. What's the car? It's a Nissan, a 2009 Nissan Sentra. Okay. Okay, so we definitely need to get you an emergency fund. We need to get you out of the credit card debt because I want you to have these kids, but when you have these kids, we need to... I need to have a plan. That is a big concern of mine because I always find a way to make ends meet.

14:08The court's also going to have a hard time putting the care of kids in someone who can't financially support the kids, if I'm not mistaken. Well, before this happened, like I said, when I lived in Weatherford, I had a really good paying job and I did pay everything by myself. Like I paid all my rent, my bills. I bought everything for the kids. I never asked my kids dad for anything. I still, even now, like even though he won't let me see them, I still buy everything for them. I do Walmart pickup orders. So we're definitely going to get you. We need to. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely, again, just hearing your side, but assuming, assuming everything you said is correct, we need to get you those kids.

14:50And then we need to get child support from that piece of. $1 ,104 is owed on here. This is an Amazon card. $350 payment. That's actually good. $40 is the minimum. So we're making progress on that. I assume not having rent is helping. Yes. Dramatically with that. Very good. The car you drove down here is that car? Yes. Oi. Oi, oi. Okay. Okay. $30 of interest is being stolen from me on a monthly basis, but you're not making any purchases. I haven't made any since I realized how bad it was. When was that? A few months ago, probably. I haven't made any purchases on any of these cards, unless it was like a recurring by accident.

15:37Yeah, I was going to say, there is one recurring that comes up in another card. But not on purpose. I haven't been using them because it's been stressing me out. Think about it. Yeah, I'm sure. $145 of fees this year. so we probably had missed payments and well was that during the transitionary period or yeah well it was because i didn't have like i was making sure everything else is taken care of like my kids making sure everything for my kids was good that they had everything and then with moving i didn't have anywhere to put all my kids stuff so i had to get a storage unit and And$206 of interest.

16:17At a 27.49 % interest right on this card. So, yeah, it's definitely something we'll want to pay. Your credit score is 467? Actually, no. Since I paid a lot of these, it's gone up. It's 521 now. It's gone up drastically pretty fast because I paid quite a bit. Yeah, because you went from essentially what is zero, honestly, when it comes to credit scores. Well, it was good when I opened them, but you had the missed payments. Yeah, it definitely got me. Pretty good. Those will be on your score for a while, on your credit for a while. So Discover It, we have, yeah, so another pretty big balance for your income situation,$1 ,348.20.

17:00Are you on any government support with this income? I get food stamps. Yeah, I was going to say, because, again, you're making, like, if this continues, like$13 ,000 a year, essentially like that. Well, yeah, last year I think I made like 12. How? You said you had a better Arby's job. Well, because I did take off like quite a bit while I was pregnant with my son. Yeah, that was just last year. Yeah, so. While you were pregnant? Okay. Well, not while I was pregnant, but, well, kind of, yeah, because there was a job transition. Yeah. I was working with my kid's dad, and that didn't work, obviously.

17:39So nothing works with that guy. No, we do not work. I bet he doesn't even work. $36 of interest accrued on this. There was a recurring purchase,$4, but you made a$300 minimum monthly payment. That's good. I am going to critique how you're going about this instead of making decent chunks of payments towards everything across the board, which is what we've seen so far with the two cards. I want you to check one at a time. This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad, Ryan. Real United Airlines customers. We were returning home and one of the Flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Captain Andrew.

18:16I got to sit in the driver's seat. I grew up in an aviation family, and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real United pilot. These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain. Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way. So we can just fully get rid of that minimum monthly payment, fully get rid of the interest being accrued on that singular thing, and we'll get there at the end but again i am happy that you've at least clearly awoken to this is not beneficial to us yeah

18:5357 dollar minimum monthly payment with 36 dollars of interest being accrued some dental thing four dollars oh yeah i didn't have any other card and i actually got my wisdom teeth removed and there was like a little fee for something i can't remember and that was the only card i had on me it was just four bucks yeah okay it's like a co-payment i don't know are you on like the uh health care exchanges so you have insurance i have probably care medicaid okay yeah yeah okay okay yeah that makes that makes sense yeah fees this year again probably missing payments 121 dollars we're probably missing a lot of payments for a bit.

