If you have listened to this podcast often you know that we bring up budgeting in some way in just about every episode. This is because creating a spending plan (budget) is crucial to the health of your finances, especially if you are trying to pay back debt that you accumulated earlier in your life. This doesn't mean that you have to do without completely though. In this episode Chase and Phil discuss how you can create that plan to pay back the debt and still leave some for you to enjoy the life you are living now.
If you have listened to this podcast often you know that we bring up budgeting in some way in just about every episode. This is because creating a spending plan (budget) is crucial to the health of your finances, especially if you are trying to pay back debt that you accumulated earlier in your life. This doesn't mean that you have to do without completely though. In this episode Chase and Phil discuss how you can create that plan to pay back the debt and still leave some for you to enjoy the life you are living now.
Welcome to Talk Wealth To Me, a safe space podcast, where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance, the information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal tax or other professional advice.
Felipe Arevalo:All right. Welcome to another edition of Talk Wealth To Me today, Chase, uh, we will be talking about, is it okay To spend money on yourself when you're in Debt? You know, can you do it, should you do it? And How do you do it and still stay on track?
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Morning, Phil, that, you know, that is such a, it's an interesting thing because your first reaction would be, you're not, you shouldn't spend any money, uh, when you're in debt. And here's the thing about that though, is that's just not going to be possible. Uh, you're going to have bills anyway, right? You're going to have those things and paying back debt can be a long process.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, it, it, it's not something where it's just click your fingers and it's all going to go away. Unless of course you have some rich uncle that falls out of the sky, uh, and says, oh, sure, I'll just, I'll pay it off.
Felipe Arevalo:I'll take care of that for you.
Chase Peckham:Right. And it just, that that doesn't happen for most people. And there are a number of ways to pay off debt, but almost none of them is a quick fix. It, it just doesn't tend to go that way. It can take time to get yourself into debt over, you know, and, and build that up until it gets to a point where it becomes uncontrollable and it's going to take awhile to pay it off as well. So you gotta find that happy, medium. And that's what we'll talk a little bit about today.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. It's something where, you know, for sure it depends on the debt levels. Like you mentioned, it's a, it can be a long haul. It's not going to be something. Now, if you're talking about a small new debt that just popped up, maybe your car had a breakdown and you had to go get a, you know, a repair and you put that on a credit card and it's going to be one or two months and you really just want to buckle down and get that thing paid for, you know, that's different. But if we're talking debt that has accumulated over a large period of time or debt that came, and it is a, just a big debt, you know, it's unrealistic to feel that you're just not going to spend any money on yourself, uh, for the next year, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever it is in, in that debt pay off time. But, you know, there are some, uh, ways, some ways of thinking some financial experts that would argue that no, you buckle down and you pay it off as soon as possible. And you know, like everything else, personal finances, some people could do that. I know I can't, I know from experience paying back debt, it would have not worked out. I would have given up a long before the debt was paid off. If I decided to try and go all out, no money on myself type of thing.
Chase Peckham:You got to think about your mental health to Right coming out of the pandemic. Mental health is such a, it's a discussion right now. And it's great that it is that there's so many people struggling with that. And in a lot of people have struggled with that with, uh, you know, their personal finance, you know, this, the stresses that they get from, uh, paying back debt or making the mortgage payment, making the rent, those kinds of things. It is something that we need to take into consideration. And when we're working with people, we talk to them about that very thing, not necessarily about the mental health side, but talking about the fact that knowing the kind of person that they are, and you're right, that, that wouldn't have worked for me. And you got to think about it like this, and you can, if you want to kind of put it into different terms, there are people that let's say want to, uh, I don't know. They, you know, at the beginning of the year, uh, they might say, I want to lose 20 pounds and they go to the gym and they all of a sudden workout like this incredibly difficult workout regimen. And they go six days, a week, hour and a half a day. And all of a sudden, you know, the soreness and after three weeks, they're just exhausted.
Felipe Arevalo:I've done that.
