Today I sat down with my client, Lauren who just celebrated her 1 year anniversary of working with me. Just like you, Lauren struggled with wanting to pay off debt and wanting to spend money on things like travel or experiences. As much as she tried, even with a budget of her own, she was not able to pay off and stay out of debt.
Lauren made the decision to ask for financial help after listening to one of my clients share her story on the podcast. It was only fitting to have her journey come full circle and invite her on my podcast to share her financial accomplishments.
She started her journey with the goal to break out of her debt cycle and put aside money to do things that she loves. She wanted to spend money on travel without feeling guilty or adding to her debt. By setting money aside for a travel fund every month, she was able to pay down debt, establish a healthy emergency fund, and go on several trips this year. She reached all of her money goals without sacrificing fun or needing to earn additional income.
If you are like Lauren – if you know you are making more than enough money to support your goals, but still end up short at the end of the month, I can help you. Together we will align your spending and saving patterns with what matters most to you. I hope Lauren’s story inspires you to start on your own journey with me to reach financial freedom and happiness.
In this episode, Lauren will answer…
[00:01:43] What made her reach out for coaching?
[00:22:30] Outside of paying off debt and building up savings, what her desires are, and how her money funds those priorities?
[00:24:41] The results she is most proud of after applying what she has learned in coaching.
If you’re ready to align your spending and saving patterns with what matters most to you, tune in for this week’s episode.
Are you ready to shift your relationship with money? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
IF YOU LOVED THIS CLIENT STORY ON HOW YOU CAN BREAK OUT OF THE DEBT CYCLE AND PUT ASIDE MONEY TO DO THINGS THAT YOU LOVE, CHECK OUT MY EPISODE ON HOW TO BUILD A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CREDIT CARDS!
Transcript for “How Lauren Paid Off $30,000 in Credit Card Debt and Saved $10,000″
Keina: Hi and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work every day with professional women and solopreneurs to help them get out of financial overwhelm and shame, so they can experience more flexibility and ease with their finances. Are you ready to gain confidence and learn to manage your finances intentionally? Tune in and grab financial tips that will help you master the way you think about and manage your finances.
Keina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. Today I’m with my client Lauren. Lauren and I work together. I feel like it’s almost a year to the date or at least when you did your consult. So this is December of 2022 and you applied to work with me. You applied to work with me in like late November of 2021. So yes, happy one year anniversary, just saying yes to coaching. But Lauren do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?
Lauren: Yes. So my name is Lauren. I am a overseas government contractor. I’m starting or in the process of working on starting a small business, which I’m sorry, I was starting a small business in 2021, which got put on pause when I was redeployed overseas somewhat unexpectedly, but knowing it was coming and that led me to realizing, wow, the two years I was home during Covid, I spent every penny that I had and now I needed help. So here we are.
Keina: Yeah, tell us more, what made you reach out for coaching?
Lauren: So I listened to the money files and I know this question, so I actually looked it up. So there was an email that I received in November of 2015. I get your stuff for a while. I listened to the podcast and there was an email that came out that said financial therapy for your bank account. And Janine was the person, one of the money files that was tagged in there. And her story was how Janine got out of the debt cycle in five months. And I was like, wow, that sounds amazing. So I’m an impulsive, ooh, I need that program. Or oh I need this. But for some reason, when you’re like, oh, I’m going to be called to the carpet. Do I want to do that or do I want to go get something that’s like, Hey, it’s going to make me happy?
But I was like, you know what? It doesn’t hurt to reach out and just talk. She might not even want me because she said I had to apply. So I did and I was like, you know what? My story as you know, is a little different. So I don’t get just a base salary. I get a base salary plus per diem each month, plus reimbursements, plus extra overseas funding and it can be all over the place at times. And in November I would’ve recently just picked up all of my overseas funds and which usually is a higher amount, but then I was also getting ready to go on leave, which means I’d lose it all and go back to straight base pay. So I knew I needed to do something because come January this is going to be a total hot mess and I had just dug myself out.
