Finances: Money, money, money!

When it comes to money—making it, spending it, managing it—we handle it like the badass boss-ladies we are. Even though we took different paths and had very different circumstances, our common sense money rules produced two financially secure and successful women. Cocktails in hand, we share what those rules are, how we learned them, and most importantly, why they work. So, grab a glass and settle in. Today’s episode is all about money, honey.

Tonight's cocktails:

Cheryl’s Mimosa

 ·         ¾ cup chilled champagne, prosecco, cava, or other sparkling wine

·         ¼ cup fruit juice (e.g. orange, peach, whatever)

Pour champagne into a glass.

Add fruit juice.

 (I used Champagne, orange juice, and added fruit)

 https://www.loveandlemons.com/wprm_print/42453

Stasha’s Neopolitan 

 ·         1.5 oz Tito’s Handmade Vodka

·         ¾ oz di Amore (or Disaronno) amaretto

·         ½ oz fresh lime juice

·         ½ oz cranberry juice

 Combine all in a shaker with ice. Shake well. Pour into glass and enjoy!

(FYI--I totally made this up. It’s essentially a Cosmo when I’m out of Grand Marnier or Triple Sec and only have Amaretto)

Transcript

Stasha Boyd: 0:01

Hi there. I'm Stasha

Cheryl Stuller: 0:03

I'm Cheryl.

Stasha Boyd: 0:04

And between us

Cheryl Stuller: 0:05

we have four kids,

Stasha Boyd: 0:06

three businesses,

Cheryl Stuller: 0:07

two husbands and one goal

Stasha Boyd: 0:09

to get to the point of the matter. It's money in money out.

Cheryl Stuller: 0:13

Money in and money out. Yeah.

Stasha Boyd: 0:14

I believe... I always believe it's like you as long as you have more money coming in than you have going out, you're fine.

Cheryl Stuller: 0:26

And so when I met Brian, the first thing he did was said, he looked at my finances and he said, "You cannot afford this car, you're gonna have to let it go." And I say, Well, why don't I let you go and keep the Corvette?

Stasha Boyd: 0:42

I can get another you with that Corvette.

Cheryl Stuller: 0:43

I don't like that. Yeah. Actually very sound advice because that's right. I could not afford it. It did it again.

Stasha Boyd: 0:56

I am so happy. I love that recording in progress, recording in progress.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:01

I Stasha.

Stasha Boyd: 1:02

Cheryl, it is so good to see you. But anyway, well, so let's quickly and briefly, I have my celebrated drink. This is actually one that I kind of come up with my own. And I call it a neopolitan. Because it's a cosmopolitan, when I've run out of grand marnier. I replaced the Grand Marnier with amaretto, and we call it a neopolitan.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:24

Okay, and I made everybody mimosas yesterday morning because it was their last morning here. And so I have orange juice and champagne. And then I put raspberries in it.

Stasha Boyd: 1:34

Oh, how festive.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:34

And it is just lovely and refreshing. I love it.

Stasha Boyd: 1:38

Very nice.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:39

All right. Today's topic.

Stasha Boyd: 1:42

Yes. Yes. Money. Money, honey. All about finances today we talking about the money.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:53

Money, money, money money.

Stasha Boyd: 1:56

But I think the first question really into to, because when we were coming up with this, the real question is, you know, why is this why we think this would be important to our listeners? Why? Why would this matter to them? And the thing is, is that I... it is one of those topics that, first of all, most divorces do not occur because of infidelity. They occur because of fighting or betrayals over money. Money is one of the biggest causes of tension in any relationship. And a husband and wife, and parents and children, And the way they handle the money or they don't handle it. As people get older how their parents are handling money, how their grown kids are handling money. Um, it determines a lot of your... not, not your happiness, I mean, you can be happy or unhappy almost anywhere on that scale. But it manages your options. And as so for me as a woman, our 50s especially, it's like a) it's about how you're able to take a look at the way you live your life. It's the control you can have, the autonomy that you can have, the independence that you can have. All of that comes down to money. Why do you think it's what's your biggest thought about why people should care about this?