Chase Peckham:Right. And, and they just go, oh my gosh,
Felipe Arevalo:It didn't work.
Chase Peckham:The idea of getting up again at five o'clock in the morning and being this, you know, on this incredibly difficult schedule can deflate you. And you just feel like I can't keep this up. And so they'll, they'll quit. And they'll just be like, you know what, I'm not doing it anymore.
Felipe Arevalo:Or they say it didn't work for me.
Chase Peckham:it didn't. Right.
Felipe Arevalo:No, of course it didn't work. You only went a handful of times before you gave up.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:That's not how it works.
Chase Peckham:And it can be the same thing when they come up with some crazy crash diet and they a sudden they're eating and drinking juices for three weeks and they're not giving themselves any other type of nourishment. You know, the, the, the, they forget how much they loved to chew. Right. And or it could be any of those.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:And the fact that you just go, I'm going to quit French fries forever. Well, is that really what you want to do?
Felipe Arevalo:Not me.
Chase Peckham:Or should you just come up with a plan that is a little bit more to your lifestyle, but on a healthier end?
Felipe Arevalo:Absolutely.
Chase Peckham:And that's kind of basically, here's a word that we try to use in, in all kinds of, uh, ways of life and that's moderation, right?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:If figuring out a way to be able to do the things you enjoy, but don't beat it to death to figure out what works for you, but also is working in a direction that is, and that could healthy can be in many, many different ways, healthy financially. Right?
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:So coming up with a plan that still lets you allow yourself to do what you want to do, but also comes up with that plan that you're paying back debt at the same time that it's not trying to just, I'm going to get rid of all of this in six months when that may not be possible.
Felipe Arevalo:Right? You mentioned it's like a balancing act and it's so true because you have to be able to balance it and be in it for the long run. Obviously, if you know, some of the things you were doing are the reason that got you into debt, you were spending a little too much on yourself. Then there might be adjustments that need to be made here and there. And, and reducing things. It's like when people say, but don't go to Starbucks, you can, you could be on a budget. You could be good with your money and still go to Starbucks.
Chase Peckham:Yes.
Felipe Arevalo:It's just a matter of, maybe you don't go to three times a day and you, you know, you'd cut back and you don't always get your little lemon cake when you get your coffee or whatever it is. But, but you mentioned, and you know, that moderation and having that idea, you also mentioned, um, mental health, which is huge right now coming out of the pandemic. I don't know if I know you don't watch tennis. I don't really watch tennis, but there's a big thing in, in with mental health going on, uh, just a couple, was it last week where one of the top or the top women's tennis player, Naomi Osaka actually withdrew from the tournament due to mental health. And, and it's something where, you know, her sponsors are standing by her and people are, um, you know, they're telling her like good job way to take care of yourself. And it is important to have that balancing act and be able to take care of yourself as you pay off debt, as you do anything else really.
Chase Peckham:Right. And so that's the thing is so many people when they're in a debt or they're struggling with weight, or they're trying to quit smoking, or they're trying to quit drinking, whatever it might be, you know, there's, there's, everybody's got their thing, right. That they're trying to improve about themselves or change. And really it comes down to habits and it's things that we have done over and over and over again through our lives that, uh, we just take for granted that that's what we do and that's the way it's going to be. And it doesn't have to be that way. Uh, the one thing that, one of the things that is very difficult for most human beings is change. We don't like change inherently. You know, we're always thinking about things that they'd like to change, but ultimately we really don't like it.
Felipe Arevalo:It's Scary.
