He’s Single-Handedly Throwing Away Their Future

26:37Um, even though of course it's less than like many, many, many, many other substances. But if you think, I mean, have you guys had conversations around that? Have you guys had conversations around finances and how have they gone? When you said that you mean like smoking weed? So yeah, we've had conversations about that. Um, whenever I've told him to stop like he will and why does it start back up and how long why did he start back up I'm not sure exactly why but once he's like once he'll ask me like what about now I'll be like sure whatever and then after that it kind of spirals out of control and about finances I do tell him you know like first pay off your credit cards first no matter what I do tell him all these little tips and all that and he's like I don't know I will I will and he was doing really great until he decided to move out until his roommate and he lost his job then all the debt spiraled out of control right there and this was this happened within the last year or so yeah so before that like he was better with money than i was and he was teaching me stuff um so yeah that's how that went okay all right we can switch back we can switch back but thank you for being willing to share.

27:57Welcome back to the hot seat. So I don't know, what do you think about all that? She's, you know, she'd love you to take control of your finances, it sounds like, for the future. She thinks you have the discipline nature around it, but then also at the same time we've also seen, okay, you'll quit smoking for a bit by request, but then we spiral out of control. So the discipline around that, Now that comes with more addictive tendencies than, of course, a lot of the budgeting things. But even still with that, lack of discipline, that sounds like has gotten us to a point where we can't sustain a lot of good behavior.

28:32So I don't know. I'm a little nervous. What are your thoughts on everything we just talked about? Yeah. I mean, it's tough. It's definitely tough because, I mean, I want to quit. I've been wanting to quit. And I've tried, you know, multiple times. but you know I'll get like a weekend or whatever and then I'll just go and smoke just a little bit and then I'll be like okay I can't smoke every single day I'll just smoke like a couple times a week and then it turns into every single night whenever I get off you know what I mean like it's it's just a slippery slope that I've allowed myself to continue falling into and then once I got into all the debt I really just stopped caring about nicotine I still did care about but weed especially I just I was like whatever man I'm just gonna smoke I don't think about it nearly as much as whenever I don't.

29:15Okay. So housing, that's 34%, which is certainly on the edge of comfort when it comes to your spending. Not necessarily compared to your income. We'll see that. But for spending, it's pretty rough. Transportation, 21%. Necessary food was only 6.3%. Eating out and around 20.2 % of your spending. 20.2 % of your spending. Unknown shopping, which was on Amazon, we don't even know. That was basically 5%. Different subscriptions, 2.4%. Gym, 1.7%. We're good with that. And miscellaneous, let's see, miscellaneous, it was like the smoke shop in Cinemark and extra at the gas station. That was about 1.4%.

30:05So only 6.5 % of your spending went to actually paying off debt. 6.5%. What did I say the food was 20 % of your spending could have been going to paying off debt. You chose, you actively chose to go spend that around getting weed, doing whatever, instead of paying off the debt, you're in the debt, but you could have been making progress. You could have been building a future together. She said she won't consider combining finances, getting married until you get your, taking care of. You are preventing your guys' self from actually forming that bond and partnership for the future because you are choosing 20%.

30:5320 % of your money, you are choosing that of going to eating out and DoorDash. That is what you're choosing. So hopefully this is the wake-up call you needed, man, because that is bad. That is rough, and that is selfish of you. Selfish.

31:14so we have the we have i mean there's ways to go forward the way that i typically do is we can lay out a budget with your current expenses and what we can put you on when it comes to an overall strict budget and we can try to get you out of debt but again i'm a little fared with afraid with past behavior but is that the path you want to go down yeah absolutely uh-huh all right what's your rent or your portion? So like I said, I'm moving back with my mom, so there's no rent this week. Like October 6th is the day of the month. Okay, so no more rent is ever owed. Are you going to have to pay anything for utilities or internet and give back at all?

31:51No, not as far as I know. Okay, cool. Now, let's add up your debt minimum monthly payments. And how are you feeling? Because I know I've dug into you, but I want this to be a wake-up call. It's the conversation that I wish happened to me 10 years ago. So how are you doing? I definitely appreciate it. I mean, I'm not going to say it's easy. It's not easy. It's not supposed to be easy. And it will be not easy going forward. But you're going to set yourself up for success if you actually follow this. And you're going to have an awesome life if you follow this.

