Summary
Lanea and Crystal discuss various aspects of personal finance, focusing on the challenges of managing debt, the importance of budgeting, and strategies for avoiding financial pitfalls. They explore the behavioral aspects of debt, the impact of vehicle ownership on financial stability, and the considerations involved in mortgage decisions. The discussion emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to financial management, highlighting the significance of understanding one’s financial behavior and making informed choices.
Takeaways
- People often face shame and blame regarding financial struggles.
- High-interest debt should be prioritized for repayment.
- Vehicles can be a significant source of financial trouble.
- Understanding credit card interest is crucial for financial health.
- Debt management strategies include the snowball and avalanche methods.
- Behavioral aspects play a major role in financial decision-making.
- Avoiding debt requires addressing underlying behavioral issues.
- Budgeting is essential for effective financial management.
- Using credit cards responsibly can provide benefits if managed well.
- Mortgage decisions should consider long-term financial goals.
Transcript
Crystal (00:00)
Hi, I’m Crystal, the founder of the Piggy Bank Patrol, a podcast that gets parents talking about money. Myself, along with my co -founder, Lanea are financial analysts and new parents. We want to empower parents to learn healthy money behaviors while breaking cycles and teach children about money.
As always, the piggy bank patrols content is intended for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and is not to be taken as legal, financial investment, or tax advice of any kind.
Crystal Chabot (00:31)
Hey, what’s the best way to prioritize my debt payoff? I only have a mortgage, a little bit on my credit cards, and a student loan.
Lanea (00:40)
If it was me, I would go after your high interest, so your consumer debt, your credit card debt.
Crystal Chabot (00:49)
Okay, that’s under a thousand so I could just pay it off right now if I wanted.
Lanea (00:55)
I would probably do that if you didn’t have, if you had any interest cruel on it.
Crystal Chabot (01:00)
I don’t. I’ve never paid a dime in interest. I’m a really bad example for debt payoff.
Lanea (01:03)
Nice. See ya.
See, I think I’m a pretty decent example because my financial journey is hard fought. Like I’m doing good now, but I wasn’t always doing good. I had consumer debt.
I had medical debt because I had to have surgery without great insurance, like a really, really high deductible. So I had medical debt and this was, I don’t know, probably 10 years ago now. So it’s been like a hot minute. But yeah, I had. Yes, yeah, yeah, legitimately like.
Crystal Chabot (01:26)
Mm-hmm.
like on the cusp of the ACA? Shit. God. no. Yeah, I had some medical debt from before then, too. That was a nightmare.
Lanea (01:43)
like right before it.
Yeah, yeah. So like, literally like the year before. Yeah, I had medical debt and that went into collections. So I had to get that taken care of. And then I had some credit card debt too. And I’ve actually had credit card debt a couple times, once was really small. And then we had like several
Nothing crazy, not like 20 plus, but it was probably around five, And then after I ended my last long-term relationship, just with transitioning and everything, I had
a couple thousand too. That one was more short lived like I had to plan with that. was more like a life kind of came versus other spending issues.
Crystal Chabot (02:37)
Yeah.
Lanea (02:41)
And actually, I don’t think any of my or at least the large portion of my debt has always been not so much consumer debt. even the credit card debt I had was primarily not all because I’ll take responsibility for it. But some of it was related to school, too.
I can’t remember the overall figure, but I think it was close to 20 for everything. And the car was kind of thrown in there too. But, I’ve clawed my way out before.
Crystal Chabot (03:05)
you
That’s
I’ve seen people get into some really bad situations, so I kind of try to avoid that as much as I can.
Lanea (03:22)
yeah, and I mean, I think at this point it’s a little bit different in my life, but at that point, if you don’t, you know better, but you don’t know better too.
Crystal Chabot (03:32)
It could be all encompassing sometimes.
