In short
Podcast Notes: Financial Audit - Military Wife Is Choosing Eating Out Over Her Future
Episode Summary In this episode of *Financial Audit*, host Caleb Hammer discusses the financial situation of Roy, a 22-year-old phlebotomist living in Austin, Texas. The conversation revolves around Roy's income, spending habits, and financial goals as she navigates a unique personal circumstance involving her husband, who is currently in the Navy.
Key Themes and Discussions
Introduction
- Host Caleb introduces Roy and her profession as a phlebotomist.
- Discussion of her recent promotion and pay increase to $22.82/hour.
Current Financial Situation
- Income: With upcoming paychecks, Roy estimates her biweekly net income to be around $1,650, translating to approximately $3,300 monthly.
- Living Situation: Roy rents with her husband (currently away) and brother, sharing rent and utility costs.
Financial Goals
- Home Ownership: Roy expresses a desire to buy a house once her husband completes his military service.
- Debt: She currently has a car loan of approximately $12,180 at a 5.6% interest rate, with a minimum payment of $280/month.
Spending Analysis
- Eating Out: Roy acknowledges a tendency to eat out frequently, indicating emotional spending while her husband is away.
- Frivolous Spending: Total "BS spending" was over $1,000 in a month, which is a third of her income.
- Credit Card Use: While Roy pays off her credit card monthly, her spending still raises concerns about budgeting and needs.
Budgeting Recommendations
- Emergency Savings: Caleb emphasizes the importance of having at least two months of expenses saved for emergencies, encouraging Roy to work more overtime.
- Spending Cuts: Suggestions made to cut unnecessary expenses (e.g., subscriptions).
- Grocery Spending: Discussion on the lack of grocery shopping, leading to more takeout and convenience store visits.
Future Planning
- Long-term Goals: Roy's aim to pay off her car and save for a house, alongside potential family planning.
- 401(k) Contributions: Discussion around retirement savings, the necessity of increasing contributions, and understanding rollover processes upon job changes.
Financial Score Assessment
- Spending Score: Rated poorly due to excessive BS spending.
- Debt Score: Moderate score due to manageable car debt.
- Retirement Score: Very low due to minimal savings.
- Overall Hammer Financial Score: Approximately 1 out of 10, indicating significant room for improvement.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize Savings: Establish a robust emergency fund before making large purchases or incurring new debt.
- Evaluate Spending Habits: Identify and address emotional and unnecessary spending triggers.
- Utilize High Yield Accounts: Recommended for both personal savings and any inherited trust funds.
- Maximize Income Opportunities: Work overtime while possible, especially with the upcoming relocation.
Conclusion Caleb encourages Roy to leverage her current situation to increase savings and reduce debt before her husband's deployment concludes. The discussion highlights the importance of financial literacy, planning, and disciplined budgeting for a secure financial future.
Call to Action Listeners are encouraged to examine their own financial habits, seek educational resources, and consider sharing their financial stories for future audits.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28Americans told Washington what they want. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our U.S.-based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40 % your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. My name is Roy. I am based out of Austin, Texas.
1:04I'm 22 and this is Financial Audit. All right, you're pretty young. We haven't had someone that young in a second. So what do you do for a living in Austin, Texas? I am a phlebotomist. I work on like a bus, usually collecting blood donations. No, you're good. Oh, really? So you're just going around collecting in the bloods yeah pretty much wow okay i would pass out in a heartbeat people all day and i would be fainting uh okay very cool what are you what are you making i actually we have some of the so this must be hourly because i have two pay stubs yeah it is hourly so i sent you one pay stub so i get paid twice a month um but they give us i think like three or four times a year i get um a three-week paycheck so that's why one of those is like way bigger than the Yeah, I don't know.
1:57Oh, that was one of the rare three-week paychecks? Yeah. Oh, gotcha. Okay, so I see you make$21.32 an hour? Yes, and I did just recently get a promotion, so I got a little bit of a pay increase. To what? I brought it with me. All right. Congratulations on that. Thank you. This better promote me. okay now I get paid $22.82 an hour and I'm going to be getting paid more because I'm going to do more things but that's what it's going to be in like four days well you have good overtime anyway because it increases it by$12 it looks like so that's pretty nice but of course in this statement we only had seven hours of overtime but you did get 40 hours of regular pay two weeks okay very good and then your gross pay here was$1 ,950 $1 ,571 being net after withholdings and contributions for 1K, all that good stuff.
3:00So is that more average than that big one then, right? Yeah, pretty much. I only get the big one like three or four times a year. Okay, and with your pay raise, it's probably going to be more like $1 ,750 hitting your account on a monthly basis, I'm thinking. Maybe so, yeah, I guess so. $1 ,750, but oh, not on a monthly basis, on a biweekly basis. Yeah. So, of course, that would be... You really think it's 1 ,700? Well, you think it's going to be higher or lower? Sounds like a lot to me. Well, you're at 1 ,571. Well, okay. Well, let's just do some quick math. What did you say your new rate's going to be?
