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Crushing Debt with Adam Shoup - E26

January 29, 2024 / 44:21

This episode of the Best Interest Podcast features Jesse Kramer and guest Adam Sha discussing personal finance, debt management, and budgeting strategies. Adam shares his journey from accumulating debt to successfully paying it off.

Adam recounts his early experiences with student loans and credit cards, starting at age 18. He explains how his spending habits led to significant debt, including credit card balances and personal loans.

The conversation highlights the importance of accountability in financial decisions, particularly how Adam's wife played a crucial role in helping him address his debt. They created a budget together, which became a key factor in their financial recovery.

Adam also discusses the psychological aspects of debt and the decision to prioritize paying it off over investing. He emphasizes the need for sustainable budgeting practices that allow for enjoyable spending.

Listeners can learn about Adam's ongoing efforts to assist others in their financial journeys through social media and community engagement.

TL;DR

Adam Sha shares his journey from debt accumulation to financial recovery through budgeting and accountability with his wife.

Video

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[Music]
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tool welcome to the best interest
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podcast hosted by Jesse Kramer where we
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discuss today's best ideas in personal
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finance and investing the best interest
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is a personal podcast meant for
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entertainment purposes only it should
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not be taken as Financial advice and is
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not prescriptive of your financial
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situation here's your host Jesse
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Kramer hey guys welcome to episode 26 of
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the best interest podcast I am Jesse
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Kramer my guest today he's an absolute
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Allstar of a guy we had a terrific
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conversation about his struggle with
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debt falling into debt but then
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ultimately conquering debt it was really
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a brass tax personal finance
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conversation with some lessons about
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getting into financial trouble but then
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even more lessons about how to drag
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yourself back out I hope you guys enjoy
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but real quick before I introduce Our
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Guest could you please pause the show
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and then in your podcast app give a
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rating and review to the best interest
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podcast why because the best interest
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it's a growing small business and I want
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to keep making this content for people
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just like you a rating and a review it
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lets all those fancy algorithms know
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that you care about this podcast C and I
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know I'm asking for your time I'm asking
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for your effort and I know that you
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don't owe me anything so I really
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appreciate those of you who decide to
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sacrifice that time and effort to leave
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that rating and review thank you guys so
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with that let's go meet our
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[Music]
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guest my guest today has a wonderful
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story about the struggle but the
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ultimate conquering of death
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yes debt that pesky quicksand that has
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kept so many of us from optimizing our
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own finances and by telling his story
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honestly the UPS the Downs the successes
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and failures he's now helping other
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people overcome their debt so I'm very
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excited today to introduce Adam sha to
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the best interest podcast hey Adam how
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are you doing I'm doing well Jesse how
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about yourself doing great doing great
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we had uh thunderstorms rolling through
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here tonight in Rochester but
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everything's calm now if you do hear a
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deep Rumble though they might be they
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might be coming
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back um I was thinking Adam let's not
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bury the lead too much let's talk
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through your debt story and I was
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thinking maybe we could split it up into
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two halves you know one half going down
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into the valley of debt and then the
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second half of digging yourself out of
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debt so first you want to kind of walk
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us through the the bad side if you will
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of your debt story yeah so I mean it
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basically all started um I I mean back
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when I was 18 getting ready for college
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you know I started taking out uh student
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loans to cover the cost of tuition and
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luckily it wasn't using it to fund like
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living expenses like I've heard you know
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some other stories going down that road
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but to start at 18 taking loans out and
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you know I had a a pretty I'd say a
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basic idea I knew what it was you know I
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knew I was going to have to pay it back
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but I didn't really fully understand you
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know what that was going to take to pay
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it back so 18 to 20 you know creu
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student loans as each semester went on
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uh there was a Wells Fargo on campus
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where one of the nice Bankers there
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encouraged me to open up a credit card y
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because it would be good yeah it' be
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great for my credit he said so I said
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hey that sounds good um opened up a
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credit card and then shortly after that