Cheryl Stuller: 3:14

Well, for me, and for my husband, we've always done okay, financially only because or one of the products of that is because we always had that concept of if we don't have the money, then we're not going to do it. Number one. And if we don't have the money, and we need it, like when my husband was in the Navy, and he was earning maybe $400 a week, and we had four children, and we needed new tires on the van, we used to take out those payday loans. Have you ever heard of those?

Stasha Boyd: 3:51

Oh, yeah,

Cheryl Stuller: 3:52

We would take those out and wait for our next pay day because we only got paid two times a month. So if your food expenses went up, or your child had to go to the doctor and expectedly for an ear infection, any kind of money we had, that was extra we would have to wait for. So we took out three or four of those during his Navy career while he was lower in rank. And so we would have to take out money to quickly get those tires and then have to scrimp and scrape on other things, sometimes even food to get that paid back quickly. So the concept of money for us has always been something that has been not fraught with, you know, um, dread or anything, but definitely very aware of. We know what our expenses are. How are we going to meet those needs?

Stasha Boyd: 4:48

And I think that brings up a really good point that I think, you know, and I know we haven't had a lot of episodes at this point, but one of the things about you and I is that and I said, tell me if you agree, right now, you and I, I would consider us financially successful.

Cheryl Stuller: 5:05

I would agree. Yeah.

Stasha Boyd: 5:06

I think that, you know, I'm not gonna sit there say, you know, I'm mega rich, we're not mega rich. But you know, we don't owe anything on our home. We haven't owed any money on a car and probably 20 years. We have cars and motorcycles and golf carts and you know, all of the the accoutrement. We travel as much as we want, we eat out as much as we want, we do whatever we want. Um, but all of that... We didn't start with any of that. And like, in my case, you know, I think I may have mentioned before, when I went to school, I, didn't, we don't have a... we never got a job that I made a lot of money. I haven't... I got a degree in theater. If anyone was supposed to completely fail by society, and quite frankly, a lot of my parent's friends' standards, I was one of them. It's like, "oh, my god, she's got a degree in what? How is she going to feed herself? Oh, my god, you're gonna be paying for her forever." And the thing was, is that that's not the case. Because in my family, it didn't matter what you did in college. Because whatever you decided to do, you were going to live with the consequences. That was mom and dad's approach is that if you had... So you want to get a degree in Theatre? Fine. Either way, at the end of the day, you were out of school, whether it's because you quit, or whether it's because you graduated, you're cut off, you're paying your own way.

Cheryl Stuller: 6:23

Oh my gosh, thank God, my parents didn't have that concept. Because when I divorced, and we talked about this back in relationships, when I divorced and had a two and a three year old Well, from birth, I was divorced up until she was age three, I was able to handle all of the day to day expenses, but I couldn't handle the lawyer expenses. But that's what I wanted to pay for. Because I felt like I got myself into that situation. I need to pay for that. I feel okay with you helping me feed my child. Yeah. So they would help me with that some months, because I couldn't meet, meet all of those needs. I was a dental assistant, I was not making a lot of money either. And thank God I had my mobile home paid for. But I thank God, my parents didn't have that concept. Because I needed their help, quite honestly,

Stasha Boyd: 7:24

well, here's the thing, had something happened, I would, they would have absolutely helped me. I mean, they helped my brother, you know, he had things that happened in his life and his his his existence, that they certainly helped him with. And, you know, and I think that's an important thing. Any, any family, any parent, and again, sometimes it might, if that parents got, you know, an extra 20 bucks, and that kid needs 20 bucks, you know, it's like, they'll give him the 20 bucks. If they've got $2000, extra$2000, they'll give him the$2000. It's like we give from our heart, by our means, I think. And I think any good parent does that for a child. At some point, you know, the parent, like, we'll have this conversation about parenting at some point about, um, you know, at what point do you start saying no to that. But in your circumstances, and even as you said, at that time in your life, you were still thinking, "Oh, no, I'm not going to be... they're not gonna be paying for this." You weren't going to your parents, "Oh, my God, can you pay for everything? Oh, my God, I'm so I'm so stuck. Oh, my God." You weren't doing that. Now managing it. You were getting help for what you needed help for. But you were managing.