3:362 ,280, I think is what it was. And you're getting pretty much a guaranteed 40 plus a little bit of overtime. Always. I think it'll be like 1 ,650. Okay. But of course, with overtime, it could be higher. It could be less. 1, 650 times that by 2. So pretty much$3 ,330 hitting your account on a monthly basis is that net income. What's your percentage to 401k contribution? It's 4%. Okay. And what's it matched to? I think all of it. Pretty sure. Okay. Because the employer, you actually, with what you contributed is less than what you're - Oh, it is? Oh, I'm not sure. I'm not kidding. So, like, it looks like they're matching almost more than 100%.
4:23Oh, really? Oh, oh. But it might be, like, certain percentages up to a certain amount. So, you know, I don't know. But essentially you put in 58 bucks. They put in 78 bucks. Oh, wow. Okay. And then that other paycheck was a little more. So, okay, cool. Well, after that raise, we're getting$3 ,300 net on a monthly basis. So let's figure out your financial situation. Like, I want to know what we're getting into here, you know. and give the audience some background. What's up? What's going on? Well, right now, I guess in terms of what I pay for, like I'm a renter. I do roommate with, well, technically with my husband and my brother, but my husband is away right now because he just joined the Navy.
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6:23And you can do that today by going to SoFi.com forward slash Caleb. There you can explore your options and that link is also in the description below. Find out if the rates are competitive for you. Oh, geez. Okay. But he still pays a third of the rent. So that's cool. So he got deployed for the first time? Well, he's still in school right now. and then he's going to be stationed when he graduates in August. So you're going to do like the three-year stint or full career? Yeah, he's going to be in. Well, he signed up for four years and that's it. I'm not going to let that man do any more than that because I'm tired of being by myself.
6:58But he's... And you're not going to go join? So, yeah, that's the thing is, so he got orders to go to San Diego and so... Oh, no, the terrible, horrible city of San Diego. Diego. Yeah. That nobody likes whatsoever. Yeah. So, but I think I'm just going to go with him anyways, just because I want to be able to see him and he's going to be on a ship. So that's like my best opportunity to be able to see him as much as possible. Oh no. 75 degrees and sunny with no humidity all year. Oh no. Beaches and palm trees. Well, it's$6 a gallon over there. Yeah, but then you get to live in, like, perfect climate.
7:41So, also, just don't drive. Yeah, you're right. You know what? I'll just. Live in a walkable area. Yeah, I'll just be homeless, you know. I don't have to pay rent. I can beg. Okay, either way. So, okay, continue. What's your financial situation? Oh, yes, right. Okay, so we want to buy a house whenever he's done with the military. It's kind of like the goal right now. I mean, I'm not going to dig myself into a hole to do it. but with our plan right now it's he gets out we buy a house and then we have kids um and then i just need to pay off my car and that's really it and i don't really have any debt or anything other than the car right yeah other than the car so we have the car you you've recently put a good amount of money towards it which is great but it's still at twelve thousand one hundred eighty dollars by the way give yourself a score zero out of ten where you at currently do you think like 10 being amazing zero being maybe like a six or a five five or a six like middle of the road five and a half out of ten okay let's see how that stacks up at the end okay so car 12 180 75 cents very good what's the interest rate on this it is 5.6 i think yeah that's in that range with cars like yeah i mean certainly not crazy but with depreciation and everything when it just comes down to basic Mac, we'll still want to pay it off kind of early.
9:11And your minimum monthly payment is what? It's like$280, I believe. Well, okay, actually, it might be more. I can't remember. Well, what's the term length on that thing? It was like the longest one. Is that 66 months or something? That's not the longest one, but still. But it's still long. I like to follow the money guys rule the money guys rule being that you're putting 10 % down it's 3 years long and it's no more than 8 % of your total income before taxes so pretty much like after taxes and stuff like that what I like to do I kind of adjust it to more like 12 % post tax income which doesn't mathematically necessarily work out but in terms of net income do we really want more than 12 % going towards it I don't think so so So we're definitely three years, but you're making, you know, why are you?
