you've stucked up quite a bit of credit card Dept correct you know actually 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Chelsea how the heck do you have 11 credit cards you're currently stacking are you ready for this no yes all right $176,000 of debt welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the one and only favorite accountant Chelsea thank you for having me back since then Chelsea how has it been [Music] going okay Chelsea it's been 6 months how are you finances welcome to finance action my my name is Roman and together we'll dive into someone's personal finances learning from their stories and taking action for their financial future follow me along as we discover the story of Chelsea how are you doing hi I'm doing well thank you awesome Chelsea let's look at your profile so you are 32 years old you're originally from Virginia you live in Seattle and currently work as a full-time accountant yes awesome we uh want to look at how you perceive your own finances from chaing to MayDay and you rated your yourself as yikes so tell me a little bit more about that Finance perception and why would you rate yourself as such well I'm just not saving any money and I can feel it and I can feel just like things accumulating and kind of feeling a little out of control about it but kind of holding on a little bit cuz everything's getting paid so it's just like gritting the teeth and just being like okay we can one more month one more month okay how long has it been since you've been financially he's struggling I'm almost say it probably all got kicked into high gear last year okay um because like last year was just one thing right after the other of just trauma trauma trauma trauma so it started off with I had to have emergency surgery 5 days before tax season oh or before the tax deadline in a April but then my car was stolen 2 weeks before my wedding my car phone keys and wallet okay yeah so I see wasn't great so I had to buy a new car kind of hastily after the wedding after we got covid so we didn't go on a honeymoon so I had some issues with the unemployment department as well so I was on unemployment during the pandemic like most people because I was a waitress for the past 10 years for those of you that know don't know they got uh basically Nigerian princ and they got scammed from all of their money from all these fake unemployment accounts and then they kind of took that out on the individual and made everybody reapply in March of 2021 and I had to reapply in March of 2021 the accounting job was no longer in demand and the waitressing job was in demand so they were like you may or may not have to pay back these benefits but we're going to keep paying you in the interm once January hit I basically had no extra income being put aside and everything was just going to bills okay so January really hyped up and so in your case you are managing the income and expenses of your partner as well right cor so we will be looking at you as two units but here you're representing as one right okay cool so let's start first with our first section that looks at income and [Music] assets so Chelsea let's look together at your income how much income would you say both of you guys make um together per year about 120,000 $120,000 okay so that brings you to about $7,000 net per month do you expect any additional payments or any increase yeah I do anticipate um hopefully in the ballpark of like a $10,000 raise and then I also have like a little side business where I do just one or two people's uh books Financial books for their businesses and that's going to be like $250 a month in that ballpark okay okay awesome cool so let's sum it together and say you're going to make about $130,000 per year uh which brings your monthly net between you and your partner to 7,500 deal sure perfect let's move on together as we think about your assets so you have multiple accounts here that I can see you have one checking account with a balance of $150 you also have two saving accounts one with $4,500 another one with 3,700 correct so that's good here on that front a little bit of saving in cash and liquidity that's it's always nice to have and you also have two investment accounts one for stocks and one for crypto both of them at 4,000 each correct that's nice how have been your crypto Investments going I mean uh holding hold but were were you cautious or did you invest on the big ones or did you I did the big ones yeah I did I did the big ones I did the ones that do staking for the most part yeah for the most part some of them are fine I have been getting some good rewards uh from that which is nice um but I was more cautious definitely like ethereum and Bitcoin but a bunch of like little Holdings here and there but things are on the up for now right um no Financial advice we'll see how that evolves yeah right uh okay cool and then you also have an area of 27 $25,000 okay so all together right now if we sum the sum of your assets including your ret account for you and your partner you have about $41,000 yay okay uh when it comes to liquidity so I'm taking out the retirement account I really don't want to touch that at least not in the short term okay please do not touch your retirement account except for huge emergency uh so right now as we look into your total asset liquid the sum of your checking savings and your investment you have 16,350 sounds great I mean not great but it sounds it sounds it sounds accurate it sounds accurate yes let's go okay cool that's nice to hear okay do you have any other accounts any other assets no no other assets okay sweet so um I guess that wraps it or sections for assets and income and now we'll get into the needy greedy the complexity on your case Chelsea the expense and debt one of the first expense that we look at is your rent how much do you pay per rent per month $2,027 okay $227 that's