32:27Now, gas,$140. What about car insurance? We don't have that. Yeah. So that's one thing. I haven't been. My mom and my stepdad have been covering my insurance just because I wasn't. And Willie's still? Right. I don't want them to. They still can, but I want to start paying that back. Okay. I mean, they don't, like, it's not like they're completely happy with covering it. You know what I mean? They're not, like, telling me you need to start paying this, but they're more worried because it's, like, building up, and I'm going to have to pay it back eventually. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what? It's a debt to them?

32:58Technically, yeah. Why technically? So it's to my stepdad. He's the one that pays all the entire insurance plan or whatever. and yeah so each month it's like 350 that i was supposed to be paying for insurance and i didn't pay it like after the second month of me living there so it's been like eight months of that building up what do you owe whatever 350 times eight is okay so you need to start because you you owe it back if you don't either way i need to start paying the 350 yeah at least doing that so it doesn't continue to... Okay. Car insurance? Yeah. $350. Mm-hmm. It's expensive. Okay. Subscriptions, we're cutting it out.

33:41Except for... Well, does ChatGTP help with work for your job? I don't think so. No, it did with the IT job. I probably don't need it anymore. Okay, cut that. Okay. Cut that. Dang. No more...

33:55I know it's non-traditional, but if you guys go out to eat, she's paying. She's been doing that for the last year Are you sure? Because you eat out every single day of your life On your own statement Okay Phone bill? Nothing How's food going to work in the house? I shouldn't have to pay For any groceries or anything like that For my own budget I was giving myself like$100 a month I'll just put it on there just in case And then Tollpaper, toothpaste, all that good stuff Let's give you$50

34:31anything else you have to pay for no

34:39okay well I mean I'm just because for my own just what I think you should do and it's harder said than none I'm not putting in anything for weed I'm not putting in for nicotine it's not an overnight thing. You work on that, but I am not going to feel good putting that in a budget that I create.

35:09$1 ,430.

35:13$3 ,900 comes in. I need you to set aside$3 ,900. It's in between the$3 ,800 and the$4 ,000 you said. I need you to set aside$1 ,000. 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. So he cooked up KFC's 499 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 499 you'll spend this season. Prices and participation may vary while supplies last Texas tips and fees extra.

35:54$170 in a high-yield savings account. I use SoFi High Yield. That's where I put my tax money. But you need to start doing that now or you're going to get f***ed by the tax man come early next year. This gives you an extra$2 ,730 left on a monthly basis.

36:13$2 ,730. $1 ,300 is what you have left over. Now, normally I do a one-month emergency fund before getting things kicked off, but you have a good safety net living at home. We're not going to do that. What I am going to do is synchrony is paid off immediately within month one. Let's just call that month one being extra conservative, some transitionary things. Okay, cool. Month number two, we're paying off Discover. Let's, again, just call that month number two. So month number three, what we're going to be doing is we're paying off half of the Apple Card. Month number four, we're finishing off the Apple Card.

36:49Okay. month number five we're doing minimum monthly payments on these other things until they're paid off and we're not putting a single cent on them anymore it doesn't exist it's going to take three and a half months to pay off the mercury card after those four months so we're nine and a half months in so we're heading into month five five six seven so wait we're headed into month five so seven and a half months we've just completed seven and a half months okay

37:29the car

37:33there are choices to be made do you want to pay it off or do you want to finesse I mean I want to do what's best I don't know it depends how long Because I'm okay with you being 20 and taking a little longer, but as long as you're doing it in an appropriate manner. Now, the money you're going to have left over is going to be a little more at this point because we've saved some money. So let's give you an extra$200. So$1 ,500 left on a monthly basis now. It's going to take 16 months to pay off that car. So 16 months plus the... This is for credit card people only. If you're not a credit card person, close your ears.