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bought uh Music Festival tickets didn't
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go on the music music festival sold my
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tickets and then did not use the
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proceeds to pay off the balance and
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that's how I kind of say that the you
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know quote unquote bad debt had started
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started at that point and so it's uh
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it's funny to talk about now it wasn't
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as funny in the mo at the time but I
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basically carried a balance on that
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credit card for years before I ever paid
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it off and I I don't even want to look
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back to see how much interest the
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younger Adam was paying but I'm sure it
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was uh not pretty and then just as kind
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of the years went on you know I got
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another credit card I think it was a
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travel credit card um pretty sure it's
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American Airlines ended up racking that
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thing up pretty high uh use one of my
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stupid moves transferred the debt over
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to a personal loan and then continued to
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use the credit card and I you know I'm
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at I'm blame I'm to blame for that but
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the structure in place is I had a budget
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I'd fill it out each month but I would
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never follow it so my spending was super
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you know unpredictable you know I'd see
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something for a couple hundred bucks I'd
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buy it wouldn't think anything of it and
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yeah then basically I was probably 25
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you know out of college working working
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a full-time job and just wasn't really
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paying much attention to what I was
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carrying around and by that point it had
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you know I had a car a car loan I had
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all sort you know still had the credit
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cards the student loans was kind of
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making the minimum payments and was just
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kind of plugging along with you know at
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that point it probably was a little
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around mid-30s upper 30s thousand doll
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in debt and I just thought it was normal
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I thought everybody had it you know I
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knew I should have probably paid out the
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credit card but because everybody else
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wasn't I thought it was all right and
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that's kind of how it all slowly
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progress from student loans to credit
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cards to personal loans to an auto loan
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and it all just kind of slowly
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accumulates if you're not paying
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attention which I wasn't it's the
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proverbial slippery
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slope you touched on the Wells Fargo on
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campus I had a Chase on campus at the
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University of Rochester it's very
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interesting Looking Back Now that there
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was a bank right there that was
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absolutely marketing credit cards to 18y
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olds I don't know what to think about it
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to be honest with you Adam I'm curious
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what you think about it considering you
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signed up for one on the one hand it
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feels I don't want to say predatory
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because adults make their own decisions
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but it feels a little curious that
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there's this corporate entity on an
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educational campus looking to make a
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profit essentially off of the student
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body do you have any thoughts on that or
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what do you think about it now looking
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back on on that situation well I mean if
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I was to think back when I was 18 or
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when I was cruising around campus I
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thought it was super convenient at the
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time I used Wells Fargo so they had
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University of Nevada Reno they were
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really good with having a lot of
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amenities and ATMs all sorts of stuff on
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campus so basically if you living on
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campus or nearby you could more or less
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get anything you needed on campus um but
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just in terms of having the branch I'll
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I'll do the same as you I'll do the
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boring Mo I'll stay away from the
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predatory so I'll I'll follow you in
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that suit but I do think that I mean
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it's hard to deny that their financial
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incentive to stay on campus and
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basically you know Market to students
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who are kind of walking around hey you
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have student loans you're low on cash
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you're probably working 20 hours a week
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you don't have a whole lot you know come
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in here check it out we'll see if we can
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help you out you're going to build
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credit along the way and those things
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and I know it wasn't just myself I had a
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couple buddies that also went in there
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too and you know they started you out
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with I think it was a $800 limit I'm
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pretty sure what it was something small
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but you know just kind of like you