Chase Peckham:And it is scary we're scared of the unknown, right? And it's the idea of, well, this makes me feel comfortable. And if I don't do it this way, then it's going to, I'm not going to be happy or I'm not going to like it, or it's not for me. As you mentioned earlier, which is, which is funny it's, but you know, that's why it's, there was this workout that I did a long time ago as you you'll be familiar with, but it's, we started doing beach body after, um, on our, at home. And there was this workout called 21 day fix. And it's not, you know, this groundbreaking anything, but, but the title was interesting because they'll say it said that in 21 days, you can break any habit or create a new one.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:That you can quit something, you can create something you can, uh, come up with a new plan. 21 days you might be able to quit drinking. Then it might be just much easier. 21 days, if you can get 21 days without picking up a cigarette, you know, that each day it's going to get easier. You can create those new habits. And it's the same thing with creating a budget, creating a plan to pay back debt. It's, you're creating a new reality for yourself,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:And that's something that can be done. It's just a matter of getting yourself in that right mindset. And that can be the most difficult thing. And that's when you can reach out to a friend, to a colleague, to somebody that you trust and realize that you're not alone and in what we do for a living we, that really is something that we do, right. We get phone calls from people that are finally at their wit's end and there, they typically call us when they're drowning in debt. Um, and they'd feel like there's nowhere else to go. I'm in panic mode. I need to help. I need something quick. And having that person to sit down and talk with, we were talking about one of our colleagues. I was reading our annual report and just how great she is in sitting down and really just letting people feel comfortable with the fact that they're not alone. And we're going to come up with a plan to help you pay back this debt. Uh, and, and just that in itself, knowing that there is a plan, there is a way to do this there. And, and there's lots of different ways.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It's just depends on the individual person, but there is a way to do this. And that can be so relieving just to feel like we, we can create this plan and pay it back. It's not going to be like this forever, um, that, okay, I'm going to get the tools and I'm going to learn because we don't know what we don't know.
Felipe Arevalo:Right. And it's something that, you know, you and I both share all the time that we've gotten ourselves into debt and gotten out.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:And it does, when you, once you start making progress, you start to get, at least I felt like, oh, I see the end of the tunnel right there. I see the goal now. And it almost makes it easier to buckle down and, and go for it even harder because it's just so close. And all of a sudden you have a plan. All of a sudden you have a, you know, an end date that seems attainable. And then it becomes like, okay, yeah, maybe I will skip out on this or that. And it becomes, I don't know. I always felt like it, as you get closer, you get that a little bit of like endorphin release or something.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Like I'm gonna get there soon.
:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Um, and, and I it's, you know, it, it's kind of addicting to pay down debt.
Chase Peckham:It is.
Felipe Arevalo:Once you get into it is, you know,
Chase Peckham:It is and it's interesting because I went through that period, just giving you a little story in my middle twenties. And we tell this story to young people all the time when we're doing our workshops and presentations, that, you know, I was working for the San Diego Padres in my mid, early, mid twenties up through my mid forties, thirties. And, but in, in those twenties, you know, I was young, single, um, having a great time working in baseball. I mean, it was, it was just, it was phenomenal. And yet, you know, I wasn't making the salary that our ball players were making.
Felipe Arevalo:Major league baseball?
Chase Peckham:Yeah, no, I mean, I was young and barely making anything and yet I wanted to live that life. I wanted to go out and I wanted to go do that stuff and I wanted to have fun and I spent money and just, I never said no, right. It just, that wasn't in my vocabulary when I was younger. And that's a personality trait for one, uh, that I learned about myself as I was growing up and especially learned later, but I mean, I got myself, I'll never forget it. It was 1998 and the Padres, we were in the World Series and this was prior to having auto payment to pay our, our bills. And I had, you know, pay by check and you had to keep a calendar to make sure you sent in everything on time. And my mom was helping out with that when I was on the road, because we were in the playoffs for a long time. And it wasn't till I got back. And I realized that I got all these late notices because we just didn't get them in in time. And I realized how much debt I was in. I went, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? And I went to my family for help. And as, you know, as much as they wanted to, and as much as my mom really wanted me to, we wanted to help. My dad was like, you know, you got yourself into this mess. We love you, but we wouldn't be doing you any favors by paying it off. You know, you, you made these decisions to do the things you did put the, put the money in, or put those, those things on your credit cards. I mean, I had close to 26,$27,000 in credit card debt as a twenty-five year old and I was in trouble and I had to pay it back and it was painful and it took me eight years. But I, you know, in, in the idea of being so overwhelmed and not knowing how to do this, how am I going to, first of all, the, the pain of going in my life, as I know it, I can't do that anymore.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, I I'm going to.
