I Will Teach You To Be Rich - 122. “I shouldn’t have to ask for $20 to get McDonalds for the kids”
Episode Date: September 19, 2023Doni and Cacey are 30 and 40 years old with three very young kids. Doni’s struggled with credit card debt in the past, putting pressure on Cacey to control their finances—in addition to being the ...family’s sole earner. Don’t miss the shocking twist to their money story at the end of the episode. This episode is brought to you by: Trade | Right now, Trade is offering our audience a free bag of coffee with any subscription at https://drinktrade.com/ramit. Mint mobile | To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/ramit. DeleteMe | If you want to get your personal information removed from the web, go to https://joindeleteme.com/ramitfor 20% off. Rocket Money | Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://rocketmoney.com/ramit. Connect with Ramit • Get the Podcast Newsletter and exclusive Q&A about the show • Get Money Coaching with Ramit • Download the Conscious Spending Plan • Get my New York Times best-selling book • Get my no-numbers journal • Other episodes • Instagram • Twitter • YouTube • Submit a question for the newsletter iwt.com/askramit If you and your partner have a money issue and you want my help, I occasionally select a couple to work with, free of charge. Apply for my help here. Produced by Crate Media.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Sounds weird saying it because I trust my wife, but we first got into a relationship.
She explained to me that problems and issues she's had with credit cards and spending.
Do you trust her?
I feel like I can trust her.
I'm going to be honest, but it's too limit.
I ran up too much credit card debt, so I had bad credit.
Wouldn't able to use any credit for years.
I've never really had credit card debt.
I've never had it before. I've never had credit for that matter.
And so I see my balance up by hundreds of dollars that she's just been buying things.
And I'm like, have you been using the
car like what are you using it on you should ask me for the money to pay for this
I need her to be on the same page as me to trust me the same way I want to
trust her and kind of stop the arguments over the little things the smallest
McDonald's or whatever. Meet Doni and Casey. Donnie's 30, Casey's 40, and they have three young children. Now Donnie
used to be in credit card debt. So early on in their relationship, Casey took on the role of helping,
and he became the money person in their relationship. But now that's causing problems. As Doni stays at home with their children, and
she has to text Casey if she wants to take the kids to McDonald's. Today, you're going
to hear lots of surprises, including surprises about money psychology. So let's begin my conversation
with Doni and Casey.
About two weeks ago, I went to the grocery store and bought the groceries.
I spent $60 and he wanted to actually pay for it and then it is that of it coming out
of my account.
He wanted to pay for it out of his account instead of your account?
Yes.
Okay.
So, I stay at home and sometimes for me,
going to the store is a break just from three children.
So I take my youngest with me and in that particular day,
we both needed to go to the store.
You know, it became like a disagreement.
I was like, I'm still gonna go to the store.
So I went and paid for it without him sending me,
you know, the money or using his card.
Sending, what do you mean sending?
I'm on his account, but I don't use the card.
I use a different check and account
and he'll send me money to my account.
How often does he send you money?
Whenever, like, if I'm gonna do something for the kids,
he'll send it.
You'll say, hey, I'm taking them to
McDonald's or whatever and you say like send me 15 bucks?
Yes, okay, he can say he can say yes or no
Sometimes he'd say no. What would be the last example of when you had this conversation like where'd you take the kids that you
Talk to your husband about it?
It's probably was McDonald's.
It gives me a break from not having a cook and I get to take the kids somewhere and they really enjoy it.
They have a playground.
How much did you ask him to transfer?
No, I just say, um, we're going to, we want to go to, can I take the kids to McDonald's and he'll just in,
you know, like $20 or something.
I like the coupon.
So I use the app and I have points.
So normally I know about how much it's going to be.
Got it.
Okay.
All right.
Casey, I want to hear your perspective.
I like this McDonald's example.
Walk me through it from your perspective.
You get what a text message or does Donnie like come up to you
and say, Hey, I want to take the kids to McDonald's.
How does it go?
Well, usually goes, I get a text message that they want to go to McDonald's for the day
or she wants to get, she needs to get some things from the grocery store.
So once she kind of gives me the rundown of what it is and the price for it, I will either
just kind of like she says, give her the money for
that to take care of that.
So that's pretty much just been our arrangement just because I just feel like I need to, like
I said, I want to be able to know where everything is going.
So how do you decide if you're going to say yes or no?
You know, I just honestly try to decide for the best of our family.
In my mind, I want to make sure we're monitoring how much we're spending on each thing,
because heating out has been an issue that we need.
Hold on, let me pause you right there.
I can hear those kids in the background.
How many, you have three kids? How old are they?
Yes, four, two, and four months. Wow. You got a handful. Okay. Yeah. The
cricket sounds went off. So, okay. All right. Well, good. I'm glad if we need to take
a break, no problem at all. Just let me. Okay. Thank you. All right. You've got it.
Three young kids will make it work. We can be flexible, all right? All right.
Casey, you said you're looking out for the best of the family.
You said that sometimes eating out has been an issue.
Okay.
How do you decide if it's worth it?
Like if it's 20 bucks, 50 bucks, how are you making those decisions about that number?
That's the thing. I'm having this responsibility of a family is fairly new to me, to both of us.
And so I feel that. I want my kids to have fun. I want them to have memories of
exciting times, and I feel like I've already spoiled them so much. I just want to make sure that we're
I just want to make sure that we're making the right choices at the right time so that we're still ahead of all these payments or bills that come regularly.
Just out of curiosity, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess, you're not tracking
your spending and investments, et cetera, very carefully, right? Not as much as I should.
Okay. Do you know how I knew that? It's because I asked you about the numbers and your answer
was about, I want to do right by my family, I don't want to spoil it. It was a very qualitative
answer when I'm just trying to talk about the numbers. So I don't mind it. We could work with that
Doni you're staying at home. Is that right?
correct. All right, and
Casey are you the sole income earner for the family? Yes, okay, and was that kind of the plan when the two of you met
That that was how I was gonna shake out. I would say once we had our first son, then, yes.
Got it.
I want to be able to, it sounds weird saying it
because I trust my wife, but she's,
when we first got into a relationship before marriage
and everything, she explained to me that problems and issues
she's had with credit cards and her spending
and just the situation is put her in.