But when I go home it tends to be I need to buy everything, I need to get everything to come back. And what I tell myself, Lauren, we’re not going to spend that much money when we get home becomes, where did $6,000, $7,000 go? I actually had money set aside to pay off my car note. I didn’t necessarily need it. It was some of my overseas money and then some bonus money that I had received. And it would’ve been nice to do because it would’ve been less of a bill. But then I was like, no, but I need to do something else and I need to figure out a way. And I listened to that podcast. I say all that to say, I listened to that podcast and I was like, I think I could do this. And so I hit the button.
It’s that I invite you to apply and I hit the button and I think, like I did it immediately. I was like, alright, well look, there’s a spot tomorrow. Let me go see what hopes and dreams are getting ready to be dashed. And we talked and you were like, I got you. I can help you. And I was like, I’m beyond help. So no. So I mean it was immediate for me, like listening to you talk, listening to the things that, you know, it’s one of those that you’re just like, alright, I gotta bear my soul to the stranger who, okay, the connotation of financial coaching and financial health is, what do you mean you went to Starbucks six days in a row? And I was like, okay, you know, that’s what you expect and that’s not what you get.
So you’re like, okay, she’s not going to judge me. She’s probably judging me silently but she’s not going to judge me to my face. You were like, so what do you think? I was like, let’s do it, let’s do it. And we started in January though because I needed to go back overseas and get settled back at work and then I got Covid so we had to delay it a little longer. But yeah, it was immediate for me.
Keina: I love that answer. I don’t think you ever told me, I knew you had listened to my podcast, but I didn’t know Janine was the one who tipped you over.
Lauren: I knew there was a specific and I went back and looked because I was like, alright, when did I sign the contract? because it was literally right before that. It was whatever email you sent out. And I was like, no, I’m going to find this email. Because, I mean, it hit that point where you were, look, here’s the funny thing for me. Emails, when you get them, if they’re done correctly for your email marketing, like they’re Dear Lauren, such and such and such and such. I actually want to read you where it hit me because at first I was like, oh wow, is she really writing to me because I have all of these, it’s sad. Imagine you and your bank account sit down with a relationship therapist, your bank account. I know I’m being cheated on because the I see other names like Visa, Chase and Amex on the regular. Lauren says it’s about the points and that’s me. I was like oh my god, I have all of those and I do do points. And then I just read the rest of the email and I was like, yep, yep. Ooh, oh dang.
Keina: I remember writing that email.
Lauren: It just hit every point home for me. And I was like alright,6 it’s one of those, like this was talking to me. I mean I know this is the email marketing and my name is plugged in, but it was talking to me and I was like, alright Lord, I hear you. I hear you. Let’s do this. I8t’s like dear God it’s me Margaret.
Keina: I mean I don’t even feel like this is my interview anymore. I just feel like you probably know the next question we need to ask. So Lauren, where do we go from here?
Lauren: Oh okay. So what made me join? Well that email for starters, but like I said, I think when we had our conversation and it’s just like this, it was like, it’s not that, okay, so how much debt do you have? What do you spend your money on? What are you ready to cut out? What are you ready to get rid of to hit your goal? Like it’s not like going to a broker, a brokerage or a firm where it’s like their main focus is like, you want to save money, I’m going to cut you off from every piece of life sustaining thing that you ever buy and this is what we’re going to do. And you’re like wow, this is going to be real quick because I’m going to have to pay everything off in the next six days because I can’t live without.
And it wasn’t like that. Even the consultation, it was like, let’s talk about this. Why do you want to do this? What do you hope to reach? And it was just conversational and we get a lot done in the conversation, but it’s like talking to your friend, like I love talking about money. Like I’m that type of person. You walk by me on the street or we’re even at work and people don’t like to talk salaries. They’d be like, well how much money do you make? I’m like, this is what my salary is. Let me tell you how much I owe. Let me tell you this, I’m saying that. So it’s a lot. This was freeing for me actually because I was like, alright, nobody in my circle tends to really want to talk about money.