Lanea (03:35)
Yeah, well, I think people can get in real big trouble and not even know, and there’s a lot of shame and blame with it too, even though, for instance, in my case, the vast majority of mine was medical. But it’s not like you can control emergency surgery. But there’s still shame with that.
Crystal Chabot (03:54)
No.
Yeah, it’s like, how dare I slip and break my collar bone? How dare my appendix burst? Like, what?
Lanea (04:06)
Mine is with my gallbladder, but yeah, like that damn gallbladder. Yeah. Well, and there’s also there’s a lot of extremes when it comes to debt. on one side you have Dave Ramsey, which is like get rid of everything, you know, and then other people are like, no, leverage your leverage up into your eyeballs. So like they’re they’re just depending on.
Crystal Chabot (04:09)
Your golf-owner’s like, bye. I’m done.
Yeah.
Yeah, you could probably make more in the stock market.
Lanea (04:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s just like, you know, like there’s like a balance there. But for me personally, I’m more of a high interest debt person. So I think if you have any debt that is seven percent or greater, I think that you should really try to pay it off. I also am linking that to if it’s depreciating assets, so if it’s like consumer debt or
Crystal Chabot (04:42)
right.
Lanea (05:02)
credit card debt or furniture or personal loans, like get rid of it.
Crystal Chabot (05:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, because eventually what you have is going to be worth nothing.
Lanea (05:10)
Well, yeah, yeah, and it’s just, especially like credit cards, credit cards compound daily. So, you know, that’s something to consider. Have you ever had a loan for a vehicle?
Crystal Chabot (05:17)
Ugh.
No.
Lanea (05:25)
Never.
Crystal Chabot (05:26)
car that I have now, my dad was kind of like, you graduated and made it. Sorry, I didn’t do much. Here’s a car. But he, I found out when he was visiting the other day, the other day, the, the couple of weeks ago, the only reason he signed it over into my name is because he thought it was going to break and he didn’t want to pay the bill. Guess what? It’s still running.
Lanea (05:46)
What?
Are you for real?
Crystal Chabot (05:51)
Yeah, because it’s a high mileage car. Like now it’s got 180 something plus thousand miles on it and he didn’t want to pay to fix it. But the most I’ve ever spent on it, I think in the like the last five years, even just like importing and exporting it back and forth between the US and Canada, think I like maybe maxed out around 2500.
Lanea (06:12)
crazy.
I a lot of people get in trouble with vehicles because it’s kind of a need and kind of a want. So the vast majority of people that live in the US and I’m speaking from the Midwest, do not have access to public transportation. Like you could not live in Nebraska, especially if you’re in rural Nebraska without a vehicle. It’s just not a possibility. Like you need a car, but then like how much of a car.
Crystal Chabot (06:18)
you
yeah.
Yep.
Lanea (06:42)
do you need and how much do you get? And the majority of people also don’t have an emergency fund. vehicle maintenance and repairs tend to be pricey. if you don’t have the means to fix it, then I think people on average, you know, tend to spend more so they can get a low mileage car. And, you know,
Crystal Chabot (06:54)
Mm-hmm.
Lanea (07:10)
not have to worry as much about maintenance and repairs as well. I see more people get in trouble with vehicles than really anything else.
Crystal Chabot (07:20)
when I think about like all of my like friends and coworkers and things, I think it’s the car that hits them the most usually.
Lanea (07:29)
Yeah, Adam’s best friend has a $850 a month car payment.
Crystal Chabot (07:36)
You can’t see it, but my soul just left my body.
Lanea (07:36)
and
Yeah, and it’s killing him. Like it is.
Crystal Chabot (07:42)
Yeah, no shit, it’s killing me and I’m not even paying it!
Lanea (07:46)
It’s killing him. I think the majority of people have, car payments. And I’ve had car payments before. I’ve been happy with the loans that I’ve taken out. I mean, it’s definitely been a want, not a need, but I’ve had three car loans. All of them have been…
Crystal Chabot (07:51)
Yeah.