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talked about with the slippery slope
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it's just um you know you start with 8
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$100 they slowly start bumping it up you
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don't pay the balance and then it just
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uh slowly grows and grows but I mean in
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one hand it was convenient having them
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on campus but just on the other hand it
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was you know I can't tell Well's far
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about how to run their business or tell
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them not to be you know marketing credit
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cards to college students um but it was
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it was an interesting little situation
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with having them especially and they
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were they were parked conveniently by
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the uh our Student Center so basically
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all the food and you you know the what
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do you put it or what do you call it the
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the store where they sold all the you
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know the campus gear and everything like
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that gotcha yeah yeah just like the the
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book the bookstore with all the with all
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the bookstore clothing and stuff in it
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yeah all the places where you'd either
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be walking through and or spending money
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exactly so it's definitely the building
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that gets arguably the most foot traffic
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on campus so also a smart smart tactic
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on their part yeah yeah smart tactic and
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and it is the kind of thing of let them
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run their own business and if there are
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any 18-year-olds out there listening be
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very aware of why that bank is there on
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campus and in in your case Adam why it's
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located where it's at it is to provide
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you a service but that service
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absolutely can come at a cost if you're
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not paying down that bill every month I
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wanted to ask though Adam walk us
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through this you said you transferred
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your credit card debt to a personal loan
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is that right what are the logistics of
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that so basically I had a American
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Airlines credit card because around that
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time I was doing a little bit more
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traveling I had started seeing my now
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wife she lives in Brazil so I had made a
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couple trips down there and I thought
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it'd be wise to get a travel card to get
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some points and whatnot but basically in
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essence of what I did was I had I think
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it was around six grand in credit card
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debt and I went to lent I looked at a
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couple online you know personal loan
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places um I know Marcus I think from
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Golden Sachs golden Sachs has one and
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then the one I ended up going with was
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Lending club and basically all I did was
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um kind of applied for a loan they gave
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me or not applied for a loan I applied
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for like a balance transfer I guess is
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the way to put it they basically said
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yeah we'll take that debt on WE we'll
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give you I believe the interest rate was
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around 8% something like that so much
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better than the 20 plus that I was
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paying on the credit card but and then
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at that point they did some sort of
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transfer and then the credit card deck
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got wiped down to zero and then at that
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point it had transferred completely to
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the personal loan and then I had a
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monthly payment that I had to make to
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them gotcha okay and then at this point
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do you still do you still have credit
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cards or at one point did you close
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credit cards and reopen them or how does
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that work so at this point it's kind of
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hard to keep track of all the moves I
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had done um but basically at that point
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I believe I still had the uh the Wells
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Fargo still had some balance on it I I
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still have never closed that one just
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because it's got the longest uh the
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length of History so I'm keeping that
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one for the for the credit report um but
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I had it at sometimes I had moved money
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I think there was an American Express
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Bal free balance transfer one that I had
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moved it over there so I had at that
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point I I you know I had a handful
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probably like three credit cards that I
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was kind of working
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with gotcha okay um yeah it's a great
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lesson credit card balances there so
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credit cards in general I should say are
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such a useful tool they're so portable
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accepted everywhere you can spend money
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without carrying the cash on on you but
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this story is evidence of some of the
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some of the downside of credit cards I
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compare them to a a sharp kitchen knife
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right it can allow you to cook up this
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gourmet meal but if you're not careful
