Want to pay off debt but don't know where to start? Stop making random extra payments and hoping for the best. Let's build a debt payoff strategy that actually works. Join us Thursday, May 28th for our debt payoff workshop so you'll know what you owe so you can pick your debt payoff method and you can start getting out of debt. We'll help you organize your debt, understand your balances, interest rates and minimum payments and help you choose what to pay first. Discover all three payoff methods including the snowball, avalanche and minimum payments and we'll also tell you what to know before applying for debt consolidation. No shame, no finance bro nonsense, just your next right step. Grab your spot at budgetbesties.com forward slash debt workshop. We didn't really learn about money or spending money I think when we were growing up. We had put ourselves kind of in a situation with debt that we didn't want to be in and living paycheck to paycheck as most of planet earth lives was just something that sounded not really of that appealing anymore. We're in our 30s so we need to be thinking about these things strategically now because we're paying for mistakes that we made in our 20s before you guys, we didn't have a system. It's just really encouraging to think like we haven't used our credit card since last summer. Also being like two and a half months ahead presently is really awesome. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. If you want to seem like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shayna and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019 helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at whether you're the single mom who's never had $500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. Caroline and AJ, thank you so much for coming on Financial Coaching for Women to share your client testimonial story. Of course. We're excited to be here. Yep, they sound super excited. You can tell. Like, yep, they're very excited. But honestly, I think they are because I, Vanessa and I were talking before we came on, we think that you guys both scheduled a free call without like without telling each other without knowing or maybe you did know. I don't know. Tell us what happened there. What led you guys to find us and get started? We were just definitely in the process of having conversations of trying to figure out how do we essentially learn about money and what feels like a safe space. And so I think when we were trying to figure out what that looks like, I was just like searching podcasts like women, finances, but not trying to, you know, figure out how to save $100,000 or did it. Like, I feel like there were so many niche things that weren't necessarily fitting what I was looking for. And so AJ and I were kind of searching together and then independently. And then I think I just stumbled upon one of your podcasts that was about not consolidating your debt in terms of, you know, negotiating with your credit card lender or provider. And I think we both just got really excited and like, I texted it to him and I was like, I'm in between calls, but look at this. And then we both filled out the form. Yeah. Yes, because I remember I was like, oh, I have two free calls today. And then I got on with you guys and then you're like, well, that's my husband behind me. And I'm like, oh, okay. So then you guys broke down the call. It was just so funny how and then you're like, you can cancel that one because we're in. And so anyways, it was just really fun to meet both of you guys and how excited you were. Like you said to get out of debt and just learn something new and be able to start this journey, you know, just the right way. And I think to like, including a third party, like we are big proponents of counseling and just like seeking guidance. And so I think it's one of those things when you really have the pressure off of, is he doing it? Am I going to manage this process? Like, what is that going to look like? Oh, actually, this time it'll be a team effort where we're meeting with somebody and inviting someone in to like help us. I think that was a really big key for success. And so I think that's when we were thinking about, okay, this is a long term thing. This isn't just going to be what we want to figure out in the next three months. This is like how we need to start thinking about money. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was, you don't know what you don't know, right? So, you know, I think that just based, we didn't really learn about money or spending money, I think, when we were growing up and, you know, that all teach these stuff in school, which they should, my opinion. You know, it was just one of those things where we had put ourselves kind of in a situation with debt that we didn't want to be in. And we kind of took a step back and it was just, you know, causing some stress and we wanted to be able to be a little bit more financially free because we had, we felt like we were doing all the right things in work and, you know, some side hustles and etc. And there just wasn't a pile of money there that we felt like there should have been. So, kind of through the discovery process, found you guys and we're super excited to start working on a process and really just learning how to budget appropriately. We had tried some other things previously that weren't so, you know, I'm blanking on the word, but weren't so accountability wise with you guys. And so, you know, some internet platforms that are super popular and just to be on. That's not be named. Neither of us, neither of us really had the drive to be able to do that on our own. So it was really nice to, you know, kind of have some accountability in it and also just learn a process that worked for us with, with the format that you guys use. So it's been really lovely and it's dropped a tremendous amount of stress on us, which more than anything has been the biggest positive takeaway I would personally say, you know, being in debt isn't fun, but the stress that comes with it is a lot less fun, in my opinion. So, you know, kind of working on both of those and continuing to be in the process and really kind of making a fun thing, because previously it has not been a fun thing as fun as it can be, if you will. We find it fun. Well, AJ's also a nerd, so it worked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we had a lot of fun time, like he might have been the quickest study tour to our spread. Never. It was really, it was really good. And I'm really glad to hear that you weren't also searching financial coaching for women. It was the debt that you found. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But you guys did not have a, what did you say a little side hustle. Okay, how about this enormously successful side hustle that you guys were both working, you know, burning in both ends of the candle or whatever they say. And I know that it was probably a little frustrating to know that you were making so much money and it felt like, like you said, it's not stacking up. We're still in debt or so much in debt and the debt is seems to just keep taking over more and more of our money and our like bandwidth, right? Yeah. So, yeah, no, I was just going to say it did and it felt like when you're working really hard at something, I'm very goal oriented. So I can kind of push through pain or exhaustion or whatever if it feels like it's serving a purpose. But when, you know, when you're, I'm photographing a wedding or we're photographing a wedding on the weekend and then we're getting back to work Monday morning, nine to five, working our sales rolls, and then getting back into a rehearsal dinner that Friday night and then a wedding that's like it just, it was just intense for lack of better word. But it's really fun. Like we love that side business. However, it felt like what are we doing on this for if like we're not seeing the money stack up in a way that we can then throw these piles of debt before you guys, we didn't have a system to kind of like watch bucket. So we didn't have a system to be like, okay, this money is going to go here. I mean, we didn't have a business account yet. That's crazy. Like that just is crazy. Like there's just things where I think things in our personal life were growing so fast. Like this business was starting to grow for us. I was not really processed minded. I'm very tight B. I guess something feels like fun and exciting. We're going to do that. But I'm not going to like, I'm not super strict with myself like, oh, this is exactly how we should do it. So I think that's kind of how we got to where we were just like, oh, yeah. Yeah. And and to, you know, being living paycheck to paycheck as most of planet Earth lives was just something that sounded not really that appealing anymore and didn't want to do it to begin with and didn't need to do it to begin with. And because of the decisions that we had made years ago, it was it, it, the debt was creating this, this space for us where we were being forced to kind of live in that direction and, you know, I believe we started last, maybe it was June or July, but just already getting rid of chunks of debt and and closing out loan accounts, which we've closed out, I think three thus far with a couple on the horizon, which is super exciting and also being like two and a half months ahead presently is really awesome. So like you just not having to worry about, you know, we were all we always made it happen. But that's really where the stress came in of we were never going to have to, you know, like, especially once we start with you guys, you know, take out another loan or this to cover anything. But it was how are we going to get there, which is the, you know, stress level went through the roof to get there. And then you were able to take a half a deep breath and then it was like, oh, great. Well, in 14 days, you know, there's another X pile of bills do. How are we going to get there now? And it was just a process that never ended. Yeah, that does not sound fun. No, and I love this. It's winging it, right? Like everyone makes it work. It's like when, you know, people say, can I afford having kids? Well, you just make it work. You just figure it out. But does it, it doesn't mean it has to be that stressful. But I do love, I remember the call you had said, like, I don't know if I can afford this, but we're gonna, we're gonna make it work as far as coaching. And then when Shayna got in there, she was like, Oh my gosh, you have so much to work with. But again, like you said, you guys weren't, you weren't stewarding your money well because you weren't taught how to. And so you didn't see that it was there. And then once you saw that it was there, the amount of progress you were able to make with all of that, I think was mind blowing to you guys. And it was really exciting to be able to see everything that you were do, you were able to do with it once it was organized and and put where it was supposed to be. And one more thing, I also love how you said that it wasn't a short term thing because we tell people like this isn't a quick fix. Getting your money right and learning how to organize it and manage it on an everyday basis the right way and putting these systems and animations in place will take care of you for years. If you just take the time to invest and do it. So I just love how you said that because you came in with the right mindset knowing that this was something you wanted to change for a long time. Yeah, and we were at like this pivotal point in our life where we haven't started a family yet and I think that was one of our big, I mean still is like one of our goals like we don't want to do that until we're completely out of debt and so I think we were looking at this of like, what is the long term solution for us when we are starting to retire and like just thinking about those things like we're in our 30s so we need to be thinking about these