19:38And 84 bucks of interest. I can tell you exactly. I've missed two consecutive amongst all cards. Oh, four. Yeah. Okay. I have questions about just the getting in, especially to the second pregnancy and stuff like that, but that's just this is not appropriate for my position. So I'm just yeah. like we had an oops baby the first time yeah so it's like why were we not taking precautions well i did want to get on birth control but he honestly told me he was scared it was gonna make me fat so i've never been on birth control before i met him i'm just talking to him He should just wrap it up. Yeah. He doesn't like to do that, obviously.

20:36He has six kids in at 41. $164 of fees on this one this year so far and$41 of interest. $7 of interest agreed this last month. He did make a good payment and$110 is what you brought it down to with the$40 minimum monthly payment. $110, good. See, what I would have done in hindsight is just fully made sure this card was completely done before paying extra on the other ones. but this one's at 24.9%. Now, Chime, we have a credit builder. Yes. For you, I mean, honestly, I think what a lot of people in your position do, if you're going to use like a credit card, debit card, it's like, you know, I have mentioned them a million times with a Fiz card.

21:15It acts like a debit card, but it helps build credit. It's just immediately paid off like it's a debit card, essentially, but it helps build credit. So that might be something worth considering versus something like this, which you can fall into different fees and interests and stuff on here that I just really don't like. A lot of AT &T stuff on here. Then we're taking care of insurances and then multiple Amazon purchases. So you're just using this to build credit, I'm assuming? Oh, yes. I remember. So I'm also in college full time, so I had to buy books. You are? Yes. I'm a very busy girl. How's college being paid for?

21:56I got it all covered by financial aid. Well, hold on. Via Pell Grants? Pell Grants. Okay, so not student loans. Financial aid. Okay. Basically, it's because I'm poor. Right. And I have kids. How much school have you finished so far? I'm actually in my first semester. First semester community college? It's a state college, but it's a very cheap one for the area. Okay. Well, I mean, it's being paid for, so I don't care. But what are you trying to study? I'm looking into business management. Lovely. Fantastic. Fully, fully supportive. That's great. For my age, I have, like, after my daughter was born, when she was two months old, I started managing at Burger King.

22:50So I was 19. I had a two-month-old, and I was the shift manager. And after a couple months of shift managing, I became an assistant, and I did that for a year. So I really, like, enjoyed doing that and supervising and doing the paperwork side of things. So I figured I'd go a little bit. But do you not like working at the fast food places? I actually have gotten to the point where I don't mind it that much. Like, for a while, I used to hate it and dread it, But now I honestly don't mind going. I'm curious. Why not just work that job then? I understand wanting to get a degree. But if you're already getting those jobs and making an okay living off of it, why not just like go down that path?

23:31Essentially. Well, taking the next four years. Well, because they're not necessarily like the greatest paying jobs. Like as a business management, I would want to do more like in like a bigger company. Sure. It also depends where because we've had fast food managers on the show making 60, 80 thousand dollars a year. Well, in my current, like, when I was a shift manager at Arby's, like, the most I've made as a manager so far in my area was$12.50. It was a smaller, lower-income area, though, right? Well, yes, it was a college town. It was a little bit more expensive for the area, but still extremely cheap compared to, like, definitely here.

24:09Yeah, and then we just job shop in those situations as well. Yeah. When you build up the resume. But, no, I'm totally for this college, and it's paid for. It's good. just trying to see what you're trying to do and what you like to do. So there's no balance on that, right? On what? On that Chime. Oh, no. So the way that it works... So you have three debts. Yeah, so the way that the Chime one works is it goes straight out of your account. But you have three debts, though, correct? Amazon Discover it and then the Destiny card? There's one more. Okay, I don't have that. What is it? It's a Victoria's Secret card.

