Tips on Financing Your Joy with Meadowsweet Money- PINNED Podcast: Episode 46

This year has been tough, and oh boy - most of us have felt it in our pockets. This week  join me and Mimi Cirbusova from Meadowsweet Money as she shares her story of coming out of debt and helping us with a few tips! (I learned so much!)

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About  Mimi

After paying off $20,881 of debt while working mostly part-time for a nonprofit, Mimi became passionate about sharing tips with anyone wishing to live a more financially joyful life. She is also the co-founder of Compass Rose History Experiences and a collector of vintage Sarasota postcards.

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For more information
Instagram and Facebook @MeadowsweetMoney
Learn History on her Instagram @CompassRoseHistory or the Lovably Local Podcast.

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Transcript

Miss Pinup Miami: 0:05

Welcome back to the pin podcast. I'm your host Pinup Miami. And here at the pin podcast, we talk about modern topics with vintage flair. If it is your first time listening to us, I want to say thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you stick around. And if you're a returning listener, I want to say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, it means more than you will ever know. If you haven't followed us on Instagram, the Instagram for our podcast is pinned podcast official. And if you want to get a little personal, you could send me a text 2183348 pen up, those messages go directly to me. So if you want to be a guest to ask any questions for this show, feel free to hit me up 18334 pinup I don't know how much easier it could be today. Oh, this whole year has been rough. And I feel like a lot of us had been through a lot of financial troubles that we could take as many tips as we can. So in today's episode, I have the pleasure to introduce meanie, sir. bus, Sir basava.

Mimi: 1:15

Yeah, no, it's okay, service OVA. It's a tricky one. I went from a very easy last name to a very tricky last name. So I Well,

Miss Pinup Miami: 1:23

your your account, and your Instagram as well is metal sweet money that I could pronounce. Welcome, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show.

Unknown: 1:32

Thank you so much for having me, I am really delighted to talk about money and about just all of these wonderful things. Because I know for myself, money has not always been an easy topic to talk about. So this is a great conversation to have.

Miss Pinup Miami: 1:46

And just just for everyone listening, these this is like tips and tricks is not legal advice for anyone personally.

Unknown: 1:54

Correct. Yeah, I mean, the whole idea is that, you know, there's lots of people out there who will call themselves advisors or you know, financial advisors, and really the best if you really need some good advice, or if you really need somebody, go seek out a professional. But, you know, I'm happy to share all of the wonderful things that I had learned along on my own personal finance journey that has made my life a lot easier and made me actually like talking about money.

Miss Pinup Miami: 2:21

It's so funny, because some people find talking about money dirty are like, you know, like a secret.

Unknown: 2:27

Yeah, and we get a lot of those scripts in our head from our parents. So many times we believe what we believe about money comes from the people that we grew up with our culture. And it's really sometimes very tricky to talk about money just because we've heard certain things from our family.

Miss Pinup Miami: 2:47

And before we talk about money, I want to talk a little bit about you. And yeah, vintage in history, because you endure the Opera House, you do so many cool things. So tell us Oh my gosh,

Unknown: 2:58

yeah, so I do a lot of different a lot of different things. So I in addition to being

Mimi: 3:05

I like to call myself the personal finance pinup, I also am a big history lover, specifically local history. So I live in an area, just about an hour south of Tampa, Florida, in a town called Sarasota. And my very best friend and now business partner, Andrea, Denise, and I bonded over a shared love of local history. And we would go out for a happy hour, and talk about, you know, the, you know, these great history mysteries and things that we had heard or learned about. Yeah, and so we had this shared love of history and learning about local history. And we'd be at happy hour and all of a sudden, everyone else at the table would get real quiet and start listening to our conversation. And we have a habit of talking about

Unknown: 3:54

dead people as though they're alive and our friends. Like, oh, you know, that's just how Charlie would do it. You know, we just have this, you know, very connected feeling to the people that make our local history. So great. So we started a company called compass roads, history experiences, we actually have a podcast if anybody's interested in listening. That is all about some history mysteries. And you can check that out at lovably local podcast, and you can also check out our website. So yeah, we're both Big History nerds and love local history. So in addition to talking about money, I love talking about history. So those are the two topics you can't get me to shut up about.

Miss Pinup Miami: 4:38

Well, then how did this journey get you into money? So tell us how you became a lover of like, helping others with money and spreading your knowledge and tips and tricks?

Unknown: 4:50

Yeah, so money was never a topic that I was comfortable with. Like I remember, you know, for most of my adult life, and Really even before then, I felt like I needed to learn about money. But most of what I heard were, you know, kind of conventional voices of, you know, people like shaming you for like your financial choices or talking way over your head about financial stuff. And I'm like, I don't understand what this lingo is, I don't really know what this means it, I feel stupid, thinking about money and talking about money. And I remember, I would try to open my bank account and like, my hands would start shaking, and my heart would race and I'd get like a dry mouth. And I never really need to that feeling. Right. And so I, you know, I remember, I would often not even look at my bank account unless I thought that I was close to overdrafting. Or if it was paid, and I was like, How much money do I make this week? So it, you know, those aren't really healthy things. And finally, one day, I was sitting down, and I was looking at my bank account. And I had, I realized that my credit card was nearly maxed out. And I had a brand new car loan. It was a new to me car. And I just went, Oh, my gosh, I am over $16,000 in debt. And I work for a nonprofit, and what have I done. So in that moment, I was like, I've got to figure this out. And thankfully, God universe, whatever you want to call, it pointed me towards a specific book that called your money or your life by Vicki Robin. And I always like tell people, I have copies that I've given out to people, because I'm just such a fan of this particular book. And it was the first time I had her ever heard somebody talk about money in a way that wasn't about shame, or blame or guilt. It was just like, hey, let's figure this out. And so I listened to her book every day on my way to work and on the way from work. And I was so inspired and I just started diving into, there's some great communities on Instagram, and Facebook, the debt free community and the personal finance community. And I started teaching myself about money. And through that process, I went from being in a ton of debt to now I am completely debt free. I love talking about money. And I am well on my way to being a millionaire by the time I retire. So, you know, you can you can really change things. And I'm a big fan of the idea that knowledge eliminates fear. So I checked my bank account all the time now.