fair uh including utilities we'll add what like $200 on top of that uh yeah electric is about 200 but water sewer garbage is included okay sweet so that brings your total to 2,250 so your housing expense against your income comes in at 30% we like to see it at 28% is the good number so you are very close to it we'll say all right you're good on that front in the summer it'll be closer because the electric bill will be lower that's right that's good okay so for now how seeing I'm not too concern for both of you guys in Seattle um not too bad okay I want to move on to your transportation expense thank you for providing us the statement on the account you own $43,000 on your car correct what car do you drive I drive a 2020 Rav 4 hybrid limited trim oh limited trim okay so that's a almost as stre as this how many miles do you have on it 40,000 okay so 40,000 miles on Toyota the private party value on your car right now is less 36,500 sure sure so uh you know looking at how much right now you are on your car against how much it worth You Are underw by 6,500 okay however when did you buy it June or July right July of 2022 that's fair what was the thought process behind buying such an expensive car what what was going on it was a lot of [ __ ] mentality to be honest um because because my car had just been stolen two weeks before my wedding oh and then we got Co and I had I was running out on the the rental that my insurance was providing it was kind of like I need a car now so my other car that was so sad my other car only had $1,900 left on it on the so they paid they paid all of I got basically a little bit more back from what I originally paid for which was nice um I put $6,000 on the Toyota but it was my other car I knew I had certain things that I wanted in my next car and while I would have preferred to have had time to save up for those things like blinking the the side mirror blinkers cuz that for someone who's ADHD and autistic it's nice to have an extra little set of like hey there's someone over here like that you might not see because you have a little bit of blindness over here so that and then the air conditioned seats really got me I really uh I like amenities and I get hot and overs stimulated and so if I can have like as much as that as possible that is ideal so that was the the process the thought process borrowing this car getting stolen uh I plan to have it for the rest of its life yes I'm hopeful especially when we look at the payment for it I mean your interest rate on it is not too bad correct 3.7% hey that's pretty good uh right now the interest rates on used cars range gener even high than 7% even with excellent credits that's just the environment that we are in M but you're still paying $620 per month on your car yeah thats okay I mean uh do you guys have one car each with your partner or just the one car okay okay assuming standard type of expenses around that so that brings your total transportation expense per month to 12% we like it at 15 oh okay of total income gotcha of total income uh and that's we like it at 15 we like it at 15 so you're Below on that front because I'm looking at two people right and you guys are sharing it still giv your financial situation I don't know if I would have $50,000 car yes well it's pretty okay okay so Gear Up Guys it's coming awesome Okay so right I mean look looking at that not too bad not the preferable purchase given your situation but right now it's not like we can act on it you're slightly underwater on it so at least you bought a brand that tends to be reliable um ra for or generally very solid models hybrid as well you saving on fuel okay okay I will say fine uh we'll see we'll move on you've stucked up quite a bit of credit card depth correct you know actually 1 2 three 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 so 11 cards you have Let's uh let's roll through it 16,600 on 11% here 7,200 on 19% 1600 on 18% 3,700 on 25% 4,000 on 19% 6,610 on 23% 4,300 on 2.9% 4,00 on 0% Consolidated and then last one 14,000 on 0% as well um Chelsey how the heck do you have 11 credit cards like is it your credit card shopping there was a couple in the past that were like for cashback rewards there was like one or two of those for cash back rewards one of them was I got for Southwest rewards one of them I got for Alaska rewards um all based on trips where where they're like if you buy this and you open a credit card you can save $600 on this trip L you're rewarding that right now yeah exactly and then so the ones with 0% interest and 11% interest those were consolidations from taking the high interest debt and putting them to the 0% interest and that lasted for 12 months and there was no balance transfer fee on those which was nice um which is why I did that Y and then the there's a Costco one but this is like over like 10 years of accum this so it's not like I'm how much interest do you think you've paid on this you you must have paid thousands of interests sure yeah I'm sure I did pay $27,000 off in 21 months there you go uh and I got everything down to zero oh and then what happened then the pandemic happened and then I didn't have any money and then well it was like the pandemic helped me pay them off and then and then the surgery and then the car and then the wedding and second surgery and the so so you you so how how do you spend on the wedding in the ballpark of 40,000 and that includes everything we got married on a Thursday to try and alleviate cost to have a wedding like that in Seattle for as nice as it was including like photographer and all of that like I know I could have done it cheaper in some aspects but I feel like I did a pretty good job considering I know people are paying at minimum 6 to 100K for a wedding on a Saturday yeah but you didn't think about budgeting for it I was in school and I was getting unemployment and it was