In today’s episode, I welcome Dana to the podcast. Dana and her husband Dan became clients in 2022 while struggling to find the middle ground between conflicting money mindsets. They were busy with career shifts, preparing to buy a home, and figuring out life as a couple. Instead of letting money become a fight, they hired a coach.
Dana and Dan had the same financial goals but didn’t agree on the path to get there. Listen as we discuss how coaching addressed both of their money management styles and ultimately brought more transparency and clarity to the way they handle their finances. Dana also shares what her experience was like working with me and the long-lasting changes having a money coach made in her finances and marriage.
Tune in as Dana and I discuss money coaching for couples including:
- [02:07] Why Dana reached out for coaching
- [09:23] The power of bank account transparency
- [14:26] Dana and Dan’s notable wins
- [29:48] The overall shifts in how they manage finances
Tune into this episode of Money Files to hear a discussion with my client, Dana, about how money coaching changed how she and her husband handle their finances.
Are you ready to start asking for help with your finances? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
If you loved this conversation on How to Get On the Same Financial Page with Your Partner: Client Conversation with Dana Johnson, check out my episode, How Financial Coaching Transformed Amy and Jennifer’s Joint Finances!
Transcript for “How to Get On the Same Financial Page with Your Partner: Client Conversation with Dana Johnson”
Intro: Hi and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work everyday 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. It’s been a while since I’ve done a client interview and today I have my client Dana, with me. I’m really excited to chat with her. I was talking to her before we got started and I was like, oh my goodness, you reached out to me in like 2021, which at this time has almost been three years ago. But then also, Dana, the thing that I remember about you before you even reaching out, is I think you were the first person who I ever met, like out in the wild, if you will. I saw you at WeWork. You were like, hey, you’re Wealth Over Now. And I was like, who is this lady?
Dana: Who is this strange person lagging me down?
Keina: It was like just so funny when the internet collides with you being out in the world because we both live in Washington DC. So if you just want to go ahead and introduce yourself.
Dana: Sure. Dana Johnson married, been married to Dan, my husband for about almost eight years now. September will make eight years.
Keina: Congratulations.
Dana: Thank you. And there was a lot of things going on in our lives at the time that I felt really required your expertise, but we get to figure out how to enroll him in our vision.
Keina: I’m sorry for the listeners that Dan is not here, you guys would love Dan. I love Dan. Dana, if you want to just dive in, like what actually made you reach out to me? Like where were you guys at the time?
Dana: Yeah, so I will say in 2016 Dan and I did a lot. So we moved from Chicago to Washington DC. I started a new job in April of that year. We moved in March or rather I moved then we got married in September and he moved here in October. So there was a lot of career moving going on. There was a blending of finances in our lives because we were both older when we got married. So we had, I think we had six bank accounts, frankly like I had three, he had three. We had done some premarital counseling that included like a money segment, but we still hadn’t fully learned each other financially, that I felt like the experience of you helped us get to. And we were trying to buy a home and we were trying to use the NACA program and I was going to look up what NACA stands for but I can’t remember.
Keina: I don’t remember what either.
Dana: We were trying to use the NACA program to get ourselves ready to buy a home and you have a counselor that you work with, you have savings goals for what you think your monthly mortgage and housing home expenses will be. But we were never meeting the monthly goal and yet we had amazing incomes. So I think I was probably sort of like Instagram stalking you before we actually saw each other in the work office. So I felt like we needed someone to help us figure out why we weren’t making the mark in their framework while saving money and having good income. So you were helpful.
Keina: So I know once again, Dan’s not here but I’m going to allow you to speak on his behalf and hopefully Dan will listen to this and he’ll think we did a great job. Where was Dan in this process? Because I remember where he was on the consult. So I’m hearing you say what was wrong? Because I think listeners, especially people that are married, generally you have two partners. The woman thinks something, their partner thinks something else and may or may not be on the same page.
Dana: Yeah. So I think one of the things that showed up for us was Dan needed to see like a certain amount of money in the bank account to feel comfortable. And I was a person who, if we spent it all and paid off a bill and we had the pleasure of like seeing a zero balance, but maybe we had to eat PB&Js between pay cycles…
Keina: PB&J funds in your bank account.
Dana: Right, we were going to be making peanut butter sandwiches to the next payday. That was good. So he was in that place. He was also wanting to buy a home but had never done it before. I bought a condo before.
Keina: Oh I don’t think I realized that about Dan while we were working together.
Dana: Yeah.