Cheryl Stuller: 8:26

Yes, yes. Yeah. And I think for you and I both, I think a lot of the difference for us and not feeling like finances had to be this devastating topic is we were always willing to work. We always knew we could find work and that we were willing to work hard at what we did. And we both have partners that matched that goal. Yeah. So when you said a lot of marriages fail because of finances, I.. not, not in my situation, it would be for something else. Finances was always something we were good at together and had the same philosophy on. Thank God. Yeah. The only mistake I made financially was during that time I bought a Corvette that could not afford, you know, you can't have your parents helping you pay for food. When you're when I could pay for it. Mostly. I did have some money saved up, which should have gone to those lawyer expenses. But I thought, Oh my God, I've never done anything for myself. I've always worked for the family for the farm, put them first I'm going to get this Corvette. I felt like it was in my budget and it wasn't. And so when I met Brian, the first thing he did was said, he looked at my finances and and he said you cannot afford this car. You're gonna have to let it go. And I say Well, why don't I let you go and keep the Corvette.

Stasha Boyd: 9:55

I can get another year with that Corvette. I don't like that. Yeah,

Cheryl Stuller: 9:59

yeah. actually very sound advice because what's right, I could not afford it. It was in the shop all the time. The gas was expensive. It wasn't practical with a child. So I got rid of that car.

Stasha Boyd: 10:13

Well, and that's,

Cheryl Stuller: 10:14

that's the only financial mistake I've ever made.

Stasha Boyd: 10:16

Well, and it's funny because, about the sports car, you and I are still so much the same. Now I didn't meet Mike until later in life, I think you know, we didn't meet until I was in my late 20s, 27. Um, but I was working, you know, as an actor. I had my day job I how it's different things I was in I had purchased my, you know, inexpensive, used rebuilt cars because I couldn't afford anything, you know, new at all. And then once I finally had kind of like a steady job, and I had all these different regular acting gigs that I was doing-- I was working at a comedy show, I was doing corporate training, I was getting cast in commercials and industrials -- so I suddenly had some money. And I went out... I want a sports car, wanted a sports car. So I got a Dodge Stealth. Oh my god, I love that car.

Cheryl Stuller: 11:03

I know this about you.

Stasha Boyd: 11:05

Oh, my and you're saying... I think I only have, like, two pictures it. I know. Again, this was before cell phones. I never took pictures. But... and and I was driving that car when Mike and I met. I loved that car. And and it was just green and low and fat. And oh, it just would move. It was fast. And, well, then, of course, I got the opportunity to go back to grad school. Because Universal Studios where I was working at the time, they had a program where they would pay for college and for advanced degrees. They would pay a considerable amount of money towards an advanced degree and I'm like, well, that's some free fucking money. I'm not gonna be leaving that on the table. So I decided to go get a graduate degree. I choose such as something very strange. We'll talk about that later. But as it so happened, I could not afford the sports car and my portion of grad school. So I sold the Stealth. I didn't have any money to buy a new car. And the last car ganny and gamps had, daddy's parents, had after they passed away was a, um, we called it Special K, it was a little K car. Do you remember the K cars?

Cheryl Stuller: 12:14

No.

Stasha Boyd: 12:15

They were cheap, cheap, cheap cars back in the 80s. And by the time I got it, it had gone from ganny and gamp's estate, to granny had been driving it for a while. It was it had been sitting out in the yard and granddaddy's, you know what happened to those cars. When I got it, it had no AC. I thought it didn't have heat, apparently had heat on one side. The steering wheel was held on with duct tape. The radio didn't work, there was no radio. It was a bench seat, most of the stuffing was coming out obviously had to keep a towel across it to keep the stuffing in. This was the cheapest piece of shit car ever. But it was free. And I drove that thing to this college where I'm getting my graduate degree at one of, this very hoity toity private school. These people are driving Mercedes and beamers or whatever. But it actually brings it to one of my first points about why the reason I'm such a bad ass about money is because I have always held, and I think you have too and and probably for sure Mike and Brian have as well, is it's money in money out.