And you know, once we got married, I wanted to clear all that up because I've never really
had credit card debt.
I've never had it before.
I've never had credit for that matter.
And so, you know, she would go to the store shop.
I would be at work.
I'd be making our bill payments and I see my balance up by hundreds of dollars
that she's just been buying things.
And I'm like, have you been using the car?
Like, what are you using it on?
And it's just, oh, I we need it this.
And that's when I'm explaining to her,
you should ask me for the money to pay for this.
Don't just use, especially the credit cards
for these purchases.
And they're not talking to me about it.
I have the credit cards now.
I had to, like, get them back when she gave them to me
because of that situation.
Taking on these new responsibilities,
I just felt the need that I needed to be in control
of everything to make sure we're secure and safe.
And I just want to be able to trust her.
I want us to have an account together. I need
her to be on the same page as me to trust me the same way I want to trust her and kind of stop
the arguments over the little things, the smallest McDonald's or whatever.
She texts him for money for random purchases like McDonald's. Notice that he has no real way of making these decisions
except vague feelings like,
I wanna do right for my family.
Neither of them think there's anything wrong with this.
And yet, he openly says that he has a limit
for how much he trusts her with money.
That's a problem.
He has so much on his plate.
He provides financially for the household.
I try to take, you know, whatever I can do to try to help.
So something like grocery shopping to me would make sense that while you're at
work, I would do that. But he tries to take on all those roles.
So for him, trust in me, that would allow me to help him in that way as well.
Hey, can you explain that?
You said that you are at home with the kids.
Therefore, you'd be happy to go to the grocery store.
Would you take the kids with you?
Yeah.
Okay.
What's the problem with that?
Well, I think that sometimes he doesn't think
I get the best items.
I don't know.
Sometimes he's saying that I spend too much
at the grocery store.
Like how much is too much?
Casey?
350.
350.
And what is a reasonable number for you?
On a weekly basis.
I wanted to know she doesn't believe to be realistic,
but I wanted to be around $75 weekly.
What, $75?
What the hell?
That was a while ago.
Where did that number come from?
1912?
I know, I changed $400.
You just picked that number out of thin air.
And you have like three kids?
I'm not even the big grocery connoisseur. Even
I know that's crazy. That honestly was the last time we did a budget was when we were
able to make that work, which has been over a year. And we've been breaking that budget
for sure. If you pick a number on a budget and you're breaking it every single week, you probably picked the wrong number. I did.
Is this part of the reason
that this dynamic exists
where Donnie, you say,
I wanna take the kids to McDonald's
or I wanna go grocery shopping.
Casey says, yes or no,
or I'll go to the store and get this stuff.
Is that why this dynamic emerged?
Yes, yes, he believes that he can shop better than me
But I've proven over and over again through my coupon and that and just because I cook the food that we eat
Yeah, but I know how to pick better options. Listen, this sounds like it could be a great TV show.
It's like, he shops, she shops.
You know, there's this big debate.
The only problem is it's not gonna be me doing this show
because that's the last place you're gonna find me
at a grocery store with coupons.
All right, it's not gonna be Remi Tseiti.
Oh, yeah.
So, Casey, are you a better shopper than Doni?
I am, most bettive. Okay. And Doni, are you a better shopper than Doni? I am, most bettie.
Okay.
And Doni, are you a better shopper than Casey?
This show's getting better and better.
Damn!
He said yes, this is a good show.
All right, hold on, let me text my EP right now.
I'm about to send some networking executives a little text.
Okay, this is a fascinating look into Doni and Casey's life.
What did you pick up about the psychological and relational clues?
The money stuff stands out like a sore thumb, yes,
but they're leaving lots of other subtle clues as well.
Let me know what you've noticed so far in the comments.
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I'm gonna make it.
Casey, you mentioned that you did not have credit card debt.
You didn't have credit.
How'd you grow up with money?
My parents were, my father was very successful successful in a sense so I just worked hard and I just
I just paid cash for everything
Yeah, I just never used really credit card there so my credit school was terrible because I never used it
What do you remember about your parents?
Talking about money growing up my mom mom is funny, you say that.
She taught me to not owe anyone.
She always wanted us to pay everything off.
Okay, that's the point.
Is that good advice?
What do you think?
I think it is.
What else do you remember being set around the house?
What other lessons do you remember?
The biggest lesson I think that's impacting me
is that my dad kind of took care of everything financially.
My mom, she was a stay at home mom as well.
My father kind of covered all the bases.
We had more than what we needed at times.
Are your parents both alive?
Yes they are.
Okay.
And how are they doing financially now?
Not so well actually.
Why? And how are they doing financially now? That's so well actually. My mom and dad actually aren't agreeing right now on finances.
My dad is wanting to finance a lot of things and my mom wants to pay things off
and they just haven't been on the same page.
My father is still kind of doing things the way he does things though.
I can hear it in a voice.
It's, you know, I think it's scaring her a little bit.
What does she sound like?
What do you hear when she talks to you about this?
She just sounds scared, honestly.
She sounds really scared about her finances
and she's retiring soon.
I don't like that.
So I wanna do whatever I can to assist.
Yeah.
All right.
All right. Thank you for sharing that.
Let's see. Donnie, what do you remember about growing up when you were young? Any memories you have
about what parent or parent said about money? I had a different upbringing. My mom always put everything
on a credit card. So that's what was taught to me. Oh, just, you know, you need
this new tire. Just put it on your car. She said that? Yeah. She's not too savvy with money.
Is that what you're saying? Oh, not at all. The opposite. Okay. That look of fright tells me everything.
And I'm curious, you know, she's been doing this for a long time since you were young.
I'm curious, you know, she's been doing this for a long time since you were young.
Paying on credit has she suffered any consequences?
Recently, yes. She's figured out to pay a credit card with a credit card. She's done that for like a long time, but now that she's changed career paths and it's not making the same income,
it's caught up with her. What's she gonna do? I hope get another job until the one that she has picks up or however that works.
All right. What do you think you took away from the way you were raised with money?