Keina: So it was like for him it was first time home ownership.
Dana: It was the first time home ownership and he likes to be walked through things, he likes to understand them and I was more like, okay, I got it. We can read it. I don’t need somebody else to tell me what I should be doing. We got this, let’s figure it out. So we had that personality dynamic in place and then to work with you is an investment which meant that we would have to take some money out of the money that we were saving for someone who likes to see the numbers in the bank account. I was saying let’s take this money out, invest in ourselves and we will get it back. And so it was getting him on the same page to do that. So I don’t know if you noticed, Dan is not necessarily and the early adopter when it comes to people.
Keina: I know but that’s my buddy now.
Dana: Exactly. Now he like ask Keina this and I’m like, you don’t work with her right now, Dan. But he brings that reservation and I felt like he brought that reservation to the conversation and I’ll admit I was a little nervous but I think he was looking to be convinced that this would be money well spent.
Keina: When did you stop being nervous? Because I’m sure you were still nervous even after you paid me. You are like okay this lady I’ve seen that WeWork and on the internet. But for you personally, when was it like, okay I think this was a good investment for us?
Dana: I think it was early because I felt like, so we paid the money when we got off the call with you. I think he felt like, okay, I’m going to trust you, we could do it. And it was a good conversation. So I think he felt comfortable in that regard. And I don’t know when I stopped feeling nervous, but I do feel like the process brought up things for me emotionally that I just wasn’t aware of. And so I probably was exchanging emotions every time we met, every time we had homework. But I no longer felt nervous once we signed the paperwork. That part because yeah, it was just really just getting Dan on board. I really felt like it was going to be a good thing for us.
Keina: I remember one of my reflections, and I know this is like the work isn’t as fresh because it’s been a couple years, but one of my reflections when I think about you guys as a couple was I remember you coming to a call, I don’t know if you remember this, but you were saying like we’re talking about it as our money now. And I feel like, I mean for me as a coach I was like, that was like one of my joyful moments because as you were just saying, like in 2016 you guys got married, there was all these changes. And so for you and Dan to get on the same page and even with how you’re talking about things because yes you are the person I described as like a knee jerk, like we’re paying off debt. We got an extra $10,000. Throw it all towards that credit card. We don’t need it. And I’m like, hold on Dana, wait. Give me a second. We don’t have a plan. And I was like okay yeah, alright. And to be able to have somebody that can pump the brakes and somebody who can press on the gas like you and Dan I think are that good mix.
Dana: Yes. But let me tell you why that was powerful though. So again, like we had those six bank accounts and maybe three of them at Bank of America. Three different banks. I mean it was a whole lot. But three of them he had his checking account. I had my checking account and then we had a shared savings account at Bank of America. So that money coming in we could see. And I had a separate, he works for Capital One and had a savings account there. And I had one from way back in the day ING that we dug up. So he could see what was in my ING now Capital one account. But I couldn’t see what was in his. And then we had credit union account, I had credit union accounts that he couldn’t see what was in there.
And so it was not transparency per se in our finances. We just had to go like, alright, what bank account is the cable bill coming out of? And so it felt ambiguous financially in that regard because things could be hitting and we didn’t know if we had money in the right account to cover it. And then the second thing is going back to when we first got married, Dan moved to Washington DC and he didn’t have a job initially. So he was freelancing and his father passed when he was young and his grandmother had a home that was sold and the money was split amongst her children. And because his father passed, he and his siblings got the money. He wanted to give to his mother some of the money. And we were like financially tight. And that became like this really emotional thing for me because it’s like we financially tight and you still want to take care of your mother and I’m your wife now.
And then when we wanted to do things, it was all coming out of like which account is it going to come out of? And so I think working with you helped us sort that out, give all those accounts purpose and give ourselves like allowances or plans for money. So when money came in, this is how much I want to go toward the things that I want to do that I don’t even want to have to ask you about. I’m just going to do them so that like quite frankly if money comes in from some unexpected source, he already knows like I’m going to put 10% of it up for myself. I’m going to give 10% of it away in some sort of charitable way and that could be family and then the rest is going to go whatever. So that really helped diffuse like what could be ongoing tense situations and bring clarity to like the ambiguous way we were handling money.
Keina: And I remember family even coming up while we were working together, was your mom coming down? I think maybe.
Dana: Yeah.
Keina: And you guys wanted to pay for her plane ticket and then Dan has a daughter, right?
Dana: Right.
