TDLR
In this episode, Crystal and Lanea introduce themselves and discuss their backgrounds and current financial situations. They talk about the struggles parents face with day-to-day finances and the lack of necessary financial support from the government. They also share their experiences with infertility and the challenges of finding affordable childcare.
Crystal discusses her recent move to New York and buying a house, while Lanea talks about her plans for real estate investments and finding a larger home. They both emphasize the importance of budgeting and setting financial goals.
The Transcript
Crystal (00:00)
Hello and welcome. My name is Crystal and I’m the founder of the Piggy Bank Patrol podcast where we believe in the power of parents talking about money that can break generations of secrecy and instill financial literacy for future generations. With me today is my lovely co -founder and host, Lanea Hi.
Lanea (00:16)
Hi.
Crystal (00:18)
Today is a special episode. It’s our first official release of what is to be many more. With that, I want to preface that nothing in this podcast is legal or financial advice. Everything we say is our own opinion and you should consult the proper channels when making decisions that impact your life and your family’s life. We take no responsibility for your choices.
Lanea (00:38)
None.
Crystal (00:39)
Now I don’t know about you, but my britches have been on fire to get this website and podcast rolling, I have over 20 amazing articles to edit and publish over the next few weeks. And I’m working with our assistant, Samantha, to create free guides for our fellow parents in finance. Lanea this is such an important topic. Parents in our country are struggling, not just with time management or childcare, but with the day -to -day finances as well.
We come from a generation that’s been set up to fail, not just by the government, which arguably has the responsibility to support our success so that we can achieve sustained economic growth, but by our own parents and past generations. It wasn’t until just recently women were allowed to open a bank account without a husband or male family member after all.
But this is supposed to be a, thank you. But this is supposed to be a fun lighthearted episode. So let’s introduce ourselves a bit more. For those that don’t already know us, Lanea and I met through work. Can you share a bit about your background and some maybe big financial things in your life right now?
Lanea (01:27)
beautifully said.
So my name is Lanea and like Crystal said, we met at work. We were both fiscal auditors at State Department of Medicaid. I knew that Crystal and I would click pretty much from the first moment that I met her. When she, it was love at first sight. She had a fire sign, asked me about fire at her desk. And then I knew that we would just get along.
Crystal (02:02)
It was love.
Lanea (02:12)
beautifully. I think that we really bonded over complaining about work and our husbands and our financial goals. That’s really what brings us here today. We also both have two babies. So I am a mom of a current seven month old. And like Crystal, we pretty much tracked everything at work finance wise and
Crystal (02:18)
Yep.
Lanea (02:34)
I track all my personal finances as well. from the pre -conception, we did IVF. So that’s a whole other topic. From pre -conception through birth and everything in between and his early childhood, I’ve been tracking our finances and I have a lot to share.
Crystal (02:43)
Mm
Which is awesome, because I don’t think that this topic is talked about enough. I know it’s come up in the political landscape because that’s where we’re at right now, but it really the actual data financially is lacking.
Lanea (03:04)
And I think that there is a transparency issue and I totally understand it. I know that it can be a taboo subject. You know, consider myself very middle class. So I think middle of the road and I live in the Midwest. So I think I have a perspective as far as what my expenditures are that are really real life and very similar to.
a lot of people in a lot of situations.
Crystal (03:34)
And the Midwest too, it’s different between the coast and the Midwest, just like for how accessible it is as well. Again, thanks to politics.
Lanea (03:45)
Yeah, yeah. Help. I was, you know, just my son is in daycare, full time daycare. I work full time as well as my husband. And we were talking the other day, were, you know, listening to an interview that and I forgot who it was, but we were listening to an interview and it came up that the dependent care accounts, the
the non -tax or the tax -free contributions up to five grand a year that was started in, I believe, the early 1980s and has not been adjusted since. And when it was started, think daycare was around, the average price of daycare was around $3 ,200 a year. And now that is some families’ monthly expenditures. And it is per household.
So it’s not even per child or per working adult, it’s per household.
Crystal (04:41)
God forbid you have triplets. Someone’s gonna have to stay home. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Lanea (04:43)
my gosh, probably wouldn’t be working at that point.
Crystal (04:48)
so I also struggled with infertility. It was a little bit different because it was male factor, which ladies, the males take 50 % of the blame. Doctors blame?
Lanea (05:00)
Ours was male factor as well.
Crystal (05:03)
Doctors blame women. We went to the urologist and they’re like, it’s your problem. And I’m like, no, test my husband. like ours was from COVID. So that’s what it is. But yeah, so about five months ago, I quit my steady government job and gave birth to our son. I plan to stay home for the next year, but I’m exploring ways to make kind of like this the permanent
thing due to lack of childcare services in the area because not only did I move from Nebraska to possibly get IVF in New York, I bought a house in the Adirondacks. I literally live in a town of 15 ,000 people. It’s awesome because there’s a white sand beach 10 minutes from my house and there’s mountains 10 minutes from my house, but there’s no childcare. I’m the childcare.