I don't know of the lessons that I But I mean
Dylan with credit. I mean you think that you can beat the system, but you can't yeah, that's just
The bottom line. Yeah, that's a good lesson
Painful though. I had really great credit because she put me on her credit card
So when I turned 18 I could you know, I got to prove all these credit cards. So when I turn 18, I could, you know, I got to prove all these credit cards.
So that's how I found out about credit card did. How long did it take you after turning 18 to
discover you were in a little bit of financial trouble? Twenty, like 21, 22. Just a couple years.
Okay. Between the ages of 20 and 30, what happened with your money?
I ran up too much credit card debt, so I had bad credit
wasn't able to use any credit for years.
And that's how I realized I need to work with what I have.
To me, that was a blessing in disguise.
Okay.
Better to happen in your 20s than to happen in your 60s.
All right. So you learned that lesson. What age did you meet Casey?
At 24.
24. All right. And how long you two have been married?
Almost five years.
Okay. Congratulations. When was the first time you two had a serious conversation about money?
Like, yesterday.
Notice the effect of their childhoods on how they spend money.
Casey's dad handled the money, which Casey's now trying to do.
I guarantee that if we spent more time and we trace back to where this McDonald's text
messaging thing came from, part of it is seeing the role that his dad played as the money
approver.
And when I ask how his parents finances are now, did you catch it?
He admits they're not going well, which is a crystal ball into their potential future
about 25 years from now.
Then there's Donnie, whose mom spent a lot on credit cards, which is exactly what Donnie
learned, and then she did the same thing.
But in addition to what they learned from their individual parents, one interesting thing
to me is the dynamic between the two of them.
Imagine you met your partner in their 20s and they were
irresponsible with money. So you helpfully stepped in to give some advice, maybe even take control of
the money and it worked. You might consider that a success. But after a while your partner might say,
hey, I understand you helped me when I was in trouble, but I'm ready to move past that identity now. I want to recalibrate the rules of our relationship.
And recalibrating relationship dynamics is one of the hardest things you can do,
whether it's with your parents, your friends, or definitely your spouse.
Let's keep listening.
So your role when it comes to money in your relationship,
you're not paying the bills,
what would you say your role is?
I would say to help whichever way I can to save money
or yeah, I think that my way of helping is to get the deal,
get use the coupons, try to limit where and what we're doing. Because pretty much like
you said, it's for the kids. So most of the time, the enjoyment goes from taking them places.
Okay. Alright. Casey, what do you think your role is in this financial relationship
of yours? Right now, I feel like it's just to make sure we're okay for emergency
purposes if anything comes up. How about like groceries? Is that count as emergencies?
It seems to be because it sometimes leads to heated discussions as if it's yeah. I'm curious
talking about groceries as an emergency is not usually common among the people that I speak to.
groceries as an emergency is not usually common among the people that I speak to. Groceries are something you need every week, especially with kids.
When I say emergency is because when we disagree on it, I'm a true believer of
happy wife, happy life. And when she's upset about me saying no, sometimes we all
sometimes suffer. And I don't like that.
And I don't like the fact that,
I feel almost obligated to say yes,
sometimes to a boy,
her being upset with me.
And then it just shows out,
it just changed the whole dynamic of our home sometimes.
That's just what it is.
And then we reflect on what it's about.
And it's about, like you said, it's groceries.
It's my role to keep us afloat and keep us
able for emergencies and to be able, because right now,
we're just, to me, in a very uncomfortable situation.
And you got, I can feel the tent down my neck just thinking about it
because I mean, my life up to this point the past five
years has been just a new lifestyle, a new change for me.
I come from making great money. I'm used to not thinking
about what I spend money on. So I'm used to just treating
myself and whoever's around me as much as possible,
but it's different when you have a family of five now and a home and all these responsibilities.
So now I'm having to change my way of thinking from just carefree to I was I was never really
great with money. I must say that even though I had money and worked hard, I spent it as quickly as I earned it
or I'd never really saved for the future, I just spent it.
And now I'm getting better just because
I feel this responsibility on my plate.
And I don't wanna slip up.
I'm trying to meet him where we're both
in a griance and happy with.
I mean, because yeah, yeah, I
don't want it to be so caught up
and just food all the time.
But it's a big part of it because
you have to eat.
I make and you know lunch for
him. I'm cooking for the kids.
But I don't want to get caught up
on the food situation. I don't want to get caught up on the food situations.
I don't want to keep saying the same thing, but it's just been tough for me to, to want to
give her that freedom to do the things that she wants to do just because of, you know,
feel that responsibility, that pressure, that pressure just sits and it just doesn't
go anywhere. And it's like, you know, you feel the pressure. So therefore, what is your natural reaction to that pressure?
I mean, sometimes I get a little, she says, I'm being mean, but I'm just trying to, yeah.
Do you notice that you take on more? The more pressure you feel, the more control you try to exert. Have you noticed that?
Yes.
How many hours a day do you go to work?
Fortunately, about nine to ten hours a day.
Nine to ten hours a day. That's a long work day.
And then, and she's like, hey, I want to go to the grocery store and get groceries.
I'm here all day. I have time.
But you go, nope. I'm going to the grocery store and get groceries. I'm here all day. I have time. And but you go, nope.
I'm going to stop by on my way home.
Do you see the pattern there?
What is that?
Yeah.
I can't really explain that to be honest.
You ever play sports?
Yes.
All right.
What'd you play? Baseball. All right. What do you play?
Baseball. Okay. Bowling. Bowling? Yeah, I was a bowler. What the hell? Are you serious? What was your score? Uh, 210. Okay. So, uh, first of all, when you said baseball, I was like, shit, I don't know
anything about any sports. But when you said bowling, I got very interested because I'm a kid of suburbia, I know bowling.
So you're on some baseball team, whatever.
And you're good at something.
You have the skills for something.
Your teammates got the skills for another thing.
But your team is down by three points.
Do you go over to your teammate and you go,
hey, give me the bat, I'm gonna swing.
I'm gonna do it again.
I'm gonna do it even though my arms tired and my shoulders are shot. Or do you say, hey, give me the bat. I'm gonna swing. I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna do it.