Felipe Arevalo:You have to make that change. Yeah. To make that change,
Speaker 2:You have to make a change.
Felipe Arevalo:You have to make a change because otherwise if you're falling and falling and falling into debt, you can't assume you're going to pay it off without making any changes.
Chase Peckham:You can't because you're just, You're doing the same thing over and over and over again, it's it it's that old, and I'm going to butcher this, but it's the definition of insanity is expecting a different result, but doing the same thing over and over and over again. Right.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:And, or doing the same thing over and over and over again, and. expecting a different result.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:That's just not possible. So it took time. It's not like I just came up with this plan all of a sudden, and it was like, all right, let's go. You know, it took many iterations of, for me to figure out what worked for me and what I needed to do. Uh, and there, at those times there weren't, uh, the, the debt management programs of the world that I was aware of. I mean, there was bankruptcy. I looked into that and I, my, my ego was, there's no way I'm 24, 25 years old, and I'm going to go into bankruptcy. Uh, I didn't want my work to know. I didn't want any of that. You know, there was the whole shame, you know, mental health wise. I probably got myself into stress levels that I shouldn't have been in at that age. You know, that I th but, you know, eventually though, once I came up with a plan and asked around and talked to people and found out very quickly that I wasn't alone, that there were older people smart, like me that had, but had gotten themselves into trouble. So it was asking a lot of questions. We didn't have the internet, like we did, what can we do now. Uh, at the time. So it wasn't like, I was just Googling how to pay off debt, which can now in its own. Right. Be overwhelming because there's so much information.
Felipe Arevalo:It's a lot of results.
Chase Peckham:You don't know what's right. Exactly. Uh, there's so many experts, right. Uh, so what do you do? And we answer that question all the time. What I did was I just realized that I could, I just could not do the happy hours. Like I was, I could not go to concerts every time somebody said, yes, I, I had to figure out a way that I could pay back something every month. Like it was a regular bill, not pay back my debt, just the minimum payments, not just pay back what I could afford after all the other bills, I had to figure out what I could afford. And I just started that process. And I did a little mini, basically what became, and what we know is the snowball method. And that worked for me after a period time. But it took me eight years and it took ups and downs and it took not dating. I mean, it really, it sucked, it was really not good. And nobody wanted to go out with me, uh, when, you know, you're telling them, and I was perfectly honest. I learned that you needed to be honest, that was kind of, I had a friend that was in AA at the time that, that had gone through those step program, which was really interesting because those step programs can be very similar to paying back debt, paying back, you know, anything that you need to take a look in the mirror.
Felipe Arevalo:Cut out.
Chase Peckham:Cut out, right? You've got to be honest with yourself and you have to make amends with the way that you handle things. And I, you had to be honest. So when I was going out with, you know, on a first date or second date, and if I like the person, you just had to be honest and say, look, I can't afford to take you out every weekend and go to nice dinners and all those kinds of things I'm trying to pay back some debt. And a lot of girls, unfortunately just bailed. It was like, Nope, I don't want to start my relationship with somebody. And understandably so, by the way, I don't hold a grudge to them.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Uh, and it, it's interesting that I met my soulmate, my soulmate, but I met Kerri and my everything. And I was honest with her about a month into our dating. And she was like, man, if you're going to be, she looked at it differently. She's if you're going to be honest with me about something like this, that is so hard, then you're going to be honest with me when things get tough, you know, in a relationship going forward. And so she kind of accepted that and thought, man, this is, this is somebody I can work with him and, and, and see my life with. And, um, and, and she was right. I mean, that, that honesty was important. So many different ways down the line, but that's where it started. Uh, you know, cause she invited me to go to Hawaii and I was like, oh boy, you know, I can't,
Felipe Arevalo:You were like, oh her we go.