Lanea (05:40)
you
Crystal (05:53)
There’s no options. So it is what it is. What kind of a big financial moves are you or have you done since having a baby?
Lanea (06:05)
So we are our next we want to do a couple things. We really want to get in more into real estate. We would love to do rental properties, but the market is pretty tight where we live, surprisingly. It’s it’s insane.
Crystal (06:19)
It’s abysmal. It’s abysmal.
Yep.
Lanea (06:26)
no other word than why I don’t want to live where I live. I don’t understand why other people want to live where I
wait, yeah.
Crystal (06:32)
The grass is greener, but it’s hard to find it now. The pastures are drying up. It’s going to be… It’s… It’s… Yeah.
Lanea (06:40)
And you know, we both work full time too. So just the time commitment of that, but we are currently saving our little hearts off for either rental properties or I really want to move. Our house is extremely small. I think it’s 950 square feet for a family of three.
Crystal (06:44)
That’s rough.
My god, that’s smaller than my, the rental house that I rented in New York when I moved here!
Lanea (07:09)
It’s very small, but our mortgage is very cheap. is $861 a month currently. So I don’t want to give that up.
Crystal (07:21)
Okay but I have a 3 ,000 square foot house for $1 ,150.
Lanea (07:27)
Yeah, I couldn’t find that in Lincoln. It doesn’t exist. Yeah.
Crystal (07:28)
with a yard.
I know, I know, it’s gone, it’s gone. Pre -COVID, yes, now, no, and do you wanna know what? Where I moved? This town of 15 ,000? There’s no houses now on the market. My house has appreciated $40 ,000 in the last three months.
Lanea (07:48)
What? That’s insane.
Crystal (07:51)
Yeah, I know.
Lanea (07:53)
Yeah. Yeah. So that that doesn’t exist in Lincoln. And we I we don’t know where we want to end up, to be completely honest. We have family where we live, which is really nice. But the cost of living with the amenities that are available and the help that we get from our government is just.
not there. So it will be interesting where we where we end up as well. But we want to be settled in the next four years before our baby starts kindergarten. So five years.
Crystal (08:32)
and as someone who’s moved schools like all the time, it’s rough on the kids once they get like their friend group and then you move. So that’s good idea.
Lanea (08:40)
Yeah, we don’t we don’t really plan to move once he after he goes to kindergarten. So we’re looking for our forever house or at least the next foreseeable future house. Yeah, something like that. And his definition and my definition are different. And I think it’s just going to cost a lot of money. So we are saving.
Crystal (08:53)
20 years house.
Yeah.
Right.
That’s, you know, you’re doing the best you can with what you got. I think in this, you know, in this country, that’s what we’re all doing right now. So, doing a good job.
Lanea (09:14)
Absolutely.
How about you, Crystal?
Crystal (09:17)
Big financial move. Well last year I moved to New York from Nebraska. That’s fine. This year I bought a house but the house that I bought came with caveats to have the house that I wanted. I had to negotiate with a seller who was moving to Florida and who did not want to negotiate. I had to do a lot of things but most importantly between the down payment, the closing costs and repairing the house to make it livable because it needed a new roof I blew through
like $30 ,000 and keep in mind I don’t have my government job anymore so yeah I mean I guess like it appreciated $40 ,000 so I’m good but at the same time like it is what it is and we also moved here to have an orchard but I don’t have an orchard because I couldn’t afford a place with land right now so yeah
Lanea (09:48)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Crystal (10:14)
My short -term financial goal is to get our spending like stabilized. We’re pretty stabilized now, but every single like month the baby needs different things like high chairs. Because he’s eating now. Yeah, there’s always something new that a pregnancy brain me didn’t think about.
Lanea (10:26)
Isn’t that the truth? Yes.
Yeah, mine is baby related and just life related too. We haven’t been, we’ve been saving, but we could definitely do a better job. But it seems like expenses just come up. And this is coming, like I said, this is coming from a person that budgets and has budgeted for years. I have sinking funds. I budget.
Crystal (10:46)
Exactly.
Yeah, you budget budget. I’m YOLO budget. I have a rough estimate in my head and that’s it. It’s not like you write it down
Lanea (11:04)
I use three different apps at this point, not because I have to, but because I like it. I like it. It’s not even that it’s my system, I just tested out one of them and then I liked it so that I continued with it. And then I was like, I’ll just test out another one that’s like a completely different system. And I liked it, so I continued with it. Plus,
Crystal (11:06)
my god. That’s your system. Yeah.