like we're going to get married next year okay I see I see you r on on the socket that's that's fair looking at your 30day statements okay uh you're not going crazy neither on those cards so then let's move on to the next one 12,700 at an interest list of 19% okay let's look at the statement on this eyebrows eyebrows so Carnival Cruise correct $4,600 correct on a credit card that you have a balance that you're carrying at 19% interest yes what like what the heck is going on Chelsea remember when we got Co after the wedding and we couldn't go on a honeymoon yeah so this is the honeymoon we haven't been on a vacation since 2019 really okay um and that includes all beverages and the insurance so I'm not going to have to buy any drinks on the boat and if we need a cancel it covers that too so if you need to cancel the cruise okay so if the cruise cancel or if you cancel if I cancel okay yeah how many people is that for two it's just for both of you guys yes how long is it at 40 4,600 cuz we got a suite and okay it's going to be so good so you're paying $4,600 on the Cru when you're currently stacking are you ready for this no yes all right $176,000 of debt yeah that sounds right out of which $60,000 is credit card debt chse 60 is credit card debt related whoops well also the thought was that the tax return would pay for that yeah but I want the tax I don't want the tax return to go on a damn Cruise no I especially if it's like two of you I'm not saying don't freaking get it I'm not saying that I'm saying is that the right time is that the right time can can can we do something in interim that will satisfy short terms short terms for then at some point give it give yourself something like this when you're done with some of your depth and then it's a freaking reward and you're like damn you know we deserved it like right now sunking on you know don't get me wrong Chelsea sunking on De you no you cannot afford this there is no shot there is no shot you know there there are cruises that you can take that's leaving this is definitely not the cheapest option on this cruise for sure I'm aware of that this was another [ __ ] moment but it was thought of as a honeymoon and family vacation because my mom did pay for a good part of the wedding and I haven't been back home or visited in a while so I was trying to make it as easy on us both emotionally while we also like hung out with them oh so your parents are also coming on the cruise my parents and my sister and her and my niece and my nephew and her boyfriend and his son oh so it's a family one okay but do do you need the sweet though I mean how much is the basic room for all right I'm not going to say the basic room but the regular balcony room okay the balcony room the regular balcony room that's the same size as the interior rooms probably like $1,500 less for two of us yeah but still $3,000 is not this is just like no how long is this is this like 5 months days six days six days six days for listen six days my mom loves cruises but are you going on the the r like are you going on we're having a we're flying to Virginia and then cruising out from there not even including the travel no no but this is a $5,000 vacation correct yes we have not gone on a vacation in many many moons so that is the part of the justification but I understand and I see where you're coming from okay so walk me briefly through the mentality of you make a purchase and you know you're in a situation like this you're just like it's okay I will figure it out later on yeah what what's or or you try to tend to like just forget it that it even exist yes because there's a thing called object permanence and that is a concept where if you don't see something out in front of you then you don't realize that it exists and that includes people too like a lot my friends and family back home I don't talk to as much CU it's not that I don't miss them it's just that the feeling of missing them doesn't hit until I'm right in front of them because I my brain doesn't realize that they're they're gone kind of thing because they're not there so same thing with like the debt like when I first paid off all of that debt originally I had a little board that like was a little backwards thermometer where I would like grow it down to the point where I I wanted I could do it in chunks too so okay that helped a lot we when we moved and I had to delete delete my entire savings to do that that board kind of got put away it hasn't been put back up yet so there hasn't been a visual representation of how much debt has accumulated and so it kind of and because you have to open up this app and then you have to open up that app and another app it kind of doesn't feel as much until you lay it all out oh there you go a full page of of that here is coming up I mean we're looking at rest of your debt because there is not only just credit card you also have almost $20,000 of the government that you need to pay back for that uh you know an employment benefit that you're fighting yes but you know that's $600 per month do you have student loans yes and they're all hanging out at zero right now but uh 30,000 is from my first degree which was in art and minor in Psychology I know winner listen in Virginia I could have lived on being an artist down there because my rent was2 $50 a month let's go so when I was working at the golf club and selling old rich whiteitem men my paintings for thousands of dollars yes I was able to live off of like kind of waiting tables in my art but when I moved out here it was like no you got to hustle or you're not going to make it and I drove across country in a 91 Honda Civic and I had that car for 10 years and I kept it for the until I got my last car that was stolen mhm so it's uh yeah when you come out here and then you're like oh sink or swim that's when you become a waitress for 10 years an accountant we