Miss Pinup Miami: 7:46

Oh, wow, man. Okay, I can't wait to hear some tips because I need to be a millionaire from

Unknown: 7:54

compound interest, my friend compound interest. Good thing.

Miss Pinup Miami: 7:58

So what is compound? See, I feel dumb asking these questions. What is compound interest?

Unknown: 8:05

Yeah, so a lot of times we learn about compound interest in our math classes in like high school and middle school, and we don't really think about it. So basically, the idea of compound interest is think about interest with debt. So over time, the interest that you pay on debt just accrues. And so that's why your debt keeps getting higher and higher and higher, especially if you don't pay on it. And compound interest can also work in your favor, rather than, you know, as a punishment for not paying your bills. Compound Interest can work in your favor to help you to make more money. So my money works for me by making more money and I accrue interest in the stock market by buying I personally am a fan of low cost index funds, which follows like an index. So a great example is I buy the s&p 500. So a lot of times we hear that that's just a particular type of index. And that makes me money. So as time goes on, I just grow that money grows and grows and grows. And as I contribute to it, even though I'm only going to contribute a certain dollar amount, the value of that money is going to grow to a point where I will be a millionaire by the time I retire. So, yeah,

Miss Pinup Miami: 9:23

actually, there's a question that I'm just gonna ask now from one of the viewers. Yeah. And I put this in the questions because I find it interesting that they don't teach like the basics of financing in the future in schools. I feel like that's something that will be in schools, because right now, I'm not gonna live I hope I'm not the only one that's listening to you that has no idea what a low index and all these. So the question is, how can you learn more about the stock market? Do you have any tips?

Unknown: 9:54

Yeah, so I am personally a big fan of There's a wonderful guy. I on Instagram that I personally follow, he breaks everything down into a really simple, you know, just really simple graphics and explains things very, very clearly. And he goes by personal finance club on Instagram. And what I love is that he really does break it down and the the, you know, the whole idea is that you want to live below your means, which means that you don't spend as much or more than the amount of money that you're bringing in. So whatever you're making, you want to spend less than that. And the more that you can use that difference between the amount of money that you make, and the amount of money that you spend, that money can go towards things like saving and investing. And the more that you save and invest, that time is going to work in your favor. So I think about it kind of like a crock pot, that the more that I just put into it and leave it alone, just let time do its thing, the better off I will be. So we think it's this big, scary thing because people throw terminology at us. Or we see these talking heads on TV that are like screaming at you. And it's actually not as complicated as it seems. So that's one account, I would definitely recommend checking out is the personal finance club on Instagram. I believe he's also on Facebook, but I don't go on Facebook as often as I should.

Miss Pinup Miami: 11:32

Um, you know, I'm gonna ask the questions from the viewers, and then we'll go into your tips into like, budget. There's a lot that has to do with what you're talking about.

Unknown: 11:42

Yeah.

Miss Pinup Miami: 11:44

So one of the questions is, how can you say when you have no money?

Unknown: 11:49

Oh, how can you save when you have no money. So I feel this because I paid off. By the time I was done paying off my debt, I was only I was working at a nonprofit, I was making about $16 an hour. And I was working mostly part time. So I know what it's like to just live on a very, very tight budget. And honestly, the many times when you don't have a lot of money to to pay off debt or to save money. The first question I always ask is, do you know how much you're actually spending each month. So one of the things I certainly recommend is sitting down and tracking every penny that goes into and out of your life, that is the first thing that you want to do. So and it doesn't have to be complicated. Just sit down, write down, hey, I want to target I bought this, this and this. This was the dollar amount and you just for at least a month, write down all of your expenses,

Miss Pinup Miami: 12:50

that's gonna scare some people.