10:05So you started making more payments to it. Why? Well, okay. So this is my first time like buying a car and like taking out a loan for it. So I didn't exactly know. Wait, when'd you do it? Like I think in May or maybe a little before that. Yeah. Pretty recent. I just got it. But yeah, it was my first time doing that. so um i i guess i i just tried to do it the best way that i could now and i had like eight thousand dollars i was like okay like this is my down payment and then they like never asked me for a down payment so i was like okay well i guess i'll just pay it on the account and like they gave me the option to put a down payment at the dealership but i could only put two thousand down i was like i don't know why because they want to suck that interest out of you so i said no and i I just put it in my what's the car it's a Corolla 2016 um but it had like 74 ,000 miles on it so yeah it's too expensive for that car I paid too much money for it for sure why why'd you do that um because well I was trying to talk the guy down I really probably should have said no but um yeah I was I wasn't sure if I could find a better deal but I was trying to talk the guy down and I, well, he, I heard that you shouldn't like tell them like exactly like how you're planning to pay for it until the very end.
11:25So they don't swindle you out of your money. And then I, he was like, okay, so like, you know, how are you going to pay for it? And I was like, well, you know, I was thinking about financing through the bank unless you can offer me a better interest rate. And he was, he was like, okay, like what'd you, well, what was the, you know, like interest rate that you got from your bank. And then he just, I just showed him like the paper that shows the approved loan amount. And he was like, okay, well, you already have this, so I'm not going to take any money off of what the car's worth. And I was like, oh.
11:53And all the oil changes were done on time on it, and I don't plan on buying another car unless I really have to. I'd prefer to just keep this one forever. So it's like. Well, it won't be forever. But I get what you're saying. Yes. Okay, cool. Now, I see you have a credit card, but you pay it off every month, it looks like. Yes. Cool. So you're a credit card person. That's lovely. that's rare but uh you know nothing what's common interest common interest oh that was a karaoke bar you spent 183 bucks there it was my it was for my birthday my husband venmoed me for it so i just put it on my card and then he paid me back yeah and then some holy roast and takiras la papaya Yeah.
12:39And. Palapa. Palapa. Frivolous spending. And sea rain. Yeah. So nothing really important on here that needed to happen. But you are paying it off. Yep. Now you're checking the count. With available balance, 746, which I'm happy with. 747, sorry. In here. Okay. These cheaper 7-Eleven trips, what are you doing? Are you filling up just a little bit of gas? Or are you going in and getting shit? No, I'm getting caffeine. And snacks. What caffeine? $12.30. Because. No, what? oh wait which one what are you spending 12 30 cents in caffeine caffeine and snacks yes yeah because i'm drinking well i i need to have like minimum 200 milligrams of caffeine to start off with so i usually it's like those monster coffees with extra caffeine in it or um the celsius ones are pretty good i like those okay 7-eleven but i should not be doing that so we're getting caffeine We're getting Fritos.
13:39We're Chick-fil-A, caffeine, restart, CBD, and some brewing thing, and Andy's frozen custard, and some caffeine, double apple smoke shop. Again, let's not have unhealthy habits that are also expensive habits. That's almost$100. What are you smoking? Oh, wheat. Yeah, for sure. Okay, in what kind of form? Well, I mean, sometimes I'll vape it, and sometimes I'll smoke it in the bong and just get it from my dealer. But I threw away my bong this morning. It's an ongoing addiction that I'm trying to get rid of. Oh, really? Okay, well, not only the addiction thing and the financial thing, but really out of all places in our body, do we really want different kind of chemicals going into our lungs?
14:18No. Our lungs of all places? Like, if we want anything to exist in us, it's like our brain, lungs, and heart, and we're just putting, we don't know what, you know, vapes. We don't know the long-term consequences of that vapor, but either way. And then McDonald's and Palapa again And then you pay$8 ,000 towards the car That's fantastic So that was the down payment you saved up But then you just put it This episode is brought to you by NBA on Prime This Tuesday at 8.30 Eastern It's the Emirates NBA Cup Championship Game on Prime This year's quest for the Cup has been building to this The Championship Game Live from Las Vegas Not a Prime member?
14:57Sign up for a 30-day free trial to get started today The Emirates NBA Cup Championship Game This Tuesday at 8.30 Eastern. Only on Prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Yeah. Ramen to Tzuya. Mid-Ramen in Austin. Okay. And some more CBD and caffeine and KFC and Starbucks. And TJ Maxx. ATM would draw of 80 bucks. Who knows where that went. Netflix, Nomad Bar, Austin, Whataburger, and some caffeine. And Popeyes and Popeyes. And you transferred in$2 ,245 from savings. why are we doing that okay so um the reason why is because my dad just inherited because my grandma died so he inherited a trust and he you want to see somebody with some crazy financial plans you talk to that man because he does not have a bank account well i don't think he does anyway and he doesn't have an id so he can't open a bank account and so he had no way to get the money and i was talking to my aunt she's trying to figure out how to get this money to him and i was like well just send it to me like all i was thinking i would open up another savings account and put it in there for him so that he can just ask me when he needs it so i emptied my savings account so that she could send me all that money i gotta keep track of it you know what i mean be like okay this is my dad's money and this is my money so it's it's not like a permanent thing for it to be in my savings account right now but that's why i moved money for my savings and if you want to keep track of things keep track of your to-do list and at the top of that to-do list is hitting that subscribe button because we're trying to get the 750 ,000 subscribers.
