Budgeting for Pets + When It’s Okay to Pause Debt Payoff (Including HELOC debt) | Lessons from the Sessions | 604

0:01It's not great and you get into a lot of trouble. It's not small. It's not like a... Yeah. It's not... You need to sit down and talk to your husband and decide what your goals are. I don't care. You tell me what your goals are and we'll attack them. I'm not going to have a HELOC for the same reason I'm not going to keep Oreos in my house because it's going to be like, oh, I'll just have one. The point, the real point here is she's making her budget work correctly so she doesn't have to use a HELOC anymore. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck?

0:29Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free, but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? If you don't already know how to budget, or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. If you want to seem like you have your finances all together, or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey.

0:59We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account, or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages.

1:31And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. So I want to talk about what happens when you have a lot of animals. Are you shaming me? Yeah. I'm sure your savings bucket is not low. I'm feeling some shade. You had a really tough year, one year. I did. Was that the same year Catalina was always in the ER? or was it a different year? It was a different year. When the bunny and the cat and then the bearded dragon. Sugar was good. No, she may have had a tooth. I think she got scratched in the eyeball by the next door neighbor cat.

2:09So the point is, when you have a farm, you need to have a savings bucket for it. Okay. Anyway, they all had emergencies that year. It was really sad. They were just, they were living, they were having a tough season for animals. Anyway, this particular client of mine, I feel because she travels so much, she has like as many dogs as possible or things to stay at home with the kids and help them. I don't know. I'm totally projecting that. I have no idea. You have to tell me if I'm right or wrong. It's so funny. Anyway, I know she has a lot of dogs, and we've had this conversation. We both have learned.

2:36We didn't realize that the dog that we got requires grooming. That can be expensive, especially if you have multiple of those. And so anyway, the long – and then I have had so many people. They're so healthy. Their pets are really healthy. Their pets have nice, expensive food, so that they – which may save you in vet bills in the long run. I don't know. I'm not shaming you. I'm just saying the, this person's not even everything on it. Pet annual budget is$11 ,000. That's not even everything. Okay. We're just getting started. We're just getting with, this is just with the grooming one vet visit, which is not correct.

3:11And then food. Okay. So there's more as with pets to be put there. Anyway, so we're$11 ,000. And not only that, it's so much, Vanessa, the food has to happen every month or every couple weeks and then the grooming happens monthly in this case we set up a checking savings account if you want to call it that and everything we're making sure we're funding as much as we need every month but every bill that needs to come out of the pets is coming out of this specific pet instead of her bills because it's just so it's so long especially the way that they do food is not necessarily monthly so it just gets all and you're like ah when you when And you want your bills account to be not.

3:51So anyway, all I'm saying is if you have a very complicated pet situation, this is, and lots of savings buckets might live this way, especially like maybe like the way we do sports, you might use that travel sports as more of a checking and just have everything come out of there instead of coming out of your personal or whatever. Anyway, so she has a specific account. We fund it every month and then all of the bills that come out automatically. And then also when she knows she's going to the groomer, the vet, whatever, that's where the money is going to come from. is this very large, exciting pet account that needs 900 plus dollars a month to go into it.

4:24I love that she made it a checking account or that you helped her make it a checking account because that right there is reducing the amount of time she has to make transfers. If she has that much going on, I had a client last year who did that and it just changed her life. It's so much easier to be able to function that way. But yeah, you guys need to figure out what works for you, what makes more sense, what is gonna be the easiest thing possible to manage on your end, especially when you have a lot going on already and put it into place. Like make that happen for yourself so it's less work.

4:52All right. One of my lovely clients has a HELOC. It's a very – You love it. You love HELOC. I think they're actually your favorite. Yeah. Especially the amount that this one is. Oh, yikes. And a lot of people get HELOCs to remodel their house. That's literally what it's for. For other reasons. Some people get them to pay off debt. There's so many – whatever, it's fine. Please don't get one. Just don't. Okay. They're variable interest rates. Yeah. The lesson's over. Just don't get one. Okay, good. It's not great, and you can get into a lot of trouble. It's really easy to be like, I just need$5 ,000 more.

5:30I just need this. I just need that. Let's just do a little bit more. I just need$5 ,000 right now for a lot of things I could think of if I had it available. It can get you into some trouble. So, anyway, they have a HELOC, and we paid off all of her debts. she's quote unquote credit card debt free which is fantastic but she quote unquote shame you're shaming your people no i'm very i'm kidding and she's gonna listen to this she's gonna laugh she's gonna text me too but i'm so excited for her but she has been wanting to pay the heloc but let me tell you she's bougie y 'all let me tell you guys she is the definition of bougie on a budget.

6:13I love it. She loves it. Her savings buckets are like to the dollar. She's got everything down packed. She's phenomenal. She's been coaching with us for a couple of months and she was doing it on her own for a while. And then when I came in, it just blew her mind with the amount of stuff I tweaked and changed and just streamlined for her. And she's doing fantastic. However, I will say she wants to fund all her savings buckets because she has a lot of them and they do a lot of things. But she also wants to pay this HELOC off. But the HELOC ain't going anywhere. Let's be real. It's that small. It's not like a – Yeah.

6:47It's not jump change. No, not jump change. It's not something that can go away in a couple years. It's not going anywhere. And so her and her husband – I said, look, you need to sit down and talk to your husband and decide what your goals are. I don't care. You tell me what your goals are and we'll attack them. But I need to know what direction you want to go in. Because after she paid off her last debt, we did her budget, and she can fund all her savings buckets. perfectly, but then that leaves nothing left for the HELOC. Now, obviously when coaching is over, she's going to have that extra money that she could put towards the HELOC.