Lanea (08:06)
at really good terms, know, really good interest rates. And like our car, my car is paid off right now. So we don’t have any like car debt with that. But there’s a ton of people that get into such big trouble with cars.
Crystal Chabot (08:07)
Mm-hmm.
Lanea (08:21)
and I do like the money guys approach to vehicles because theirs is put at least 20 % down, paid off in three years or less, and the payment should be no more than 8 % of your income. Like, I think that that’s very reasonable. But even if you gave up 8 % of your income, that’s still like a good chunk.
Crystal Chabot (08:29)
Mm-hmm.
know if I so 8 % is a lot specifically because I know that once I start working and my husband stays home with the baby till we get daycare I’m gonna be paying like 11 % of our income in health insurance premiums so so 8 % is like ow
Lanea (09:03)
yeah.
And then, well, and even the arbitrage thing. So I remember having a conversation with about my car loan because we had the funds in cash. We could pay it off. But my interest rate at the time, I think it was sub 3%. So I was getting more interest in my savings account than I was paying for the vehicle.
Crystal Chabot (09:22)
Mm-hmm.
I remember that. And I told you to put it in the- yeah.
Lanea (09:30)
Yeah, but I still paid it off and I don’t regret that. I really don’t regret it, but I would have financially been better off investing it. And that’s why I think personal finance, there’s so much of it that is behavior. It’s not logic.
And I think debt is the epitome of that because I think if people think about debt and paying it off and like what, a detriment to their future can be, people wouldn’t have debt. But it’s just for the here and the now.
If you did get another vehicle, do you think how would you prioritize it? Because I’m assuming based off of your credit profile that you would get pretty good rates, that it might be, let’s just assume that it’s below that like high interest mark. Would you prioritize paying it off or would you not?
Crystal Chabot (10:30)
going to keep the Prius just as a backup car. So I would put half down in cash and then finance the rest with my credit score, I can get a pretty decent deal. I would not pay it off early specifically because
Even like right now the estimated APR is like 7 % and I can get almost double that in dividends.
I have to stay dividends.
Lanea (10:56)
I think a lot of people don’t even know how to calculate the interest that they’re, they’re paying. And I think this is why compounding is so critical.
So let’s talk about credit card interest specifically. How do you calculate the credit card interest?
Crystal Chabot (11:12)
you would take your principal balance or the balance that you have. And then you’d have to find your actual card interest rate, which is in the terms that you’re sent. And that can change every year. And it can change multiple times a year depending on various factors with your credit card company.
Lanea (11:33)
And I think that it can change at any point too.
Crystal Chabot (11:36)
Yeah, yeah, it does. I think my highest one right now is 24%.
Lanea (11:41)
I think mine’s around there too. I don’t have any balance, but I think mine’s around there and I have an 800 plus credit score too.
Crystal Chabot (11:50)
Yeah, my lowest one is 1%. And that’s the one that I have the thousand on. But that thousand isn’t like that’s my daily spending credit card. So anything that I spend right now through December is 1%. So if I get ahead of myself, because we’re kind of tight right now with my income.
Lanea (11:54)
Okay.
Crystal Chabot (12:13)
At least I won’t be hurt on interest-wise that much, yeah. I can eat 1%. 24%, no thanks.
Lanea (12:16)
The interest, yeah.
So if you did want to pay off your debt, I think that there’s a couple of different major plans that people discuss. So one is the snowball method and one is the avalanche method.
Crystal Chabot (12:36)
Yep, so we talked about those in episode 10 a little bit.
I’m not that familiar with them.
Lanea (12:43)
snowball is taking like your smallest debt and paying it off and then adding that minimum payment to the next smallest debt and adding it and paying them off and it creates like a snowball of minimum payments. Avalanche is based off of the interest rate. So it’s attacking the highest interest rate first, regardless of the balance and then paying it off that way.
Crystal Chabot (13:12)
which makes the most sense technically because that’s what’s gonna cost ya.