things strategically now because we're paying for mistakes that we made in our 20s. And so I think that is just, you know, when I think back to I'm just so grateful that we found the podcast like through my I mean I just honestly think that was like the Lord delivering that to us of like, alright, we like you're going to be able to get support and I think it was just such a big it was just such a big stress for me and AJ like we were talking about money, what felt like all the time when we were also working on multi times a day. Yeah, couldn't figure out, well how do we figure out how much we're spending how do we, and it took so much work but you guys were able to give us like basically the guidelines to play within so then it felt like oh we only have to do half of this because the templates already built the format is already there, and then the accountability calls were just huge because then AJ and I would meet before those like okay are we ready for this call, sometimes we weren't ready for the call sometimes we were but it was great. Hopping from calls to calls. Oh my god. Well you guys, yes, you guys are like dream clients. I mean I don't know if everybody heard when I found out that you know the goal was to get debt free before we start a family I was like well okay let's all we're all motivated now like this is the best, but also you guys, you know you guys are in ministry you do so much and it was just a pleasure to work with you and like Vanessa said there was a lot of money in that budget to work well, okay, you know like okay so it's like okay we can do this anyway so it was just a really big a big pleasure of mine. It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do, no guess work, no confusion and absolutely no judgment. It's a done for you system that actually works. You don't know what you don't know and that's not your fault and that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps and after hour support you can text an email so you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together we're going to build your budget, set up your system and tackle any challenges that come up along the way which by the way they always do. If what you're doing isn't working and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up and we will help you go further faster. Six months from now you'll wish you started today. Well I wanted to ask you guys because you guys are kind of alluding to it but what did we actually do? What did you set up? What did you do tangibly that made it feel better, more organized, fun? I heard you say that AJ I'm with you on that. Like what actually did you do that really helped you guys out? I think the biggest thing for me and you might have a different answer but the biggest thing for me that made the most sense was one be just like the Excel format or Google Sheets format was huge just because that's something that's a process that I work in every day. So it made it easier for me to kind of see how everything was laid out with all the different sheets. You know it took me a short while to kind of figure out what all these different things were doing but starting really with our asset tracker today and looking into the debt and where that was and being able to just keep those things updated and feel so much less stressful I think in life in general but especially with your finances which is kind of the biggest piece of everyone's life. Being able to afford to live to see everything laid out when you're not guessing. I think beforehand we were just kind of guessing and especially being on credit cards was like well if we just kind of spend a little bit less than what our paycheck is we'll always be doing this. When not realizing that really was just you were kind of living a month behind not even living paycheck to paycheck you were kind of living a month behind because you were always paying for you know previous things that had been paid for with monopoly money because none of its real until you know it stacks up and then it becomes very real very quickly so I think that was the biggest thing and then separating into different cards separating into different buckets as you guys call them and we started to use that word as well of you know we have X amount of money allotted for gas and groceries X amount of money allotted for restaurants which you know the process works for anything and everything you know if you I'm sure people some people have a kid bucket or whatever their buckets are the dogs. Yeah the dog bucket but you know that has been super helpful because it just gives you a certain amount of money allotted within your means to be able to you know do those things we go crazy we each have a cash account that you know when so we're doing our fund money so previously you know when I spent something on you know buy new golf club or Caroline would buy whatever you know a new dress or something and it'd be like well can we really do this and it's like well now we know we can because but once that money is gone it's gone until we refill it up on the first and 15th so I think kind of the whole process in general has been super helpful but definitely the being able to see everything laid out and everything in front of you is was quite literally life changing. Yeah and I think to like being given rules that there is flexibility of like and if there's certain months where you know you have to be bought like for Christmas how do we need to plan ahead for that or things like that but the buckets are really helpful I remember even on our call with Shayna when we were trying to figure out like what do we make those buckets I don't even know because right now if I find something on Amazon that I want like add the cart purchase today and so it's just really create. You don't have to add the car you just hit buy now. Now there's a button. Scary. Totally. But it like I feel like the buckets really create some room for pause and reflection of like okay like let's just see if I