24:48Now we didn't take that one out to survive No we did not We took that one out to make ourselves Feel better Not against I'm not against trying to feel better Not against that Against going into debt for it though Because now you're trying to climb out of it What's owed on that? What's the balance down? Like$248 Okay$248? Yes Minimum monthly payment? $40 yeah okay now this is a cash app you're using a kind of like a checking account um spending an account well so the way that i used to do it at arby's and i kind of have it set up at buffalo is i have like a percentage to my cash app especially since my kid's dad has my kids like i just like for it to automatically be on there asking him money for the things he needs for my kids.

25:40Okay. So I do 15 % on my Cash App. But as a server, that doesn't really work because I don't make anything in my regular checks. But before, when I was making real checks, it was a bigger chunk. Well, okay, so there's 70 cents in here. What are all these Jiffy trips? Be honest, because these are like$14,$13. You can't 100 % tell on my end if we're doing a cheap gas fill-up or if we're going and we're f***ing around with some taquitos. I'm not going to lie. It's probably a mixture of both. Okay. So, taquitos. A KFC tale in the pursuit of flavor. The holidays were tricky for the Colonel. He loved people, but he also loved peace and quiet.

26:20So he cooked up KFC's$4.99 Chicken Pot Pie. Warm, flaky, with savory sauce and vegetables. It's a tender, chicken-filled excuse to get some time to yourself and step away from decking the halls, whatever that means. The Colonel lived so we could chicken. KFC's Chicken Pot Pie The best$4.99 you'll spend this season Prices and participation may vary while supplies last Taxes, tips, and fees extra Taquitos, taquitos, some drive-thru taquitos Pie shop Some Conoco, Conoco, Conoco, Arby's The Conoco is an oil change and stuff So you did it twice? Well, I got an oil change and I got a Red Bull Honestly okay pie shop brahms store on cue some drive-thru mcdonald's by the way where you worked was like places with drive-thrus you shouldn't give them money they should give you money on cue mcdonald's what's on cue amazon what's on cue station oh you're taquitoing like crazy no i really it's not that bad i don't feel like but maybe it really is i mean i'm i'm naming them off and taquitos and mcdonald's and taquitos how many taquitos did i name that month so okay like flat out i sympathize with your situation 100 but because i care about you because i care about your kids because i want you guys to have an amazing future when we're trying to get out of credit card debt and we're making a thousand two hundred dollars a month we are not going to make it these we are not getting taquitos we're not getting a red bull when we're getting an oil change we're not f***ing around.

27:59We're just not doing it. Because your future matters. Your future matters. Your kids' futures matter. We're not f***ing around right now. I know. I've been trying to figure out how to get myself out. It's been so chaotic. Like everything in my life. We are not going to use excuses to f*** around. We're not. Chaos is chaos and chaos sucks. It does. But your future matters. I mean and it just is as simple as that and we're choosing your future over around even in the midst of a storm yeah I feel like a lot of the reason that I do the mindless spending is because like I'm trying to make myself feel better because my situation is really not great no absolutely again and like I said I sympathize with it like truly but because I care about your future it's just like what we need to find are better better coping mechanisms now on the medicaid and everything do you have therapy um i've been looking into therapy i actually we're no longer looking into it we're doing it well i did i have started the appointment um i know they or they um diagnosed me with ptsd from my relationship with my kid's dad yeah i bet yeah um but since i moved there they were transferring me to a different facility.

29:24So it takes a little bit of a process. I haven't heard from them yet. So in all the just chaos and storm and history and all that crap, through that we worked with the therapist to find better coping mechanisms and things like that instead of digging yourself deeper in a hole or preventing you from coming out of the hole as quick as you could be, which will take a big stressor off of you. So, yes, I think as far anyone and everyone should do therapy regardless of their mental health situation, but as far as someone who is like primed for it, yes. We need to make sure that you get the mental health that you need to get through the situation and then get out of it and have an overall improved life.