Unknown: 12:53

And it is and here's the thing. I when I did that, for the first time, I was like, Whoa, I have no idea how much money and like I knew I was spending a lot of money eating out, I had no idea how much I was spending. And I was like, No wonder I can't save any money because I'm spending all my money eating out. And that's not for everybody. I mean, we do have to recognize that there is a certain level of privilege when we're talking about money, and it can be a problem of either you have an income gap. So you need to make more income, or you have a spending problem, and you need to reduce your spending. And if it's a spending problem, getting clear on what your spending triggers are, is really, really important. So I know for me, I do not make good decisions when I'm hungry or tired. Don't make good financial or at an antique mall. Yeah, right. So but if I decide to go to an antique mall, or if I decide to go shopping, I always make sure to carry a bottle of water and a snack with me. Because again, I'll spend money like crazy if I have not eaten and I go from being very nice and very lovely to not nice. And spending way too much money within a very short time period. So I have to have that that fuel to make good decisions. And so when you start looking at your spending triggers and the things that make you spend money, you start to kind of ask yourself well okay, where can I cut so if you're having a problem of it's an actual spending challenge, you're you're spending too much money. Then once you recognize your spending triggers, you can start to attack the things that are what I call regrettable and forgettable expenses. So regretable expenses are things that you get at home and you have it and you're like, Oh my gosh, why did I buy this? And then forgettable expenses are things like that you pick up at like the target dollar spot, and you don't even remember that you bought it or you go back and you look at your expenses and you go What on earth site you didn't buy? Those are regretable, and know, they're a great place to start cutting if you're really trying to get control of your spending. But again, that's, you know, that's a challenge. Now, if you are in the other category of you have an income problem, that's a little bit trickier to tackle. But I'm going to tell all, anybody who listened to me, you we all, especially if you are a woman, need to be better about asking for more, more money, more benefits more, we are not good at negotiating. I am 33 years old. And it was only last year that I negotiated my salary for the first time. So and if I can do it, I promise you can do it. I get so nervous, talking to people and negotiating, I am terrified of somebody saying like, Well, why do you think you deserve that. And it wasn't that way at all. Like I negotiated my salary. And I got not only what I wanted, but I was also able to negotiate in how many hours I wanted to work. So if you're having an income problem, you may need to negotiate your salary. If you have a stable job like that, or you might need to find some extra work, which is something else that I did on my debt free journey is I worked a part time job to try to just bring in some extra income and all of that extra went towards my debt. So there's lots of different ways to go about it. But the first thing is understanding exactly where you stand, you know, and tracking your expenses is the best place to start.

Miss Pinup Miami: 16:35

See, so you need to know first I for me, when I sat down and looked at all my money, it was like you went to eating out?

Unknown: 16:43

Yeah, you

Miss Pinup Miami: 16:44

don't realize how much you eat out. Yeah, you put it all together,

Unknown: 16:48

especially when you factor in. And again, you want to write down every penny. And so you know, if you pay with a card for the meal, but then you pay cash for the tip, you're still spending money. So you want to make sure that you're not forgetting all of those miscellaneous little things. And you know, it adds up really, really fast. And once you kind of figure that out, you can start to tackle. tackle that a little bit. So that's, yeah, no, no, I was just gonna say and that's actually how I started budgeting. So I budgeted based off of my expenses, because how can you budget if you don't know what you spend money on?

Miss Pinup Miami: 17:27

How? So the next question, this person had a follow up question of when can I start investing in the stock market? Like I guess, since our first question was, you know, how can I save money with no money? When is it a good time to start investing?

Unknown: 17:42

Now, right now, today, do it today? No, but that's, I mean, that's kind of my short answer. But the long answer is time, when it comes to investing time is your best friend, right? Time and consistency are your best friend. So you want to contribute as much as you can. And if you have access to one, an employer, in an employer sponsored retirement plan is the best place to start. I can't tell you how many people have the opportunity to invest through their employer. And oftentimes, if you work for a company, that's a pretty decent company, they'll also match some of your contributions. So a contribution is when you put money into an account. Now, my personal employer, it's through some language at me that I was like, I have to Google this. So my personal employer does what's called 50%, up to 6%. What on earth does that mean? So basically, what it means is that if I contribute up to 6%, they'll contribute up to half of whatever that 6% is, that I contribute. So basically, I put in 6%, they put in 3%. And many times what happened, it's a multi step process. So the first thing is you want to make sure that you're investing with your employer. So your employer sponsored plan, usually, it's what's known as a 401k 403 B, a traditional IRA, sometimes you might get a Roth 401k there's all these different terminology but basically, it's just the kind of accounts you can think of it as like your handbag, right? And you're putting money into it. So you're putting all your money into your handbag, but you actually want to make sure that you're investing it in it so you don't want it to just sit in cash, you actually want to have stuff in your handbag. So you want to buy funds, so you can buy stocks or index funds, whatever is going to work best for you. And a lot of times if you have an A good employer, they will suggest you meet with one of their one of the representatives from the company that is doing your investing. Always I caution everyone to you know sometimes people call themselves like I said in the advisor, but they're really more of like insurance salesman. So just be careful on that tread lightly. But if you, you know, like I said, it's not that hard to learn it, the biggest thing is just start. And it doesn't have to be a ton of money. Even if you're like, gosh, I can't, I can't start with a four match. But I'm going to try to at least get a little bit of a match. start somewhere. If you can do the full match, please, please, please do because like I said, you want to have as much time in the market as possible, because we're trying to have time in the market not timing the market? And yeah, go ahead.

Miss Pinup Miami: 20:38

What if, for example, the job I work at doesn't have any of these benefits.