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and you're not Vigilant you are going to
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slice your own finger
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off and and it happens before you know
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it too it's kind of one of those things
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that you know especially with just the
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way it's set up in the system you know
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payment comes at the end of the month or
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whatever their statement date is and
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you're kind of swiping swiping swiping
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especially if you don't have a budget
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you're not really paying attention then
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when that bill comes at the end of the
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month and your you know the amount of
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cash you have in the bank or wherever
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it's sting isn't what the bill is then
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it get then obviously the problem
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started right and let's talk about that
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for a second You' mentioned in your
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initial story how you you had a budget
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but you didn't really follow it and I
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think I can relate to that in my early
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days but tell us a little bit about what
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what exactly does that mean what what
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were the actions that you went through
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so I had um I think it was an Excel file
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and yeah each month I would fill out
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what I thought my expenses were going to
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be now I was grossly underestimating
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what my expenses were going to be um and
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so I basically filled it out but what I
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didn't do was I never followed up on it
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or anything so if a transaction happened
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you know whatever it may have been maybe
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I was paying my car loan or maybe I was
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buying groceries or whatever it may have
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been I was never really tracking what it
00:13:23
was and so I think I was getting kind of
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that good feeling each month where I was
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like oh I'm creting a budget and then
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but then I would get the sick feeling at
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the end of the month where I was like
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okay I didn't follow this thing at all
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and everything's a and everything's a
00:13:35
mess and so that's kind of that's more
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or less what happened and it it went on
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for a long time before I really sat down
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and got it figured out yeah it's one of
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the downsides about digital budgeting
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especially that's exactly what I did
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Adam for a couple years when I started
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my budgeting habits I would budget at
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the beginning of the month and You'
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mention the the word that I see most
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often in the personal finance space is
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tracking tracking is the activity that
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you do after the month is over or as the
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month is going on to look backwards in
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time and say what have I actually spent
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and I was great at budgeting ahead of
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time but because the it was uh it was
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digital and not like an envelope system
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with real cash I was allowed to
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overspend my budget however I wanted to
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and that was biting me for for months
00:14:23
and months and months until one day I
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finally decided to budget the real way
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which was tracking afterwards and and
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really making sure that I wasn't
00:14:30
overspending that that budget yeah and I
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think and the other part too just to
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touch on that I think it's really easy
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to kind of go down that slippery slope
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when it's just you when it you know if
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you're single or maybe you don't have a
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support system or any accountability
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part it's really easy because um you can
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pretty much rationalize or Justify any
00:14:50
decision you make financially to
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yourself because you're only
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rationalizing it to yourself um what I
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found now being married um is that I
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can't easily do that I have to
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rationalize or discuss these financial
00:15:03
decisions with another person in a
00:15:05
different set of mind so I think that's
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one of the things I'll talk about on
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Twitter you know from time to time is
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that you know if you're struggling with
00:15:11
the budget it's to find some sort of
00:15:14
accountability partner or somebody that
00:15:15
can help you through it because it's
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it's like you said it's easy to just
00:15:19
kind of set it and then not really
00:15:21
follow along just because you're the one
00:15:23
that's setting the budget and you're the
00:15:24
one that's making all the
00:15:26
decisions let's start talking about
00:15:28
let's start talking about the climb out
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of debt because I know having talked to
00:15:32
you before Offline that your wife she
00:15:36
wasn't your wife then but played an
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instrumental role in you ending up
00:15:40
getting out of debt so talk us through
00:15:42
that story yeah so what it happened was
00:15:45
we um she was applying for grad schools
00:15:49
in the United States I somewhat
00:15:51
selfishly I was living in Nevada since
00:15:53
2012 at that point it was 2019 then and
00:15:56
we were kind of she was looking at
00:15:58
schools where to go to and I basically
00:16:00
gave her a list of states that I would
00:16:02
move to I said because I understood
00:16:05
Nevada is a little bit expensive for
00:16:06
international students and I kind of
00:16:07
said here's where I'll go here's where I
00:16:09
won't go and Florida was on the all goto
00:16:12
list and so we ended up she got into
00:16:14
University South Florida we moved to
00:16:16
Tampa you know got an apartment all that
00:16:18
good stuff and we were just kind of
00:16:21
humming along you know buying stuff for
00:16:23