So I’m like, oh somebody wants to hear me talk about the budget that I created, that I thought was working and it worked at the time but now I have something better. So yeah, I was like, it’s time to not just get rid of it. The debt cycle is what really spoke to me. I can buckle down and pay my debt off in a year if I really, really like I said, did absolutely nothing. But I came to realize I was doing it the wrong way. One because my idea was like my credit cards are my biggest thing. So whatever money I have after I pay my bills, I pay the credit card off and I was able to maintain a month ahead cycle. So if nothing else, I made sure my bills bills were paid.
But what I would do is as I’m paying, I target a credit card, I pay this credit card off, but annual fees hit, things hit that are not necessarily unexpected but are not in the main budget because that’s not what the world says is the necessity, goes onto my credit card. So then, pushes it back up and then you move. So it’s a never ending cycle and I’m like I need to get out of that because once I do pay everything off, I’m like this is my last time. Once I pay everything off this time, like I still want to use them because like I said, I collect the points but I want to use them in a way that when the bill comes, I’m hitting paying full. I’m not doing, paying the minimum because we all know the minimum on a gazillion interest rate is you’re paying a penny towards your principal. The rest is interest. And I don’t want to do that anymore because I’m going into, I guess my next life cycle where I’m like I don’t want to deal with the debt. I want to use it more responsibly but I also want to be able to have a plan in place. So I went ahead and I mean we made huge progress in, I mean the first three months really.
Keina: Well I love this. I mean you’ve brought up a lot of great things but one of the things that I want to go back and highlight is you talked about you have a budget and this process works even for those people that have a budget. Because you came and you had your spreadsheet and you were like, Keina let tell you how I’m managing my money. I listened, okay Lauren, how are you managing your money? You tell me what I’m supposed to. But we did, we went in and cleaned up the things where you were getting stuck and because you had also started this small business, you had those expenses. You had a very interesting financial situation because like you said, you’re overseas so you had, like your regular salary, then there’s per diem and then there’s reimbursements and then there’s like overseas paid. But if you come home this stops.
Lauren: Immediately.
Keina: Yeah there was like having to understand what does life look like when you are overseas? What does life look like when you’re back in Maryland and how do you make sure that regardless of your location things feel very even for you and consistent? But in your words, what was different about the system you’d been using and like us working together to like look at your numbers?
Lauren: Everybody thinks that their budget is great and I was like, and it worked for me. My first year overseas in this role was 2019 and I want to say about February of 2019 to December, 2019, I had actually paid down a very good check because what I tend to do is salary comes in, like I said, I made sure all of my monthly necessity bills. So car note, credit cards, bills that I still pay at home, my storage unit, my streaming, because that’s important. Like all of the stuff that’s a regular monthly bill. It was always paid. I got myself on it, it’s paid a month ahead. So I was never having that issue where I’m like, oh I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul to pay the basics. So my budget form actually was what do I owe?
What is my actual monthly expense? And then everything else that was left over was immediately put on a credit card to pay off. So I managed to pay off probably about 40 to 60 K in debt that first year that I was there because that was the process. And also because I don’t really do much over here. So I wasn’t traveling until later in that year and I don’t go out shopping here. I don’t like stuff here. So I don’t really do anything. And I was fine with that, that’s my normal personality anyway. But because of that, it didn’t feel like I was being deprived of doing things that I want for fun, doing things. This is mostly a cash based society. So I had my set number of money that I take out every month and that’s what I used to play around, do stuff and do what I need to do for the month.
So my budget form was like here’s the smallest to highest debt. I did the snowball and with the snowball it was easier to do. And then I went home. I was actually still in a really good place. I came back to work in January or February of 2020, Covid hit and then I went home again. So that budget that I had totally got blown out of the water because a few months after I got home I was like we only thought it was going to be, three or four months. And a few months after I got home I was like, wow, this is going to be a lot longer. And so I was like, well what can I do to bring in some extra money the things that I can have passive income going while I was home? And so, like you said, I attempted to start a business in late 2020, early 2021 and thinking I still had time before I was going to be recalled and I did until I didn’t.