Unknown: 20:43

Yeah, so that's a really common one, too. So the great thing is, is that you have the opportunity to open these accounts on your own. So, for instance, I have something that is not called a Roth IRA. Again, just a type of investment account, and the money goes in after taxes. So it goes in after I get my paycheck, and all the taxes have already been paid out. And I put that money in. So I try to contribute personally, as much as I can. And that's increased, since I've negotiated my salary. But I put that money in and then I buy index funds, or I buy stocks without money. And again, it set it and forget it. So I buy it, and I leave it alone, I'm not going to touch it again until retirement. And so if you don't have it, you can look at things like Vanguard, I personally use Vanguard, and you don't have to use them. But that's just who I use. They're a brokerage firm, they have been had amazing customer service, you can also use like something like fidelity, Charles Schwab. And really, most of these companies, I remember calling Vanguard and going, I need somebody to explain this, I was not a customer yet. And I need somebody to just explain to me what this is. And they talked me through a traditional IRA and how to rollover from a previous employer into that, when I was going through with my opening my Roth IRA, I asked some questions about taxes and how it would have affected me. And many times these companies are very, very much willing to talk to you, even if you're not a customer yet. Just to give you the information, but the information is definitely out there. And like you said earlier, yeah, we weren't taught this stuff in school. But we have access to all of it at our fingertips. It's just knowing how to search for the right information. Wow.

Miss Pinup Miami: 22:38

It's so interesting to know this because I wouldn't have thought to call a company like Vanguard and ask them, because I'd be too scared. They're trying to sell me something, but hearing it from you. Yeah. To educate their consumers to know what they're getting.

Unknown: 22:52

So that we are Yeah, and you know, and not all of them are that way. But you know, the really the big players tend to be words, and you can find a lot of great information on their websites, too. I mean, I've definitely gone on, you know, these companies websites, just to ask the right questions and go, Okay, what exactly does this mean? What does this term mean? Or what you know, like, I didn't know what an ETF watch, which is an extreme exchange traded fund, it's a fancy term for basically like, again, the basket of stocks and funds. So

Miss Pinup Miami: 23:25

do you have any tips for first time homebuyers?

Unknown: 23:30

Oh, gosh, I don't I have not had the experience of doing first time home buying, I have a few friends who have done who have done homebuying recently who has you know, so one of my girlfriends bought her first house and had it built. Another one of my girlfriends had just bought a house and then sold it to a different friend. So there's lots of, you know, like, there's just lots of things going on. But I will say, based on some of the information that I've heard from other people, as well as research that I've done, first off, do not buy furniture for house you do not own yet. And to make sure that you are being very, very careful with your money. So a lot of times what happens is that people will go to apply for a mortgage or they will go to get like the approval. And then the next thing you know they're buying a car or they're buying, you know, a new sofa set or whatever, and it totally messes them up. So, I would recommend if you can, before you start even looking at houses, make sure that you talk to a realtor licensed Realtor and go your licensed Realtor is going to immediately say hey, you need to go get pre approved. And just because you get pre approved for a certain dollar amount does not mean that you have to buy a house at that dollar amount. So if you get approved for a house That's $350,000, you don't have to buy a house for $350,000, you could buy one that's 250. And, you know, maybe it's not the dream house. But you really want to make sure that you're not putting yourself in a, you know, strain because like we've seen with this pandemic, I mean, this was totally unexpected. And which brings me to another point, if you have are planning on buying a house, if you're planning on just even switching jobs, if you're planning on having kids, like, every single person should have an emergency fund, and I'm not talking about like, whoops, I spent a little too much this week, it is, oh my gosh, you know, things have hit the fan, I need to cover cover my bases. So an emergency fund is recommended for everyone. And you can start out with a small one, I started out with $1,000, I had an emergency it drained completely built it back up. And that emergency fund, I'm now working towards it being three to six months of expenses. So it takes time. But you know, emergency fund is very, very important. Especially if you're planning on having a house because houses have a lot of emergencies.

Miss Pinup Miami: 26:21

I bought my house seven years ago, I used an FHA loan. I did that I went to a realtor. And I got um, pre approved for the bank. And I did I went lower than the amount I was pre approved for because I thought of like what if I lose my job, or what if I change jobs like I won't be able to afford it. And the tip I would give to anybody is to I called it my life folder. And my boss at the time made fun of me because she thought it was ridiculous. But I had like a three ring binder. And because banks and all these things ask you for so much paperwork,

Unknown: 27:01

so much paperwork.

Miss Pinup Miami: 27:03

Just keep like all your statements, everything they asked you, I kept it there because no matter what time they ask you for it. So I had everything organized. And I always recommend to people that ask for my advice is like, have a binder with everything that you needed to get pre approved and keep adding whatever else they add you and just leave it there because you never know they're gonna ask it for you again. And then you know, when you go to the closing before and always read your paperwork before you get to the closing that happened to me that I read the the mortgage amount that was going to be the mortgage amount. And I was like, Oh my God, if this is the mortgage amount, I can't afford the house. And I was like something wasn't adding up. Because it didn't go with like the math that I have come to know. And I realized that it was a typo that they added another number and I'm like, whew, I mean, I could have afforded it, but if I can't, if something happened, I would have been really screwed.

Unknown: 27:55

Right? And you know, and that just proofreading things and looking at things and be you know, that detail oriented stuff, you know, and I gotta say, I am a very creative, you know, left brain right brain whenever that is person, I'm just I'm a very, very creative person. And so if I have to, like look for a contract, oh my gosh, I just want to fall asleep. But I recognize for myself that it's for my own safety and protection to make sure that I read any legal contracts. So good on you for doing that.