Lanea (13:16)
But I think that’s where people fall into issues is that mathematically it’s better, but you have no wins necessarily, or you don’t have short wins. So it’s like all of your effort and sustainability issues.
Crystal Chabot (13:23)
Bye!
Lanea (13:34)
I took a modified approach. So I definitely considered interest rate the most. And I think I did attack the highest interest rate, but I also attacked it based off of the percentage of minimum payment to balance. So if there was a…
Crystal Chabot (13:51)
Mm-hmm.
Lanea (13:53)
large balance, but a very, very low minimum payment. I tended to pay those off last because I liked the wins. So that allowed me to pay off more in the beginning then attack the big ones at the end.
Crystal Chabot (14:06)
Right?
Lanea (14:09)
So what are some ways to avoid that to begin with?
Crystal Chabot (14:12)
If you need to buy something, don’t. That’s literally what I did when I was super poor. Like, I lived without a car for three years. I can keep walking to work. I’ve walked to work in snow, I’ve walked to work in blizzards, I’ve walked to work in tornadoes, I’ve walked to work in hail. You do what you gotta do. If you can live without it for
However long you’ve been living without it, you can keep living without it kind of thing. It’s kind of, it’s like a deprivation mindset, but it works.
Lanea (14:42)
Which is interesting because I feel like that’s very Dave Ramsey-ish in nature. And like you could not be more opposite than Dave Ramsey. That’s very, very like Dave Ramsey. Like, fries and beans, beans and rice, like just don’t do it. Never put yourself in the situation to begin with. That’s just so bizarre.
Crystal Chabot (14:49)
Riot.
I ate ramen for so many years. I ate canned peas so much that once I made enough money to not have to eat canned peas, I didn’t touch peas for like eight years.
Lanea (15:17)
that. I definitely believe that. And me over here, like I’m ladi daing. I’m like, yeah, that’s bad. don’t try not to fuck yourself in the future, like hardcore, like avoid credit card debt, because that’s really hard to get out of. you know, like, reasonable.
Crystal Chabot (15:18)
You
Like if you’re breathing air you don’t need anything else.
You got a shirt on your back!
Lanea (15:41)
I do think that that is an outline mindset. I think the majority of people, and I could be wrong, but I feel like the majority of people are more in line with moderation rather than just…
Crystal Chabot (15:55)
Yeah? That’s the consumer mindset though!
Lanea (16:01)
But I also celebrate Christmas, Crystal.
Crystal Chabot (16:03)
It’s too expensive!
There’s no holidays for people who make under $100,000? What are you talking about?
Lanea (16:09)
I do think the key to avoiding debt or paying off debt either way is addressing the issues that led to the debt. And I think for the majority of people, a lot of it is behavior. So like in your case, besides like some medical, some, not all, because I know a lot of people that have care credit, they don’t need to have care credit.
Crystal Chabot (16:26)
Yeah.
my god, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lanea (16:37)
but some medical, but I think a lot of it is behavioral based. And I think that that’s why like debt consolidations or like, HELOCs consolidate your debt is so freaking dangerous. I’ve seen it backfire on people so many
And yes, like on paper, it looks good because a 10 % interest rate is less than a 20 % interest rate. But if you cared about math, you wouldn’t be in the situation that you are. It’s all behavioral based.
Crystal Chabot (17:11)
Right.
Lanea (17:12)
I would say 90, 90 % of it is behavioral based.
Crystal Chabot (17:17)
spent many evenings driving friends back and forth to the payday lenders. Not our proudest moments.
Lanea (17:22)
Really?
I have not done that with any of my friends nor have I ever taken out a payday loan, but I just know that I have seen it, especially with like, HELOCs and personal loans.
Crystal Chabot (17:41)
I’ve never taken on a payday loan, I had a friend who worked in the payday loan business and I am so glad they passed additional legislation, at least in Nebraska to kind of protect because the terms were absolutely insane.