Cheryl Stuller: 13:21

Money in and money out. Yeah.

Stasha Boyd: 13:22

Suddenly, my I always believe it's like you have... as long as you have more money coming in than you have going out, you're fine. And what happened was, I took on that grad school course, I had these expenses that I had to pay. Suddenly that was out of balance. If something had to go, the car had to go. I got a free car, it didn't matter what that car looked like, it was a free car. I was happy to drive it. Happy and grateful.

Cheryl Stuller: 13:48

And I think also like you and Mike, we've always done a lot of our stuff ourselves. Like if you if we moved into a house that needed renovation, we did a lot of the renovation. I did all of the yard work until the kids got older. I've always cleaned my own house. Like I haven't used extra money like that, for things that I know that I can do myself, which sometimes makes it hard because you know, I'm a perfectionist in some ways. But I think that's also saved us a lot of money over the years is we had that concept of doing things ourselves and being handy and doing things ourselves. So we were able to put extra money into doing things like going out to eat and things like that.

Stasha Boyd: 14:37

Well, I think it's very funny because, first of all, I cannot imagine the person who you would be able to hire to clean your house. Could you imagine this poor person? Oh my god.

Cheryl Stuller: 14:49

No. I'm very picky. I used to rake...do y'all know shag carpet. I used to rake the carpet with a carpet rake before Stasha would come over. So it would be all nice and neat and laying the same way for her.

Stasha Boyd: 15:03

Yes. And here's the thing. So sure, it's like Cheryl saying that she's a perfectionist about cleaning is sort of like saying the Titanic took on a little water. Because yes, it's true. But you don't really understand the gravity of the situation. Um, but now they're going back that whole idea of doing the things that you can do yourself. Again, I fixed my own car, I did my own car repair. I mean, I knew how to change the oil, change the the spark plugs, fix things that were wrong. And what I didn't know, I would call somebody. And actually one time my car, this other car I had, it was... quit running. And it was the air sensor, the oxygen sensor. And I had my little portable phones in the early 90s little portable phone out there in the car, while I have the hood up with my dad's friend Bill, sa... telling me what I needed to do to change this air sensor, because I couldn't afford to take it to the to take it to a mechanic at that point. But I could afford to sit there and figure out how to do it. And now...

Cheryl Stuller: 16:05

Google, there was no Google Video back then.

Stasha Boyd: 16:09

There was no Google. But now honest to god, like YouTube? Did you see that YouTube thing about that woman and she was divorced, she's divorced or a widow, I forgot which one, she had three children. And she built her own house from the ground up basically learning as she went along, from YouTube videos.

Cheryl Stuller: 16:27

That's my kind of woman.

Stasha Boyd: 16:29

I loved her. I loved her. But you had some good questions over here and I thought these were really good ones, especially the first was like, you know, what does financial security and responsibility mean? What does it mean to you?

Cheryl Stuller: 16:41

Well, I think it goes back to what you said money in me means money out. If you don't have the money for something, do not fucking buy it. Do not put it on a credit card. Anything that you put on a credit card, you need to know that you have to pay that off the next month. Otherwise, it snowballs really quickly, and you're paying high interest.

Stasha Boyd: 17:03

Yeah,

Cheryl Stuller: 17:03

That's, that's not a good way to use your money. So don't buy anything that you do not have the money to pay for

Stasha Boyd: 17:12

Right.

Cheryl Stuller: 17:13

In your budget.