Keina: And so with all my clients, because I feel like with a number of clients I work with, there’s some family component and I’m always like, I just want you to have a pot of money so you can say yes to family, like it shouldn’t be a thing that you have to negotiate. You might be like, no I’m not giving you a thousand dollars because you don’t ask me 18 times. But I want you to be able to have the option like you were saying like if Dan is like, Hey you know that’s my mom and you don’t get to say nothing about her, whatever, you guys have the money to be able to give to her or his daughter or your mother. And so to be able to say yes more like you’re saying without that tension of where is it coming from or does this impact some other goal that we have.
Dana: Which is what we did. So working with you, we repurposed one of those accounts, the Capital One account to be the friends family birthdays account. And so if anybody comes to visit us or if we want to go somewhere, it’s money in there. It also helped us to be, I think travel was a part of that too. And it helped us to be like honest because we were like, oh it’s just $3,000 to go to Chicago, when like no, by the time we finish it’s probably like five. So like let’s really save for what the trip will cost.
Keina: Yeah. And you guys like to travel too?
Dana: Yeah, we like to do that.
Keina: What would you say were some of the most like notable wins that you guys had while you were working with me? Or even just like, I think it’s also could be interesting to hear because we haven’t talked in a while of just even the wins that have come because I feel like they’re compounding wins, like even now two years out, like what are some of the things that kind of just blow your mind when you think about your finances?
Dana: Yeah. So I think the first thing is that it forced us to sit down and really make plans. Like what is it that we want to do this year? So we do think about like what’s the big trip that we want to do and what are the other smaller things that we want to do? And we plan for them and this is one thing we haven’t been consistent on together but I’m consistent on is like sitting down and having that weekly money date, like really going through and tracking what we’re spending and sometimes it’s really weird. It is like, okay, we have a problem with everything budgeted according to how much money we have coming in. And sometimes I’ll be like, why do we have so much extra money? And I’ll go back and check. But to see things come up, to be able to save and to not be panicked about it is like really amazing. So when we have to do big things, we can do them and move it back. Our credit score has improved a lot. So I’m going to say I think what was mine like in the six something when we first started working with you and now it’s up to like 787.
Keina: Oh okay. Dana.
Dana: Dan was already in the eight hundreds out here flashing his little. It brought like consistency to how we pay our bills. We bought a house, which I know we’ll probably talk about, which was an amazing experience because we had all that money saved up and we’re smart, like we negotiated what it would look like to like buy down our rate but still paid on the rate so that we were knocking the principal off. But being able to see that and plan for it, I think that was a really big thing that we were afraid of or I was afraid of and wanted to work with you around like can we really afford to buy a house?
Keina: How have your, because I would say like you were a little bit more financially anxious than Dan, more so in that knee jerk, like let’s pay all this money towards debt, right?
Dana: Yes.
Keina: How has that even changed or has it changed at all because you’re an adult so I’m sure that there are unexpected expenses that come or even if you’ve had to carry any type of debt, like how have your feelings changed in terms of how you handle it versus how you would’ve handled it even like three years ago?
Dana: So the way that I always saw debt was that I was in bondage and it was keeping me from doing the things that I really wanted to do. So then I was trying to get free. So it was like I’d rather have this little bit of pain and get free and now I force myself to remember like all of this money is allocated and we have a plan. So follow the plan and if you have something extra then you could throw it at it, like that’s a conversation that Dan and I will have before I do it. One other thing that I think I still struggle with sometimes is spending the money before we get it. The freelance, I have to force myself to wait for like the money to hit our accounts when we get paid and then go through and make the allocations in our spending plan, our money plan rather than, I don’t know, being a little compulsive about like, okay, we got to do this, we got to do that. It’s like chill, on Sunday. You can make the credit card payment on Sunday if you want to make an extra one, but like chill.
It’s been good for sort of like tempering that obsessiveness I had around the money and both of us have freelance money coming in and instead of like doing all the ideation around like okay we can get rid of this, it is like nope, let’s wait until we get the money and then have a conversation about what we want to do with it, which oftentimes we will do something that we enjoy more so than pay a bill.
Keina: Because I think when you started working with me, you guys were as a couple definitely making over like 250 and then in addition to you had tens of thousands of dollars coming in freelance wise. And I know one of the things we actually worked on too was like making sure you were saving money for taxes because I know you had a tax bill that you guys had to pay off while we were working together and then just preparing you to also always have money to pay the taxes.