Nice. Girl, maybe someday they’ll sponsor us.
Lanea (11:31)
Plus, hot off the press, but I haven’t told you, but I’ve had a website that is not live or anything like that. I’ve done nothing with it, but it’s literally about budgeting because I’m that passionate about budgeting.
Crystal (11:45)
Do it! Make it live!
Lanea (11:47)
Yeah, it’s called building a budget .com. Yeah. I got the good one. Yeah. It was only.
Crystal (11:51)
You got the good one! That’s expensive! If you ever want to sell it, could probably turn it for a hot hot dime.
Lanea (11:59)
You
But yeah, so I’ve never done anything with it, but I’m really passionate about budgeting, so.
Crystal (12:06)
That’s awesome. I think we’re going to talk a lot about budgeting. Cross market that.
Lanea (12:10)
I love it. I’m here for it.
Crystal (12:14)
get that goods. But yeah, I’m like right now long term I’m I want to have the orchard and I like do stuff but at the same time I need flexibility. If I go back to work my jobs are with the government an hour away.
Lanea (12:32)
Yeah.
Crystal (12:32)
That’s not, I don’t want to drive 10 hours a week to a job that doesn’t, the pay isn’t, it doesn’t add up. Not at the end of the day.
Lanea (12:41)
isn’t there, yeah. Not in public service. And we both work in public, know, plan to, yeah, we’re in the public sector.
Crystal (12:49)
Yeah, we’re in that sector.
Yeah. So.
I ran out of talking topics, but I think that was really nice.
Lanea (12:58)
I love it, leave it in there.
Crystal (13:00)
Awesome. want to leave our listeners with some type of homework. I want you guys to think about how you budget. Do you even budget? Do you budget, bro? Like, do you lift? Do you budget? And if you don’t, figure it out. Why do you not do it? And do it.
Lanea (13:22)
Well, I think it’s important to talk about like, why do we see value in it? Because it can be, you know, work or even if it’s not work, it is confronting reality. And that is, that’s hard. Yeah, that is hard for a lot of people. Like when I enter my big transactions, like my stupid ones, I’m like, ugh, like it is…
Crystal (13:35)
Yeah, it’s stressful.
Hmm.
Lanea (13:48)
It is hard to reconcile every month and realize like, my gosh, I wasted eight grand. Like, what do I have to show for it?
Crystal (13:55)
Yeah. About one thirteen thousand dollar check for the down payment on the house, like…
Lanea (14:02)
Well, and that, you know, like that’s hard, but at least you have something to show for that. There are so many months where I’m like, yeah, I have nothing. was this like, does this help me? Like, am I happier because of this?
Crystal (14:16)
girl
We’re like breaking even right now because I’m not actually working and I went to Target and they had a sweater. It’s summer, but they had a cute pink sweater on sale that said Sante with wine bottle and you bet I bought it because it was on clearance for 10 bucks.
Lanea (14:34)
Nice. Yeah, I mean, you have to like and it’s I think budgeting isn’t necessarily about restrictions so much as it is about are you spending your money according to your goals and your priorities? You know, like it’s it’s not about like self -deprivation all the time, but there’s just times where I’m like, yeah, I went a little overboard and that doesn’t help me get to where I want to be.
Crystal (15:02)
Exactly. Are you guys even listening? Are you even listening to her? Because she knows what she’s talking about. Budget Queen.
Lanea (15:12)
I need to be budgeting.
Crystal (15:14)
I think we need to rename you. You’re not the finance host, you’re the budget queen.
Lanea (15:19)
The budget queen!
I’m okay with that. I could talk about budgeting for hours, hundreds of hours.
Crystal (15:28)
That’s great because we’ve got hundreds of hours ahead of us.
Lanea (15:29)
Hahaha
Crystal (15:31)
Well, we’re at the 18 minute mark guys. Lanea, do you think that we’re good to go for now? Alright guys, do your homework. We’ll see you in the next episode. Bye.
Lanea (15:37)
Cut it off. Cut it off.
Bye.
Takeaways
- Parents face challenges with day-to-day finances and lack of necessary government support.
- Affordable childcare is a major issue for many families.Crystal and Lanea share their experiences with infertility.
- Crystal discusses her recent move to New York and buying a house.
- Lanea talks about her plans for real estate investments and finding a larger home.
- Budgeting is important for achieving financial goals.
Sound Bites
“Parents in our country are struggling, not just with time management or childcare, but with the day-to-day finances as well.”
“This topic (IVF) is not talked about enough. The actual data financially is lacking.”
“Dependent care accounts have not been adjusted since the early 1980s, while the average price of daycare has significantly increased.”