38:16People always ask me what credit cards do I use personally or what credit cards should they use in specific instances. I've partnered with card ratings to create specific lists of good credit cards based on specific situations. So we have the best no annual fee credit cards, the best travel credit cards, the best secured credit cards, and the best credit cards for people who have no existing credit. So to check out those lists that we've specifically curated, head down to the description below. Call it eight months. So 24 months, two years to get fully out of debt. two years of living at home trying to make more money you know job shop raises stuff like that working more hours whatever it takes and that could cut it down but in this case it would be 24 months two years would you be okay with two years of this would you be okay with two years of this him living at home not spending a single cent on fun two years she says yes she'll be in school anyways what do you think two years longer than what i thought but yeah what do you think i thought well i mean i didn't not too much longer i thought like a year year and a half why well i don't i guess i thought i had i'd have a little bit more than 13 to put towards you gotta set money aside for taxes yeah no yeah i wouldn't even think about that don't add irs debt on top of this don't add wage garnishing on top of this what you could do what did you say KBB is the car right now?

39:4718, I believe. No. Yeah, I would do this. I'd pay this off because whatever financing we do, it's going to get you to like, I don't know,$18 ,000. So, I mean, you'll save a bit, but if you like the car, pay it off. Okay. So, two years. Pay it off. And then what you're going to do from there, and this is before you can move out because let's put in, so replace your debt payments for potential rent. Let's say what you need to survive is about$2 ,000. No, because now we're going to say about$3 ,200 because we're going to all of a sudden have food and insurance and all this stuff. Well, then you have to pay off your uncle, right?

40:25Or stepdad? Yeah. Well, yeah. I also – so I owe my mom money. How much? Sorry. Yeah, I forgot about the people debt. How much? Neither of them – I owe Chanel and I owe my mom. You owe her money? Yes. Yes. Unfortunately, it's terrible. I don't want to. How much do you owe her? 16. I owe my mom 18. 16 ,000? 1 ,600. Oh, fuck her. 100. I want to give them both two grand back, but neither of both of them are telling me whatever, you know, pay for everything else. 16 for her? How much for mom? 18, technically. How much for stepdad? 350 times eight.

41:02After the car is paid off, after two years, you're not doing it until after two years. You're going to have conversations, and hopefully they'll be okay with it. I assume she'll be okay with it. I assume mom will be okay with it. Have the conversation with stepdad. I'll have to figure that out but hopefully it's okay with it you should have an extra $1 ,900 left on a monthly basis now it's going to take 3-4 months to pay back those debts no interest unless they really want you to 3-4 debts so a year and 4 months or 2 years and 4 months to pay off all the debts now what I need you to do $3 ,200 let's just call your month to survive on a low budget once you get a place save up no I did that wrong I apologize I was looking at your income I was going to say that would be insane so let's call it$1700 to survive on a monthly basis on a lower budget okay cool that makes much more sense let's just call it$10 ,000 you'll have a$10 ,000 emergency fund so after those debts are paid off of which you're not touching until you pay off the car two years four months in again you have an additional So$1 ,900 on a monthly basis.

42:15It's going to take another five months. Five months to save up$10 ,000. Just over five months. And it was just over three months on the last thing anyway, so we'll just call this five months since we rounded up on the last one. Okay. So two years, nine months. Two years, nine months until you can move out and you can have fun money again. Two years, nine months. you can make that quicker probably about two years in total if you uh make a little bit more money but this is with you setting money aside for taxes and i need you to do that but two years nine months is a long time yeah we've talked about discipline we've talked about how when it comes to smoking and stuff like you're good for a bit and then you spiral this you gave up because it was so bad a few times.

43:05So we start making progress. We start making progress. Things get hard. I do not think this is going to happen. I certainly don't want this to happen. Well, let's just say in the real world where things do happen, a breakup happens. Okay, a breakup happens. That's emotionally very painful and losing a support system and a lot of things. there's a lot of things that can throw this off and head back into the spiral just like you do with weed spiral of going back into the debt or not continuing the payoff method because two years nine months is a long time it's a long time for things to f*** up yeah you really just be honest be honest with me two years nine months do you think the discipline you have and the lack of it that you've shown can be maintained for two years and nine months?

43:59I mean, obviously, I can't tell you 100 % certainty, but, you know, I do think once I start to see this balance is kind of go away and whenever I only got, you know, my car payment or whatever, I don't have a bunch of subscriptions just taking money out my account. BJ's Wholesale Club makes holiday hosting so easy. We called in the ultimate host to talk about it. Mrs. Claus here. You think Santa has it tough delivering all over the world? Try cooking for hundreds of elves. Good thing BJ's offers low prices on all the menu must-haves, plus free same-day delivery on your first order of$100 or more.