Lanea (17:55)
It’s crazy.
Yeah.
So besides just not doing it, which is your advice, what other advice do you have to avoid debt?
Crystal Chabot (18:08)
I don’t have much advice. I just don’t participate as much as everyone else does in the economy in purchasing things.
Lanea (18:16)
I mean, I think that that’s a good point. consumerists does not make you happy. that doesn’t add any value to your life. And I think that that’s important.
Crystal Chabot (18:27)
Yeah.
If you lived without it, as long as you can just keep living without it. Like yeah, it’s convenience at that point. It’s not really a need. Like if you’re still alive now, you can keep living without it. It’s not like it’s a heart transplant or something that will actually like.
You know, make a big difference.
Lanea (18:46)
say like on a more standard consumer point of view, I do think budgeting helps. I use credit cards for everything. I don’t even know if I have a debit card. Well, I do just for ATMs, but I use credit cards for absolutely everything. But if I did not have a budget,
I would have no way of knowing if I could pay my credit cards off or not. I depend on it.
And I get a lot of value from using my credit cards, but I just know, if I didn’t have that, if I didn’t have guardrails, it would be bad.
Crystal Chabot (19:25)
It’s so easy.
Lanea (19:26)
It’s so yeah, it’s so easy.
Crystal Chabot (19:26)
to just slide it, scan it, tap it, and walk away.
Lanea (19:33)
Well, and then now everything’s on like four easy payments or karma or I’ve never actually done it, but.
Crystal Chabot (19:40)
there’s like a whole thing I read on that and I didn’t realize the extent of how much people are using it but I can’t imagine buying something and being like, let’s just pay it off a little bit every month.
Lanea (19:52)
but it’s a multi-billion dollar industry now.
Crystal Chabot (19:56)
They’re having a hard time getting people to pay too.
So I’ve been really struggling with if I should pay my mortgage down or not because I feel like paying off my house would be cool but at the same time it’s less than a six percent interest rate.
Lanea (20:12)
I kind of struggle with that too because we could actually, we could pay off everything, like our entire mortgage, but it’s just not worth it because our mortgage is, only like 850-ish bucks a month and…
Crystal Chabot (20:22)
Mm-hmm.
Lanea (20:35)
and our interest rate is like 3%. So it’s just not worth it, but I thought it would be so cool to like not have a mortgage too.
Crystal Chabot (20:44)
and I read somewhere and I don’t remember where that we should generally one should aim to be mortgage free by 45.
Lanea (20:52)
by 45. yeah, that’s not going to happen at all.
Crystal Chabot (20:54)
Yeah.
You’re like, I’m going to get a different house.
Lanea (20:59)
But don’t you think the gap between, I don’t know, statistics is just so weird because I read somewhere that like an extremely large percentage of houses, I think it’s like 40%, don’t have a mortgage. But yet like 60 % of people can’t afford a $1,000 emergency.
Crystal Chabot (21:15)
What?
Yeah, I mean, we were talking statistics on like the people who have automated like checks, but then I was thinking about like 90 % of people automate their check deposit, but how the fuck does that work when 30 % are unbanked?
Lanea (21:38)
So yeah, the
Crystal Chabot (21:38)
The math’s not math-ing.
Lanea (21:39)
so the figures shown that mortgage-free homes are increasing. So in 2022, 39.28 % of all homes did not have a mortgage on it.
Crystal Chabot (21:52)
I’m just thinking like, it because people are cashing out and then moving to lower cost of living areas and just buying cash?
Lanea (21:52)
Like 40%.
think that there are, well, look at the demographics of people. Look at how many baby boomers there are and how many people that are getting close to retirement that bought homes that were $70,000.
I think that’s more of it than anything. I mean, I could be wrong, but that’s my best guess.