have a shortage please and thank you yeah right so in the should it's stck you know fortun I'm dipped well I also have ADHD so I have some spending issues like of like of like instant gratification or like you know not thinking before you buy something kind of a thing or having too many [ __ ] moments when you're tired and buying things when you're tired and things but are you ready to sit to say it to your moments yes are you no but are you really doing it yes I am that's why I'm here that's why that's why all of the state statements are a half of a page except for the checking account cuz I've stopped using my credit cards for the most part and I've tried to only use my debit card so that I am limiting the amount of money that I'm accumulating so I have taken a step some early steps yes okay I can see that except for the 5,000 notification which okay I will not justify anymore all right all right that's fair um okay so how much depbt in student loans do you have 55,000 okay Federal Federal okay so you're not being a DI on it but at some point the hammer is going to hit yes okay and so what does your partner thinks about that yeah Sean just recently got officially diagnosed with ADHD not that we didn't know that it was there but it's like we've got insurance now Sean with the ADHD it's hard for like the executive function of like making the doctor appointment kind of a thing like that and they also have a a I don't if you've heard of the Tendencies the four Tendencies by gret and Rubin so it's how we respond to expectations and so there are four kinds there is the um upholder there's the questioner there's the obliger and then there's the rebel and depending on which one you are depends on how like you expect you react to expectations from other people as well as from yourself so the upholder is like the Nike phrase like just do it like you can do whatever you're like yeah I'm just going to do it and it's going to be done and then I'm just going to do it the um the obliger is like I'll go to the gym if I know that I have to meet a friend there or if they have a accountabil bu kind of a thing MH the questioner is like well why why do I need to do it like they have to understand the why behind it before they want to do it and the rebel it's like you I'm not doing it and you can't make me do it and I also can't make me do it what is he Rebel once we figured that out it was easier for us to communicate because then I wasn't like well you you need to do it just do it and then SE was just like absolutely not you know kind of a thing and it was and once we realized like how to talk to each other it was like hey this is on the agenda please get to it when you're feeling ready for it kind of a conversation it was a different conversation and like I that's how other people might react to like your advice too it's like depending on how their expectations of themselves and others are I see thank you that's that's good all right let's move on which brings me to our next segment together which we call the money case here back for the money case with our guess today Chelsea it's going to I'm not going to be laughing in like two seconds I bet okay so Chelsea here let's look together at your financial situation you are have accumulated quite a bit of debt over the past couple years many of which are credit card for which you're paying a fairly High interest some of them you've been able to consolidate and right now are paying 0% but as I mentioned the hammer is going to hit right now my assessment is purely looking at the interest that you're paying as of today okay the interest that you're paying today per month Chelsea simply of Interest meaning money that purely goes to garbage right you are paying Chelsea per month look at this ah $731 yeah do you know that I calculated that out you've done it I've done that math I just to see it it's a bit much almost 4 months of just interest that you paying is your damn trip to to the Carnival Cruise overpriced but or or whatever you we want to call this you know this is this is almost 10% of your income this is what is sunking you little by little yeah at 32 years old okay I don't want this anymore I'm I'm tired of seeing this I want us to find you a solution like seriously because you you can't continue to stack on De and have impulse purchases we will provide you with a recommendation no Financial advice that will tell you exactly how long is it going to take for you to get that of your debt how can we best use some of your assets that you currently have that we've discussed together and what should be your mindset and your approach to how you spend your money okay okay all right as we just completed the money case segment let's move on to what I would do if I was in your shoes Chelsea this is looking at different methodologies and uh for the purpose of Finance action we've selected one that function as follow we identified your needs your wants and the last category that I call Gold this is other let's first start with your needs this is the money at minimum today for you and your partner that you need to make every month no matter what's going on to pay for your minimum payments on all the loans and the credit card debt and all of what you need to pay off some of the transportation I mean including your car as well as your housing and uh given for food okay in mode asht survival the goal is really survive [ __ ] hits the fan both of you lose their job this is how much you would be spending to survive okay okay today because you have such high depth and minimum payments on your cards the total amount of un need sums to 6,500 per month okay which represents 85% of your income right we like it at 50% sure okay moving on to your wants as we looked together into some of the expenses that you have which you don't spend crazy per month your expenses are fairly minimal is all the