30:00So definitely take advantage of that and figure, find a therapist that works best for you, fits in the plans that you have. You know, you might have to do a couple of therapists to figure out the one that fits for you. Some people try one, doesn't work, and then they stop. That's not how it operates. You got to find the right one for you. So definitely, definitely do that. That is going to be a major prescription for you from me, therapy. chime this is a checking account but we ended with negative negative three dollars and 45 cents yeah i'm sorry this i get that i get that it's making you feel better but we're not doing we're not i get that i get that and i'll say again that i sympathize with it but we are not choosing a red bull at an oil change over actually having a positive balance in our checking account we're not choosing that yeah so amazon the brahms store yeah taquitos and now dave i haven't seen dave in a long time dave is like a if i'm not mistaken isn't like a cash advance yeah okay we can i'm sorry we just that is i haven't done one in a long time it kind of just caught up to me well it kind of just caught up to me from a while ago.

31:19Yeah. We can't take advantage of that because in general, you're not taking advantage of it. They're very much taking advantage of you. That's how that works. Okay. So that's just, I get it in this situation and wanting, and you know, it's that extra thing. But especially when money's going out that we shouldn't do, like in total with the taquitos and eating out, it was 11 % of your overall spending. so when it comes to that and getting our getting some advances on our money you didn't have to if we weren't doing the spending and extra unknown shopping like Amazon and stuff we don't know what that went to but that's like extra 3.2 % so the extra spending and I get why it's a cope why so we get it but just looking forward, we're not borrowing from Dave to do that more.

32:19We're just not. McDonald's, taquitos from Walmart, because it's only$2.70, certainly not a necessity probably. Dave again, spot me tip? I don't know. I don't know. Is that like a... Okay, so if they spot you money, like... Who? Chime. Oh, okay. So if Chime's spotting you money and there's this extra fees with it, just stop. We're not using it. Use something like the Fizz card, my dude. I get wanting to have good credit, but you are not taking Spotify. I see you're on the student plan. Even still,$5.99. It's your income. Anything that – if we can stop anything, we can listen to ads. It's okay. That's not going to be a bank breaker.

33:11It's just the overall discipline and everything around it. We're changing our habits and we're not, we're not, we're not around anymore. So that's all your accounts. Is there more? No, that's it actually. Yeah. Those two spending accounts, not much money came in. This is not survivable. Yeah. I, you're going to the school full time. Yes. Good. What I might need to do, and this is going to be hard. How much you can, when you get the children back, which you should, if, again, everything we said was correct, how much help is your dad going to be to lean on? Well, they actually just had a baby, my dad and his girlfriend.

33:58Everyone is just popping out, little. Yeah, so their son is, my brother, their son is actually six weeks younger than my son. Well, are they wall sense? They're already in the situation with an infant or are they going to be able to help with yours? Hablas Espanol. Spreys to Deutsch. Condénosque. If you used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation-based techniques teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket.

34:32Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55 % off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com slash spotify spelled b-a-b-b-e-l dot com slash spotify rules and restrictions may apply um i don't know honestly like i planned on moving out on my own eventually like in my own place yeah i'll figure out a doubt yeah okay so this was my thought so and then i'll then tell me if it's possible it's like okay we're going to school during the day we're doing a little bit of homework after that but what we're doing kind of in into the night a little we're gonna make sure you can sleep and be healthy but into the night a little maybe picking up an assistant manager position at yeah a place so we can bring in more money i have thought about getting a second job but when you're working who's gonna take care of the kids will your dad that is the concern right now okay we need to have that conversation has that conversation been had Well they have DHS assisted daycare But Well it's good But their dad Hasn't been taking them Because he doesn't want me to pick them up But once you're in Oh my gosh are they just like being That sounds like Do they go outside Is this a safe situation Well obviously from the history It sounds like probably not But like, they're not just being locked inside, are they?

36:00Well, they do get out. It's just like he won't take them to daycare because he knows I can pick them up. And he's scared if I pick them up, I won't bring them back. And you wouldn't. And you shouldn't. It's been bad, though. Like, I mean, just the other day, he pushed me off the steps at his house and took the kids from me. Dude, if for some reason you're watching this, you're a piece of shit. And I really don't like you. I don't really hate people. That's not really an emotion, I feel. But I really don't like this guy. Well, I mean, I was like three months pregnant with our son when I found out he had another baby on the way.