16:30Thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far. So, okay, that$2 ,245 that came in, is that all that's going to come in? Yes, that's it. Okay. And then, again,$500 to the Corolla and Pineapple Express and Pineapple Express and Uber Technologies, Uber and Wendy's and IHOP and Venmo in out,$210. That might have been. Usually, I use Venmo for bills, too. so sometimes my brother will go shopping and I'll send him because we do the shopping as a group and we'll just pay each other for half and caffeine and Uber again you have a car but we're Ubering and Waterburger and Venom we now$610. Oh that was when I bought my car to pick it up.
17:10Oh okay. The Uber and Venom we now$25 Venom we now a lot of monies but again if that's for bills. So really I didn't really I think I saw one grocery store in here Rosedale Market for$55. Did you just eat out for every single store okay so where's where's the grocery shopping or do you just eat out every single meal so this past month has been a little bit irregular for me um that's why i've been going to 7-eleven so much is because i haven't been grocery shopping um because i just and i haven't really been eating anything i also lost five pounds on accident jails sorry um but it's i've just been having a hard time with my husband being gone so that's why i'm like kind of not only do i spend a lot of money for like weed and stuff and like going to 7-eleven like buying my one meal of the day there but are you bored oh no no i well i go out with friends a lot because that's what all that lapa lapa and stuff is i'm going out with my co-workers because i'm trying not to be at home by myself so i'm trying to yeah but also like going on drinking and eating is kind of expensive so i need to stop doing that but um yeah no i've just that's why i haven't been grocery shopping all the bs spending was just over a thousand bucks which isn't crazy but it sounds like a lot to me well it is a lot for your income for bs spending it's a third of your income yeah so that's kind of a lot if a but then again if that's all the fun you're having and you're not in a bad situation then if that's the 30 that you want to put towards having fun okay But I would rather get you out of your car debt now first.
18:49And then last but not least, there is a savings account. What's the current balance in there? Because I know things have changed. What's in your savings right now? I believe it's like$22 ,500. All right. I think we have found. But that's my dad's money. That's not my money. Well, what's your money? Oh, my savings? Yeah. Oh, I haven't really allocated a set amount for savings because I've just been kind of doing whatever with my money. What's your savings? What do you have? Like in my checking account right now? No, that's all my money in my checking account. You don't have anything else outside of that?
19:29No. Where did the$8 ,000 come from? $8 ,000? Well, I had it already. That's what you saved up. Yeah, but half of it my husband gave me. So right now the$700 in your checking account is all that you have towards your name. Why'd you send the savings? That's your dad's It's not even yours What are we doing? What do you mean? You sent the savings That's your$23 ,000 Oh yeah, no, no, no That's just in my savings account But it's not yours Yeah, no, it's not mine So your dad's money's in your savings account? Yeah, because he doesn't have a bank account Oh my god, that's just weird I know How old is this dude?
20:09Well, he's like 56 or something like that What, is he like a weirdo that... Yeah, he's a weirdo. He's a weirdo for sure. All right, so, well, now I'm a little less happy. I was like, all right, we're going to pay off the car today, and we're going to have pretty much a fully funded emergency phone, and that was it. So, but nope. Sorry to burst your bubble. Bubble bursted. Spending a third on fun while we have all that. I'm glad you saved up$8 ,000 to begin with. I am glad you put a good down payment down on a car. We can, you know. I mean, it kind of was, but you didn't do it the traditional route.
20:46But either way. Right. Your portion of rent. $610. Incredible for Austin, but that's with the roommates and stuff. We got a backyard. Oh, it's a house. Yeah, it's a duplex. I got three dogs, so I need a backyard. Oh, very good. Very good. I have a puppy too, but he's in my bedroom. Oh, okay. So he didn't jump all over you when you came in. Oh, that's okay. Okay. And your portion of utilities? um so uh me and my brother are splitting it in half since my husband's not there so he's not paying any of it and usually it's uh around this time it's like between 150 and like 180 oh so my portion would be about like uh 75 to you so you pay half yeah okay maybe 80 bucks i guess what's your car insurance um my car insurance well it freaking was 140 and then they canceled it because they didn't have i don't know it was weird like i put i had to get the insurance before i took the car home right because the dealer wouldn't let me take the car home and so i got it and then they sent me a letter in the mail saying like oh like we don't have your name on the title and i was like what are you talking about i just bought it but i guess it's because when i started the insurance like i wasn't on the title yet or something like that i'm not sure but anyways I just restarted it yesterday and I was playing phone tag with them because they kept me around and not doing anything.