stackup depth that you've collected over time the rest again is maybe going once or tace to a restaurant we'll discuss about the carnival or crew or or the the the cruise whatever um but for your expenses for your wants is there anything that to you is very crucial that I should be including in your ons makeup and hair okay um what's the sum on that $90 a month that's it yeah cuz I get my hair done every quarter and then makeup is spent every quarter also okay anything else weed okay that's fair Sean works at yeah Sean works at a cannabis store so we do get a sample bag um which is nice so that offsets a lot of expense and we also get a very steep discount so max per month on that is like 70 bucks okay even if you are in a tough spot but you still need to live but you have to be 100% positive that you can conse to it I'm going to give you $150 per month on your ons okay 150 not the one dime more if you can tie to this this leaves your last category the goal category based on your current income assuming you get that promotion of $10,000 extra this leaves $980 per month that you can put toward savings but that as assuming that you are in asht survival mode on your needs no more some of those expenses here that we look together and some of the restaurants Etc Starbucks you have a little bit of Starbucks here Steam and stuff I don't care you figure it out with your partner you assume your needs you have 150 on the side either makeup with whatever if you wants to if they want to do steam or something that's okay you budget it out I don't care I want you every single month starting from today to save $1,000 on the side but you have to be in needs mode and I have listed all the needs and will'll be providing you ultimately by the end of our sessions but those are realistic I'm not here crafting a fake story this is just basic needs basic as they come okay so this is what I would do number one let me tell you in numbers since you're an accountant okay how much will your cruise cost you if the 4,600 if today you put that amount 4,600 that you're going to spend in 5 days and you put it on an investment account and you follow uh let's say you know the S&P 500 with which historically returns about 10% a year mhm by the time you retire your cruise for the 5 day is going to cost you $67,000 wow that's so many $67,000 is the cost of your cruise If instead of investing that money into your credit card which I'm not even accounting for some of the trip and the interest that you're going to have to pay on that card because it's probably going to be on the 20% card card so this just per month of interest is going to be an extra you know what $80 per month of interest is going to cost you $67,000 if instead you put that money aside on an investment account and you don't touch it you don't see it for the next what 28 years since you're 32 I'm expecting you retire at 60 $67,000 that's so many dollars forget about it forget about it now now I know you have your family and so on but oh Chelsea you you're being just so much of interest on this um could there be a way I don't know I I mean personally if I wear in your shoes he's not going to like it I just wouldn't go to the the cruise or I would find a way to work with your parents to share a bunk bed in their room make it work this way say Hey you know Mom I am um I'm I'm super tight I'm super tight and we've discussed about it today I'm stacking tens of thousands of dollars on credit card I love to go with you is there any chance you know maybe we can upgrade your room and um and I can maybe put what five 500 $1,000 doll and be in that room I know it's not what you're dreaming of but if you follow what we're going to discuss together in about a couple years you're out of the Bush and then you can afford yourself something decent it's hard to it's hard to hit but what do you want to do do you want to be sunk and I mean one of your shortterm goals that we haven't discussed yet but that you've wrote in your application is you want to save to buy a house you want to pay your interest dep and you want to retire at 45 right please don't get me wrong yeah what I'm seeing today goes against every of your short-term goals and long-term goals if you want to twist yourself you it not going to have to come with efforts and you're making already efforts with some of your payments but you you just can't afford that you you really really can't but in your case it is shooting yourself in the foot okay so find any way to get out of this now this is my recommendation my recommendation is what follows a depth Avalanche method so you have two type of you know to pay back your debt there are two types Deb Avalanche dep snowball Avalanche is as follow you pay the highest interest first you pay the highest interest first in your case you have some saving accounts and I know it's money that we love to have that is generally safe for emergency I will need you to take six 000 out of the $8,000 $200 that you have on your sing account you take that money and you pay instantly your credit card debt that has the highest interest which is the one at 25% so you're already going to be able to kick out one of those payments great that's already 230 save per month on top of the all the interest Etc you also going to follow pretty much card by card little by little the highest interest first and you're going to use that gold category that I mentioned $1,000 a month no matter what I don't know what you do with your partner you have you have a target of $1,000 a month and you put it towards uh the highest credit card okay in reference to the threats that you violated to me before uh looking at one of the components that you refer as object permanence where you something that is tangible that you can see potentially interact with such as the therometer why don't you create for example um almost like a chain that you