Miss Pinup Miami: 28:25

Yeah, cuz I was like shots. And another tip I have for anybody looking for houses is just the first house that you see that has your little checkmarks. So they're not everyone has like their little things that they're looking for. Don't fall in love with it. Most people that I've heard and it did happen to me, but I realized other people told me that the first house you see that checks off all your boxes, you fall in love with it, even if it has like a little mistake or something. But keep looking because it's just in that high that you have of getting a house. Yeah, this one's perfect. But no, keep going because there's gonna be others.

Unknown: 29:03

Yeah, and you know, if you might fall in love with a house and you go through the whole process, and then all sudden, you know, the inspection comes along and it's like, oh, no, you have termites, like, more

Miss Pinup Miami: 29:15

like a water problem. But with an FHA loan, the house has to have certain standards after inspection. Yes, I said don't fall in love.

Unknown: 29:28

Great. Yeah, I love it.

Miss Pinup Miami: 29:30

But I and I still that's where my studio is in my house. So I'm really proud of it. And I took your advice without knowing I didn't buy any furniture. I literally moved into my house. You know, because I knew it was just going to be me. So one of my vendors because I worked in furniture manufacturing at the time, I manufactured my own bed at the warehouse and one of my vendors gave me a mattress so it was literally just mattress kitchen supplied kitchen stuff. And that's it and Throughout the years, I've been collecting vintage things in my house and slowly in seven year process, but I literally moved in with just my bed. And it was the best feeling ever that first night's sleep knowing that, you know, you got a little place that now you're just paying the bank.

Unknown: 30:16

Yeah. Right.

Miss Pinup Miami: 30:18

So the next question has to do with house buying, but I didn't understand this question. But how can you get 0%? down on a house? Is that possible?

Unknown: 30:29

You know, I am not the perfect person that asked that question, too. And a lot. I know a lot of things depend on your financial status, it depends on what you qualify for. It can, you know, there's so many programs now I know, like there are programs for, you know, veterans, for how fine, it's really, like I said, it's really best to talk to a professional and ask them those questions. And sometimes, depending on like, look at the math like, sometimes Yeah, maybe you put 0% down, but the interest rate is so high that you're not going to pay off that house in 30 years, it's just not going to happen. So you want to make sure that you look at really look at the math and see, it might be better to do 0% down and then other for other people, it might be better to, you know, wait to save that downpayment. So I would always talk to him. Yeah,

Miss Pinup Miami: 31:24

I did 3% down with an FHA loan. And I don't know what the deal is, with Biden giving $25,000 to first time I heard I've heard about it online, but I don't know nothing about it. But I'd like to know about it. Because it's interesting. Is it real?

Unknown: 31:40

I don't know. And again, so many of these programs have so many qualifications and things that you have to meet and thresholds. And there's certain things that you know, you know, not strange attachment almost, that's like the only word that's coming with it, it's like, there's certain things that you have to do to qualify. So just make sure you're like, like you did read the fine print,

Miss Pinup Miami: 32:03

I keep a book, how much how much of your paycheck? Should you put in your savings?

Unknown: 32:10

How much of your paycheck should you put into savings, okay, so a lot of this is gonna depend on your income level. And, you know, there's different rules for different people. And it depends a lot on your goals, too. So there's a kind of an out there rule of thumb of like, you should put at least 10% away, there are many, many people who would argue that 10% is not enough. And then other people who say 10% is just fine or more than enough, it really depends on what your goals are, and what you what you make. So if 10% is a lot of your income, you know, you might be able to have more or less that you need to contribute. My savings amount actually fluctuate from month to month, depending on a few different factors. So one is what my goals are currently, I am in the process of, I'm just finishing up saving for launching a business all about obviously money. And for me, I have been saving significantly more than I normally would because launching your business is expensive. So once that is finished, my savings rate will actually go down a little bit. Because the things that I need to save for after that aren't, you know, aren't as pressing aren't as in, you know, I would say right there in your face, as you know, as launching this businesses, so it's gonna depend on a lot of factors. But if you're worried about how much you should save, my guess is you're probably not saving quite enough. That would be my guess. How much

Miss Pinup Miami: 33:51

should you have in your savings? I think you mentioned that before. You said you have three months? Oh, no, you want to have three months?

Unknown: 33:59

Sure. So the emergent so there's different kinds of savings that you can have. So I actually like to break it down into different types. So first, you want to have your emergency fund that is most important. That's something that everybody should have, because emergencies happen. And they always happen in the worst moments. And they always happen when you're stretched. Anyway. So having that extra money put away and you know, it's generally it's generally accepted that you should have at least $1,000 To start off with, especially if you're also trying to pay off debt. But if you can build up to three to six months of expenses, now I'm going to make this very clear. Three to six months of expenses means your absolute essential expenses. If you lost your job, if you suddenly were you know, got a divorce or something really tragic happens. You can cancel Netflix, you can cancel subscriptions, you can cancel a lot of things. So we're talking about three to six months of this is what I need to absolutely just survive. And when you have those three to six months expenses, it's going to take you some time to save up for that amount. And that's okay, it's taken me, you know, months and months and months just to get back up from the, you know, $1,000 that I had to use for unexpected surgery. Thankfully, it was, you know, an easy thing, but it was a surgery I was not expecting to have. And to build that backup took several months to do that. And now I'm slowly still working on building up to that three to six months. I would also say you should have other savings, or which are called sinking funds. So sinking funds are essentially savings that you have that cover more short term expected things. So it's not this unexpected, Oh, my gosh, the world is ending kind of emergencies is stuff that you know is going to happen. So for instance, you can have you know that your car tag renewal is coming up. So you're going to put five bucks away, for a couple of, you know, a couple of weeks, you're gonna put five bucks away a week, till you get the amount that you need for your car tag rule so that when it comes up, you're not suddenly going, Oh, my gosh, I didn't budget for that. The other thing that you can save for sinking and sinking funds is things like travel, if you want to go and travel places, that's a great place to have a sinking fund. I have a sinking fund for holiday gifts, because I know that the holidays are expensive, and I never ever, ever want to go into debt for the holidays ever again. So last year was my first year of a completely debt free holiday. It was amazing. And I was not only able to shower, my friends and family with their Christmas gift, he was my Christmas gift to myself. Exactly. So sinking funds are an amazing thing that for those expected larger expenses that you know you're going to have. And then you're not tapping into into debt, like credit cards, and you're not tapping into your emergency fund. So something to definitely think about, as you know, having different savings accounts, I currently have seven different savings accounts.