Chase Peckham:I just, I am halfway through paying off my debt. I am, I'm getting there. Um, I'm making headway and you know, at the time she was doing really, really well didn't need me financially. Didn't need to look to somebody else financially, but she just looked at it like, man, this is, this guy's honest. And was able to, that must have been hard. And he's going to be able to have hard conversations that was, she looked at it that way and that worked. Uh, and that snowball method, uh, worked for me.
Felipe Arevalo:But it's something where I'm sure along the way, you, you were able to do little things.
Chase Peckham:Yes.
Felipe Arevalo:To kind of keep your, your you're still able to eat form time to time.
Chase Peckham:A hundred percent, still went on vacations, still did things. It just wasn't,
Felipe Arevalo:It wasn't Hawaii.
Chase Peckham:Right. It wasn't long, you know, trips to Mexico and whooping it up. I mean, it was road trips here and there. It was knowing that I can go, you know, I was lucky enough for my family to have a place in big bear lake that I just spent a lot more time there. Uh, and it didn't have to pay for that. Right. So beyond the gas to get there, uh, th that I didn't have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to find all those other things that I could enjoy and get away. It was just finding those things that worked for me and, and realizing that I was okay. It was fun going to friend's houses and having happy hour there and not having to go out in Pacific Beach. Uh, for those of you who live in San Diego, know what that is. Uh, you know, it's, it's younger, it's fun. It's, it's a great beach town that young people.
Felipe Arevalo:It's great.
Chase Peckham:Oh, it's so much fun, but you could spend a mint.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh yeah in one night.
Chase Peckham:In one night you could easily spend a hundred dollars without Blinking.
Felipe Arevalo:Blinking. Right. Yeah. And it's something where it starts when you park.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And it's something where, you know, it is easy and we've mentioned it. It's, it's easy to spend. It's harder to not spend, you know? So, so it's something where if you are looking to pay down debt and you, and you're obviously hopefully setting up a budget, you know, you could set that little bit of money aside every month for yourself.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Or whatever it is. And then you can freely, guilt-free spend whatever money you allocated for you for yourself without to second, guess yourself, you just got to remember to stay within that budget.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And make sure that you don't go spending too much. You mentioned like concert tickets and all the concerts that were pushed. And now all of a sudden tickets are going on sale for this and that. And you're sitting there like I haven't been to a concert in years.
Chase Peckham:Yeah right
Felipe Arevalo:And, and it's something where, you know, maybe you have my brother and I were talking, I have tickets for a concert that I bought in 2019, and it's finally happening in August. But it's like, that was a long time ago.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:That I bought these tickets that was Sarah's birthday present two years ago. And it's something where, you know, everything is so different.
Chase Peckham:It is.
Felipe Arevalo:Two years down the road, and maybe you're, you know, you've got all these new expense opportunities coming up. As, as things get back more into the swing of normalicy, whatever that happens to be where it's like, you know, even as a country, we Americans paid off a lot of debt. You got to remember, try and keep that going and try and remember to, you know, stay within, within your budgets. And if you've been doing really good at paying down your debt and, and now things are starting to open back up, try and remember that you were all right, when you did movie night at home, once in a while, and maybe as movies start coming out, you still go watch one here and there, but you just don't go watch them as much as you used to. And maybe you've realized you're not as bad a cook as you thought you were, you know? And, and, and you can maybe, or maybe you realized, yep, I'm just as bad as I thought I was, but you know it's edible. So, so it's something where, you know, maybe you learned a dish or two, and you can kind of incorporate that in and try and save some money and try and use some of the lessons you were forced to learn. We were forced to learn in 2020 as budget saving things going forward. At least while you start paying down debt, or you continue on your debt-free journey.