22:09How much is it? It went up to like 200 something. Maybe like 250 or something. I can't exactly remember. How much you spend on gas a month?
22:23Maybe like 60 or 70 dollars. I don't have to fill up very much. though it is a very driving you need to drive in order to live in Austin once you're directly downtown or in the domain so healthcare is that through work? I have my husband's health insurance so I don't pay anything other minimum expenses well we have the car payment it was 280 so my gas bill is separate from my utility bill that's usually like no yeah sorry I forgot it's usually like$20 maybe for my portion okay I'm gonna give you grocery spending of which is what you're gonna be doing now is getting groceries like a big girl of$300 and then I'm giving you toilet paper anything else you need for the house make up all that good stuff$100 do you think$300 for groceries is enough for one and a half people because you have a kid no it's my younger sibling but me and my brother we just split the groceries in half.
23:29How old is your younger sibling? Like 16. Boston with the Boys is here to let you know that every college football Saturday, FanDuel is dropping profit boosts that can turn wins into bigger wins. Sounds like we should rename Saturday Booster Day. Nice. 21 plus and present in select states. Opt-in required. Bonus issue does not withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? call 1-800-GAMBLER.
24:02Is he the brother that you're talking about that splits the payments? No, no, no. I have my older brother, yeah, and then my younger sister. Younger sister is who you're taking care of? Yeah. Okay. And you and your older brother both take part in this? Kind of, sort of, yeah. Taking care of them. I'm the younger sibling. I don't really do anything except for get groceries and stuff. but he is the main yeah okay what's the situation there why is he living with you guys well as we've established my dad is weirdo so um my sister oh no she's crazy they're all crazy okay all right i'm gonna allocate just an additional uh since someone else is also helping to put into it i'm gonna have you put in it it's only groceries and other little things that you're helping with or Are you helping with more stuff too?
24:56Like school supplies? What does it look like? No, just food. I mean, I'll do the odd thing here and there, but I don't think it's really anything usually expensive. I'll get them pants sometimes. Then I'm going to put on a monthly basis an additional$250 that you can put towards that. A little more than I was going to go, but that's just in case there's pants and shoes and stuff like that. So let's try to have that less. This is what you put towards the brother front. Your portion. Okay. And then, you know, whatever else comes from the other side is awesome too. Okay. I put it, that as a max of$250.
25:32Make it a little lower when you can, but then when those odd things pop up that you should help with. Right. You said$16 as well? Yeah. Okay. He can also start, you know, working on some Mickey D's if he wants to bring in some extra money. Right. Does he have a car? No, it's my younger sister. Oh, is she? I'm just sorry. No, she does not have a car. No. She has a bike that's like electric and stuff. So she gets around that way? Yeah. And you're pretty close to things? Yeah, I would say so. Okay, then she can start getting a job. As long as it does not detract from school and does not put her in a bad mental health place with the balance between school and stuff.
26:09But she can also help. Okay. I just want to frame this right. She does not necessarily need to be fully self-efficient right now. But she can start gaining some of the skills and contributing. Yeah, but she's probably not going to. because she's going into a self-paced school right now, so she's trying to graduate a year early. So kind of the plan was just focus on school. Probably at the beginning of next year, yeah. But by that time, I may be in San Diego, so it's kind of relevant to me. Okay, just one thing to consider going out there. I'm way on the outside of this conversation, so I don't want to make any immediate adjustments.
26:49Just make sure as we're heading into the next year and heading towards 18, skills are good to learn we do not want to be enabling anything of course not any leaning on people well actually leaning on family is good in a healthy way i just want to make not excessively yeah yeah for sure through a weird family situation that is currently there with parents that are not in the picture i want to make sure she is fully successful when she hits that adult age in our culture to go out and make a path of her own without having to rely on others. Leaning healthily in a healthy way on family and friends, totally good.
27:31Nothing wrong with that. But just making sure that she's fully set up. Any other minimum monthly payments you can think of? Oh, you know, you should probably put on there, I have to pay, let's see, I buy a lot of dog food, so it probably comes out to like 120 a month, maybe? I have big dogs. typically the way i do that is i put that in your own groceries oh oh so i'm changing your food budget to 400 okay that that works i just get the h-e-b brand so it's not too expensive okay and you're canceling all your other subscriptions because you do not need them right now like netflix and all of this of course of course
28:22I don't really watch Netflix anyway so I guess I don't need it who does at this point okay so your needs category comes out to $2 ,060 and after your raise not taking into account much overtime well a little bit of overtime but not much after your raise your needs category is is 62 % of your income. So that's too much. Yeah. That's too much. That's with also helping your younger sister. But even still, take that away, and you're still well above 50%. 50 % should be the maximum that goes towards your needs. 50%. Okay. So what we need to do here is, you know, when you're moving to San Diego, which is, I'm going to say, well, I mean, the income situation will change then, too, because you'll need another job.