So the money that I had paid off on a lot of those bills got racked back up because my process was, I was like, look, I can get everything done before I go but I can’t be the small business owner that’s like, okay, I started small, I had to jump right in. So when I left again in June of 2021, I left with pretty much almost all of that debt back and literally at the tail end of getting set up to launch my business. And I had somebody that was going to do shipping stuff while I was gone and I got blindsided with a recall and I couldn’t extend anymore and I had to go. So literally everything got left and I looked at my budget again and I was like, I don’t know, I could do this, but it’s going to take a minute to get back into the swing.
And then I was like, I spent probably like three or four months just getting back on track to be able to pay the necessities. And I looked at my budget and was like, this is not enough. And I don’t know why. It was fine in 2016, here we are in 2021, something is missing, something is wrong and that I found out when you and I did your budget and you listened to my budget and you said, oh okay, you know it, it sounds like it worked but it’s not working anymore. And then when we switched over and you were like, so this is the budget that sounds like you need. And I looked that and I was like, oh because it makes you think about different things that I wouldn’t normally have thought of going through the list and having everything.
I don’t think in terms of everything I spend and how to break that down. I always thought in terms of these are the necessity bills, here’s everything else I’m going to pay it with my credit card and then just continue to pay off in lump sums. And you realize that doesn’t always work. And again, it worked in 2019 but 2021 and 2022 it did not work at all. It did not. And I was like, that’s when I was like okay, this is why you hire somebody. This is why you get somebody who knows this, who sees this and for lack of a better word, who can coach you through how to get from A to B in a more efficient time. And I was like, oh okay. Because like you look, it forces you to look at everything.
I think that’s why people don’t like to budget because they want to lie to themselves. Well, I don’t necessarily lie to myself. I know I was in a ton of debt. Like I’ve got it, I know it’s there, but you lie to yourself about where it’s coming from, what it is by just not doing things. Because I remember I filled mine out and I’m like, okay, this is what she wants. And then you’re like, but didn’t you say you did such and such? And I’m like, yeah and she like, it’s not on this budget. How are we going to plan for something that you’re trying to tell me you don’t do, but I know you do? And that right there, it opens everything up for you and you’re like, okay, oh you want everything, you want like the nitty gritty, I paid $2.99 for my food.
Keina: I want the hidden numbers. Yes.
Lauren: I’m like paid $2.99, my Hulu girl is $3, you want me to put that on there? And you’re like, yep, yep that $1.97 you spend on the Snickers each week that goes on there too. So you’re like okay because you think you fill things out right but then I think that’s why people don’t like to budget. I’m being forced to see the full bigger picture if I look at not just necessities or things that come out. I look at my life, what do I want to do? Like I didn’t have any savings. I did the math, I had $157 in my savings and I was like, that’s enough.
Keina: Yeah. I feel like when you came to me I knew that you had paid off a ton of debt and what you’re talking about, I don’t think is uncommon where people are like, they can go really hard and I feel like it’s to a point of exhaustion where it’s like okay, I’m going to throw all this money at my debt because I feel like we live in a society where debt is bad so just make it disappear. But while people are doing that, it’s like, but you’re not accounting for the things that you want to do or like, who are you after you pay off your debt? And so if you don’t know who you are, then I think that’s why people find themselves back into this cycle. So I wrote down a couple things as you were talking because as I’m imagining, going back to the point where you’re like, but I paid off all this debt. And I’m like, yeah but I also know you like to travel. No you don’t shop where you are overseas. However, what we were discovering was like when you go home you were bringing things back or like you want to take a weekend trip where you are in Africa to like go to a different country. Like there were things that you enjoyed doing.
So I was like, let’s put those things in. You commented on social media earlier this week. You said something because I had made a comment, with me budgeting isn’t about restriction. Like I want you to be able to spend money on the things that you want to spend and have the money available. And so you said something like it’s about building a plan that you get to put your fun in or I can’t remember exactly how you said it. I know specifically with you, it’s like how do I help you build in the what ifs? Whether it’s like what if an emergency happens or what if I want to go to Kenya for a weekend, like how do I plan around those things?