Even though my arms tired and my shoulders are shot,
or do you say, you know what?
You're awesome.
You know what we gotta do to win?
We're down by three.
We both need to get there.
Can you pull it off?
They go, yes, you go.
I trust you.
Go for it.
Which one is more effective as part of a team?
Obviously, the second one is more effective.
Yeah.
But you haven't been doing that at home.
Now, let's talk about why.
Why do you think?
I think it's really from really how I was raised, I guess,
when I think about it.
Tell me.
I just felt like my father just always was the money handler.
I mean, he just did a scrap.
It's scrapping.
He did just outlining his things.
He just did, he would go by multiple cars at once.
He would buy a big house.
He would just do all these things, as I was a kid.
Yeah, it was just a cool
time. And just to witness that at, you know, 10, 11, 12, what does that mean to you? To be
able to see your dad at the age of 10 go out and buy cars and all kinds of what did that
mean to you back then? Well, just men, I wanted to be like that. I wanted to always be able
to provide for my family through all the things he did
Mm-hmm, and so translate that for me today
Okay, we're not talking about buying multiple cars. That's not really on the table, but we are talking about what?
That control yeah
Yeah, talk me through it. It's really something. I don't even realize it until I'm called out on it actually. Yeah, it's kind of wild. It's something I don't even really realize. I like to think of myself as like a leader and kind of train. see how even some of my conflicts with certain situations in my past, I can see how that
can be an issue for me just sitting here thinking about some things.
I bet there's a lot to unpack.
I bet I'm going to have a lot of thinking.
I love watching you make that connection between you and your dad.
I think for every man, especially a man who's recently had three kids in a short amount
of time, you start to process things differently.
Most days, you wake up, you know how to brush your teeth.
You know how to do this stuff.
You're a master at it, but it's the big, uncertain things in life, like traveling to a different
country for the first time, eating at a fancy country for the first time,
eating at a fancy restaurant for the first time,
or the really big ones, having three kids in four,
five years, we don't know how we're gonna react.
And so what do we do?
We look around and we look around at the only examples
we know and who does that example happen to be in your life?
My father, my parents, yeah.
And so that's what we tend to lean on.
Doesn't mean you're a bad person.
That's what all of us do.
Now you can choose what parts of that you want to follow and maybe what parts you want to
chart a different path on. What do you think?
No, I totally agree. That's this is wild and we're trying so hard to set up our kids to be so further ahead of
everyone else and
so it
It's been a reality that me and her is kind of realized that we kind of were
We wish we had a different setup from from the beginning as far as money and how to handle it
and do things.
Watching Casey make these connections is why I truly love my job and why I'm so appreciative
of every couple that comes on this podcast.
Every single one, including Casey and Doni today.
I recently had a guy named Will Reynolds post something about this podcast
on Twitter. He said he over thinks 90% of small money decisions. He'll go six months thinking
about earbuds and then he'll end up buying a used pair. He called it crippling. And then he said, quote, I realize this listening to Remete's podcasts. It took me listening to 60 episodes
for it to click. Now, I really appreciate that message, first of all. So if you have anything
to say about this podcast, please post it, leave a review on Apple, post it on Twitter,
send me a DM, I love hearing your feedback. But I also want to point out that some of you
are listening to this podcast for the first time. Some of you have listened to over a hundred episodes. Yeah, you might immediately
recognize some of the lessons from these couples like when I have a million dollars, I'm not going
to magically feel good about money. Or wow, 50% of the people roommate talks to don't even know how
much money they make. But there are also subtle lessons. It may take you months or years for some of
these insights to sink in. That's fine. You have the rest of your life to live a rich
life. I think from that comment and from my guess that the real stars of this show are
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but what you just heard from Casey, as he suddenly realized that he wants control over his money just
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Well I'm talking about setting up for the future.
If I'm not available, if something happens, what if I need her to be able to manage everything?
I need her to be able to trust her with funds, not just in case something happens to me
down the line, but just in general.
Can I reframe that what you just said?
Yes.
Look what you just said.
I need to be able to trust her.
Reframed that, I need to trust her.
One is about some ephemeral force in the universe
that needs to force you to trust her.
That force does not exist.
The second is I need to change myself to trust her.
And right now, the reason that she's carefree and actually only asking these $20 questions
is that you haven't trusted her with the real stuff.
And you're actually doing a disservice to her.
Donnie's over here. She's shrinking herself, thinking that with money, it's
about asking her husband for $20. We're not talking about $20 questions here. We're talking
about setting yourself up and your family up to be secure, to be able to think bigger
than what's on the grocery store shopping list this week, it's gotta be bigger than that.
Yes.
So step one is not to be able to trust her,
it is to trust her starting right now.
Okay, separately Doni will have to improve her skills
and rise up to meet that challenge.
I feel very confident she
can. Doni, you think you can do it? Yes. Okay. I agree. Will there be a few mistakes
along the way? Of course. Is Doni probably gonna overspend in a couple of
areas? Probably. I don't mind it because that's how the two of you hash it up.
Casey, what would it take for you to trust me to go grocery shopping for the household?
Just sticking to our budget.
So, I mean, that's it.
We can stick to, I mean, I'll keep it simple.
We can stick to a budget without any crisis.
Okay, so not $75 a week, but what would the budget be?
That's what we need to work in a new budget.
Can we just do it right now?
Because you guys have been married five years.
Yes.
Let's literally do it in the next 30 seconds.
What's the number?
So we've been spending about 700 now.
So if we can get it to like, look, if we can get it
to five, I think is a win from seven.
And I think that's fair.
125, I guess.
I just want to cut in here to point out that Casey automatically started to answer, which
is another subtle sign of him wanting
financial control.
A true teammate would have said, Donnie, what do you think the number should be?
Now personally, this is just something small.
It isn't something to get hung up on, but it shows you how deep these identities can
go.
If you want to play a fun game with your partner, next time you're talking about money,
reverse the roles.
Reverse the roles of who talks first, who asks questions, and who answers, and watch
what happens.
I guarantee you, you will be surprised by what you uncover.
All right, great.
You both feel confident?
125 a week?
I think that's fair.
Yes.
All right.
Great.