want that in two weeks when my buckets refill and then by that point you haven't even thought about that item anymore or whatever because that's definitely probably where I fall in line of like instant gratification spending. But it's just really encouraging to think like we haven't used a credit card since last summer. That's amazing. We've been like paying for our life like with our own dollars, but I think just being able to look and review it every couple of weeks together and sometimes you know we'll go to a fun brewery as recommended or just just different fun things like how do we make this not be lame how do you Yes, Sunday scarities and stressful you know. Not be like that I love it. I think we need to make a club like the it's like either your brewery and budgets or like beer and budgets bourbon and budgets like we need to find out who is in the bourbon and budgets. Yeah, he was in the beer and budget category. Yeah, wine and wine and yes. Anyway, figure it out. Okay, I have a couple things to ask you guys because what you alluded to, Caroline about you know, add to cart don't buy now right. I remember you guys, we set your budgets up and you get or your buckets you're spending buckets up. And you guys had eating out your personal spending at gas and groceries. And remember, I remember specifically AJ you saying something about, well instead of Chipotle or whatever now I'm getting Costco stuff peppers or something like, but it just like the accountability or watching the numbers change the way that you guys did and nobody told you that you had a healthy eating out budget you guys decided on your own. Like, I don't that's not really really where I want my money going right or something something to that effect. Yeah, absolutely. It was it was very much so like, we had a certain amount a lot of the beginning, especially for restaurants and then it kind of got to the point where you, you, especially with the budgets like I was saying you see where the money is going and you're like, that seems a little egregious we can dial that back over here and put a little bit more money into here. And I can tell I'm trying a bunch of times like the budget thing, you would never think about it this way but it also made us like a lot healthier people, especially with like the restaurant piece, just because we just need out of next. Yeah, yeah, yeah, side effects may include. Yeah, so it was just one of those things where you know it just made us healthier eaters because we were eating at home a lot more and not eating out and so absolutely. I just think that like Shayna said you start looking at your budget when you're having accountability person. Okay, let's just go back. When you schedule coffee with yourself how often are you going to show up. Maybe half the time maybe not ever if you schedule a meeting with somebody to show up you're going to be there because you have you know somebody else is going to is going to be there and you don't want to let them down. So being able to have this time and space where you guys can be devoted all on your finances just for you guys this this time for like no work. There's nothing I know you guys had to reschedule a couple times for appointments and stuff that you know you have this time set aside for you to make decisions to think about things in a way and talk to somebody an outside person looking in who's not emotionally attached to your finances who can well yeah we all get vested. You have this all become family to us and so we're just as vested as you guys I love it. But you know what I mean it's just it's a time for you to do this and sometimes you wouldn't have maybe thought about this or made these decisions otherwise. So I think it's so cool that you guys were able to take that time make these decisions and again really look at your numbers and go is this achieving my goals is this really where I want my money to go and you guys change some of that. Absolutely and I think the accountability is huge I think I mean we went we go to Orange Theory and I don't love the classes there but I know that if I sign up I can't cancel or else I'll get a late fee or blah blah like there's accountability there there's like a reason I go there not L.A. fitness because that's going to be cheaper and I could just like bail on that so it's the same thing of I need to look into that. When we were trying to figure out, you know, like how age is like we're going to do whatever it takes to make this work I think we've respected just the time in the process even more because of the investment on our end but also just we could kind of see the vision of like if we really commit to this now six months down the line three years from now four years from now. We're just going to be in a health air place with money being able to talk about it together and just before money gets like more complicated like. Right. Well, that's what I was thinking earlier when you were when you were talking about being in your 30s and oh we mess up and I'm like girl y'all are so young and we're so here for you guys are so young you made a few mistakes maybe you're going to they're all going to be. I mean we talked about how quickly you guys water under the bridge. Yeah, and then you're so young and so you have so much time and you guys are just at the beginning of your amazing careers that you're both very successful so it's all good and very very privileged to be able to help you for a little bit of time on the way. One last thing that I wanted to ask about I mean I want to ask and talk to you guys for the rest of the day because I love you so much but you know people have to work to earn money to put in their budgets you know, but you a J. You guys came because you didn't want to sign up for consolidation and that was kind of like a big big you didn't want to do that you wanted to take you wanted maybe some accountability for that but you did do all of that work. You called you called and got some deals and talk to people