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36:31And he lied to me the whole time and said it was like it wasn't his kid. He's a 40-something-year-old little baby. Oh, that girl, she's 22. No, he. He's a 40-year-old child. Yeah. Well, she's 22. I'm 21. He's 41. So he's got a type. Us youngins. I want to take a brief moment to thank today's video sponsor, Aura. Are you sick and tired, just like me and everyone else, honestly, of receiving endless spam calls every day? I mean, look at this. Let me open my phone. Look at this. This right here is all spam. It's crap. Except for one friend. There was one friend phone call. The rest is spam. Data brokers are making a fortune selling your information to robocallers, spammers, and others who want to learn more about you, like where you live.

37:17But with Aura, they can identify data brokers exposing your info and submit opt-out requests on your behalf. Brokers are legally required to remove your info if you ask them to, but they make it super hard to do. Let Aura handle that for you. Aura also does a lot more to protect you and your family from online threats you can't see. It's really easy to set up so you don't have to download several different apps to get things like parental controls, antivirus, VPN, password management, identity theft insurance, and more. You can get everything at one affordable price. let Aura do the hard work of keeping you safe online so you can focus on other things with peace of mind go to Aura.com forward slash hammer or check out the link at the top of the description below thanks again to Aura for sponsoring this episode I mean I don't know I mean at 18 that's certainly where it gets a little sketchy because this is like on that cusp and you know there can definitely be lots of manipulation and stuff like that I think there definitely definitely was um I don't like to like make it a big deal and I really don't talk about my situation a lot like to people but like I have never been more measurable than when I am with my baby daddy I don't want you to ever see him again other than across the room in a courthouse I he

38:39like makes my life he makes me hate my life and like the nicest way possible like and I try to be nice to him and not like I really do try to be civil But like the things that he's been doing the past nine months, it's hard to be like me and his like me and the other girl have been in this fights. Like, oh, gosh, it's don't do that. Don't go to violence. Oh, no, she hit me first. Either way, I don't want to see you land up in jail. Yeah, it's not a good it's not good. And that's what I'm saying. Like, I just, like, I want to run away almost, but I have to have my kids. I can't just run away, and I can't just, like, block him because, like, he has my kids.

39:25I know. Well, we'll get there again. We need to get there. That's a part of the conversation that, I mean, that just needs to happen in the legal avenues, and I hope you're pursuing that.

39:37So, the Red Rock Behavioral Health, is that, like, a therapy, copay situation? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a copay for when I went to go see about medications for mental health. Yeah. Okay, so like a psychiatrist? It's like a place that helps with all that kind of stuff. So they do the psychiatrist, therapy, drug, like if you had drug problems, all that kind of stuff. Do you have drug problems? No, it's like a whole mental health place, if that makes sense. Okay. They specialize in mental health. That like helps serve the community? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, actually with the unknown shopping. So with the taquitos and everything, now that we know what some of these places are.

40:23And then include Dave. It's like almost 25 % you're spending. This is bull****. It doesn't need to happen. Not when we're borrowing from Dave. Okay. So. Phone AT &T. 75 bucks. 75. So that's your phone bill, yeah? Yes. Okay. I'm building out your budget. You don't pay anything to your dad to live there? No. Good, because there's no money to be given. Car insurance, basically a car payment. That's pretty yikes. Yeah, my driver's license has been suspended twice for driving without insurance because I'm poor.

41:11and gas we only saw 63 bucks but we also don't know again some of those are taquitos some were gas i don't know what do you think you spend on gas on a monthly basis um probably about like 150 dollars okay how much do you send how much do you need to send to the kids i guess you said you did that but how much do you honestly it really depends on what he needs for them this man yeah usually i got better about not sending him money usually now i do walmart pickup orders because good because you never know what he's spending it on yeah that way i know that he's getting exactly what the kids need and nothing else like i even do it for groceries and stuff so like i buy their food and stuff too how does groceries for you work at home Well I get food stamps So I get Does it fully cover everything?