Casey looks like he just played, you know, 15 innings of bait. I don't even know how many innings are in a baseball game.
Why do you look so tired?
That's a more so I hope we can do it.
Look, I'm just like, we've tried it before.
And I just know when it gets to that point,
I get kind of last for two weeks, maybe three.
I would say by before we go,
well, plan a day that we know we're gonna grocery shop,
have our list ready.
Doing pickup orders lets me know
that I will stay at the budget.
That's a fair answer.
Sounds great. I trust you.
I love you.
I love you.
High five.
That's great.
It's fun. There we go. High five. Take the win.
So I like it. Doni, you feel good?
At 125, sounds like Casey's trusting you a little bit more.
And I like that you own it. You're the owner.
So you're going to find a way one way or another and you told me I love your confidence earlier.
I'm like, are you a better shopper? You're like, yeah, I'm a better shopper. So I like that. That confidence,
it means I totally trust you to find a way to hit 125 a week. Do you feel good about that?
Yes, I do. All right. Done. So that means no more
weird text messages about grocery store transfers and all that stuff, right? Any other
comments or questions about the groceries? Because I'm seriously ready to not talk about
groceries anymore. Me too. I'm right there with you. Lord no more groceries our rich life has got to be bigger than the grocery store
All right, we did that we did that we did it we're moving on
Can we take a look at your numbers?
Yes, let's start with Donnie
Going over the net worth section Donnie read off assets and then the number next to it.
400 and 4,000.
Okay, cool.
Your investments.
Oh, 21,000.
Okay, your savings?
2000.
All right, and your debt.
310,000, $500. Okay. $310,500.
Okay, what is that your mortgage? What else?
Yes, um, student loans and consumer debt.
So your total net worth is how much? Just read that number for us.
$116,500. Okay, great. All right, that's your total net worth. What do you think about that number?
I guess higher than what I thought. What do you think?
We were in the hole. All right. Let's go to the income. Let's talk to Casey here. Casey,
your income here gross monthly income is what?
What? 4960 bucks. Okay. So on an annual basis, that's about $60,000. Okay. All right. Let's look at your fixed costs. What's this number here of your total fixed costs as a percentage
of take home? 94%. What do you think about that number? Not good. It's pretty high. Like extremely high. Do you know what number it's supposed to be?
No. Don't eat. Do you know? I think it was 30 percent. 50 to 60 percent.
Casey's sitting over here looking shocked right now. Casey, what's going through your head?
We're spending too much on stuff.
Well, we're going to talk about that.
Let's just establish that your fixed costs are really high.
Fine. Your investments are?
What's that number, Doni?
Zero.
Yeah. Your savings?
Anybody want to feel free to join me in here? Zero. Yeah. You're savings? Anybody want to feel free to join me in here?
Zero.
And everything else, which I don't believe, is $250.
So what's going on here?
If you were to evaluate this conscious spending plan, take yourselves out of it.
If you were just looking at someone else's, what would you say? Spending too much or not making enough both.
What else, Doni?
Yeah, they're not planning for the future.
Yeah, where do you see that part? The not planning.
The investments and savings.
Yeah, I agree. You know, sometimes you can kind of feel the energy of a room.
Like if you go to a like a restaurant or a museum or any type of place, you can feel the energy.
Like even at a club, there's like certain parts of the club that are hot at a museum. There's
like certain parts where everyone's crowd around. That's where the energy is. Where's the energy
where everyone's crowd around, that's where the energy is. Where's the energy in this conscious spending plan?
Where is it?
It's cause.
Yeah, look at all these numbers.
They're like dialed in, filled out,
but where's the complete lack of energy?
It's this.
Those are the reasons for savings.
Yeah, and also this one's just like offhandedly,
you just basically gave up by this point.
Can I tell you like for me in terms of wealth creation, all my energies here, investments.
That is where I get fired up because that is my future rich life and my guilt free spending.
That's where I'm fired up today. That's my eating out. You know, my travel is a big thing for me and for my wife.
So I just want to kind of point out the energy
that we see here.
It's what the two of you talk about all the time, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
And it's actually the thing that's syncing you.
Yes.
Don't you have to leave right now? What'd you do?
I don't really know. I mean, because it's hard to tell him that we need more money
because he can see that. But I don't feel like I want to say that we need more
income to be able to cover everything.
You don't want to say what's the obvious truth to your financial partner?
Feels like there's a lot of dancing around the truth in this relationship.
Am I reading that right?
Yeah, when he says he's stressed, I mean, that does hurt, you know, that I feel that as well.
And so I feel like I'm causing more stress by pointing that out.
And you ask each other what you would like the other person to do and how they could best support you. Have you ever asked
each other that question? No. Probably like an anger kind of like okay should I go get a job type
of thing? That's not that's like nice nice idea totally violating the spirit of that question.
Let's do it now when we're not in a fight.
I want to talk about that conversation on energy, and I don't use the word energy just because
I live in LA.
All right, the day you see me wearing a wide-brimmed hat with an inexplicable feather in it,
talking about cold plunges and how I'm micro-dosing,
you could just stop listening to this podcast.
Okay, I've lost it.
But my comment about energy is real.
I hear couples arguing about groceries for 20 years.
And I understand groceries are a heated topic
for a lot of people, it's vivid,
it's something you can see and touch every single week,
but my perspective on it as the perspective
of a rich life is
that they're a minor detail.
It's like arguing about what socks your son or daughter is wearing to their graduation
and forgetting the fact that they just graduated from college.
You can see this in every single person and every single CSP.
There's an obvious energy around certain areas.
Sometimes, it's credit card debt.
It's where they have a lot of numbers,
a lot of explanation. Sometimes it's car payments. Sometimes it's investments. Ask yourself in your
relationship where is your energy around money? What do you talk about a lot? What do you worry about
a lot? What do you write down notes about a lot? Now ask yourself if you want to change that.
My energy is around investments and guilt-free spending. This means that for investing,
I learned how it worked in detail. And I set up automatic investing for a diversified portfolio.