Chase Peckham:Totally. That is it's great advice. You know, it's interesting. We talk to people, one of the things that really worked for me when, when I started that process was, you know, you, you try to figure out where does this money come from? And I, and I kind of went backwards and I started putting money away in a different account every month, like what was coming out of my 401k? And I figured out, okay, what can I, what do I want to afford to start paying back this debt? And my number was 250. I thought I'm going to try to pay 250 every month. That was way more than I ever could and I could handle, but especially if I was trying to do it post, you know, at the end, when the, when that bill came in, came due. So I had that money come out of my paycheck with the Padres early. So that was what I was going to pay. And in back then, I wasn't saving money. That's what I would teach people to do now is they want to put money way. I'd put it into savings, have it be an emergency fund? What have you. But I use that as my debt at the time, because I mean, I was only making 38,000 thousand or so at the time, it wasn't a lot. And, you know, rents were, I had a roommate and everything, but still rents were quite a bit. And so I had that 250 come out every month and I just paid that on my credit card religiously. Uh, and at the same time stopped using my credit cards for anything other than maybe a bill here and there. So I kept that up so I could still keep my credit being used. Uh, and so then I just re I didn't do anything that I couldn't do with cash. And that I found out that I did a lot of things that I couldn't afford with, with cash. And that was the problem I was using those credit cards. Like they were part of my income and they just, they weren't. So I had to completely redo that. But then I realized that I could take that 250 out at the beginning before taxes or after tax, excuse me. And then I would just live on the rest and I learned how to do that. And that's what, that's what got me through. And pretty soon it just became like clockwork. You just started, I didn't start thinking about what I didn't have anymore. It was, what am I gaining? It's flipping the script mentally. It's you can cut, you know, you, my daughter was talking about this the other day. She hates it when it's cloudy, she, she likes the sun out and she just says, well, I, I hate it when it's cloudy. I go, you gotta rethink that. You got to just say, well, you know what? I enjoy the difference of not having to squint when it's, you know,
Felipe Arevalo:It's easier as a goalie,
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:You're looking up you don't lose the ball in the sun.
Chase Peckham:It's just a matter of changing the script. And you can do that. It's just, you have to train yourself to do that. And that can be difficult with whatever it is you're trying to do.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. But I think it's something where, you know, there, there are those in the personal finance space who, and we've talked to them who are oftentimes the FIRE movement,
Chase Peckham:Yeah oh, that's an extreme,
Felipe Arevalo:Right? But there are those that say, why don't you just cut it all out and go to the absolute bare minimum and pay this debt off ASAP. And, you know, for some personalities that works,
Chase Peckham:It does. And just so people know, FIRE stands for financial independence retire early, and that is a big wave movement. We've talked about that on this podcast before a number of years ago, we could probably revisit that, but that is an extreme. And, but it may work for some people.
Felipe Arevalo:For some, yeah.
Chase Peckham:You know, there was that wave of tiny house nation. I mean, that's part of it, right?
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:That you don't need to live in a big home. But again, that is such a very personal thing. I don't know if there is, there is no almighty the right way, right? Everybody is so individual. Now there are concepts that need to be followed.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:If you want to pay off debt, or you want to start to lose weight, or you want to eat more healthy and you want to lower blood pressure, whatever it might be, there are true and tried and true things and methods to do that. But you can come up with doing that in your own personal way. And it's finding out what works best for You.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah. Some people, you know, if they were to try the FIRE thing, they'd give up after a week, like you mentioned earlier, going to the gym I couldn't do it long term.
Chase Peckham:I personally see it as are you're out of your mind.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Just no thanks.
Felipe Arevalo:And then other people might look at it and be like, well, yeah, let's just get it done with, and then I'll have to deal with it. Anyway.
Chase Peckham:I do you like the concept? I like the idea,
Felipe Arevalo:I like the idea.
Chase Peckham:I love the idea and I, and I do like that. And I think you can do that. Now. We're talking about people that want to retire in their thirties and forties.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:And I, first of all, I, I don't have that in me. I wouldn't want to do that
Felipe Arevalo:As much as I like golf. I don't think I could just golf.
Chase Peckham:Oh, I don't know. That sounds pretty good to me right now. It's not something I can do, but it doesn't sound bad, but again, you're right. You know, th there there's moderation in everything.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:And we're get back to that word, everything in moderation. So it's, you know, do I give up french fries completely forever? No, I love French fries, but should I eat them every day at every meal? No,
Felipe Arevalo:Probably not.