29:12So it just gets weird. essentially what needs to happen right now is needs are cut somehow where do we make wiggle room in the needs i don't know i don't want you to you know starve yourself i don't want you to not give your little sister what she needs i don't want you can't break leases or anything so well actually we can break a lease because there's a clause in leases for people in the military and is your brother going oh well he we already talked about it and he said he was fine to just stay at it sounds like a bad decision to me but it's hard to tell right now because like everything the military tells us 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 have plus free same day delivery on your first order of 100 or more no more squeezing in trips to the store.
30:09The only squeezing here is the big guy into a suit after dinner. For terms, visit bjs.com slash holiday and get the same great prices online as in club. The next day turns out to be a lie. So don't ever trust the military, but he's supposed to get, he's going to, my husband's going to graduate in August. And then at that point he should be able to take maybe three weeks of leave. And then we were going to spend that time to move, but we have to get on a wait list for the housing so we're not even sure if we can move by that point we may have to wait longer so everything's kind of kind of cluster right now yeah yeah it's hard to make plans it is but i'm not gonna screw myself and go to san diego without a job or anything because i mean i have a good job here that i like so well your needs are obviously too expensive but you do have$1 ,240 left over on a monthly basis with some overtime that's in there.
31:07So we can start making progress towards things, and we can have an emergency fund and stuff like that. Yay! Yeah, celebrate, but the amount of time that's necessary in order to get that is well beyond when you would move, even if it's delayed a bit. Right. So it's like, how much of a plan is going to be a plan right now? So should I just work a bunch of overtime? Well, absolutely. Do you have the option to work as much as you want? Yeah, I can work as much as I want. Work a bunch. Work a bunch. Go crazy. Stretch that to$4 ,000,$4 ,500 that's coming in net. Monthly? Net, yeah. Okay. Go crazy because you're working, what, 45 hours right now or something like that?
31:4944 hours? Usually, yeah, around there. Okay. Work 55, 60. 55, 60. Go crazy. Go crazy because you're moving. Let's get you in a club. I as well, right? Let's get you in a clean spot. It doesn't matter right now. You're looking for distractions anyway at this point because you miss your husband and you're going and spending money right now. Let's use that time and just be making the money right now. Okay. Because the cool thing is if you have an extra net$2 ,000 a month, I mean, just for the sake of moving and the expenses around it, you know, for two and a half months, save up$5 ,000, which is two and a half months of emergency fund for you right now.
32:24But that covers some of the moving expenses when that needs to happen. and putting down security deposits and stuff like that. Well, never mind. Yeah, because we don't really have to do it. The military will pay to move all of our stuff. Okay, maybe we save up$4 ,000 just for a little extra safety net than we would normally have in this situation. But then everything after that$4 ,000 for these coming months, you're just putting it towards the car, putting it towards the car, trying to get the car balance, you know, after a few months, maybe down to$6 ,000,$8 ,000 because you're just going crazy.
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33:01But that's if you're here going crazy for like six months. I don't know if we're going to be here going crazy for a total of six months from now. I don't know because August that's coming up in a couple months. Yeah. And then you're thinking of moving like what after that. So I don't know. A lot of this depends on that and then what the income situation and living expenses look like there. Obviously, the military is taking care of a lot of it. But, you know, cost of things are also higher, as you mentioned with gas there. But rents in living, shelter overhead is usually someone's biggest monthly expense anyway.
33:32That's not something you're going to have to worry about.
33:37So you should really work like crazy when you're there. Just go wild in whatever position you're in. Even if you're making a little less money, you know, hopefully your needs category will be less. It should be maxed out of 50 % anyway. But it shouldn't even be getting close to 50 % with the situation you're in at that point. And everything else should be getting this car paid off. Because then you're going to have your car fully owned, owing nothing, which will be very fun, very good. And then how much do you have in your 401k right now? I believe it's like$600. I had just started. The exciting part is you're 22.
34:15And usually I get on people here who are in their 30s and stuff like, Oh, you missed your best decade of compound growth. I mean, by the time you're out of the car, the income, I don't know what your income will be. It's so hard. But your expenses will be less. What I want to see is a fully funded emergency fund, which is six months of living expenses, minimum$10 ,000 just in case a car breaks or something like that or a medical thing happens. Minimum$10 ,000 and the car paid off by the time you're, it was just your birthday, right? So you're like 33 and a half. So a year and a half from now, I want to see the car gone on a fully funded emergency fund.