Crystal Chabot (22:19)
I’m just thinking if I set $800 aside every month for the next nine years, instead of paying my mortgage, I will have like with a 10 % interest rate, I will have amassed like 130,000. And that’s enough to pay off my mortgage in 10 years. But the thing is, is that if I do that and I put it into
Lanea (22:36)
Mm-hmm.
Crystal Chabot (22:45)
stuff that earns me dividends. $10,000 $13,000 a year in dividends. And then I could just have my dividends pay my mortgage.
Lanea (22:50)
Yeah.
Well, I mean, like I said, the majority of our money is just in a savings account. We make like $630 a month off of it.
so we’re almost there, you know?
Crystal Chabot (23:05)
You’re so close to just having that paid for just by existing.
Lanea (23:09)
getting the interest rates are going down. unless we switch something up.
Crystal Chabot (23:14)
The idea of not having to pay for a mortgage is fun. It’s fun. It’s entertaining to say the least. But at the same time, it’s like I could just keep doing what I’m doing and then, know, I have right now are theoretically
Lanea (23:18)
Sounds nice. Yeah.
Crystal Chabot (23:33)
our mortgage is about 50 % covered.
Lanea (23:37)
Okay.
Crystal Chabot (23:38)
theoretically.
I know that in the episode 10 or maybe episode 9 at this point I mentioned no Spend October.
Lanea (23:49)
Okay.
Crystal Chabot (23:49)
So I haven’t really, outside of like baby stuff, cause it’s fucking winter apparently now.
I tried to go for a walk with him, I sent you that photo. I had to go through like four different winter suits to find one that fit him. So there’s like three suits that he’s just too big for.
Lanea (24:00)
Yes.
It’s crazy how fast they are growing.
Crystal Chabot (24:13)
I think he’s starting to slow down now because he was doing like one, he was doing almost two pounds a month up until like last month. And I think like he’s, he hasn’t gained that fast now. And like, I think he’s like 20 now.
Lanea (24:27)
How much does he weigh?
Leo’s 18. He was weighed last week.
Crystal Chabot (24:32)
what?
I haven’t weighed him, I hold him in my arms and step on the scale sometimes. I’m pretty sure he’s 20 now.
Lanea (24:42)
Yeah, Leo was 18 on the dot at his 9-month appointment.
Crystal Chabot (24:46)
Nice. I feel like that’s a decent weight though, isn’t it? Yeah.
Lanea (24:50)
feel like that too. He was in the 22nd percentile, I think it was. So, it’s fine.
Crystal Chabot (24:55)
Yeah, he’s doing good.
But yeah, the fitting issue with the sooths was that he was too long. He’s a tall boy. He was 27 inches the last time. He’s probably like closer to 28 now because he had a bunch of gross skirts. But yeah, the no spend, I think is going OK.
Lanea (24:58)
That’s crazy.
Yeah, yeah.
I love it.
I definitely have not been participating in a no spend. I don’t think I’ve been doing bad, but I just haven’t like that doesn’t interest me right at this moment. I don’t really have any. I don’t think I have any updates.
Crystal Chabot (25:39)
Last episode you were looking at a house to buy and that one out. Are you still gonna keep looking for another house?
Lanea (25:47)
Slowly, it won’t be anything like absolutely crazy just because we really like our cheap daycare that’s very close and our cheap mortgage. it will, I mean, we’ll look, but I’m not going to like force anything. And it is just, it’s just nice having money.
Crystal Chabot (25:50)
you
Yeah.
Lanea (26:07)
It just is. It’s just nice. I like it.
Crystal Chabot (26:12)
daydreaming about the day that both Raph and I are working again.
I was looking at it!
Lanea (26:16)
Do you have anything that you want to accomplish over the next week?
Crystal Chabot (26:21)
the next week? It would be really fucking cool if someone got back to me on the job interviews that I did. At least to tell me that I suck and to go away. That would be at least the bare minimum of respect.
Lanea (26:27)
I hope that for you.
Seems like such a low bar to have.