44:31No more squeezing in trips to the store. The only squeezing here is the big guy into a suit after dinner. For terms, visit bj's.com slash holiday and get the same great prices online as in-club. I just got a bunch of different charges. I don't even know what's going on. Once I see and I kind of have more control over it, because that's how it was before, whenever I was doing good financially. I had control over everything. I knew where all my money was going. Um, and I was doing good with it. It was once the stuff started to go out of my control, it was like kind of too much for me to really know where every single cent was going.

45:03That's whenever I really stopped putting as much care as I should have been putting towards it. So you started taking out debt at 18, right? Yeah. Yeah. I got my car. So this is going to take nine months longer, nine months longer than you've even had debt. Yeah. To pay off. since you've gotten that this is going to take at least nine months longer you put any subscriptions in there still keep the chat gdp and go out to eat here and there get a door dash here and there you stretch this because all it takes is just a few little things 2.9 months in a strict life you start set to all sort of four five six years yeah four five six years your guys's futures to way more important than that as a partnership as a bond whatever expectations are there I'm not saying you guys want to get married but from the conversation it sounds like okay this is what's holding us back potentially that you guys won't be able to combine finances until you get your shit figured out then on the addiction side of thing man I don't know like I want to start I want to put money in here for potential therapy if that will help whatever resources are available I want you to take advantage of and we add therapy and I'm good with adding therapy into a budget that makes sense but that's going to start just like four and a half years or well like three and a half years it's a struggle but the mental health aspect is important to take care of at the same time especially since you've added to these points where you can spiral and you've just given up so something I need you to take care of I don't know so when it comes to the addiction side of things what are your thoughts on that because that obviously takes out hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars and that's not even talking about the health aspect so what are your thoughts on that and then going forward as well I mean I want to completely stop.

46:50I've been wanting to completely stop. I just kind of, I don't know, needed something. So me and her, she's from Argentina, and we're going to Argentina this Christmas time-ish. So I wanted to be able to, I wanted to not be on any sort of vapor come that time because I didn't want to be in Argentina. In November or December? Come on quick, man. So what do you think is going to prevent you from the spiral, as she called it? That's happened multiple, multiple times. Honestly, the only thing I can think of is busying myself with my finances, trying to just throw in myself 100 % into that. Because I mean, before I started smoking and everything, I mean, the main reason I even did was because my head kind of goes quick.

47:37My thoughts are kind of always running. You know what I mean? And nothing really slows it down. Nothing ever really did until I smoked for the first time. And then I was like, oh, okay, this is cool. I'm not going a million miles a minute or whatever. But obviously, I have a sort of addictive personality. I get addicted to things easily. So whenever it's becoming a hindrance more than it's helping me emotionally or whatever, it's not worth it. So I got to stop. I have an addictive personality, so I know to avoid things that have potential addictive tendencies to it in general. so I mean that's a smart to acknowledge and avoid certain things in the future as you're going forward as well because again partnership and everything like that she can't you don't want to fall into other things as well so okay well then yeah you just got to be really strong about it man make sure you're taking advantage of help where it is whether it be community services or whether it be a therapist anything like that take advantage of the health insurance you don't have health insurance Are you on your parents?

48:41I think I still am, yeah. I think so. Yeah, through 26 or until 26. I don't remember. But, okay, so what would be, how many hours a week are you working right now? So, it's just nightly. That's what we get paid off of. I'm working four to five nights a week. Nights? Yeah. What are the hours? We get there at like 7, 7.30, and we leave around like 7 in the morning, more or less. Jeez, when are you guys seeing each other? You two. I mean, throughout the day. It has been a little bit less lately because she's been busy with school and everything, and I've been trying to work on this. Yeah, because school's a daytime thing, and you're working at night.