the apartment and I had no you know I
00:16:25
was fully aware of you know what I was
00:16:27
carrying credit card debt the personal
00:16:29
loan at that time but we weren't quite
00:16:32
at that stage yet in the relationship
00:16:34
where I was W ready to kind of open
00:16:36
everything up and be like this is what I
00:16:38
have um and so basically what had
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happened we kind of got to a point we
00:16:42
were trying to figure out how to pay for
00:16:44
her fall tuition and it was I think it
00:16:47
was like eight grand or something like
00:16:49
that it it wasn't crazy money but it was
00:16:52
enough money that I knew was going to be
00:16:54
a little bit of a struggle to get um and
00:16:57
so basically at that point I you know I
00:16:59
was kind of looking for some lender
00:17:01
places and figuring out how I was gonna
00:17:03
how we were going to pay for that and uh
00:17:06
just so everybody's aware it's I
00:17:09
basically we were kind of doing a
00:17:10
payment plan system like I W because our
00:17:13
parents are from Brazil it was just they
00:17:14
couldn't get a loan in the United States
00:17:16
to pay for it and the conversion rates
00:17:17
are crazy so I was basically going to
00:17:19
pay for it and they were going to
00:17:20
reimburse what the what the rates were
00:17:22
but because of what my credit was and
00:17:25
just kind of how much debt I was
00:17:26
carrying I couldn't get an loan for that
00:17:28
amount
00:17:29
so then at that point and that just as a
00:17:32
person that was pretty demoralizing and
00:17:34
I kind of I felt really poorly about
00:17:36
myself just because you know I felt that
00:17:39
I was supposed to be the provider in
00:17:40
that regard and I couldn't um meet
00:17:43
fulfill my
00:17:44
obligations so once that was kind of
00:17:45
going on I kind of let her know what
00:17:47
what was happening and then we just sat
00:17:49
down and I said hey here's everything
00:17:51
and I showed her all the credit cards
00:17:53
what you know what I owed I showed her
00:17:54
my student loans showed her the personal
00:17:56
loan and one thing I was you know I
00:17:59
always applaud her for it is it's it
00:18:01
would have been incredibly easy for her
00:18:03
to just go into attack mode or you know
00:18:06
call me stupid or an idiot or whatever
00:18:08
which arguably I was like I'm not going
00:18:10
to deny that but what she basically did
00:18:12
in just her personality she goes all
00:18:14
right and she opened up she opened up I
00:18:16
think it was my laptop opened up a
00:18:17
Google doc thing and just started
00:18:19
writing a budget and just was like what
00:18:20
do you have to pay each month what's
00:18:22
your money and we started and our first
00:18:24
budget was literally just a Google sheet
00:18:26
that just had one uh one column set
00:18:28
income one column that set expenses and
00:18:30
we just started writing everything down
00:18:31
and from that point it just we became a
00:18:34
team financially weren't we weren't
00:18:36
married yet we didn't combine our
00:18:37
finances but she became at that point my
00:18:40
financial accountability partner just
00:18:42
for um trying to you know get out of the
00:18:45
mess we were having and because she knew
00:18:47
too it's like at that point we had
00:18:48
talked about marriage we we were pretty
00:18:50
sure that that's the route we were going
00:18:51
to go and you know I think she knew as
00:18:55
well that she wanted to get this cleaned
00:18:57
up too which ju which is right like I I
00:19:00
don't falter for that at all but so she
00:19:02
was just a a huge part and kind of like
00:19:05
you know once you get once you kind of
00:19:06
hit that quote unquote rock bottom and
00:19:08
you realize that something has to change
00:19:10
that's pretty much what it
00:19:12
was pick your pick your book on habits
00:19:16
pick your psychological study a lot of
00:19:18
them will talk about accountability
00:19:19
partners and how important it is to be
00:19:22
able to look someone else in the eye and
00:19:24
say yes I am on track or yes I am
00:19:26
improving and and make me hold myself
00:19:30
accountable and and I will hold myself
00:19:32
accountable to you so it's great that
00:19:33
you guys were able to find success with
00:19:36
that one thing you touched on Adam that
00:19:39
reminded me of something we talked about
00:19:41
on Sunday night is this idea of you know
00:19:45
when you needed to have the credit to
00:19:47
help her it wasn't there Y and it came
00:19:50
up in our car talk on Sunday night when
00:19:52
we were talking about car loans and how
00:19:54
a credit score can affect the interest
00:19:56
rate that you will have to pay on your
00:19:58
car car loan you don't know in life when
00:20:01
you'll need credit or you don't know in
00:20:03
life when your credit score will matter
00:20:06
and that's one of these reasons you know
00:20:07
that that lack of understanding of when
00:20:09
the unknown is coming is a great reason
00:20:12
to have your finances in
00:20:14
order yeah and I mean that's one thing
00:20:17
so you know back when I we were kind of
00:20:20
starting the debt-free process I was you
00:20:23
know I was big into Dave Ramsey I I love
00:20:25
that I listen to the podcast a lot I was
00:20:27
all about it and that's kind of one of
00:20:29
the one of the areas where I Veer off of
00:20:31
what he teaches or I just don't really
00:20:34
necessarily agree with because he you
00:20:35
know he teaches to cut up all credit
00:20:37
cards close all your account lines and
00:20:39
basically if your credit score dies off
00:20:41
you can go to zero and if you're going
00:20:42
to buy a house just do manual
00:20:44
underwriting but um just from watching
00:20:47
other YouTube videos of people who you
00:20:49
know have followed his advice from what
00:20:52
I've seen a couple videos where people
00:20:53
are just like that is the one thing I
00:20:55
wish I wouldn't have done is kind of
00:20:58
gone the I'm going to avoid credit at
00:21:00
all cost because there are scenarios
00:21:01
like that where you you never know when
00:21:04
you need it right I didn't realize
00:21:06
that's part of Dave Ramsey's advice it
00:21:08
makes sense now that you mention it I've
00:21:10
always heard the cut up your credit
00:21:12
cards and don't go into debt I have
00:21:14
always heard that but I never thought it
00:21:15
through and realized that one of the
00:21:17
ramifications of that is that your
00:21:19
credit score essentially disappears on
00:21:21
you yeah he he uh I don't it's I don't
00:21:24
think he has that like specifically
00:21:26
written out on any of his baby steps but
00:21:27
he aled about a lot in the podcast where
00:21:29
you know people would call in with that
00:21:31
fear you know it's I'm going to close on
00:21:32
my lines and I have no credit and then
00:21:34
he would kind of you know respond well I
00:21:36
don't have a credit score and
00:21:37
everything's fine and you you could just
00:21:39
do manual underwriting if you want a
00:21:41
house and from what I've heard manual
00:21:43
underwriting is just an absolute
00:21:45
headache way more information and stuff
00:21:47
you have to give to the banks to get it
00:21:48
done but yeah he um he talked about it
00:21:51
quite frequently in the podcast when I
00:21:52
was listening interesting now I just did
00:21:54
a quick Google Adam it says here that
00:21:56
Dam uh Dave Ramsey net worth is
00:21:58
approximately $200 million o so he might
00:22:02
be able to get away with not having a
00:22:04
credit card or a credit score unless
00:22:07
he's planning on you know buying the New
00:22:08
York Yankees or something like that I
00:22:10
think he fails to make that comparison
00:22:12
oh you don't have a 200 million net
00:22:13
worth all right yeah uh so you sat down
00:22:17
with your wife and in your wife's
00:22:18
Infinite Wisdom she said let's set out a
00:22:21
budget let's put a plan together from
00:22:24
that plan moving forward what did that
00:22:27
the next few months or the next few
00:22:29
years look like until you got to where
00:22:31
you are now well so then basically what
00:22:34
we did was um once we started budgeting
00:22:37
we basically did the snowball method we
00:22:39
you know picked something that had the
00:22:40
highest balance but technically did a
00:22:44
little out of order there was a a couple
00:22:46
student loans that had low interest that
00:22:47
were high balance and we kind of pushed
00:22:49
those to the side so we did we we
00:22:52
finished the credit cards we finished
00:22:54
the personal loans and we're were making
00:22:55
minimum payments on everything and then
00:22:58
obviously um by the time about February
00:23:01
rolled around I think we had pretty much
00:23:03
all the credit cards and personal loan
00:23:04
cleared and then it was basically just
00:23:06
student loans at that point and then in
00:23:08
March obviously when the world halted
00:23:10
and the federal government paused
00:23:12
student loans we you know we kind of
00:23:15
made that decision where you know this
00:23:17
this also gets debated on Twitter quite
00:23:19
a bit where it's you know do you invest
00:23:21
invest the money it's low interest