Dana: To pay it. So one of the accounts, we made the tax account and like we will take the percentage off the top and put it in there. And literally today on my to-do list, I was like okay it’s July 1st, it’s time to pay the second quarter like freelance taxes, which I’ll do it by the end of the week, but it has taken like a load off and we don’t owe those big tax bills like we did at the end of the year. In fact we ended up getting money back. So probably the next thing to do is figure out how do we better calculate what we’ll owe in taxes.
Keina: I’m like, you need to talk to your CPA.
Dana: I know.
Keina: Put asterisk there.
Dana: That’s your retirement. We’ve been thinking about, I was looking at your notes. I get this retirement game up, which we did. We increased Dan’s allocation. So we have to do mine and we got to get our insurance up. So I feel like we’re in phase two.
Keina: What kind of insurance, life insurance?
Dana: Yes. We got to make sure we have enough insurance.
Keina: No, you need to make sure that you can be buried. Insurance is not an investment and that’s for everybody listening. Thank you. Because some people will sell you into some bad policies that pay commission for them but they’re not really helping you. What’s most important and you want to make sure if you are buying life insurance, and this is something that I’ve learned too because I think one of the things I always heard when I was younger is like, oh you want life insurance but you can end up buying, like I’ve had clients that are spending thousands of dollars a month on a policy. You can’t use it when you’re dead. And generally what you really want to make sure is that you have money to make sure you can be buried? But like a lot of the policies are more so thinking about if you’re leaving people behind, like kids. So in that case you’d want like a term policy to make sure in the event if something happened to you that they could go to college or your spouse would have some of your income to live off of. So yes before you do any of that. Yeah.
Dana: Because we got an appointment tonight.
Keina: They’re going to be like, yeah, buy a million. It’s only $2000 a month.
Dana: This is why I feel like in some ways like a refresher kind of conversation or like working with you effort is in order because I feel like we are in a very different place from when we first started with you. And so like what’s the 2.0 version?
Keina: Yeah because you also dropped a bomb on me when we got on the call. But I won’t tell all your business. I’m like oh okay. Those are some new numbers you’re going to be working with and they look different out here in the streets.
Dana: I feel nervous. I feel nervous.
Keina: It’s going to be okay. You have the basis to do the work but yeah you just got to think differently when you become your sole breadwinner. So let’s talk a little bit about home ownership. So when you came to me, you guys were in the NACA program and I know NACA makes you actually save a certain amount of money a month so you can actually prove that you can manage being a homeowner and you guys weren’t able to necessarily hit that consistent number prior to working with me.
Dana: Well what’s happening to us was, let’s say our rent was $2,000. We wanted to have a $4,000 mortgage. So NACA said you got to save an additional $2000. We thought saving. So when the money came in every month we would move, I think it was 1200, over to our savings account. But when NACA looked at the net change at the end of the month, it didn’t look like we were saving. We were like why is our savings account growing and we’re paying our rent but you all are saying that we aren’t meeting the number? And we couldn’t figure it out on our own. And I felt like we needed some outside help.
Keina: But I think sometimes you guys were dipping into savings to like pay some things.
Dana: We could have been, we could have been?
Keina: That net change piece.
Dana: Yeah. But remember all those bank accounts and not knowing what was coming out of what account, like not having that.
Keina: Standardized not being organized.
Dana: Yeah you right. We were like, we’re going to move this over and then move it back.
Keina: Look, if y’all add everything together and then flip it over.
Dana: Flip it over and carry one you’ll see we met the mark. And NACA was like no.
Keina: That’s so funny. So we worked together in 2022. And then you guys bought a house in January 2023.
Dana: 2023 February 9th.
Keina: Okay. Tell us about that experience.
Dana: Yeah, so we had been looking for a while and unable to really find something that was affordable in Washington DC that we like really loved. So we did something that you told us to do with Dan being a veteran. Like we looked into being able to take advantage of a VA loan, which took a little bit of work to get Dan’s documents and stuff in place. But we were able to find it, which made it possible for us to put less money down. But the process of qualifying for that loan and I think we put an offer in on the house right before Christmas and got immediately approved for the amount that we wanted and were able to close in January but we just closed later because we wanted to not have to pay rent and a mortgage at the same time. But we had the money saved up so when it was time to do like the escrow and time to close it was a really easy process. Our finances were in order, like all them bank accounts were problematic, but they looked easy and they looked simple to the loan company. So it was like a really quick, easy process. It was not difficult at all.