49:15Yeah. I'm sorry to tell you guys this, but it matters for your future. But one thing you can do to cut this dramatically, that time from two years, nine months, to like ambitiously, maybe even a year and a half potentially, if you work, go work another job, man. there's industries that will that will bring people on and just work right now it'll be you'll see each other less you'll have less sleep I don't want you to like avoid sleep in a dangerous way but yeah man so you're working like 30 40 hours a week right now ish probably yeah add an extra 20 30 if you can stretch at 40 on that I'm not saying you have to well I definitely don't have an issue with the hours yeah I mean whenever I first started working I was working in warehouses is like 60, 80 to 80 hour shifts for like two years.

50:05And that's whenever I stopped and got into the sleep. Well, I'm saying is if you're willing to, you cut this overall process and everything by a year, by nine months, by a year and a half even, who knows, then you guys can get on with your future even more. And so whatever one you prioritize, a little comfort now, being able to see each other more and doing this in two years, nine months, okay. or get your guys' future moving full steam ahead by you just going crazy now and paying it off, then that's chill. So, I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, yeah, that sounds good. Like I said, I mean, it's...

50:44What, which one? What do you mean, which one? Oh, the... I mean, the two years thing does sound okay. Like, that's doable. Two years, nine months. Basically three. Basically three years, yeah. I mean, yeah. I can definitely pick up at least one more shift a week at the sleep clinic. So that's another 200, 200 bucks a week. Yeah. That'll help a lot. Yeah. I mean, I used to do like DoorDash and stuff. Maybe I could do that, you know, whenever I get off. Cause I usually can't go to sleep for a couple hours after I get off anyways. Maybe I could go and DoorDash like the breakfast shift or whatever.

51:15Try and make some. If it makes sense. I'm not sure what breakfast and DoorDash looks like. Oh yeah. I mean, I don't know either. If it makes sense, maybe wake up a little earlier and do dinner before you head into town. Yeah. But either way, if that mathematically and economically makes sense, then I'm down with that. Yeah, definitely hustle and work. Now you need to have the conversation with the stepdad and the mom. Yeah. She's already here. She's hearing about this for the personal debts. That's going to be after the interest debts. Yeah. You could, if you wanted to, you could cut it. You could cut this down a little.

51:49It's going to be hard. It's not going to make up too much in the interest rate. It's actually going to be a little higher. but you get rid of the car by selling it, borrowing what's in between, then borrowing what it takes to get a$5 ,000 to$10 ,000 car on a personal loan. You're going to save a few thousand dollars of having to pay off and the interest rate is going to be higher. You're just going to attack it in the overall debt process, probably the last debt before the debt to people you know in your life. That's one way you could go about it. I might shave a few months off of it. It's not going to be dramatic, but that's up to you.

52:20What do you think about a consolidation loan for the credit cards? I'm just, because I've thought about it, but I haven't done anything. No, I want you to, okay, potentially, potentially, but we've seen so many examples recently. I think limited amounts of people can do that. Okay. And you've just, you've gone over the credit limits, which is showing me you just have no control. So boom, okay, you consolidate them. You have all of a sudden room to spend on the credit cards. You'll just build those up again. We've seen so many people do that on the show. Some people can do what you're talking about, but that's very risky.

52:53Again, if you're going to use a credit card, I'd use something like the Fizz card for you. Okay. But other than that, it's going to be a difficult, long process, and I hope you have the discipline to get through it. I really hope so. Do you have any final thoughts, any final questions?

53:14Not really. Just hope to be able to come back in six months, a year, or whatever, and show you that I put my money where my mouth is. Yeah, I think we said seven months to pay off all the cards before, maybe before the Mercury card. I don't remember, but whatever that first milestone is, let's get you to come back then. And you should have done that. Okay. Okay. Let's do that for sure. All right. For Jeff, you know, I really care about their future together where they want to get. So it's going to take some sacrifice to get there. It's hammer financial score spending a bunch of those ridiculous.

53:490 out of 10 debt. If you're borrowing from individuals in your life, I can't give you a higher than 0 out of 10 emergency fund. At least he started 1 out of 10 retirement. At least he started, not much, 1 out of 10. Real estate, not a part of the conversation yet, 0 out of 10. To be generous, we'll give him a 0.5 out of 10 for his hammer financial score. And don't forget to check out the resources linked in the description below. They are what I use or would use in specific situations. If 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.