00:23:23
interest debt or do you pay it off and
00:23:25
in our mindset was kind of you know we
00:23:28
know in the future that we're going to
00:23:29
be bringing in um a healthy amount of
00:23:31
income regardless of how that is and so
00:23:34
for our perspective it was a lot more
00:23:36
psychological it was just we want to
00:23:38
close this door of debt of this personal
00:23:40
debt and get it over with and so as the
00:23:42
months rolled on obviously Florida was
00:23:44
in lockdown just like everybody else was
00:23:46
so it kind of helped uh it helped with
00:23:48
the budget a little bit we couldn't go
00:23:49
out and spend at restaurants or couldn't
00:23:51
go do activities really so that really
00:23:53
decreased that amount of money and just
00:23:54
everything we could we just kept piling
00:23:56
on and piling on um onto the student
00:23:59
loans and ended up uh I don't know how
00:24:02
in depth uh you want me to go with this
00:24:04
but then in August basically long story
00:24:08
short what had happened was USF went
00:24:10
full remote the campus our least our
00:24:13
yeah and our lease was ending and so we
00:24:15
kind of made the decision okay are we
00:24:16
going to stay in Florida where you're
00:24:18
just taking remote classes you know we
00:24:20
had friends out there but we didn't have
00:24:21
a ton of friend and a lot of connections
00:24:24
and basically what we end up deciding
00:24:26
was we're going to move back to Nevada
00:24:28
you're going to take all your classes
00:24:29
online um and we're just going to move
00:24:32
in with my parents we're not going to
00:24:33
you know have any real living expenses I
00:24:35
guess is the way to put it and yeah and
00:24:38
then basically move back in August
00:24:40
making payments slowly chunking we had
00:24:43
the we have our wedding coming up in
00:24:44
November so some payments started
00:24:46
showing up for that and basically what
00:24:48
we just did like kind of like how Dave
00:24:50
says I'm not I'm not marketing or
00:24:52
affiliating for Dave no worries but
00:24:55
basically what we did was we just kind
00:24:56
of paused our payments on the loans um
00:24:58
kept cash flowing in the wedding
00:25:00
expenses until those were taken care of
00:25:02
and then in March I believe March 15th
00:25:05
somewhere around then yeah we made our
00:25:07
made our final payment so it took about
00:25:09
took us about 15 months to get it all
00:25:11
done cool so it's 15 months and it was
00:25:14
sorry it was 34k 30 somewhere in that
00:25:17
range that yeah it was it was just under
00:25:19
32 just under 32k well congratulations
00:25:23
apprciate that that's awesome uh and I
00:25:26
think it's such a wise choice and not
00:25:28
necessarily an easy choice to look at
00:25:30
one another and say you know do we want
00:25:33
to move back do we want to move across
00:25:35
the country a that's a tough choice to
00:25:36
make do we want to move away from where
00:25:39
your wife's classes are where her
00:25:41
professors are that's a tough choice to
00:25:43
make do we want to move back in with
00:25:44
with my parents to save more money to
00:25:46
pay off this debt all tough choices but
00:25:49
I give you guys kudos for for making
00:25:51
those
00:25:51
decisions one thing Adam I wanted to
00:25:53
turn back and talk about you brought up
00:25:55
the infamous invest versus Pay down debt
00:25:59
debate where right the logic is you can
00:26:02
invest money and turn uh earn earn
00:26:06
Returns on that money at say like eight%
00:26:08
per year in the stock market or you can
00:26:10
pay down your debt which might only have
00:26:12
an interest rate of what what was your
00:26:14
interest rate roughly speaking so they
00:26:16
varied it was between three and I think
00:26:18
the highest one was around six so the
00:26:22
three to six range gotcha so so on a
00:26:25
mathematical point of view like a pure
00:26:27
if you were a spreadsheet and not a
00:26:28
human being the answer would be to
00:26:31
invest your money because you're getting
00:26:32
the higher rate of return but can you
00:26:35
walk us through even if it's just in 30
00:26:37
seconds can you walk us through your and
00:26:39
your wife's mindset in terms of you know
00:26:41
the choice to pay down the debt rather
00:26:43
than pursue the larger gains from
00:26:46
Investments yeah so I mean like my wife
00:26:48
and I were both ambitious people and the
00:26:50
way we saw the debt was more or less a
00:26:53
roadblock for some things it was going
00:26:54
to eat at our monthly you know monthly
00:26:57
cash we're going to have these payments
00:26:59
going on um so for us kind of like what
00:27:01
I mentioned is we really just wanted to
00:27:04
get that chapter done with and as we
00:27:06
were you know started and we're going
00:27:08
full on and just throwing money at it it
00:27:10
just to us it didn't really I guess in
00:27:13
our minds make sense to kind of stop
00:27:15
what we were doing to invest the money
00:27:17
we just really wanted the debt gone and
00:27:20
to play The Devil's Advocate for the
00:27:22
against the investing is we had really
00:27:26
no idea nobody does what the market is
00:27:28
going to do at that time and so you know
00:27:31
if it was a fiveyear six-year window
00:27:34
where we were going to be you know we
00:27:35
had A1 $200,000 in debt it may have
00:27:37
changed our mindset a little bit but we
00:27:39
knew it was going to be less than a year
00:27:41
and so there is a slim chance I mean
00:27:43
looking back obviously that would not
00:27:44
have happened but there's a slim chance
00:27:45
that we would have been investing this
00:27:46
money by the time we got to where we
00:27:48
were ready to make you know the final
00:27:50
payment or something nearby that the
00:27:51
money could have been less um there was
00:27:54
always that possibility and so I just
00:27:55
think with a short amount of time time
00:27:57
we had it just we were just like all
00:27:59
right let's just get it over with and
00:28:00
then we'll focus on investing and saving
00:28:02
once this is
00:28:03
done there's a huge psychological
00:28:06
component to what you said and I wrote
00:28:08
down this quote Adam you said you wanted
00:28:10
to get the chapter done with and that
00:28:13
has such a big effect for so many of us
00:28:15
we want to put a stamp on something and
00:28:17
say that is done and now I'm ready to
00:28:19
move on to the next thing whereas
00:28:22
carrying that debt for a longer period
00:28:24
of time because on the side you want to
00:28:26
be investing your money
00:28:28
maybe it would have worked out better
00:28:29
for you mathematically but holding kind
00:28:31
of it's like juggling all those balls in
00:28:33
the air keeping all those plates
00:28:34
spinning to use a couple different
00:28:36
metaphors that's mental work that a lot
00:28:38
of us don't want to necessarily have to
00:28:40
do closing the chapter reduces that
00:28:43
mental work and makes us feel better
00:28:45
about our
00:28:46
decisions yeah and it's the other key to
00:28:49
that is it it would require a lot of
00:28:51
discipline to be continuingly
00:28:54
continuously investing as you're paying
00:28:56
it off because now you have that cash
00:28:58
and if you're not Auto putting it to
00:29:00
your Investments or whatever it's easy
00:29:01
to just start spending that and then
00:29:02
you're basically you're in the same
00:29:04
situation where you're making minimum
00:29:05
payments and you know then that money is
00:29:07
just kind of slipping through your
00:29:09
through your grasps right not saying
00:29:10
that not saying that'd be the case for
00:29:11
everybody but that is a possibility that
00:29:13
could happen yeah requires discipline
00:29:15
totally requires discipline let's
00:29:18
transition Adam and talk through I mean
00:29:20
you already have talked through some
00:29:21
some very actionable steps that people
00:29:23
can take but when it comes to the basics
00:29:26
of money whether it's budgeting uh
00:29:28
spending saving investing I'm curious do
00:29:31
you use any specific tools now do you
00:29:34
have any specific habits any any major
00:29:36
lessons learned that you're still
00:29:38
carrying forward with your with your
00:29:40
personal finances today yeah so I mean
00:29:42
like with the budgets the one thing I'll
00:29:44
preach to the end is that like the
00:29:46
sustainability aspect of it is so
00:29:48
crucial because you can you I mean you
00:29:51
can budget and restrict yourself to
00:29:53
death but if you're not going to be able
00:29:54
to sustain it for the long term then I'd
00:29:56
argue it's not really worth it because
00:29:58
you're going to do it for a little bit
00:29:59
you're going to get frustrated you're
00:30:00
going to quit and I try and harp on that
00:30:04
you know budgets are only as restricting
00:30:06
or restrictive as you allow them to be I
00:30:08
mean you can you're in control you or
00:30:10
your wife or whoever you're with you
00:30:11
guys are in control and now don't go
00:30:13
crazy and you know not invest anything
00:30:15
and never save anything and just spend
00:30:16
it all but really to you you know it's
00:30:20
it's it's in your your power to make
00:30:22