The same way you can learn about in chapter seven of my book. For guilt-free
spending, I love spending time and energy looking up our next travel destination, talking
to my travel friends, shopping for clothes and convenience. You've got to decide where
you want the energy to go. You might need to put more energy right now around student
loans, or you might need to put more energy right now around student loans,
or you might need to put more energy around income. You want to make more money? Join my
Ernival program. But be intentional about where you put your energy.
By the way, speaking of income, let me ask Casey about his earnings. Why are you only earning $60,000 a year?
I've been going through some things.
I was making upwards around 100,000 right before COVID. The fact of the matter is that at $60,000 a year,
it's very difficult to afford a family of five,
anywhere.
Okay, and I'm not even talking about having debt.
Yeah.
So that's the facts.
The facts is you have to increase your income.
And the whole time, the two of you have been sending these messages back and forth and
kind of playing small by arguing about 10 and 20 and $50 expenses and your house is actually on fire. And if
there's one thing I really don't like, it's people playing small in life. I actually
consider it a tragedy to live a smaller life than you have to.
Okay, so that is the single place that I would recommend.
Please try it.
Okay. So Casey, what do you feel would be the best way for me to help with our finances?
I wouldn't want you to have to get in the best way to help us with our finances.
I think it's sticking to our budget and helping me, helping me as well.
I must say, you know, and you've been doing that, you call me out sometimes when I spend things on
that you feel is in fear. Yeah, just continue to do your part on that in and sticking to the budget.
Yeah, just continue to do your part on that in and sticking to the budget. If we keep sticking within the budget, the budget or the conscious spending plan we created
shows us losing money every single month.
Right.
So, what are you really saying, Casey?
Yeah, that wouldn't work.
Still controlling.
Still going back to what you think is going to help,
but it actually, we're looking at the numbers
and objectively does not work.
Okay.
You're right.
All right.
I didn't, yeah, you're right.
Sometimes I think that because money is so overwhelming
and it's so complicated for us
and it's so interwoven
with family and gender and all kinds of dynamics, that we just have these phrases we just automatically
repeat.
Some people will say, I want to do what I want, when I want.
Some people will say the dream is to buy a house and send the kids to college.
We just repeat these phrases and we don't really think about
Is that what I want?
Is that what we are capable of doing and you may end up actually wanting to send the kids to college and road trip around the country or whatever it is you want
But I'm begging you and everyone watching and listening to really
Stop automatically answering these questions
and really dive deep.
It is so important.
So can we try that again?
Yes.
Yes.
So, you know, we've been working on a lot of things about getting your business back to
back and running and our nonprofit going.
How can I help more with that to actually increase our revenue?
We've talked about that, but you're right.
I think now is the time for us to make that transition, which everything happens for a reason.
The timing is just, timing is everything.
And I just believe that now is our time to really work towards getting my business back
on.
I understand the sacrifice that I might have to be gone a little bit to do that, to get
it going.
You know how I feel about being gone.
Are you suddenly taking on all this work yourself?
It sounds like you are.
I thought she was offering to help.
So he would travel a lot.
But he has people that work under him.
And I was like, if you can increase the amount of people
that you have work in under you,
you won't have to travel as much.
Yes, you will make less money,
but you could still have some type of extra income. Okay, sounds amazing. Any issue?
No, actually, there's no issue. Actually, she's, um, she's right. She did suggest that and I acted on it.
I actually reached out to my old business partner of mine
and I put that in motion.
Got things in motion, I love that.
I wonder if I posed a challenge to you, Casey,
which is I want your new business to generate $X,000,
whatever it is, it could take time to grow up, but you spend less than two hours a week on it. How would you make that happen?
I can make that happen. I would use those two hours to set up any work.
I'm just wondering, is there anyone in this room
who's got some time available
that they might be really good at doing that?
Anyone?
Me.
Hey, C, do you understand the point of my question?
It's not for you to do it.
Your wife, the one who came up with this idea is sitting here saying, put me here and coach.
I need you to advocate for yourself and for this new path that the two of you want to create.
If you don't speak up, the two of you are going to recreate the same things
you learn from your parents. Casey's going to be here trying to get more and more control
becoming increasingly unhappy. And you, Doni, are going to feel like a caged animal. And
anytime you finally get access to a little bit of credit or cash, you're going to go wild.
Because who knows when the next time will come about.
That's not a healthy relationship with each other or with money.
So the answer is sitting here in front of you.
Yes.
Honey, I would love to help you.
I can call and schedule the people to go out, whatever else you need.
That's actually great. I don't even know what to say. I think I know you have so much on your plate, and I'm just so grateful for what you do. But yes, that is something that you called out
before, just letting us know that we need more money coming in. That idea is the best idea.
Actually, I'm really excited. Just talking and thinking about the
reality of everything coming in motion. I'm really excited. You know, you two are at your best
like this. When you're going back and forth as a team, when you're complimenting each other,
I can see there's a lot of love. it's very obvious, and where most importantly, you're trusting each other.
And the money part happens to be a very nice byproduct.
And I wanna actually show you
what that money could do for you.
Let's take a look.
So right now, you have 94% of your money
going to fix costs.
Let's just assume at some point in the future, this business
can generate 2,500 of take home pay for you per month. Seems fairly modest. Let's just say,
watch the number, the 94% fixed costs. Watch. Drops to 61%.
Look at that relief on Casey's face. He just took a big old breath. You just
see that, Donnie? I never saw that guy get as much oxygen as he just did right now. Unbelievable.
Donnie, how would that feel to hear? Sounds really good. It would feel good.
Yeah. And do you think that you could, that's a lot of expectation. That's a lot of responsibility
he would be handing over. You think you'd be able to meet that? Yes, I already do a lot of work
within our nonprofit and, you know, helping him with, with every ask me for. So. Love that answer.
I love that confidence. Casey, you got a great partner here. I do, I really do. I agree, 100%.
That was an example of how sometimes I have to shake couples
out of their patterns.
These patterns are so deep, they don't even recognize it.
Like Casey's starting to give this long,
winded answer and not even realizing
that he can ask Donnie for help.
Now I will say the cool thing is, once I pointed it out,
they instantly got it.
That is very promising. And now you've got to hear this wild card that came out of left
field. Now I understand that there is one big additional wrinkle in your finances. Something
that's coming up pretty soon. I need to understand what this is. I saw it in my notes and I was like, what?