7:15But for right now, the conversation was, what do you want to do? And so she decided that she is fine not paying extra on debt on the HELOC. She's like, I actually don't care. I love that I'm credit card debt free. And that's the only, the last thing that I have, car payments, I have nothing. It's the only debt besides the mortgage that they have. And she said, and I'm fine with waiting until coaching is done. and then we can put some money towards it. But right now that's not what I want. And so the whole lesson of this, guys, look at your debts, decide what's important to you, decide what you want to get rid of.

7:44Now I dissected the HELOC along with all of our other debts because - Because you are a nerd and you love it. Yes, I'm a nerd. Let's be honest. But for me also, it was like, what interest are you paying? Is it fixed? Is it variable? I had a lot of questions. I asked her about it before she decided what she wanted to do with it. And that you guys have to do the same. Look at your debts. If you're paying high interest, it's not worth it. You need to get out of it. You need to figure out a different way around it. But then if there's something that you know just ain't going anywhere, you need to decide, is this what I want to tackle or do I want to do things a little different?

8:14It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah. Imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do. No guesswork, no confusion, and absolutely no judgment. It's a done-for-you system that actually works. You don't know what you don't know, and that's not your fault. And that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps, and after-hour support, you can text and email. So you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together, we're going to build your budget, set up your system, and tackle any challenges that come up along the way, which, by the way, they always do.

8:53If what you're doing isn't working and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up and we will help you go further faster. Six months from now, you'll wish you started today. Yeah. For my client, one of my clients has the IRS. So look, we're just, I don't know. She said that she, they told her if she pays for so many years, it'll fall off. And I don't, I know. I was like, so kind seems fake. That seems real, but, but it doesn't matter. It's so big that she's done everything like your client, like I've done everything else.

9:27Now I'm going to focus on living my life. So I love that. But I have a couple notes. Okay. First of all, the fake urgency. So I was listening to Alex from Ozy talk about what cringes and cringe is when other people's opinions are about what you're doing, right? You like they're feeling like you're being cringe. That's where I feel like this fake urgency. We hear from other people's opinions, what we should be doing. And that puts this fake urgency on us. Like this is shame. This I must, I should. and then you're shitting all over yourself. Instead, what you want to do is what Vanessa walked them through, which is what is actually important to me.

10:03And especially in their situation, like once coaching is done, that's an easy extra. If you want to. Otherwise, the payment that you're making will eventually pay it off and you may not want to put any extra toward it. You might want to live your life like you cleaned it all up. It's one left. Nobody's going to know. You don't have to worry. Your coach knows. We have four. We're on your team. But nobody's going to know. There's no fake urgency. There's no shame. It's your budget. It's what you want to happen. The point, the real point here is she's making her budget work correctly so she doesn't have to use the HELOC anymore.

10:33She doesn't have to use debt. She's saving for everything in the future. That's saving her a lot of money all by itself. That's not adding to it is a big win by itself. And then the other thing I wanted to say about the HELOC when you're talking about the 5 ,000 here, 5 ,000 there, it reminded me of Oreos, okay? I'm not going to have a HELOC for the same reason I'm not going to keep Oreos in my house because it's going to be like, oh, I'll just have one, one Oreo. And then I'll just go back around, make another lap in the kitchen, and I'll just get two Oreos. And then 15 minutes later, I'll remember about those Oreos, and then I'll go back around.

11:00And I'm just going to keep taking for the Oreos, okay? And that's why there's no Oreos in my house ever. That's why I don't have any credit. It's not because I'm better at doing it. It's because I know that I'm a human, and this is why they designed it this way. They know how tempted we can feel and all of that. And especially with the HELOC, you can really play a numbers game with those. You can buy houses on them. And you can never have to actually make a payment if you figure out the right thing to do. And it's like, it's math, but it's the wrong kind of math that we want for you. It's not the financial freedom, confidence, excitement future that we want for you.

11:33Especially now that they come with debit cards and checks, and it's so easy to pull from them. Like, it's just, it can be, it's really dangerous. Yes, I love what you said. She's living her life. She's very excited. She's not shameful. We're in her savings buckets. We're saving for a future car for her youngest child. Her budget is pushy, guys. And I'm very excited. and she's excited about it. So we're not messing it up. Yeah. So she decided what's important to her. She's happy and we are, we're going with it. And then I was thinking, you know that we're young parents, so I shouldn't speak this, but I was thinking like how much money we might have when they all graduate.

12:05You think that's going to happen? It could. Like, I don't know. Maybe we'll just spend traveling it, but traveling to see them wherever they live. But what I was thinking is once, once her kids are grown, she can pay off her HILOC. Yeah. Maybe she'll have enough extra money when she's not paying for cars. and all of the other things that are huge expenses, then you can double down and pay off the HELOC if you want, which is great. But also it'll probably be, it'll probably take care of itself too at some point. For sure. She'll definitely be on as, and give her testimonial on a call. It's going to be so fun.

12:33You're going to love her. I am. And we'll talk about Oreos together. Okay. We hope that those helped you. And by the way, if you have questions or maybe some of this sparks something that you're struggling with, you can go to budgetbesties.com forward slash ask, and you can ask us a personal question and we will answer it and we'll be happy for you. If you make good money but have nothing to show for it, this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be. You'll get a personalized result and a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed.

13:03Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz and take the free quiz today. That's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with your money.