Miss Pinup Miami: 37:12

Can you set them in the same bank?

Unknown: 37:14

You can't? Well, it depends on what kind of bank you have some banks charge for savings accounts. That's personally why I'm a fan of credit unions. Credit unions are like, I am a fan of them, I like them. If you have a bank that works for you, great keep going with it. I also have what's known as a high yield savings account. So traditionally, a saving a regular bank savings account, bank or credit union, your interest rate, meaning your money sits in there and it grows is point 04 percent, so less than 1%, way less. and with a high yield savings account, it's point 5%, so half a percent. And that difference, let's say you have $5,000 in a high yield savings account, in five years that $5,000 is going to grow by an additional 200. Or I'm sorry,$126. In a regular savings account, it's only going to grow$10 over five years time. So that's why when you have an emergency fund you want to or you know a house down payment or other large amounts of money that you're putting aside for a long period of time, make sure that you're using a high yield savings account. Nerd wallet, which is a website nerd wallet always does. Like a here are the best interest rates for high yield savings accounts. Now, before the pandemic happened, high yield savings accounts have interest rates of 2%, sometimes a little bit higher. And those have gone down. But it's still better than a regular savings account for those larger amounts. So, you know, my my emergency fund is sitting in a high yield savings account. And it just, I love seeing that money just growing and growing and working for me. Oh,

Miss Pinup Miami: 39:05

I need to look into that I didn't know the difference between high yield and a normal savings. I know since the bank I used to bank with is also where I got my mortgage. I know they give us a free savings, but I'm going to find out if they have like this high yield there. If not, I'm going to

Unknown: 39:22

look here and then more banks are getting savvier. So that some like I know like ally has buckets. So it's one it's one bucket of money. But you can say hey, I want to say that$2,000 is designated for you know, my emergency fund and this amount of money is definitely for my Christmas and this you know so you can more and more banks are offering things to really kind of help you stay organized. And this is just another little tip. If you are a person with lots of savings accounts. That's what works for my brain. It doesn't work for everybody, but that's what works for my brain. I name my savings account. So I have a fashionista fund. And that's a sinking fund and my fashion needs to fund allows me it's a my permission slip that if I see something that I want a dress, a new pair of shoes, new glasses, new, whatever, that's in the category of fashion. If I see it, and I just go, oh my gosh, I can't live without this. As long as I have the money in that account to cover it, I'm allowed to buy it.

Miss Pinup Miami: 40:29

You're like your own manager,

Unknown: 40:31

I am you have to be right. It's better to have tell your money, what you want it to do, then to be a slave to your money.

Miss Pinup Miami: 40:42

It's so funny how everything at least the last couple episodes I've had is all about, you know, the first rule is to love yourself. Same thing here is to own your money. And it will work for you if you know what to do. Interesting. So what is the best way to budget? Should I use a spreadsheet? Or do you recommend anything else?

Unknown: 41:05

So it really depends. And here's the thing. It doesn't matter what you use pen and paper and app. There are there are great apps like there's one called you need a budget, I know that there is a subscription price for it. But some people swear by it. That doesn't personally work for my brain. The thing that works best for me, personally, is I start with my spending. So I keep track of my spending and I budget based on my calendar and what's in my spending tracker, if I understand how much money I have spent in on average how much I need for things like my haircare products or for you know certain saving tools, I track all of my spending and that helps me to budget. But here's the thing, no budget app, spreadsheet, none of that is going to be what fixes it, what fixes it is your mindset. So if you say to yourself, I am going to sit down and this is personally what I do. So the night before payday, I sit down with a glass of wine or beer, I have my little spreadsheet, I checked my spending tracker, I check my and I make a money date with myself. And I have committed to myself that I am going to do have my money date. And stick to that because I owe it to myself. And that's where I sit down and I tell my money where I want it to go. So you can have all the great apps, you can have all the spreadsheets that you want. They are not going to help you if you're not committed to actually using them.

Miss Pinup Miami: 42:36

Hmm. I feel I don't know about any, any of the listeners out there. But I feel so motivated to like, have a money date.

Unknown: 42:44

Yes, do it and it doesn't take that long. Like I've gotten I went from like it usually it took me when I first started it took me about 30 to 40 minutes because I like really had to like look at everything and understand. I've gotten practices done it enough times. And I personally budget by paycheck that's just worked for me. You can budget by month or by paycheck, whatever. But you know, now it's like it's a 15 minute process. And that's just sit sitting down and updating my spending trackers the majority of that time and going oh yeah, I bought this and I bought that and Okay. And then it's over. So like, I don't even finish my beer or my wine. By the time that I'm done budgeting.