All right, tell me about this.
Hi, honey, you want to tell them.
And we have an India, so we can only say what so much. But prior to me and only getting together, I invested with a company.
me and Donnie getting together. I invested with a company. Once we got together, she also started investing. We're at the point now to where the company is being sold and we're
going to get our payout for this company. It's a very great thing for us right now. And
I'm really, really, this will actually relieve a lot of pressure just to be honest.
What are we talking about? Like 50 bucks? How much you guys make it from this?
It's wild. We're going to be in the seven figures.
You're going to make seven figures from this investment?
Yes.
What is seven figures? How much is that?
It's about 1.5.
Damn! Okay!
All right, congratulations. How do you feel about that?
That's a whole new
stress level.
So what are you gonna do with this money?
A lot of things, a few things. We will be paying off obviously our debts.
Can we just clarify that because I'm really curious. Your mortgage is how much?
Our mortgage right now is about 250.
Okay, and what else do you have?
We have 80,000 in like consumer debt.
Can you break it down for me?
How much is the car?
So the car is 16,000 on the car.
What else was it?
We have like, student loans of student loans of about 19,000
for the student loans.
Credit card?
We have 16,000 credit card.
Okay.
I have a business loan that I need today, 20k.
Okay.
I'm getting a little worried.
Yeah.
Do you know why?
No, why?
Because if you got into all this debt,
I'm worried you're about to make $1.5 million
and you're gonna end up right back where you were.
Are you worried about that or no?
Yes, that's why we need your help. Are you worried, Casey?
I am going to be more optimistic than worried.
The plan is to pay off the debt and not get back in debt.
That's it. That's the whole dream.
Making a life-changing money and just pay off debt,
that's it.
What are you gonna do to fix the spending problem
and lack of investments and savings?
We kind of have a list of everything
that we're gonna do in the order.
Tell me, what's the order? Tell me.
So we're gonna first take care of the consumer debt
to 80,000.
The mortgage as well. We're gonna take care of that.
You're gonna pay your mortgage off completely.
What's your interest rate, by the way?
It's at a 2.62.
Okay, go on.
We're gonna actually reinvest of some of the funds,
about 100K is what we were thinking for investments.
Where are you gonna reinvest that? Any idea or not yet?
Yes, we have a slight idea. Right now, I can't speak on that right now.
Okay, fine. What else?
And then I have a non-profit, so I wanted to actually donate to my non-profit.
How much?
About 200.
200? Okay, Fine. What else? I'm going to get a vehicle for my
company, a Tesla, about 90. Okay. And then we're going to upgrade the vehicle. Just get a newer model
of the vehicle we have now, which will be about 50, but I don't think so. I think it'll be about 30.
50, but I don't think so. I think it'll be about 30. The value of our band now at 20,000. So we'll add another 30 to it. Okay.
We were getting to also invest in solar panels for the home. How much?
It's about 48,000. Okay. What else?
She means a lasecic eye surgery Okay. How about 5,000? Okay.
She also needs braces.
Uh-huh.
Doni, that's 8,000.
Uh-huh.
And that's what we, that's where we're at right now.
All right.
So, how much if you add that all that up, have you ever calculated how much all that
costs?
It's about a little under a million. What do you think of this plan?
Leave a comment below.
I will tell you that I am extremely alarmed by this plan.
Okay, that's my feedback right now.
Well, you're only taking home ballpark 800K.
Yes.
Are you guys going into more debt after getting $1.5 million?
Because if so, I have really failed at my job.
No, definitely not.
We don't do that.
All right, so let's talk about it.
Donnie, what do you think about all those, the list of items you want to put the money towards?
Oh, I agree with it.
I made the list.
First of all, I think it's amazing that you made the list. That's the way to do it. You get to have the best conversation in your life.
Hey, we have all this money coming in. What do we want to do with it?
That's a fantastic conversation. I love that.
I like conceptually that you started off by saying we want to pay,
you know, the consumer debt. I'm just rolling all that in.
You want to reinvest 100K, okay, non-profit vehicle,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I can tell, you know, it kind of goes down to the more
discretionary, fun stuff. Can I ask you a question? What do you think I would do if I were in
this situation? I would say you would probably invest your money and then spend off that return.
Okay, that's interesting.
All right.
What do you think?
Casey's like looking shocked right now, shell shocked.
What do you think?
I thought that was a good answer, actually.
Yeah.
Right.
All right.
Yeah, I would do that.
Let me tell you what I would do.
If I were in this situation, first of all, I would give each other a big fat kiss and I would say, well done. This is awesome. I love you. That's great.
Let's assume that just for easy math, I took home 800k.
Okay. Personally, I'm speaking now as me, not somebody with three kids, but just me, I would invest
$600 to $650,000 of that money.
Let me tell you why.
Because at a young age, a one-time investment of that magnitude turns into millions and millions of dollars.
These kind of things, windfalls do not come around that often.
If you can take a windfall like that and you can basically invest it for the future, you
have given yourself the greatest gift of all, the gift of future security and wealth.
Let me talk about you because ultimately that's what's the most important.
Maybe you don't take 650K and invest it.
Maybe it's 400K, just to make up an easy number.
Maybe you pay off, you definitely pay off
your credit cards, your business loan,
your car, and your student loans.
Pay all that off.
I'm gonna suggest that if I were in your situation,
I would not pay that mortgage off.
I would not prepay a cent.
Do you know why?
Why?
The interest rate.
It's so low, I mean, it is historically low
that if you're paying 2.6%, that's essentially free.
Okay?
I know that if I took the money and invested it in an index fund, I could make around
7% per year.
So why would I want to pay extra for something that is free when I could make more by putting
that money into the market. Okay? Some people hate debt. They just hate it.
And no matter how many charts I show them, they don't care.
They're like, get this debt away.
It's like a spider. They just hate it.
And so for them, I go, look, it's going to cost you a lot of money.
But if you truly hate debt, okay, you want to pay it off early?
Fine.
It might cost you $400,000 in interest or whatever.
Fine.
If you hate it, that's your call.