put together with credit cards payments okay starting with the highest interest and as you go through your payments you would then scratch off or pull out of that chain as um the action of accomplishing something how does that sound at the first glance sounds great okay together if you follow the methodology that I've Illustrated okay and you're putting $1,000 aside it will take you 27 months to pay all your debt except for your student loan and the government that I believe you can potentially fight m in total the amount of interest that you're going to pay over that course over the next two years or so is 5,200 okay not too bad not too bad why because little by little instead of paying that $700 here per month you're going to pay progressively and is going to reduce your debt by definition by definition reduce your interest monthly okay 27 months how does that sound sounds reasonable but do you truly believe that you are able you're going to be able to do it yeah I've done it before um so I definitely think I can do it it definitely is a visual representation for me as well like I I think that that has been where things have been able to slip by because I don't have my my board that's like this is how much debt you actually have and you have to look at it every single day and that I think is where I've been getting hung up for sure so I think that if I take the time and I do that that it's going to be a lot easier and I feel really accomplished every time I look at it because I see how far I'm I've come and how far like yeah there's a lot left to go but like look how far I've come because like that is so much this is the bonus for you one increase your income yeah I don't know what you do use that hybrid go Uber Eats at night with your opportunity to date night whatever you want to do if you're able to increase by a, per month mhm your income and you put it 100% towards your saving you're going to save 6 months wow off the top of the the rep payment off the top of the payment it's going to take you 21 months less than two years exactly less than two years if let's say you hit the jackpot each of you every month no matter what you give yourself $1,000 extra goal I know it's a lot but hey if you take a you know couple trips and you you share it mhm it's going to take you 18 months oh wow a year and a half there you go you're out of the Bush but that requires living of survival an extra 150 on once and everything every single dime and we don't account for this trip I'm excluding this trip I'm sorry every single dime goes towards it okay are you going to take off that trip that's not going to happen but I will consider calling the travel agent and getting the room maybe not as Grand mhm this trip is going to cost you five and a half month that's a long time one day on the D boat is a month about a month of the current situation that you live in bringing yourself down bringing yourself down to having to be on you know living of your needs with $150 per month one day equal to a month is that worth it I would love for you to reconsider is what I would say um and yeah I just yeah I don't know I don't know what to tell you it's uh yeah it's it's a big it's a big hit but the decision is yours you know I'll discuss it with myself spouse and we'll take it into cons like I'll take what you say into into real consideration it's not going to be I'm not I'm not brushing any of this off like I did this for a reason because I knew that things needed to be looked at and I kind of need a little like harder opinion as suppos just me being like everything's fine CU obviously everything's not fine so I will discuss it and we will we will go from there okay yeah okay sweet welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the one and only favorite accountant Chelsea thank you for having me back how are you doing Chelsea I'm doing all right doing all right yeah it's busy at work but I'm I'm pushing through okay okay that's awesome since then Chelsea how has it been going it's been going really well um I've paid off about $88,000 of the debt nice okay $8,000 of like credit card debt yes wow how did you pay that out I cleaned out my savings honestly oh you use the savings recommendation okay I mean it's nice at least you followed one of the recommendation on that to use your saving account towards your credit card Dept and that was probably the highest interest first right yes highest interest first and that one's completely paid off awesome there you go first one out did you actually so during our video we recommended Chelsea to use kind of a a rope system where she would be able to track as she would go through credit cards did you use that I didn't use that per se um we have a whiteboard installed by our front door and I put uh an arrow a downward arrow on it with the total amount of debt on there and then I've been highlighting or shading in when we pay more off and it's also right by our front door so every time we leave and come home we have to look at it I see okay so you've had discussion with your partners how has your partner reacted to that they're on board 100% um they are equally as motivated as I am to get out of everything and you know be able to have the extra income to do what we want with it nice so so walk me through briefly so you left the show you know we provided you with kind of a framework at the end uh how did you feel at that time uh I felt pretty depleted I know that some of the comments were like I can't believe she's so giggly and laugh as a autistic slur Divergent ADHD person I have inappropriate reactions to situations especially when I am supposed to be like a happy bubbly person so just giggling like that was more like nervous and uh just masking overall with that but um afterwards it's it's kind of I mean it hasn't really gone away the like looming feeling cuz I cuz I just know cuz you