Lauren: Exactly. Exactly. And yeah, I think what I said was it’s about creating a planning fund with a D for the fun you’re going to plan. You asked me, like what’s the most important thing to you outside of paying debt? I remember that question and I was like travel, like I paid so much off that I probably had like 20 to 30 k left that I could have immediately snuffed out in like two months in 2020 had covid not happened and we had grand, me and my little, you know what they say, your hood rat friends. We had grand [21:50 inaudible] for travel plans for 2020. I mean we had to cancel so many trips that we were going on because of covid, life happens. I didn’t do any in 2021 until I came back to work.
And then I didn’t do any the rest of the year in 2021 and I was like 22, this thing is going to go away and I’m going to want to get on a plane and I can’t afford to do so like no shape, form or fashion. Like there’s no fun that says, Hey Lauren, go ahead and go. There’s no credit card either that was like, we got room, go ahead and go. Like there was nothing. And I think that for me, your question was like literally outside of paying off your debt, outside of building up savings, what do you want to do? What do you do that you need money for? And I was like, I go home so I need a restocking fund I guess I’ll call it because I restock on things that I need here because I’m here six plus ish months at a time.
I need money for my seat upgrades because we don’t do economy. And then I needed money to continue to travel. I had friends that were now being posted overseas as well in different locations. We used to all be here now we’re all over the map and I want to do things with my friends. It’s quicker to go to them than it is to go home and bug my mama. So it’s just like, how can I get from A to B on a weekly basis? And you were like, okay, we can do that. And that’s where like you said, there are your needs and then there are your wants and you still should be planning for what you want because it’s like overeating or going on a diet. I’m going to go on a diet, I’m going to restrict everything that I don’t want to eat and then somebody’s going to walk past me in the restaurant, going to give somebody else a plate of pancakes and I’m going to snatch that plate from somebody’s hand, but I needed to cheat and then we got a lot of problems. But that’s essentially how it is.
You’re like, I haven’t done anything in, well Covid had been two years, I haven’t done it. It could be mid 2022, haven’t done anything in two and a half years. I’m going to splurge, do I have any money? No. I’m going to find me at sugar daddy in whatever country I’m going to end up and hoping he pay for my ticket home. So it’s literally, you go from one extreme of holding back and depriving yourself to then just like, forget it. I don’t need to save any money this week. Oh car note, house note, look, it’ll be there when I get home to the state or it won’t be. And so you’re trying to be able to save for what you want really helps break those extremes.
Keina: So I feel like we have a good picture of your before. What would you say? Like what are some of the results you’re most proud of?
Lauren: Oh, I wrote numbers. I talk in numbers.
Keina: We’ll take it.
Lauren: So I mean let’s throw it all out there. Not including student loans. I started full debt, not including student loans with about 121k and some change and $157 in savings. And I had just started my 401k so I only had $1,127 in 401k. Currently, I would say so in the first three months we had a starting point which showed me in a negative deficit. And in that first three months we took the budget plan and our famous money plans planning dates and we had to do a lot of, I don’t want to say robbing Peter to pay Paul because we had the money there, but it was coming in in different spurts because when I first get back I only get my base pay plus my per diem and not the overseas extra pay.
Keina: You had a lot of moving parts. So anybody who didn’t hear that earlier.
Lauren: We had. Yeah. And I kept saying I know I’m special, I know I’m special. There’s a couple of money days that we’ve sat at, I think we got to the end and you were like, okay, we’re still not there yet. I’m going to work on this and then I’m going to email you and this is where we’re at and I think we have like a month and a half of that where it was literally okay, round number thousand dollars comes in but 1500 needs to go out this paid oh sorry, 2000 comes in.
Keina: Sometimes I felt like we were working like an accounting term. We were like in arrears. So I’m like, okay.
Lauren: It’s exactly what it was.
Keina: I’m like Lauren, so this is ahead, but this is behind but this is going to catch up but okay.
Lauren: Yeah. And that’s exactly what it was. And because all of my salary doesn’t catch up until two and a half months after I get in the country. And so that’s when we get the full picture because I’m always like, oh I make X Y Z a month. And you’re like, but do you really? And I’m like, yeah. I’m like, come March I’ll be in. You were like it’s not March.