Keina: How did it feel to go from like, I mean Dan was a first time homeowner but like how has that transition been? And I should say like we worked, while we were working together we made sure that you guys were saving the money basically that you could cover the mortgage but also considering what’s different when you go from living in an apartment to moving into a house, which if you’ve never bought a home before, there’s a lot of differences. You’d be like, oh there’s no landlord anymore. I’m the landlord.
Dana: There is no landlord. So what we were able to do when we closed to go back to that spending plan and look at all the things that we knew would come up. So we added like lawn mowing to the budget. We added, exterminating to the budget. Frankly we had solar panels on the house so the solar bill made our electricity lower. So we were able to move our estimate down a little bit and move money around. We then took one of those bank accounts. One was a savings account for emergency funds that we were using to save up money to be able to buy. So what was left in there, we made it an emergency fund account and then created another account that was for maintenance and decorating and things like that. And so we put money in there every month. So when we wanted to buy like curtains or a rug or a couch or those kinds of things, we had money to take it from. One of the things that we still kind of I think struggle with emotionally, it’s like we love how that emergency fund is, like it looks. So when it comes time to buy something, we are a little slow about buying like our dream couch because we like oh, to take that money out the account. But the good thing is like we got it and it’s probably only going to take like a third if that much out of that account. No, it’s probably less than that if I’m honest with you. But it’s just getting over that.
Keina: But y’all got that freelance money.
Dana: We do have the freelance money, although last year we did last freelance work, but it’s starting to pick up again for both of us this year. So that’s one of those things where we sit down and say like, okay we are getting this money in, we know the paint colors we want. So like let’s use this to paint. And so again, we don’t touch that emergency fund. We just like that emergency fund.
Keina: You should like it, save it for a rainy day. And actually one of the emails that I shared was like basically your emergency fund is a short-term goal because once you hit that number right, you can just leave that money and then you can repurpose however much you were saving a month. It’s $1000 a month. Like how do we repurpose that towards some other goal that we have? So the quicker you get to your six month or whatever the number is you guys have for yourself, then you just get to sit and allow that money to be like, okay, it’s there when we need it. And then now you get that cashflow back from what you were putting in every single month.
Dana: Right. It’s been great, like I was even thinking about things that we pay annually. We save the money up every month so when it hits it like really is no big deal.
Keina: I remember that was one of your aha moments when you were like, the money was just there. Just goes out. We ain’t got no issues.
Dana: No issues, no issues.
Keina: I’m curious like how do you and Dan just like as a couple or just like thinking about your marriage, like what has been just the overall shift and change for you in the last like three years?
Dana: I think, like it might sound weird but like there is an intimacy and trust that gets developed when you’re on the same page around something that people place a lot of value on, like money, to be in alignment and going in the same direction I think makes us feel closer. It makes us feel stronger. In some ways like powerful because then it opens us up to work on other big life things. So like the financial planning that we talked about, like we put our home in a trust and we have like a living will and like all of these things. Is that what it’s called, a living will?
Keina: Yes.
Dana: But yeah, we have those things in place. Like we’ve thought about our future and the legacy that we want to leave behind and I feel like that’s brought us closer.
Keina: Like you guys are actually having money conversations where I think a lot of people are having money fights. And it sounds like, because I know you did the estate planning piece and so you guys have actually been able to have a lot of forward thinking conversations versus being like you said like in that place where there’s tension. And you are frustrated about, my husband’s over here trying to give his mama money and we barely got a loaf of bread
Dana: We’re barely making it. It’s tight and you don’t take things for granted. I think one of the things that I learned through this was like, we’re two different people. We think about things in two different ways. What we hold to be valuable and important is different. And so now I feel like we are considerate of what each of us needs to see when it comes to our finances and we make plans around it.
Keina: And you guys actually, I know one of the things we talked about, we’ve kind of alluded to it, is like you guys have your own personal checking account since there’s like the joint checking account but there’s a level of autonomy that you have, but then also a level of like it’s collaborative at the same time.
Dana: Yeah. I like to get a facial and I like to get my massage and my nails done and my hair or by myself something. I don’t really want to have a conversation about it. And so we come to agreement on what that number is for each of us. And you can spend the money however you want or like we did, I thought Dan did something really sweet for me. So we worked with you to create like our eating out date night budget, we have that. And last week I had a really big project come to an end and what we’ve been alluding to is that I plan to change my job and so I was feeling the grief of like I’ve done amazing work with this team and I won’t be working with them anymore. And he took me out for dinner in a way that was reminiscent of like when we first dated. So he took me out for ice cream and then we went to this restaurant McCormick and Schmidt, which they have in Chicago, which was our throwback to Chicago where we moved here from. But like he decided he wanted to do that out of his own pot of money if you will, as a treat to me. So it’s not like we treating each other with our date night money, but he got to do something special for me. So that has been really good for us as well.