these decisions and I guess when it
00:30:24
comes to that you know there's obviously
00:30:26
your normal expenses you know you have
00:30:29
your rent your mortgage maybe your food
00:30:31
and some of those things but it's always
00:30:33
important too to make sure there's at
00:30:34
least a little bit of room for fun you
00:30:36
know quote unquote fun money or you know
00:30:38
whatever your guilty pleasure or
00:30:40
whatever it may be you know Netflix
00:30:42
Spotify maybe like going and get ice
00:30:44
cream on Fridays something like that
00:30:46
keeping those in there and then the I
00:30:49
guess the lesson I would put in it is
00:30:52
that what I've learned is it doesn't
00:30:54
really need to be anything complex like
00:30:56
your budget budg can be super simple and
00:30:58
I think that sometimes people will get
00:31:01
caught up thinking that your budget
00:31:02
needs to have all these charts that are
00:31:03
tracking everything and you know your
00:31:05
cash flow and yeah those are good things
00:31:07
to have but they're not essential
00:31:09
basically like you're like like how our
00:31:12
budget is it's still largely is the same
00:31:14
it's you really only need an income and
00:31:15
an expense column and then that's that's
00:31:19
that's where I go with
00:31:21
budgets room for fun is huge one of the
00:31:24
biggest myths I think that I hear from
00:31:26
people people on the outside looking in
00:31:29
is a your budget seems very
00:31:33
restrictive uh it seems like a habit
00:31:35
that I would never want to keep up with
00:31:36
in the first place and then it seems
00:31:39
like you don't do anything fun right
00:31:41
you're pinching pennies and and that's
00:31:44
just simply not the case at least for my
00:31:46
budget and it sounds like for your
00:31:47
budget too I have lots of fun on my
00:31:49
budget the point is I plan for it ahead
00:31:52
of time I set aside money for that fund
00:31:55
I don't just spend on a whim on fun and
00:31:58
then after the fact I look back and I do
00:32:00
the tracking exercise that we talked
00:32:02
about before and I say how much did I
00:32:04
actually spend and do I need to move
00:32:06
money around to make everything
00:32:07
reconcile after the fact that's all
00:32:10
still have tons of fun it's not
00:32:11
restrictive it's just that I I track it
00:32:14
yeah yeah exactly and that's one of the
00:32:16
things that you'll hear about on Twitter
00:32:17
just specifically talking about one line
00:32:19
item budget is the start is the coffee
00:32:21
thing buying Starbucks my wife she loves
00:32:24
Starbucks she gets a strawberry o
00:32:26
Refresher
00:32:27
I very frequently that's but that's one
00:32:30
of those things it's like we've agreed
00:32:31
on it she gets it it's guilt-free
00:32:33
spending you know I'm never going to
00:32:34
harp on her for spending it and so it's
00:32:35
just little items like that that you
00:32:37
know instead of feeling guilty or over
00:32:39
spending you you plan for it and you
00:32:41
roll with it yeah it's too bad that
00:32:44
Susie Orman and then I think his name is
00:32:46
David Bach they both wrote books where
00:32:49
latte was in the title and and you know
00:32:52
both those books sold hundreds of
00:32:54
thousands of copies because they're both
00:32:55
famous Financial writers
00:32:57
and now it's just like the most popular
00:32:59
myth in personal finance that lattes and
00:33:01
avocado toast are preventing people like
00:33:04
you and me Adam from ever retiring yeah
00:33:07
it's an old tired old tired myth you
00:33:10
mentioned one thing Adam there I thought
00:33:11
it was great it reminded me of a Tim
00:33:14
Ferris podcast I once listened to that
00:33:16
then inspired me to go around and turn
00:33:18
around and write a blog post the most
00:33:21
important aspect of a habit is your
00:33:24
ability to adhere to that habit you
00:33:27
called it sustainability the the ability
00:33:29
to sustain that habit and Tim Ferris
00:33:31
said you know is it any good to start
00:33:34
running five miles a day if three days
00:33:37
in you realize your shins are killing
00:33:39
you and you don't run anymore or would
00:33:41
you just be better off saying I'm gonna
00:33:42
run two miles a day and make that my
00:33:45
habit and actually do it the two mile
00:33:48
habit is better similar with budgets
00:33:50
like you just said the simple budget if
00:33:53
that's the one that you can stick to is
00:33:54
infinitely better than a complex budget
00:33:57
that you're just going to
00:33:58
quit
00:34:01
agreed Adam how are you working with
00:34:03
others you have all this knowledge and
00:34:04
you have all this really good experience
00:34:06
you have a great story that people are
00:34:08
following so how are you working with
00:34:10
others or putting together some sort of
00:34:12
project or program in the future I'm
00:34:14
just curious what what you have planned
00:34:17
Yeah so basically right now the large
00:34:19
amount of my time when it comes to
00:34:21
helping other people it's spent on
00:34:22
Twitter um I have started working
00:34:25
through emails basically have been
00:34:27
slowly kind of building email list I was
00:34:29
sending out a Weekly Newsletter but um
00:34:32
kind of some other priorities showed up
00:34:33
and that's kind of taken a little bit of
00:34:34
the back seat but I'm trying to get that
00:34:36
reamped I recently started it this might
00:34:40
sound a little funny but I started a
00:34:42
Facebook group where it's basically a
00:34:44
personal finance group and I've been
00:34:46
trying to kind of get people into there
00:34:48
so at that point you know with Twitter
00:34:51
you're sending a tweet out people are
00:34:52
replying and you're kind of replying to
00:34:54
every response but the point of the
00:34:56
group was that you could kind of build a
00:35:00
community and then it wouldn't
00:35:02
necessarily require you to be there all
00:35:05
the time answering all the questions or
00:35:06
whatnot you could have a lot of the
00:35:08
other community members answering
00:35:10
questions or you know asking questions
00:35:12
whatever whatever they needed so doing
00:35:14
that and then I'll tease a little bit I
00:35:17
am working on another project I'm not
00:35:19
going to give away too much too many
00:35:21
details but probably in the next two
00:35:25
months that's probably what it's going
00:35:27
to be around two months it'll be I'll
00:35:29
start uh hyping it up a little more as
00:35:31
we get closer but just stay tuned for
00:35:34
that I will that sounds exciting you got
00:35:36
me uh you've got me enticed I'll stay
00:35:39
tuned the Facebook group that's a great
00:35:42
point I made a Facebook group I have a
00:35:45
Facebook page I should say for the best
00:35:49
interest I find it I think it's too
00:35:51
narrow in focus and so people look at it
00:35:54
and they're like I don't really want to
00:35:55
follow this guy's business
00:35:57
but I think if I had opened it up and
00:35:59
I'm I'm interested in your Facebook
00:36:00
group because it sounds like you have
00:36:01
opened it up just to a personal finance
00:36:05
discussion group and I think is that
00:36:07
that's the kind of thing that sounds
00:36:08
like to me it could build momentum and
00:36:10
could end up really helping people so
00:36:12
I'm interested I I'll look into that
00:36:13
Adam I I'll join your group I I
00:36:15
appreciate that okay Adam so this is the
00:36:18
this is the one the one question we got
00:36:19
from Twitter it's when are we all
00:36:22
meeting up in Vegas again from Stephen
00:36:24
wealthy that is a good question
00:36:27
that is a good question I uh I would
00:36:30
prefer we wait a couple months before it
00:36:32
cools for it to cool down it was it was
00:36:35
blistering when we were down there last
00:36:37
weekend Kelly my girlfriend is there
00:36:40
right now as we are speaking and I think
00:36:43
it's been 110 plus each of the days
00:36:46
she's been there which here on the East
00:36:49
Coast we always say about the West Coast
00:36:50
like oh but it's a dry heat in the
00:36:52
desert it's kind of this you know in in
00:36:54
quotes with a smile on her face I don't
00:36:56
care if it's dry heat 110 sounds pretty
00:36:58
hot to me yeah it's uh it's it does the
00:37:02
dryness helps but it's still uh when
00:37:05
when it's you know nighttime 10 o'clock
00:37:07
at night it's still 105 plus it's it's
00:37:10
intense that's
00:37:11
crazy so someday I'd love to go to Vegas
00:37:14
I've never been
00:37:16
there next question though what's the
00:37:19
last material object or personal luxury
00:37:21
that you spent $100 or more
00:37:24
on so that's a good question I had to
00:37:27
got to think about that one I would
00:37:29
guess it's going to or what it was was a
00:37:32
travel golf bag when I went down to
00:37:35
Scottdale in
00:37:36
June that was I'm not a huge I do like
00:37:40
the little five5 $10 purchases it's not
00:37:42
as common I'll get over the $100 Mark so
00:37:45
yeah travel golf bag gotcha are you a a
00:37:48
big golfer do you golf a lot I don't
00:37:50
golf as much as I would like to but um
00:37:53
you know if I keep it under a 100 I'm
00:37:55
pretty pleased nice nice that's better
00:37:57
than
00:37:58