know it's right there at the front I walk by it every day but filing my taxes really helped and going on the vacation really helped there you go let's speak about this vacation Chelsea so the cruise did you take the cruise I did okay did you downgrade no however I will say we didn't spend any extra money once we were on the ship but it's all it's all inclusive yeah so we yeah it was all inclusive we didn't have to pay anything else once we got on the ship and having that extra space was a really nice for us cuz we both get very over stimulated so being able to go back to a space that wasn't tiny that had windows that had a balcony so we could still enjoy the experience without having to be a part of all the lights and the noises and the smells and all of that it was just nice to have the space and have like a sanctuary to come back to I see yeah and an expensive sanctuary as we both know but uh you know you've decided to L it down you're going to pay it at some point but at least you were Mindful and knowing that what you were getting yourself into so good to note on that I wish you had the downgrade but it's done let's move from that now I want to look at the future with regards to your spending habit you remember we split it in needs wants and gold in the Gold section we recommended you to save about ,000 per month M has this been achievable it is recently because I did get advanced in my job so I was promoted very nice and that came with a 20% pay increase which ended up being about $700 extra dollar a month awesome and then my partner has also gotten a pay increase which will be it's not as much because they're in a different industry but it'll be an extra almost $200 a month wow okay so that's 900 extra just that we don't have to try it's just there okay that's very good and but have you still been trying because you know the Thousand was at the time based on your income have you been more mindful of your spend like I know you've you you tend to have what you used to call the [ __ ] it moments fck it moments there you go I have less [ __ ] moments um especially with the reminder as I leave even more beyond that would been more mindful of like what we spend on at the grocery store um we're not buying extra crap that we don't need anything that we are purchasing we're like okay do we need this right now if we don't can we save up for it over a couple of paychecks or can we go without just really mindful of that I've been using more of the app to order cuz then you can see exactly what your cart total is going to be before you even check out very nice which is helpful and it already adds all your deals on there for you and and all of that so that's been very helpful as well more Trader Joe's trips okay those are cheaper that's where we spend like a lot of our money is the groceries okay um one of the nice groceries that you can buy is Outlets Outlets are so nice grocy Outlets it's premium products for like 50% off it's insane you use that there's one right by our house I haven't gone there yet that's a key that's a key for food expenses quality it's it's over you know over produce items and you still maintain good quality you don't have the variety of everything sure but you have the price it's a good point for you to try and think about that's fair the only like limitation is that I do have a gluten allergy which makes things more pricey if you need things like that so we have switched to going to Costco for our Breads and they that comes with the two pack of the glutenfree bread there and I'll freeze one okay and little things little things it all adds up um I'm calling our cable service because they've decided to increase uh our cable service price for some reason for no reason so I'm going to call them and we're planning on switching our cell phones over to it as well so we're hoping I'm hoping that if I call I'm like Hey we're doing this it's going to reduce everything down a little bit more oh yeah every every 6 months or I mean maximum a year I call my phone provider my cable provider and sometimes even car insurance and I'm like hey guys what discs do you have available I'm potentially thinking about switching loyalty to me has no real value personally it's uh it really depends on what industry but for cell phone and so on um it's a math it's the same so I'm glad that you're actually taking action on this too okay so no real kind of [ __ ] it purchases recently no no no wow the only thing that we had to buy was our pot for our coffee maker BR broke and so we had to buy a replacement pot but we didn't have to pip the entire coffee maker which was nice nothing else no wow so you've all the other purchases have been like thought about we've talked about them they haven't been like I'm just going to do it you have been a process in place now yeah I've been I went to the Barbie movie but I plan to go to it and I plan to you know spend the money to go to it and enjoy it cuz like if you don't spend the money on the things that you value then what's the point exactly but as long as you so so at the time as part of your wants we we recommended about 150 but if you accounted for Barbie as part of your wants yeah then it's game on like you should be allowed to spend that it's it's really not about feeling guilty of every spend that you send no if it is budgeted you are in your own rights to go with this yeah exactly so I'm glad that you're actually taking action on this well Chelsea as we wrap up our followup with you is there any last thing that you want to share with us or anything that you want to respond or say in general about kind of your interaction through this whole experience I put myself in that mess and but you're getting out of it I'm getting out of it and I am fully confident that I can because I've I've done it before but also like I'm not the type of person to give up I'm not the type of