Kaein: But it’s not March.
Lauren: I’m like, but it’s coming like this is the budget number. Not today. I’m so used to knowing that that money is coming that I’m like, oh okay, so this is why it always looks really weird when I do this. And we got it down. I mean it took us about two and a half and when I hit that three month mark, I mean I literally think it was like three months and we were like, you should be bottom line. Like everything now has a number, has a definition, I get paid twice a month. So 24 pay periods. And you were like, we had to switch from biweekly to the bimonthly and now we had a number, once we got up to that three month mark where everything that was needed, every credit card was accounted for.
Every charge that goes to a specific credit card was accounted for. And it’s like okay this credit card bill is $200 a month, but you also charge on a monthly basis $250 a month on this card. So you need to make sure you’re paying that minimum plus that because it’s sort of a break even. I’m like, oh I never thought about that. No wonder the credit card numbers don’t ever go down when you’re first trying to do this because it’s like, yeah I guess I should be paying. You’re basically zeroing out that and you’re continuing to pay the real minimum and not building on that. So it was three months we hit that and then I think at the end of the six month mark I had almost, well my savings was like, there’s like five buckets of my savings.
But if we look at it as a total, I never used it except for emergencies. I had almost 10,000 in savings. I had about 4 or 5K in my 401k and my debts had gone down to about 97. Then because of my overseas situation, tax time is actually, I’m one of those people that are like, yeah let’s pay some taxes because I don’t pay them because of my overseas standing. And I knew we were going to get that full amount in the October-ish timeframe. So we also had that budget and that was one of the things that we did, was talk about how to plan for, you tell us not to call it free money because it’s not free money.
Keina: It’s not free at all. But y’all be out here because I called overworked dollars. You’d be like, Ooh, I get $10, I’m going to go to Sonic. Okay, yep. Then I’m going to go to Target and I’ll be like, you know you spent a thousand dollars with your $10?
Lauren: Yes. Yes. So I get maybe three or four of those differently throughout the year from bonuses at work to also a huge lump sum tax at the end of the year. So that was some of the things that are known that would be coming and that was a part of our conversation especially, it’s only a five month program, but when you’re like me overseas and you have to cancel things and things happen, we became a six month, a seven month friendship. And so in July when we finished that was one of the things, that was one of the last things we did was, you know, you’re getting a lump sum possibly approximately around this amount. How are we going to do that? And one of the things is always, you’re always like take some of that out for fun. Set it somewhere you like, you don’t have to use it for fun now, but set it somewhere and plan to use it. And I’m happy to let’s say, so we started in the end of January, we finished in mid-ish July. October, came and went and it was a glorious tax season. And out of the 121 I did my numbers yesterday and I am down to 84,907. So approximately 35 ish.
Keina: You paid off a third, like a third of your dead, in less than a year.
Lauren: Yep. I used some of my savings to pay, like it was a little bit over what I had budgeted with the tax stuff and the end of the year bonus and everything. But I was like, you know what, I can build that right back up because it’s built into my budget. And so I did. I’m like, it’s still enough that this is my emergency fund. I don’t necessarily have any emergencies over here, but I don’t know what’s going to happen at home where I have to rush home. But guess what, I got enough to buy a, we call it business class ticket out of pocket. I don’t have to go coach rushing home.
Keina: Well you also have a travel fund besides your emergency fund.
Lauren: I do.
Keina: So let me pause for anybody listening because this is another thing that I have to coach people on is this like bucket savings. I’m like no name what it’s for because when I think about emergency funds, which some of my clients are like just in case rainy day, whatever you want to call it, that isn’t the same fund that you use for travel, that’s not the same fund that you use if you got a tire that goes flat because you can plan for those things. I really think of, when I think about emergency funds, is like if I lost my job tomorrow is that money there? And then there are so many different other things that you can set money aside for. And I remember when I was working with you I was like we get to be strategic about these things. And I think we had you saving at least like $800 a month if I’m not mistaken.
Lauren: 16m17 is what I saved.
Keina: Okay. 16, 17 per month.
Lauren: It was 800 is the emergency.