Personally, I'm very comfortable having a mortgage payment.
You know, your mortgage is 1560 a month.
And instead of paying it off, you decided to take that money and intentionally put it in investments.
All right. Can I also just point out a couple things that make me a little nervous?
I don't love all this vehicle stuff. I really don't. It just seems to me like another way for
you to get into a bunch of debt. And I know it seems like 800,000 take home or more is a lot of money,
but it goes fast when you're when you're talking about
$90,000 purchases here and 90 that it's it's fast. If it were me, I would hold off on all that stuff
as long as possible. Trust me, when you're making so much money, you don't know what to do if you can go
out and get the ball or Tesla, but you're setting yourself up for the rest of your family's future.
And this is a lot of change happening at once. I wouldn't, I would as much as possible hold off
on the vehicle.
I would hold off on that nonprofit donation.
Maybe there's some tax implications, okay?
But like 200K out of 800K is a huge amount of money.
Huge.
Just consider it.
All right, you can always do 25 now
and you can do more later when you two of you are making 20 grand
a month, but you can't go the other way.
The lacy and the braces seem like a no-brainer to me.
I would do that.
You're taking over 800K.
You should get the lacy.
That's what I would do.
But that's again, just my personal opinion. It's your money
is your rich life. What do you think about that?
I think you make a very good point. The opportunity to be on this
podcast with you is we feel like was just such an honor and the timing was impeccable because
we needed this to help us survive what's coming.
We don't want to just be, you know,
oh, it happened and now it's over.
We want to make sure that this type of windfall
can not only of course change our lifestyle now,
but to change my kids' future as well.
So let me show you something on screen, okay?
I need your help to fill this out. So
right now you have $21,000 invested. How old are you and Doni? I am 41. She is 30. Okay. Let's just
split the difference. All right, let's say you're both 35 just for easy math. So that means you got
another 30 years for that money to grow and what interest
rate should we assume? Let's say 7%. If you're watching or listening, you don't know why.
Go reach chapter 6 of my book. All right, so that 21,000 you have turns into about $160,000
just from doing nothing. All right, nice, not really enough for you to do anything with, but okay.
for you to do anything with, but okay.
Let's say we take $100,000, okay?
And we invest it. That's 100 of the roughly 800,000 you're gonna, okay?
That turns into $921,000.
That's by the time you retire by the way, that's age 65.
What do you say we take $400,000?
That turns into $3 million.
And just out of curiosity, Casey, what do you think this number is going to be?
It's hard to predict.
It's big.
Yeah, it's going to be big. That yeah. It's hard to predict. It's big.
Yeah, it's going to be big.
That's $4.7 million.
Wow.
Now, keep this in mind.
I want to point out what this means.
You have this one time windfall coming in.
If all you do is make one decision in your life, which is to invest $200 or $ 400 or $600,000
once and you never touch it again.
You'll be a multi, multi, multi, multi millionaire.
Has nothing to do with arguing over the price
of bounty paper towels?
I really appreciate what you're saying,
because that helps me with what I wanted to do initially
to just sit on it, just take a breath, take a breather,
instead of just moving too hasty.
So I agree 100%.
I think that will work best for us.
I think Doni will be on board.
I mean, I'm sure she is.
Mm-hmm, yes.
That money is amazing, and you two, you know, you invested well, great job. I mean, I'm sure she is. Mm-hmm, yes.
That money is amazing, and you two, you know, you invested well, great job, but I don't
want you to treat it like a crutch that solves your day-to-day problems, because those
problems will come right back if you don't fix them.
That's, yeah.
That's very true.
It actually gives me a little bit more relief, too relief to just see those numbers so that we don't
get back in this situation with this windfall.
Because as you see, it could happen very easily.
Extremely easily.
Extremely easy.
For me, the key lessons here are number one, decide where the energy of your conversations
around money are today and where you want them to be tomorrow.
For Donia and Casey, their energy is around groceries, but I believe their real energy should
be around communication, investing, and their children.
Number two, connect your behavior with how you grew up.
It takes a lot of work to introspect, and you can do it with a podcast, a therapist.
You can start my book in Journal and and money coaching program, but understand why you behave the way you do with money.
And number three, if you have a one time windfall, making the right decision can affect the
rest of your life. So get that decision right. Now I really enjoyed speaking with both Donnie and Casey today.
Thank you both for sharing your story. Now let's hear their follow-ups starting with Donnie.
What surprised me about the call was how professional or meet was how he was able to ask the tough questions.
It wasn't just about finances, it was about our relationship in general.
My biggest takeaways from the call was we need to continue improving our communication about finances.
I want to be more involved and be more vocal about how I can help and see whatever my husband needs so
that I can help him more and just have an overall understanding of what our finances are.
We have decided to hold off paying off our house and we will be investing and saving a lot more
than originally planned.
So, and also just adding in like what actually brings us
joy and what is more realistic in our,
and what we want and for our children in the future as well.
Thank you so much for the call
and we really appreciated that.
Thank you.
And now let's hear from Casey.
Hey, yeah, so I was super surprised by, I guess the influence of our parents and the
effect they had on our spending habits and kind of not knowing about investing for a future. Kind of hear that, you know,
as a kid that you know you should do this so that when you're older, you know, you, you,
you're set up. I think life just happens and just become just trying to survive instead
of just putting something aside for the future. So a big takeaway was I'm gonna have to just make sure I trust my wife with
spending at the grocery store. So what we're doing is gonna create a great
budget, a realistic budget for groceries that we're just gonna stick to no matter
how many times you go out the week. We are gonna hold off from hanging our home
off. We have a great interest rate. We're just going to put that money
kind of in holding how you'll save into account. And then we're going to also put more money towards investments in the future, just to change the path of our generation going forward. So
thanks again. Thank you, Doni and Casey. And for everybody listening, if you enjoy hearing about money psychology,
then you should get on my free podcast newsletter at iwt.com slash podcast newsletter.
Every Saturday, I send out a new insight about money psychology that you will not find on
any other newsletter.
Iwt.com slash podcast newsletter.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening to I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I'm Remeteed Saiti. Please follow the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you haven't read, I will teach you to
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