me what's a good habit that you're
00:38:01
trying to form or a bad habit that you
00:38:03
are trying to break so I just recently
00:38:06
started trying to run before work each
00:38:09
morning so I've changed my alarm clock
00:38:11
to wake me up about uh about 30 minutes
00:38:14
earlier so I can run about a mile or a
00:38:16
mile and a half uh haven't been as
00:38:18
successful as I would like to be but
00:38:20
I'll just keep at it and I'll hopefully
00:38:22
the snoozes will get less and less uh
00:38:25
The Habit I'm trying to break would
00:38:27
probably be on the flip side of going to
00:38:29
bed
00:38:30
earlier um I like to be in bed you know
00:38:33
the 9:45 10 range like under the sheets
00:38:36
ready to go uh but just with work and
00:38:39
how life's been especially with my
00:38:40
wife's work she works a lot uh we've
00:38:42
been getting closer to the 11 o'clock
00:38:45
range so definitely trying to make that
00:38:46
a little
00:38:47
earlier sleep is huge I'm one of those
00:38:51
people that I cannot operate if I don't
00:38:54
have good
00:38:55
sleep and uh and I'm not always good at
00:38:58
going to bed on time or falling asleep
00:39:00
quickly so I'm right there with you
00:39:01
that's such an important habit and the
00:39:03
more I listen to experts talk and the
00:39:05
more kind of podcasts I listen to where
00:39:07
they bring on Sleep Experts it sounds
00:39:09
like the science is really starting to
00:39:11
build up to say like your sleep is one
00:39:13
of the most important things that you
00:39:14
can focus on oh yeah you need need to
00:39:17
recharge it's incredibly important yeah
00:39:20
and you know not a scientist here I'm
00:39:22
just a guy I'm just a guy with a podcast
00:39:24
that talks about money but someone who
00:39:26
listens to experts talk I believe that
00:39:29
is what they're saying uh what's your
00:39:31
favorite Financial tool Adam or or app
00:39:34
or service that you use and why so I
00:39:38
would probably have to say mint um the
00:39:41
reason why I like mint is just because
00:39:42
it tracks everything in one place and
00:39:45
you know whether it be my Vanguard
00:39:47
account or coinbase I know there's
00:39:49
really high fees there but coin I still
00:39:51
have coinbase and you know you have the
00:39:53
two- Factor authentication it just kind
00:39:55
of it's a little bit of a
00:39:57
not annoying but it's just a little bit
00:39:58
of a hassle logging into each thing so I
00:40:00
just really like mint because
00:40:01
everything's in one central location so
00:40:03
as soon as I sign in it's got all my
00:40:05
accounts there for me excellent and
00:40:07
mint's still free right it was free when
00:40:09
I was using it is it still free still
00:40:11
free
00:40:13
awesome and last question Adam if you
00:40:16
had a billboard and you could share any
00:40:18
message with the world what would you
00:40:20
put on that
00:40:23
billboard I would say that it's Never
00:40:26
Too
00:40:27
Late partly because that can apply to so
00:40:30
many different things so whether that be
00:40:33
finances you know your health a
00:40:35
relationship you're trying to mend
00:40:37
whatever it may be just because that can
00:40:39
be so open-ended it could anybody
00:40:41
reading it it could apply to something
00:40:43
in their
00:40:44
lives I love that
00:40:46
one I really do so Adam if anybody wants
00:40:49
to get a hold of you or wants to follow
00:40:51
along on your projects or they want to
00:40:53
learn about what's coming in two months
00:40:55
that we're all excited for how can they
00:40:57
reach you how can they follow you well
00:40:59
so you can find me on Twitter that's
00:41:01
where I'm the most active my handle is
00:41:03
Adam sha last name's sh o u p and then
00:41:08
on there if you really want to get
00:41:09
connected which I'd appreciate on my
00:41:11
location there is a link you can click
00:41:15
and basically provide your email and
00:41:17
I'll give you a free budget basically
00:41:19
I've got a you know a bone structure of
00:41:22
a template that basically just requires
00:41:24
your inputs you can do on your own and
00:41:26
then if you want to join the Facebook
00:41:28
group the name is called personal
00:41:30
finance Community hyphen debt and
00:41:35
investing excellent and I'll I'll make
00:41:37
sure to throw those links into the show
00:41:39
notes that was fantastic Adam thank you
00:41:42
so much for coming on to the best
00:41:43
interest podcast with us thanks for
00:41:45
having me
00:41:51
Jesse another huge shout out to Adam
00:41:53
thank you Adam for coming on to the best
00:41:55
interest podcast for this episode I have
00:41:58
included all of Adam's links in the show
00:42:00
notes so make sure to go give him a
00:42:02
follow check out that Facebook page Adam
00:42:05
is a great person to to know to bounce
00:42:08
ideas off of he's a great guy if you
00:42:10
want to reach out to me my email is
00:42:12
Jesse best bestin interest. blog on
00:42:15
social media the easiest place to find
00:42:17
me is on Twitter where my username is
00:42:20
bestore JC I also have a small but
00:42:23
growing Instagram account where my
00:42:25
account is theore bestore interest and
00:42:29
if you find this valuable and you want
00:42:31
to give back I have three easy options
00:42:33
for you to do so all free for you you
00:42:36
can subscribe to the podcast or you can
00:42:39
leave a rating or a review of the
00:42:41
podcast uh for example Ashman Scoops
00:42:44
wrote in and said Jesse is an incredibly
00:42:47
sharp guy the content he creates for his
00:42:49
best interest podcast and blog is very
00:42:52
informative and insightful he's got
00:42:54
stuff for everyone from the amateur
00:42:56
investor to the seasoned Financial
00:42:58
expert highly recommended thank you
00:43:01
Ashman Scoops I think you are an
00:43:03
incredibly sharp Guai thank you for
00:43:05
those kind words we can continue to
00:43:08
invest in one another because as Ben
00:43:09
Franklin said an investment in knowledge
00:43:11
pays the best interest sharing with
00:43:13
others is investing in their knowledge
00:43:16
so thank you all for listening to
00:43:18
episode 26 of the best interest
00:43:25
podcast
00:43:33
one thing Adam that you touched on as
00:43:35
well is the classic invest versus paid
00:43:39
debt debate yeah I'm gonna pause here I
00:43:43
don't know if you could hear the fire
00:43:44
engines in the background there's a a
00:43:46
fire truck I'm just gonna give it like
00:43:47
10 seconds to yeah no worries pass and
00:43:50
then I'll just I'll I'll do another
00:43:51
intro to the invest versus pay debt can
00:43:53
you're Dave fuming already
00:43:58
dude I gotta believe in his heart of
00:44:00
hearts that Dave is like yes I believe
00:44:04
my numbers and I know the numbers make
00:44:06
sense but whatever you got to do to help
00:44:08
yourself sleep at night is right and
00:44:10
it's just like his his his Twitter
00:44:11
Persona is like but the numbers yeah
00:44:14
yeah I give I give him credit he does
00:44:16
not back down yeah no he
00:44:19
doesn't

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most inspiring
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • Overcoming Debt: A Personal Journey
    Adam shares his struggle with debt and the lessons learned along the way.
    “It was really a brass tax personal finance conversation.”
    @ 01m 55s
    January 29, 2024
  • Finding Accountability in Finances
    Having an accountability partner can help you stick to your budget and financial goals.
    “If you're struggling with the budget, find an accountability partner.”
    @ 15m 15s
    January 29, 2024
  • Finding Financial Accountability
    The speaker shares how their partner became their financial accountability partner, helping them tackle debt together.
    “She became at that point my financial accountability partner.”
    @ 18m 36s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Importance of Closing Chapters
    The speaker emphasizes the psychological relief of closing the chapter on debt before moving on to investments.
    “We wanted to get that chapter done with.”
    @ 27m 04s
    January 29, 2024
  • Sustainability in Budgeting
    The speaker discusses the importance of sustainability in budgeting, advocating for fun within financial plans.
    “Budgets are only as restrictive as you allow them to be.”
    @ 29m 58s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Importance of Sleep
    Discussing the critical role of sleep in maintaining health and productivity.
    “Sleep is huge!”
    @ 38m 51s
    January 29, 2024
  • Never Too Late
    A powerful reminder that it's never too late to make changes in life.
    “It's Never Too Late!”
    @ 40m 26s
    January 29, 2024
  • Best Interest Podcast
    A shoutout to Adam for joining the podcast and sharing valuable insights.
    “Thank you Adam for coming on to the best interest podcast!”
    @ 41m 55s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Closing the Debt Chapter27:04
  • Room for Fun31:21
  • Stay Tuned35:31
  • Travel Golf Bag37:32
  • Morning Run38:06
  • Financial Tools39:31
  • Billboard Message40:20
  • Invest in Knowledge43:11

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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