Miss Pinup Miami: 43:24

You've gotten to know what you're doing and you follow what you're managing yourself to do. So back back to the beginning is well, this is the last question but it has to do with a couple of budget tips that you have is tips on saving money, I'm sure is that coincides with tips of budgeting or you know, any tips you have sure any of the listeners?

Unknown: 43:50

Yeah, so I mentioned earlier about those regrettable and forgettable expenses. And you know, those can be just sneaky little things. That you you think, Oh my gosh, I keep a list. And this is something I learned from Sarah Vaughn bargain. From yesterday. Yes, blog. I keep a list in my phone of things that make me happy. And I have worked really, really hard to get clear on what makes me happy. And because I know what makes me happy, I can do more of it. So I because I know what makes me happy. I'm pretty clear on what really does not make me happy. I love going to happy hour with friends and talking and having great conversations. I do not like spending $60 to listen to somebody you know that the entire time about the same thing that they've ended about the last time I saw them. So I make a point to budget for the things that make me happy and ruthlessly cut everything else. Now with that said, sometimes those sneaky little spending too. Yours will, will come up. And there's different things you can do to approach it. Again, it's unless you spend, the more money you have to save. So when you go to the store, if you see like, I am a, just a sucker for those can't like those nice smelling candles, especially the seasonal ones that have like cute things on them. So here's what I do, I will take the candle off the shelf, walk to another aisle, take the package off if I can not like damaging it, but just like slip the package off and look at it by itself. Because we have to remember we're working against people who have advanced degrees in marketing and like psychology, who can like package things and arrange things on the shelf to make you go? Oh, that's cute. So we really have to be thoughtful about, you know, what those spending triggers are, and really just kind of be able to step away out per minute and say, is it Do I really need this? Do I really want this? am I buying it because the packaging is cute in my you know. So stopping and pausing and asking yourself those questions. The other thing I do when I go shopping, is I take a picture of things, because that triggers my brain to go, Oh, yeah, I did it. I got it, you know. And so I take a picture of things, and nine times out of 10 A few weeks later, I look at a picture and go, what the heck is this? And I never go back and buy it. But that's when Oh, if I really like this, I'll buy it, you know, but I've got a picture of it. So don't forget, because sometimes eBay Yeah,

Miss Pinup Miami: 46:34

I'm just gonna screenshot this.

Unknown: 46:37

Later. Yeah, bookmark it right. And then you never do, you never do. But that's the challenge. The other thing I would recommend is, for love of Pete, please delete your credit card information from website and from your computer or from the autofill. Like, just delete it. If, if the thought of getting up from the couch, and going over to your wallet to get your credit card and put the information is is enough deterrent for you to not buy it, you probably don't need that thing. Right. So a lot of times we see something, we're like, Ooh, that's cute. And because it's already filled in to our you know, on our phone and and our laptop, it's just like find out by now. So that's a really helpful thing too. And I also recommend, because sometimes when you're cutting or especially especially if you're in the process of paying up significant amounts of debt, budget for fun, and find ways to do things that you love that are cost effective. So when because I know I love happy hour, I try to limit myself to the number of drinks, I all that I have, because drinks are expensive. I also will always look at a menu before I go someplace and pick out what I want so that I can talk, total that up in my head and go, Okay, this is how much I'm going to spend because I'm going to go to the specific place on this day. And that's really helped me to where I'm like, I don't suddenly go, oh my gosh, the bill is, you know, 80 bucks, and I still have a tip to leave. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Miss Pinup Miami: 48:08

How would you? What would you recommend for somebody that's in debt? It was credit card debt, do you believe in consolidating debt or paying off the lowest interest one,

Unknown: 48:18

it totally depends. But there are two common strategies that you can use if you're in debt. So the first strategy is called the snowball method. And the idea is you start with the smallest dollar value debt. This is great if you have multiple, multiple types of debt. So you pay the minimums on everything except the smallest one, and you throw extra at the smallest dollar amount first. Because psychologically, what that does for you is that it gets you quick wins. And a lot of times, we psychologically need those quick wins to go, Okay, I can do this, I'm doing the thing, especially if you have some really big debt. The other method is called the avalanche method. And the idea is that you are paying off the highest interest rate. So you list all of your debts from the lowest, or the highest interest rate to the lowest, and you pay off the highest interest rate first, because from a mathematical standpoint, you're going to end up spending less money because that interest rate is working against you when it comes to debt. So it really depends on which strategy is going to work best for you. But in my situation, my personal situation, I had two debts. Both were of relatively similar dollar values. And they were very, very similar interest rates. So I just attacked them both simultaneously. Not what I would recommend to everyone but like that, you know what worked for me?

Miss Pinup Miami: 49:49

Yeah, no, when you were done, you were able to have whatever money you were spending on consultant like, Lord Yeah, he put it to your savings.