42:03I get$375 a month Good so I'm actually not going to put food budget in your thing Well except for the kids Well I Okay so yeah I use I really use about$100 to$200 Well like$150 to$200 on my kids And then for yourself? For myself Is the rest? Do you spend any cash on it? For their food? For your food For my food? Yeah, that's why. There's so much eating out going on. Okay, I'll give you an additional$100. I think that's how the math works. $150, let's call it. Additional$150 for groceries. Toll paper. Extra stuff for the kids as well. Stuff like this. Which is what you need to survive. Extra stuff for the household.

42:49Because the kids are going to put it up to$200. You're going to have to adjust this, obviously, once you get full custody and everything. But more should come in because he needs to provide as well. He needs to. And we're going to make sure that is legally binding via the court. Oy, oy, oy. Okay. Utilities, internet, not a thing. Okay.

43:11Do you know what copays might be once you start receiving therapy? Or is it fully covered through Medicaid? I want to say it's fully covered for the therapy part. The only part that they more make you pay for is if you meet with the psychiatrist, which is what that was because they were um they said they didn't want to prescribe me anything because i'm adjusting to my life and they're worried that what i'm going through is just a trauma from my breakup not anything else i can appreciate the perspective you know not just wanting to get someone on medication immediately through you know all like what could be a life change thing yeah well i mean so i tried to like talk to them about maybe like seeing because they just they diagnosed me with ptsd which is definitely new that's something that wasn't a thing that i had before but i was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when i was in high school and so like this has been a pattern you know maybe we just get a second opinion That's what my mom was wanting me to do because they all are concerned with my spending habits and my just the way I care myself that I have bipolar disorder.

44:28Yeah. So that's what I try to. Were you diagnosed with bipolar? Well, when I was younger, they thought that that's what it was. But because like when you're that age, they don't want to diagnose you with something like that. Use your health insurance and go see a doctor as well. Yeah, I have to get one. Go see a doctor, go see a psychiatrist. I've got to get a doctor. Yeah, so let's take some personal responsibility aspect of this is you get this stuff scheduled. Yes. So get some stuff scheduled, take advantage of the program you're on. Anything else you need on a monthly basis, phone bill, car insurance, gas, food, and then just the extra tool paper and whatever else is needed?

45:08anything else that is automatic coming on I don't think so as well from you okay so again the situation is going to change when you get full custody but hopefully the income situation through child support will also change did the grants not pay for the books they did it's just there was some other books that weren't connected through the class that I had to buy that just weren't automatically taken from my financially. That's why I paid on a separate account. I need you to start budgeting and start going aggressive with it. Maybe this is your budget. Maybe it's not. It's hard to say in this situation.

45:47Even still with$1 ,200 a month, you have an extra $350 left you could have over on a monthly basis. But I think the income is going to change. It's going to increase. It's going to increase with this job because you're going to get better at it. And we need you to get a better job in general which we know you can do because you have the history and you have the resume for it you work with a resume builder online as well and just i do have a resume like i have a pretty good one put it through an algorithm though and make sure it gets reviewed and everything like that it can it can call out things that don't look good on a resume and it can offer improvements that'll push you over the edge for a better job either way what I would do, because you live at home there's less you have a bit of a safety net I'm going to, we immediately pay off the destiny card and then we pay off the victory card after that that should be done within two months now the other two cards, I would attack the Amazon card the hardest, you could probably tackle that in this income situation in about four months and then you can tackle the discoverer card in about five months so we can eliminate the bad debt in a year-ish with your current income situation, but I think you could honestly get that down to six months with just a boost of$350 a month.