34:47And I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do that. Especially if before you leave to move, just go insane. Go insane and work 60 hours a week. Okay. 70 hours a week. I don't care. Go wild. Just work, work, work, and only follow the budget that I gave you. You do me next year, right? Not when I'm 33, because I'm 22 right now. 23 and a half. 23 and a half. Okay, just make sure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to tilt this toward you, but yeah, 23 and a half. which is great because then what I'm going to have you do is at a minimum maxing out your Roth IRA every year and you maxing out your Roth IRA every year from where you're starting with compound growth to the time you retire, dude, you're going to be a millionaire.
35:29You're just straight up going to be a millionaire unless you're investing in some stupid stuff. We're not going to talk about that because I do not have the legal qualifications to give you investment advice. That's fine. I do have a question about the 401k stuff. Okay. So, okay, no, I just lost my question. I'll think of it later. Okay. But either way, if you're just investing in the general stock market, which is not advice, which returns 8 % a year on average since the historical inception of it, to now, you're going to be a millionaire if you're max out your wealthier every year and doing that.
36:07Not a suggestion, but if you do it. Okay. Like, that's exciting. Oh, I remembered my question. Sorry. Okay, so if I move jobs because your 401k is like with your job, does that mean you have to like move it? You're going to roll it over. Yeah, you're going to roll it over into something like Fidelity. That's where I rolled mine over from my previous employer. Oh, and then you just keep it there? Yeah, you can keep it in Fidelity or wherever you've rolled it over to. And you can roll it over again if you end up wanting to. Okay, all right. Yeah, it's actually really simple. Okay, good. I was like, oh, God.
36:39Well, the platforms that you're rolling it over to, again, I only have experience with Fidelity in that instance, but they just gave me instructions and it was super easy. Okay, good. That's why I haven't started 401k yet because I've had a lot of jobs, so I skip around jobs a lot. Well, that's my history. Well, I see you're actually with ADP with the payroll, and if they have their 401k through there as well, that's where I transferred mine through, and it wasn't that difficult. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Great. No, it'll be pretty chill. In general, your financial situation isn't that complicated.
37:09What's a little weird here is the unknowns. I don't know how long you're going to be here. I don't know how much overtime you're actually going to do. I would just go crazy and see if you do. If you don't, I mean, the situation drags out to like three years. And I don't know in terms of paying off the car, have a fully funded emergency fund. And I don't know what your income situation is going to look like when you move anyway. And what living expenses are going to look like either and just what you do. So a lot of it's dependent on what you choose to do. What I would lay out as a path, though.
37:38This 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. I 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. Let's take whatever path gets you to a couple months of emergency fund now because the move is going to create some unknown expenses you never know.
38:16Right. So a couple months of emergency fund and then paying off the car as quick as you can and then saving up a six month emergency fund,$10 ,000 minimum in case of medical expenses or like the car breaking down or whatever. Okay,$10 ,000. Because when it rains, it pours. Right, right, right. so from there and then do i just keep that ten thousand dollars like in my regular savings yeah put it in a high yield like uh so fives that's where i keep mine link in the description below at 4.3 percent interest rate there's actually bonuses when you set up direct deposit like 250 bucks yeah which is something you could do actually do they do like a um a credit check when you apply for that or anything because i could do one with my credit card yeah uh my credit card the bank it says i can have a high yield savings account probably yeah it's but it's probably well unless it's i think it was like 4.6 percent but maybe i know capital one has a good one currently but i do yeah do you have to pay monthly for that savings no dude they're paying you they want you to have your money oh okay cool yeah they're giving you uh like four again with the one i use 4.3 percent okay on an annual basis i will do that then yeah so that's something uh worth considering then yes that's just sitting there and then you're maxing out your Roth IRA and then trying to get as close to with your income situation is going to be hard but who knows what it's going to look like but as close as you can get to maxing out your 401k 20 % minimum of your income should be going towards investing in savings of some kind okay at the once the car is paid off once the car is paid off 50 % for needs 30 % for wants 20 % for savings I'd rather you do 25 % for savings and 25 % for wants and 50 % on needs.
39:57But yeah. Okay. Okay. Do you think I should open a high yield savings account for my dad's trust fund too? Sure. If you're for some reason managing it, which you should get some legal paperwork explaining the situation around there, by the way. I should. Oh gosh, I don't want to do that. Well, it's just, it's weird. I know it is weird. Plus he gave it to you to put in there and it's like legally. Like he gifted it to you. So maybe there's taxes around. It's a weird situation. Oh, you're right. Maybe I should just take it all out and give it to him. That's the safer way for you. Okay, that's what I'll do.