Chase Peckham:Should I have them once a week? And by, by the way, how much better will they taste? If I have them only once a week.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh yeah.
Chase Peckham:You know, that then think about that.
Felipe Arevalo:You will really enjoy them.
Chase Peckham:Or do I have them and make them in my air fryer. And I can create, figure out a way to create those from real potatoes. And we can make them and cut them up like fries and season them really tasty and realize that they're going to be in much, much better for you. I mean, there's just, there's so many different ways of doing things,
Felipe Arevalo:And cheaper.
Chase Peckham:Right!
Felipe Arevalo:Buying a bag of potatoes is cheap. I love making French fries in the air fryer. And I even bought one of those. I don't know what the actual name of it is, but it's a potato, french fry cutter thing where you just put the wash, the potato, you put it in the thing. And then kind of like the ones they have at In and Out when you're looking through the window.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Except it lays horizontally on the counter. And you just put the potato in there, you drop the thing. French fries.
Chase Peckham:That's awesome.
Felipe Arevalo:Because it's something that I like the kids like. And it's like, you know, if you're going to make burgers at home.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:And you can make French fries at home too, cause you have their fryer sitting there, why not go for it?
Chase Peckham:And they're so yummy. I mean, they can be once you learn how to do it.
Felipe Arevalo:You can season them any way you want.
Chase Peckham:Thank you. Thank you to whoever invented the AirFryer. Cause it's the greatest thing ever. It doesn't make a mess.
Felipe Arevalo:We could do a whole episode on it.
Chase Peckham:We could, we really should. We wish we should have something on that. And it's funny that we're gonna, people might say you're going off on a tangent here, but we that's. What we teach with people is paying back debt, paying back money. You know, look, I believe in Dave Ramsey, I believe in Suze Orman. I believe there there's so many of these great financial people that have these very successful shows that are great entertainers and having, and, and, and really they have tried and true ways of paying off debt and getting yourself healthy financially. But there is not a one way fits all there just isn't. And that makes for great radio. That makes for a good podcast. It makes for good shock radio telling somebody, this is the way you need to do it. And this is, you know, there's no other way put that away. Don't do that anymore. Just not, you know, that's great for a 30 second soundbite.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It just isn't reality for the long haul for most, for a lot of people. So you have to figure out what works best. And sometimes that can be trial and error. And sometimes that can be just working with somebody that you like. Uh, if you have it at financial advisor, for a lot of things, there's going to be people that you just don't agree with, or you don't see the same life that way. That's why finding a financial advisor or somebody that you really relate to that can really understand you is going to help you better. Right? That's going to be somebody that kind of understands what goals and what things you want to accomplish. And that help can be phenomenal. And that can be a parent, or it can be a friend. It could be just a account, a financial counselor, you know, somebody that you don't know, and you can feel like, you know, nobody's going to judge you. I mean, there's so many different components to this. And once you learn that, that doesn't mean you are not enjoying life. In fact, we say this all the time for those people that put together a budget that, that, and start to live off of that spending plan that they have for themselves. They're going to find, they're going to be able to afford the things that they enjoy to do and do the things that they want to do more than they ever could before and enjoy it because they're not stressed out about how they're going to pay for it.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It's already there,
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It just might take some time that initial looking in the mirror is the most difficult thing. And now does that mean you go out and you say, I deserve a Siri, a C series BMW, or, or excuse me, Mercedes, whatever it might be, you can tell, I don't have either of those cars, but, you know, and say, well, I deserve this. So I'm going to pay back debt and pay for that. You know, if you can make it work, but that may not be the smartest thing that may
Felipe Arevalo:That may hinder your, your the, uh, speed at which you pay off your debt. You know, I think spending money on yourself, you know, can be maybe not that brand new, it was M5 or, or that brand new Corvette, which I hear is, is really nice. And, but maybe treating money on yourself is, you know, going out to a regular priced dinner, cause you'd like to go out to dinner.