Keina: That’s what I meant just for the emergency fund. If you think about that times 12, that’s like $9,600 where you’re like okay great. I enjoy being able to help clients have a significant amount of money that they get towards emergency fund and in addition to like you’re saying like I’m paying down my debt. Because for me it’s important for people if you’re listening to this and you’re like bid in a debt cycle and you make good money. Because that’s another thing, people are very oftentimes baffled, how do I make this much money? But things still don’t seem to add up at the end of the month. You’re like yep, I want to make more.
Lauren: I’m seeing the negative every time. You get that negative thing, you’re like wait a minute, wait a minute.
Keina: Too much to be here. But I want to help you focus on your goal of paying down debt. But then you want to be able to save money so you don’t feel like you have to use your credit card and you want to have money so you can do something that you feel like you can reward yourself for the amount of money you make. And so it’s very important for me to be able to help people align how they spend money with their actual life.
Lauren: Yes. So we do have the travel fund and the travel fund was actually just recently zeroed out because we went to a few different countries over the last couple of months and had some good times.
Keina: That’s what it’s there for. Like it’s not to be neglected.
Lauren: Right but that’s [34:06 inaudible]. You said, and I remember you were like, so how do you travel? And I’m like, I use my credit cards, I use my credit cards for almost everything as much as I can because I want the points. And I was like, I don’t want to have to stop using them because that’s how I get in. So each of these buckets that we have, so like I said, I have a restocking budget that is money that is set aside. So when I go home for leave every six months, I actually pay for everything now with one credit card. So that way I’m tracking where this is and I’m not like, oh I know I spent this and so I can take the money from that account, pay that card right off. And same thing with the traveling that I just did.
I depleted the travel fund, the vacation fund, because that’s what I had set aside. I’m like, I knew I was going on these trips and that was what I saved up money to go to now thankfully because I want to get those points I didn’t pay for tickets and I didn’t pay for hotels, but each of these places is a very well shopping destination. So that money that I spent to eat out to shop, to just enjoy, do touristy things, all of it came out of there and like yeah, I got back and I was like, wait a minute, how did I spend X amount of money? I’ve gone four days. But it didn’t matter because I was like, okay, whatever. I can’t justify this but I can definitely pay it off. And it was like you just had the session on guilt-free spending.
That’s exactly what it was. And like of course I’m all like talking to my friends like, oh I don’t know where I spent $1,500 in three days. Absolutely not one clue. Specifically since the currency exchange is way lower in this countries. And I think that’s what got me and they were like, oh well you can pay it off quickly. I’m going to pay it off tomorrow, as soon as that last pending charge. I’m like, I have the money, I just want to complain about it. So it balances out in the end. I mean, you think you budget until somebody shows you a better way. And that’s literally what this was. I would’ve been like, oh hey, can I borrow $1,500 or half because if I borrow I gotta give it back to you and I don’t have it now. So what makes you think I’m going to have it then? And that’s literally what you want to avoid. Like my mother’s retired, she’s not giving me any money. I’m not her favorite child anymore. She’s got a grandkid.
Keina: One of the reasons you went over overseas and took this job was like you were like, ooh, this is an opportunity, right?
Lauren: Yeah.
Keina: Financial opportunity. And so I think it was fun to work with you because just like helping you, I think there are things that we say and we articulate, but then there are the results that we actually have. And so helping you see how you could have the opportunity that you want, which is for that financial, you’re like, oh, I could come back with more money in the bank. I can come back being debt free. And I know we also talked about it, I was like, hey, when you come back you probably also want to make more money in the states. So what does that life look like?
Lauren: What’s that plan look like? Yeah. That was the ending because when we ended, I would’ve had about a year left on my contract. We were in the process of renewing for the last year. And that was the conversation. And like, I’m actually working on that right now because I can’t apply and move stuff too soon because then it’s private sector, you get things before the end of your contract, they’re ready to move, government, but I can start applying again at the beginning of the year for a new contract and then you can take six to nine months. So it’s kind of right on target and I have different job skills within the same company. It comes to the decision, like I still will have things to pay off. So it’s like I need to make sure the money that I’m making coming home looks the same or similar to the money that I’m making here. Now I’ll preface that by saying about 20 to 30% of my income overseas is tax free. So Yeah, I think they’re 20 maybe, let’s say 20 is tax free. So it’s not something that would technically factor into anything because it’s not something I would ever get in the state.