Keina: I told you I like that Dan. I always, when I’m working with a couple, there’s always, there’s like you said a late adopter. There’s always one but by the end we’re friends.
Dana: Friends like literally, it’s not even a joke where he’ll be, it could be something random like a CPA question or something. He’ll be like, ask Keina if, and I’m like Dan she gets paid to answer questions. We just can’t be running up on her and asking her. Maybe we should do like another little mini session or something. I don’t know, I haven’t looked on the website in a while, but maybe that’s what we do.
Keina: Oh, I love Dan. What would you say to a wife or a partner who may be in a similar position feels like they want to be on the same page as the person they’re married to? But they feel like maybe they have a late adopter, what words of encouragement would you have for them giving your own experience?
Dana: Yeah, so I think you got to be cognizant of who you are in partnership with, in relationship with. So while you may already know it’s going to be a good thing and it’s going to be beneficial, you got to lead them to the process or to the experience in a way that resonates for them, that aligns for them. And you have to do a little bit of thinking about what would be some of the things that would keep them from wanting to cross the line into this new opportunity and try to have those questions answered, especially in the consultation session that takes place with you. And then I think trust, like I trusted you were going to answer his questions and his fears because I do think that you do bring mindset into the process and so it’s almost like a consultative selling process. Like you are getting to know who we are individually and as a couple and really tailoring the experience to that. Like getting out of the way and letting you do what you do will be what gets you over the hump.
Keina: Yeah. Well thank you.
Dana: You’re welcome.
Keina: Is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn’t or that you wanted to share?
Dana: I keep saying this, this is probably like the fourth time that I’ve said it, but I do feel like this could be a relationship or an experience that individuals or couples have for like the long haul because we always have changes take place in our lives. Like we’re evolving and it’s always good to have someone outside of you who you’ve built the trust with because you can get in people’s business, like you’re in there. You’d be in there, I do remember a couple of times crying and I don’t know if I wanted to go through that with anyone else. So I feel like that would always come back to like, let’s find Keina.
Keina: I’ll be here and I mean I say this with all my clients, but I thank everyone who does trust me to be in such an intimate place in their life. And especially, I mean, when I’m working with married couples, they’re like Kena, I know you’re not a therapist, but, like sometimes that’ll come up. I try to be a neutral third party and when I’m working with couples, generally there’s one person that wants something and you both want the same thing but you want different things at the same time. And try to like, how do I incorporate, like you were talking about like I want to make sure that I can pay off debt and Dan wants to make sure that he can save. And so like how do we make sure we honor both of those things? And I think, for you guys it was like, okay, let’s make this plan to save towards the things that you guys want to be able to save for. Tell me what those are and let’s talk about the debt that you have. At the time there was some credit card debt, there was some IRS debt. Student loan debt as well. But like how do we make sure that we’re looking at those things but also like, the bigger picture was like, we want to be able to move into a house. It was managing all of those things and helping you guys see how you can be supportive of one another as well.
Dana: And not feel guilty when we change our mind because we will do that. Like, oh, we really want to go to dinner tonight, but we only really had $150 on this line, so now we got to take it out over here or did that get it done?
Keina: Well I know, what is Dan like Negronis? I know there’s going to be some of that. There’s going to be some coffee. Y’all up going to be like, excuse me, we’re going to Amsterdam next week because Dana’s job. And so then Dan is going to go too and no, we didn’t plan this Keina, but we also got to go to Chicago.
Dana: So how are we going to do all this and to move that stuff around and not feel guilty? That’s ace.
Keina: Yeah. I want you guys to be able to have a life where you’re thriving and will adopt the things, like increasing our retirement. We’ll get to those two.
Dana: The insurance guy going to be upset with you tonight when I go into this meeting.
Keina: Well listen, you go ahead and have that conversation then send me an email. Let me know what he says. I’m going, he trying to get you. Well thank you so much for this conversation. And if you’re listening and you are like, oh my goodness, I want to be able to talk to somebody and laugh about money and reach my financial goals, I would love to have you on a consult. So you can go to my website and you can apply there or you can go to the show notes. So thank you so much for tuning in.
Outro: 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.