which is not the most fun thing ever but you did it yourself so. Could you speak to that a little bit what would you you know what you did what you would recommend or your experience or just do it and don't be scared because no people don't like to do it right but but you have you might have you might have to and it might get you know help you make good progress. Yeah, I had done quite literally 10s of hours of research into consolidation loan and I believe that was actually how we found you guys was originally we had we had mentioned earlier than this of how we found you it was. You guys did a segment on consolidation loans and I think that we were looking it up to try and figure it out because you know one person is telling you one thing. The other person telling you something else and then it really just clicked with us when we heard y'all's podcast about consolidation loans and so like I said I had done all this research on it. And kind of in our initial phone call I was like hey what do you guys think about this, you know, is this is this something intelligent to do I know that this is going to kill our credit for a short amount of time in the long run, you know, it would still would have been a year or two, and then ultimately decided not to do that and found, excuse me, found ways around that that have really worked for us you know I think that kind of did not feel necessarily like a quick fix as far as like things that we had done in the past of getting a personal loan to X out you know a credit card and then it would just continue to compile from there, but it's still in reality was kind of a quick fix because it would, you know, take all of that away and it there was going to be no accountability one in that to there was going to be no real lesson, I think, and moving forward and how to handle that and so then when we found you guys I think the only thing that was kind of the hang up for us in the beginning was price but what I would say to anybody listening to this or anybody that's interested in budget besties and the program is like it's the best money we have ever spent personally, and you know it was one of those things where it, we were like wow this this this feels like a lot of money but at the end of the day if this completely changes the trajectory of us being able to budget and us being able to save and you know, just think about money in a completely different fashion like what would you spend on that and the answer was a lot more than what we did because it I mean it tremendously you know just it changes your life, it really does being able to be financially free and think about it and a lot different direction than you did originally before we found you guys Well, you just feel so stuff when you look at like an interest rate on a credit card you're like what am I supposed to do with this, how did this happen and I feel like partnering with you guys and like enrolling in the program like just really helped peel away some layers of shame and confusion and just like allowed us to feel like we could get education through you Well, kind of having your hand held when being in space where you can ask questions, because even like in community and like with friends and stuff it's it's like a hard thing to like talk about because you're private. Yeah, it's private. Yeah. Yeah, and I just think having again that person there and helping you seen in a different way because sometimes we have tunnel vision when it's our own finances, bringing somebody else in that you know hey have you thought about this have you looked at this and then the light bulbs kind of go off that's our favorite part is when we kind of suggest things and we see you guys going oh my gosh this actually worked we had a lady and she brought her monthly minimum payments she cut them by $400 just by picking up and making phone calls right through and she's in coaching so it's like when you talk about the price of coaching and really it's what you can't afford to do You can afford not to do this right when you're looking at what you've paid off what you're going to pay off versus the investment because if you were going to do it on your own you probably would have already and that just didn't happen that's okay and that's why we're here. Well, there's so many more things that I want to talk about you guys did your your separate business budget and we did do a little work there to get that making sense for you since you're so successful at it. That was fun. I love my I guess my favorite thing that I love is how you guys are able to talk about money together now and it's the teamwork and everybody's on the same page that's probably the thing that's going to pay pay the most dividends forward for you guys. And then of course you're financially getting out of debt and closing those cards and just love it all love it all was a pleasure. We're blessed to have had the diocese with us we just everybody needs to be like them. Yes, I heard so much about you guys on here because I would you know when I have a free call with the youth with people and then they end up being shana's client. I'm like hey how are they doing like I just I really love being able to check in and just see how the progress is going and you know it was just wonderful to hear your story along the way so thank you guys so much for coming on financial coaching for women. Thank you for sharing your story we really appreciate it. We this isn't the last time you're going to hear from us. We're going to all stay connected through the Facebook group and through ongoing conversation. So thank you again. Y'all have a wonderful rest of the day. If you make good money but have nothing to show for it this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be. You'll get a personalized result and a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed. Visit budgetbesties.com for slash quiz and take the free quiz today. That's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with women.