Chase Peckham:Yeah.
Felipe Arevalo:Or, you know, going to the movies because you haven't been in two years or a year or whatever.
Chase Peckham:Yeah right.
Felipe Arevalo:So you, there are ways and, and we've done, uh, presentations on, you know, treating yourself on a budget or free things to do for fun. We just had a SWYM Live, uh, not too long ago, about a fun summer activities on a budget.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:And you know, there are things that you might enjoy that don't cost a lot of money where you can treat yourself for, you know, a five dollar pizza.
Chase Peckham:You can find find that there's something that you totally enjoy. I used to think that I was never going to like anything but swimming to work out. And now I love our, we thank goodness for the Peloton. I mean, I love it. It's a great, it's great, great way to work out. And I I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I do it every well, almost every day. Uh, and I never, in a million years, I always used to think I didn't like bike riding. I always thought it made my butt hurt, but it, I found out it's, it's great. It's just giving things a try.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:It's it's finding out that 21 day thing that we talked about, you can create new habits for yourself.
Felipe Arevalo:So are you buying a road bike and going on long bike rides?
Chase Peckham:I have a mountain bike that I bought used, and I go ride on that now.
Felipe Arevalo:Oh OK.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. I can do that with my, with my kids or at least my daughter, my son doesn't love to ride the bike. Uh, my funny Kerri doesn't love riding bikes either, except she loves a Peloton, which it's funny maybe because it doesn't like go anywhere and she's not worried about crashing.
Felipe Arevalo:It's the cars, the cars is what's scary.
Chase Peckham:It's the cars the cars make you nervous. Yeah, that's true.
Felipe Arevalo:I don't do bikes on streets. It's scary.
Chase Peckham:I know I don't like driving with bikes in the street that makes me nervous, but it, it can be done. And you know, th th there's a great snowball method. That is, it is a phenomenal way to just create a game plan for paying off your debt, uh, crew, knowing how much you're going to pay every month on all your credit cards, combined paying that amount every single month. And as one gets paid off, you take that amount that you were paying on that one, add it to the next lowest balance. Now you're doubling or tripling the payment that you add on that one. And pretty soon, that's just like, it sounds the snowball effect. You, it speeds up the process and you get to see how quickly that debt can be paid down. Dave Ramsey will argue that the avalanche method is a great way to do it because it's the higher interest rate cards. That's a great way to just, it depends on how the cards line up. You may not see, you know, the, the, the significance of the debt paid off very quickly, and you may not see the, see it fall off. So you're going to, you may not get that excitement of, uh, of not having to pay five credit cards or paying four instead of five. You know? So there's, there's different Thoughts on it.
Felipe Arevalo:I think it's so much, you know, with, with finances is it's personal. And, but regardless of which one you pick, you've got to make sure you take care of yourself, you know, because going to be your mental health and, and, you know, treating yourself to keep that mental health, keep that excitement, keep that energy up.
Chase Peckham:Right.
Felipe Arevalo:You know, it is important, you know,
Chase Peckham:And giving if you have children and giving them the experiences that you want your children to experience, not just things, but experiences, things, working hard to not just shut everything down and pay back all the debt and which, you know, you can do, but, you know, as time goes on, when you're paying back that debt, you still have kids that want to be involved in dance or sports or things like that.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah.
Chase Peckham:So you have to figure out a way to try to do both in and make them feel and teach them at the same time that we can't always do everything we want.
Felipe Arevalo:Right.
Chase Peckham:Right. But there, so there are all different kinds of ways to go about it. It's just finding out what works best for you. And sometimes it's just trial and error.
Felipe Arevalo:Yeah, for sure.
Chase Peckham:Again, if you Like our podcast, please like us follow us, download us, uh, leave, uh, leave a response, Uh, uh, subscribe wherever it is. You get your podcasts, whether through Spotify or Apple podcast.
Felipe Arevalo:Right follow us on social media.
Chase Peckham:And right. All the different places that you can get your podcasts.
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