person to shy away from hard work like I just need to focus and have a a goal standing in front of me and a good plan yeah and you have it now and I do okay hello chelse this is Ren I know it's been a couple months now about six months since we've last shed it together can you give me a little bit of an update about your situation how uh how has it been going uh it's been going okay um there was a little bit of a hiccup once student loans kicked back in were you able to pay some off Chelsea yeah yeah I've gotten um I'm closer to 10,000 paid off right now wow hold on so that is 10,000 on top of the 8,000 that you paid last time with your saving or total total not not on top of oh so you've only you've only paid an extra 2,000 over the past six months yeah student loans came up my rent increased just some some bills came up that had to be dealt with I had to just pay some medical bills so just some things came up but I'm about to get another larger tax refund so that all probably B me up to 14,000 paid off uh once I get all my R statements and all that and I've just complet did a few balance transfers so for about $35,000 of the credit card debt I'm no longer caring interest okay tell me a little bit about your [ __ ] moments have you had any over the past couple months I had a few but they weren't uh exorbitant amounts but like the Cru like how are you feeling today Chelsea I want to understand like you know last time sport you were a little bit tense do you feel a little bit better at ease now that you have a plan how where is your mind at yeah I'm feeling good I'm glad I have a plan um I am like happy that I have like some guard rails in place but I'm still trying to enjoy life a little while paying off things so and I am excited that the balance transfers went through because then uh I'm not going to be paying you know the 700 and some dollars in interest it's going to be closer to like less than 300 and that's going to help me pay off the balances even faster so okay so you you're going to reassign some of those interest saving towards your credit card debt right correct yes okay do you still have that board at the back of your entrance where you uh work with your partner to bring that Deb down is it still there yeah I have I still have the the board with our with our debt on it and um I'm also thinking that the the balance transfers will help with the visualization because it's not going to be a bunch of little balances that's like oh it's not that much it's going to be two big balances staring me in the face every time I have to pay them so which will be I think a little bit more visually helpful as well okay how is your partner handling all of this so you guys working good together on it like you guys feel like a team oh yeah Sean's completely on board and um is happy to make adjustments as needed we've been uh we've been able to cut back on our you know food bill every month which has been really nice and they're just really supportive of uh you know not spending money and cooking at home and all of that if you were to reflect a little bit chel on some of the things over the past six months since we've spoken that have worked and did not work what what do you think about that some things that have worked would be to um just as soon as I get my paycheck to pay the bills automatically um nice but some things that maybe didn't work as well just like random expenses that had that came up that um that we had to deal with on the spot kind of sets back a little bit like Sean's phone completely died so we had to get a new phone and instead of creating a payment plan we made sure to save up for it and pay it off but saving up to pay for it all at once was something that set us back on like paying off more credit cards so it's like we that's like a you know a bonus and also like a little bit of a sucky situation okay I mean look I think that that's excellent and you mentioned as well that you did not take any additional credit card debt or any other form of debt over that time right correct I mean great job Chelsea yeah the mindset seems right there you had a couple bit of uh you know unfortunate events that came down and we knew the student loans was going to come down on you soon at some point I mean you had what like 50,000 if I remember or so yeah about 35 okay and you've managed to work with the state to lower your payments how much are your payments on your student loan right now uh payments on the student loans are about $460 a month yeah that's not bad at all actually okay it's pretty good you got a new job you got the raise you you're still in the same job that gave you the raise yeah I'm still in the same job that gave me the raise my partner's got a new job that's paying them more and that was really great because the new place actually even gave them like a Christmas Cash bonus and they it's been a really a better better job all around than the previous place okay so you feel confident you're going to stick to that thousand at least per month of saving I assuming that no big events happen and arise yeah that's the plan okay I do have I do have a wedding that I'm going to in April but I saved up for that and uh yes because it's one of my family members weddings so it's not like I'm gonna miss that but I made sure to save up for it and it's not on the cards or anything like that okay Chelsea you are back on the I love to hear that actually I'm you know I'm happy uh to hear to hear this update I think it's you know life happens but you've changed your behavior and I think that uh I think that you're going to make it I mean it's just going to be a matter of time and repetition you've got the you've got the right mindset it feels that's awesome okay good updates let's keep the momentum okay Chelsea all right sounds good all right have a great rest of your day see you thank you you too bye bye [Music]