47:04Just a boost of$350 a month could cut that in half. I think you could do it even quicker than that. But what I need you to do immediately after attacking them in that order and working as much as you can to pay them off as much as you can, it's$10 ,000 minimum. I need you to put aside an emergency fund. it's for medical things kid medical things for yourself you never know what's going to happen when it's not covered or things like that car breaks down which would not be a surprise and doesn't make sense to put money into it then we go get ourselves five to ten thousand dollar car that we're taking to a mechanic getting a seal approval that is going to get you and your kids around safely now this legal stuff there's legal expenses as well potentially they're coming into this not a hundred percent sure you know let's cash flow that the best we can i would rather you put minimum your kids come first put minimum monthly payments towards the debts then the extra money that we have put them towards the legal things is necessary but then once that's resolved or you don't have to pay for something on a monthly basis then put it towards the debt put it towards saving up a fully funded emergency fund yeah i see you paying if you go get a better job which i know you can do and you know you can do you can pay off the debt at least in six months and think you'd have a fully funded emergency fund in a year from then so a year and a half let's call you out of bad debt and a fully funded emergency fund in your life has changed yeah it would be nice it would be nice but i have been struggling since my kids have been let's say it will be nice though not it would be it will be because it's it's right in front of you it's you can go do this what i need you to do through that situation is aggressively budget make sure you're pursuing the legal avenues to make sure you're uh you get child support and you get full custody but i also need you to take care of your mental health throughout this whole point because it could collapse on itself if you're not if you fall into a depressive state or bipolar you know wherever it might be i don't want you to fall back into old tendencies because mental health is not taken care of yeah so that's what i would do and And then something you should start considering when you're 22, 23, it'll still be in college, but that's paid for.

49:15Start contributing 20 % after that$10 ,000 in the emergency fund, 20 % on a monthly basis towards retirement. Roth IRA, and you can put it into, if there's a work sponsor, 401k as well. But let's max out that Roth IRA every year, and let's do minimum 20 % that included on a monthly basis into retirement. because even on a lower income, but even just on a, let's just say you're a fast food manager forever. Let's say you made 50 ,000 bucks. I could get you to being technically and officially a millionaire by retirement at your age, if we're putting 20 % aside. So we can get there. We can get to the place where you're better off than your parents ever were.

49:58You're better off than that piece of dude ever will be. and you have an amazing life built up for you and your kids. You can cash flow their college if you want to eventually. So, I mean, there's a lot of avenues here, but those are the basic steps that need you to follow for the next year and a half-ish and then start getting on that retirement and pursue the legal avenues and take care of your mental health through that whole situation as well. Yeah, it is nice seeing, like, because after my son was born I got very depressed and I kind of let it all go obviously I got really low like just to the point where I honestly didn't like even want to go outside for like months yeah and so when I finally like woke up and kind of like realized like I needed to do something it was kind of like all my stuff is already late and sure well that's in the past that's in the past and if you realize you're in a mental health crisis make sure you take advantage of the resources that exist out there but that's in the past we're not going to judge you for the past everything is as it is right now what matters is what you're doing now and what you're going to do going forward so if you follow what I laid out here you're going to have a successful life financially speaking there's other things that have to be dealt with outside of the finances but financially speaking you can have a successful life if you just follow this plan you have any final questions any final thoughts um i mean it's good to feel like i'm gonna have a plan because i mean it's been like it's been hard for me to really make a plan honestly because i didn't know where to start i mean obviously i was 18 and i had my kids i barely knew how to take care of myself well we're going to support you along the way it's not a recording episode and off type situation.

51:55So any questions, any help, any resources, anything we can provide along the way, reach out to us. We're here. We have eyes on all the emails. So reach out to us. We will help and point you in the right direction and answer the questions that we best can. And then keep us updated on your situation as well. I'd love to have you on in like a year, year and a half and see you just have a completely turned around life and we can all celebrate. I would love to. I hope. You will love to. Yes, we're going to do it someday, and I'm going to be in a better place. I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it, too. Obviously, a very difficult situation all around.

52:36When it comes to her finances, though, hammer financial score. Spending it a budget, I'm going to say 2 out of 10. It's really not good. 25 % is going to bullshit. So, 2 out of 10. Debt. No collections, no IRS debt, but still really bad for her income. So, 2 out of 10. Emergency fund is nothing. zero out of 10 retirement. There's nothing zero out of 10 real estate. There's nothing zero out of 10. It's going to be a one out of 10 hammer financial score for now. Come back in a year and a half. Let's see what it is. Make sure to check out all the resources linked in the description below. They are what I use or would use in specific situations.

53:07If you want to be in an episode of financial audit and you're able to make it down to Austin, Texas, fill out the survey in the description below.

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