40:37I don't want to get in legal trouble. Let him be a big boy and figure out his own life. You're right. You're right. Come on. Yeah. So that's all what I do. What are you actually going to do knowing yourself? Okay. So in terms of overtime, I, my, the length of my shifts, I can't really like work always like 10 hours if I want to. It just kind of depends on like how long the blood drive is. Well, you made it sound like you could work as much as you want. Well, you know, I can pick up as much as I want. But I mean, should I work seven days a week? Like, sure. I don't care. take advantage of the time now when you have nothing else going on to just pay off the debt and get close towards your goals at some point you'll have things going on in life stuff with your husband and everything that you want to dedicate more time aside yeah when you have kids you mentioned that as well okay take the opportunity of the time where there's nothing there's no other obligations right to just pay off this debt and save up as much as you can so yes go crazy okay i think i could probably pick up i definitely think i could easily pick up i Pick up one extra full shift.
41:48Maybe my seventh work day could be like, because I could do like a half shift. That way I could still clean my house. Six and a half days. It takes a long time to clean my house. Okay, yeah. I think I can do that pretty good. Yeah. And then you're saving up the two months, paying off the debt, and saving up$10 ,000 or more depending on your six months of living expenses? Right, yeah. So with paying off my car and saving up for an emergency fund, should I just pay off all of the car first and then save it for the emergency fund or do both at the same time? Again, we're doing two months of monthly expenses saved up on the side and then paying everything towards the car and then saving up the six-month emergency fund minimum$10 ,000.
42:29You're doing that just because what we've seen, even if people following Dave Ramsey's plan where it's$1 ,000 on the side, we've had multiple people on this show following that guidance and then because an emergency pops up and$1 ,000 isn't even close to enough of dealing with real emergencies in 2023, they end up in a worse situation than where they were before starting his baby steps. So I'm just saying, make sure you can cover at least a month, and I'm giving you two months because who knows what's going to pop up with the moving expenses. Right. Sorry. Oh, I forgot to tell you my phone bill.
43:00It's$15 a month. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't really change much, but that's really cheap. That's really cool. I only pay it once a year. Anything else? No, I don't think so. Can I write this down so I can remember it? We'll talk about that. Okay. And then, yes, well, I'll give you all that. Okay, cool. You can also watch the video as well. Oh, yeah, that's true. Right. But while we're here and recording this for the masses, I think you can be in an okay place. Just sacrifice now and then figure out the income moving situation, follow the steps that I laid out, and you'll be a millionaire by the time you retire.
43:35Okay. It's exciting. Right. Don't f*** it up. I will not mess it up. You're going to have. I don't want to be a phlebotomist forever either so I'm not going to be making this on income for the rest of my life Hey, do this go crazy. A year, a year and a half we should have a follow up and you should have a fully funded emergency fund and a car that's completely paid off. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Alright, for Roy actually her hammer financial score is going to be a little lower right now because of a few specific things in the categories and you'll see but I think it's going to get up pretty quickly.
44:04So breaking it down. Her hammer financial score, spending within a budget I mean, come on, spending a third of your income on BS when we have no emergency fund and when we have that kind of car debt, it's going to be a zero. For the debt, though, it's not the worst debt by any means. It's not a super high interest rate, but it is a car, so it's going to have to be a 3 out of 10. Retirement, okay, for her age, you know, I'm glad it started, but there's still pretty much nothing right now. We just need to get that up. But, you know, 22, can't blame her too much, but the overall Hammer Financial Score is not age-based.
44:34It's trying to get to that 10 out of 10 as you go through the ages. Right now, it's going to be a one out of 10 emergency fund. There's nothing. You're trying to put it towards the car, which I appreciate, but there needs to be a little cushion still. Zero out of 10 real estate. Nothing. But they're talking about that zero out of 10 right now. Hammer financial score, one out of 10. Check out the resources that I linked in the description below. They're the ones that I use or would use in specific circumstances, like a very high yield savings account that I personally use or getting a free$5 when you put$5 into acorns and other things like education and stuff like that.
45:07So check them out and don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks. Refinancing your student loans can help you take care of your finances. So take the next step towards financial freedom and visit SoFi.com forward slash Caleb. Find out if the rates are competitive for you by going to the link in the description below.
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Check out these fun things: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/calebhammer My socials: https://linktr.ee/calebhammer Do you want to be in a Financial Audit and you're in the Austin area? Email castingcalebhammer@gmail.com Sponsorship and business inquiries: calebhammer@creatorsagency.co _______________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Job and income 04:08 SOFI 07:24 Did you really need this? 11:15 Spend spend Spend 16:21 That must be rough 19:17 You need to budget 27:06 Please just do this 31:57 Clean up this mess 37:00 Absolutely not! 40:54 Hammer Financial Score --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/calebhammer/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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