Crystal Chabot (26:37)
Yeah, I’m really sad because I could have I really saw myself being able to do both both of the roles that I interviewed for like I would have killed it in both. I might not be great at interviewing, but I’m a damn good fucking worker. When I want to be and I wanted to be.
Lanea (26:45)
I don’t…
I really thought that you seemed like a really good fit for the second one. I think you could have killed it in both, but I think that you like cultural, like everything wise, it seemed like the second one was like perfect.
Crystal Chabot (27:10)
Yeah, I like the guys that I interviewed with too. Like I thought we were vibing.
I really hope that I can get something soon though, because I need money.
Lanea (27:19)
I hope that for you too.
Crystal Chabot (27:21)
I need good healthcare too, because my Medicaid’s gonna be running out.
Lanea (27:25)
it is?
Crystal Chabot (27:26)
Mine runs out in February and Tristan’s, assuming CMS approves it, will be for the next six years, but I don’t know, we’ll see.
Lanea (27:36)
If you guys hit February, are you able to renew it or are you over the income for, because you’re no longer pregnant?
Crystal Chabot (27:45)
I can’t, but Tristan can. Yeah, I can’t. I can go on the… There’s another plan that I can go on and it’s like zero everything. But if I need to have something done out of pocket is like 2000 in a year. So it’s not bad.
Lanea (27:46)
You can now. Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
You will, yeah, absolutely. Especially with the issues that you’ve had health-wise.
Crystal Chabot (28:12)
Yeah,
Did you have any goals coming up on the holidays at all that you wanted to reinstate?
Lanea (28:21)
I don’t think so. We have our meeting at the end of October with our advisor, our final meeting. So I’m kind of looking forward to that to see how the month goes. We made a few changes. Like she really recommended putting that behind what like the balance in our account should go to. So we ended up assigning
like getting rid of the new car goal and just assigning the money for it. And she also recommended like increasing, potentially increasing the contributions to like our 401ks. I’ve thought about that. I looked into the paperwork a little bit, but I just need to run the numbers as far as what the difference would actually be.
I just, have a hard time like putting all of that money into like a 401k where it’s trapped until you’re at least 55.
Crystal Chabot (29:18)
Ugh.
Yeah, there’s only, there’s very few exceptions.
Lanea (29:26)
Yeah.
Crystal Chabot (29:26)
That’s hard.
Lanea (29:26)
So, and 55 is just a long time away. And that would be like, you know, if I’m still at that employer at that time.
I think that’s my goal. I think that that’s my retirement goal is 55. I think that’s doable, really attainable to like keep the same lifestyle that I have. So I think that’s mine.
Crystal Chabot (29:40)
Nice. Yeah.
yeah, you guys will be fine. Barring anything major happening, but yeah.
Lanea (29:56)
Yeah, but we still gotta save, so.
it really depends on what house we get.
Crystal Chabot (30:03)
where it’s at too, because that can change a lot of things.
Lanea (30:05)
Yeah, exactly.
Crystal Chabot (30:08)
So we scheduled our first date night since forever. it’s, we’re not doing a date night. We’re doing a date morning on Tuesday morning. But I initially was gonna go like for a walk with the baby while we did it, but it looks like it’s gonna be rain icing. I don’t know. We’ll probably just hang out in the morning instead.
Lanea (30:12)
Nice!
All right.
Okay.
I it.
Crystal Chabot (30:33)
Either way, there’s gonna be matcha latte’s involved, so…
Lanea (30:36)
So worth it.
Lanea (30:37)
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Please remember that finances and parenting is a complex balancing act. But remember, By learning and growing together, we can build a brighter future for ourselves and our families. If you have any questions or want to share your experience, reach out to us at YouTube, Instagram, or Spotify at Piggy Bank Patrol. We would love to hear from you.
Sound Bites
“I think if you have any debt that is seven percent or greater (you should prioritize paying it off).”