Keina: Yeah. But because we are not hiding these numbers in your budget, your imaginary numbers, right? Like you’re going to have such a clear picture of what does it look like to earn, which like, yeah, for anyone listening, Lauren and I did this, but I’ll just name one of the things that I feel like a lot of clients and I do is, wherever you are in your career, like that’s not the most money you’re going to make. You have earning potential. And so being able to name what is it that I want to do with the additional money I’m making? I have one client right now, she works for herself and she wants to have a house manager. I have another client that’s negotiated $140,000 like as her starting salary for a job. But it all came because yes, we started with the budget. Like budgeting isn’t about restriction. It’s being able to have this plan for where you desire to go financially.
Lauren: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you say you don’t want to say, but I mean, I feel like I’ve been underpaid all of my career. I’m that type of person that goes above and beyond and I’m like going through this process, not just having conversations with you about the money that I have now. And our conversations are never strictly just, alright, let’s go over your budget. We went over your budget, see you next call. It’s building on stuff. What do you want to do? Not just with this money, like where do you see this money taking you? It’s life conversations. Because one of the things that we talked about, like I said, I’m on a contract and you’ve repeatedly asked me over the cycle, have you thought about what it looks like when you finish? Have you thought about what you’re going to do when you go home?
Because at any point in this contract, it’s an opportunity that I’m going to go home even if your contract doesn’t finish. And a lot of those, made me think, because I’m like, oh, I could do anything when I come home. But now I’m like, I need to be a little more strategic and I need to fight for myself. Like there should be no reason, that I don’t come home and I’m not making an exorbitant amount of money. But six figures, like I should be able to come home and command a six figure salary.
Keina: And you will come home and command a six figure salary.
Lauren: I will and that’s exactly what I’m looking for. And I’ve always been the type of person where I’m like, I know I don’t have to take the offer just because that’s what’s come. But sometimes, I’ve taken a lower offer because I’m like, I like the company, I like the opportunities that could proceed from it. And then you find that people within those companies want to pigeonhole you where you are. And I’m like, mm. So I move on to the next thing. Everybody laughs. I stay at a job maybe a year or two, when I see that you’re not ready to progress into something else or allow me to progress into something else and be bigger than what I am now. You’re not the company for me anymore because you like to say you hired me online. You were like, yeah, no, we believe in promoting from within. And I’m like, three years later I’m still in the same spot and I’ve told you I want to apply for this, I want to do this. Oh, you know, maybe not right now. Or I want to do, so you’re a financial life coach because money is the root of all, everything.
Keina: It is, it touches every single area of your life.
Lauren: You want to do something, you need money to do it, you gotta pay bills. Where’s money coming from? You want a job? Ooh, how much money are you making? These are all things that will just fall into, again, you know you’re working, but it seems like a conversation with a friend because like I said, most financial people you meet, you’re like, alright, have a seat. What’s your budget? What’d you spend? What’d you do? And it’s not that and it’s not that.
Keina: Well, thank you. Is there anything I should have asked you that I didn’t ask you?
Lauren: No, no actually I feel like we covered everything.
Keina: Well thank you so much and yeah, thank you for sharing your story. One of the things that’s fun about this is like now you get to memorialize the work that you’ve done. So, you know, in those days where you’re like, I’m here, I’m going to spend all my savings. You can listen to it.
Lauren: Not in the right budget
Keina: Or in a year from now when you’re like, yep, I said I was going to, this six figure role, then you get to celebrate it because you named it on this day.
Lauren: Exactly.
Keina: So thank you. And if you would like to work with me and you want to talk to a friend about money, like Lauren said, you can apply to work with me and my five month partnership if you go to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment.
Keina: Thank you so much for listening to Money Files. If you’re ready to take the next step to reach your financial goals, head to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment and let’s get started.