Unknown: 49:57

Exactly. It was like getting your ways the As soon as I paid off my debt, it was suddenly like, Oh my gosh, I have money now, like, I can spend money on things. And it was like giving myself away. It was amazing. So do

Miss Pinup Miami: 50:10

you have a credit card now or no more credit,

Unknown: 50:13

I do know I have a credit card, I still kept the credit card, but I paid off. Because that was through my credit union. And I actually applied for a credit card for the points because I realized that I had, I personally had worked through a lot of my debt issues, you know, mentally, and was able to use a credit card responsibly. Not everybody feels that way. So a lot of people they go through their debt free journey, and they're like, I never ever want to have a credit card ever again. That was me. And it's up to you. You know, that's, and that's totally okay. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have any credit at all. Like, there are some people who preach that but you want to, because you know, again, if you want to buy a house, if you want to, you know, a lot of times even just renting, you got to have a decent credit score. So I personally have a credit card, but I only pay for things that I have already budgeted for.

Miss Pinup Miami: 51:09

Yeah, that's me. I've learned so much today. And that's why Yeah, her do all the talking today, because I'm just soaking up all this thinking

Unknown: 51:18

about all these, and we could talk about this for forever. So I'm so glad to answer all these questions. I hope they were helpful.

Miss Pinup Miami: 51:24

Yes. Do you have any questions or anything you want to add? You want to ask me any questions or anything you'd like to? Yeah.

Unknown: 51:31

So um, you know, I, I love your show, I have been binge listening to a lot of your episodes, and I really enjoy it. You know, I, one of the things that I love about the pinup community is that it is so accepting. And so, Mormon people are so finally, what do you see as potential pitfalls of the pinup community, especially when it comes to money?

Miss Pinup Miami: 51:58

photoshoots I think this is my opinion, when it comes to both a pitfalls in the pin of community and in financial pinup community, because that's what you asked, Is photoshoots I feel like a lot of girls and that's why I started the pin to meetups is a lot of girls think they need to be a model and they need to take photos. I mean, nowadays, anybody can take a photo on a pretty photo on on on a cell phone. What I'm trying to do, and what I see is that you don't need to take photos, this huge expense to get published in these like, magazines that, you know, I think that they could just get printed online mailed to order. Um, I just think that's the biggest pitfall spending money on photoshoots. Yes, maybe for a special holiday, but not just because you got a new outfit or,

Unknown: 52:49

you know,

Miss Pinup Miami: 52:51

like a baby shower or not babies. Yeah, baby shower, weddings, you know, those type of things? I think, you know, yes, because there are milestones in life, but just to do photoshoots to do photoshoots I feel like it's money that's going that could go into your house could go into payment could go into your savings. So yeah, I mean, that's the first thing in my head that I can think of is is that because that's the number one thing I see a lot of women spend money on because not only does that include the photoshoot includes the clothes, because you want something nobody's seen. You want your hair done if you don't do your own hair makeup lashes. The makeup. Yeah, you do it yourself.

Unknown: 53:27

So there's actually, there's actually a whole concept around that called the deterrent effect vi d e r o t. So the Diderot effect is named after this guy, this French philosopher guy you need in a row who's French, so I'm doing my best to pronounce that. But basically, he talked about how he was given this beautiful he was a guy who lived basically in poverty. And on purpose. Like that was just, he was a fluff horse or whatever. So but somebody gave him this beautiful scarlet red silk road dressing robe. And he put it on and then he said, everything else looked so bad next to it. So this whole idea of the dinner affected like he he bought his robe, and he's like, Oh, you know, my chair that I sit in when I get ready in the morning. Like it looks so terrible next to my beautiful robe. And then he got the new chair. And then he needed a new table and it's just on and on and on. So I completely recognize that where sometimes we get a new dress or we get you know, a new hair flower or something and we go Oh man, like I wish I had this other thing too. You know, that was really neat a personnel I mean, yeah, so we spent end up spending more money than we plan. So yeah, the dinner effect, it'll get you

Miss Pinup Miami: 54:47

see, I knew these concepts without knowing the name. Yeah, that happens with me and sewing sometimes like I want to, since I got into sewing because I want to create things in my head and Sometimes the dress I in the beginning I thought the dress was gonna be cheaper to make than to buy, but it ends up getting more expensive to make it than to buy it. So it's basically because you're making something custom and if I lived in LA cuz I love tik tok because I see these designers and the seamstresses make stuff in the garment district for like $10 make a gown. When like $10 a yard is like the Joanne's fabric or more, you know, but then you buy the buttons and then the zipper and then you want it to Oh, man, and it all adds up. And by the end of it, I should have bought a dress, but then you're like, it's awesome.

Unknown: 55:37

It is it is

Miss Pinup Miami: 55:39

so high. Thank you. That was a good question. I answered that relatively quick. That's sick. Yeah. Well, maybe I want to say thank you so much for being on the podcast. It was an honor and very enlightening episode. And make sure you guys give her a follow on Instagram and metal sweet money on Make sure to put her other other podcasts on the link below and her Instagram so you can easily accessible. access it oh my gosh, I can't even talk

Unknown: 56:11

we've been talking for so long as Oh,

Miss Pinup Miami: 56:14

but next week, I'm going to have an actress she's going to talk about her time as being an actress being on set. She's also a pinup model. Name is Luna exmar. She's from New York. I should hit her up for like fabric in the New York district two I hear it's cheap. But stay tuned for that. And I want to say thank you to all you listeners out there. Thank you so much for listening every week and coming back or listening for the first time. I greatly appreciate it. I hope you guys stay safe. get vaccinated if you want. But please practice social distancing, and have a wonderful day.

Unknown: 56:51

Bye