Stasha Boyd: 17:14

We call that you know, somebody else having their hand in your pocket, you know. And that's something, again, going back to granddaddy, he's like, you know, don't ever let anybody put their hand in your pocket. And that's what credit cards and debt was, because it's like, as soon as you owe that person, they've got their hand and your pocket. And they're telling you how you've got to spend your money. You've got to pay them back first. And actually, with this credit cards, or creditors or mortgages or car payments, they come first. And if you screw that up legally, you're screwed. So having... it's so it's not just a matter of like, it's not about like just no debt. It's why. The reason why you want as low of a debt, as you can reasonably manage, and only for necessities, is because you are keeping hands out of your pocket. So for me what financial security is, is that nobody can tell me what to do. I don't have... yeah, I don't, I don't have, I don't owe so much money that I have to go out there and work for "the man" to do anything. I well...

Cheryl Stuller: 18:17

And like with COVID, when COVID hit, you are your own business owner, and the type of business you had your contracts were non existent during that time. Guess what you and Mike were okay, because of your financial stability that you had built up to that point, right? You were fine getting through this time period, you were not panicked, you were not stressed. You could pay all of your bills. Now you had to let some things go that were extraneous. But But you were fine doing that not a lot of people can say that a lot of people are paycheck to paycheck or a month out.

Stasha Boyd: 18:53

Or they get all whiny about that, like, "Oh my god, Covid has hit, and I just had to, you know, I had to let the house cleaner go when I had to, I couldn't wait, I don't want to, I swear to God, I'm going to spend the money on the lawn guy." And they just go nuts. And you're like, why are you so emotionally attached to this shit? Let me tell you something COVID's hitting, and in our case, you know, we're out of work. You know, because of this, we have literally we... our business, to kind of like put it in perspective, we probably lost 90% of our work within three days. The clients just called up and said, "We're shutting down, we can't go on." And I and then we have a choice because that Okay, we're gonna hold your feet to the fire on this contract, which means they would have hated us and never picked us up later. Or we could say, you know, I'll tell you what, when you're ready, you call us back. And right now they're starting to call us back, you know, but if if we had been, you know, assholes on the front end, that would not have happened. But we had to take that risk back. We had to take it to ourselves. But the whole idea that something horrible happens. Now we are fortunate that this happened to us at this point in our business and our lives. Had this happen when we first started our business, that would have been different, right? Because at that time we were young, we were newlyweds, I think, and we'd still have one car payment, we had a mortgage. These, those things would have mattered if suddenly we would have had this much larger, you know, operating, you know, nut that we had to pay. But now, again, over time, understanding the effect of time on money management is one of the things, it's like, when you're young, you can be poor, when you're young. You can be...and by my poor, I don't mean, or I don't mean like, you know, living in your car, you know, poor, I'm talking about, you know, just not having the finer things poor, having to like drive the Special K car poor. You can do that when you're young. You can you could... there's a romance to it, in a way. Right. But when you are older, and certainly when you're old, you can't. There is no recovery. So if you are a woman person in your 50s, you know, you have kind of like look at where you are right now, how far are you from being more or less financially independent? Where your outgo is small, your income more than covers it, either through through work or pensions, or investments or retirement or whatever you're like, looking at those those, you know, final years paying. Where is that...where are you on that budget?. And so for me, when I started saving, and investing for my retirement when I was 23.

Cheryl Stuller: 21:39

And see, we weren't able to do that. We were we were still in the military at that time, with four kids and barely making ends meet as it was. So I wish we had started younger on that. So that would be one advice I would give to our listeners is start as young as you can, even if it's $5 a week or a paycheck, or whatever that is, a little bit goes a long way. Because now we're later in life, right? We haven't saved as much as I would like to have at that at the age that I am right now. And going forward. And we've had a big conversation with that about that with our financial guy. Yeah. And he asks, rightfully so specific questions, when do you want to retire? And how do you want to live when you retire, where you're going to need this much money, and you're not quite there. So this is what you're going to have to do to get there by that age. And so we're now doing that. So it helps to start that conversation as a younger couple when you're first together.

Stasha Boyd: 22:48

And for me what it wasn't, it wasn't the amount that mattered. It was the doing it that matter. What I came up with was, I figured that basically, I can save... there's no budget that I can't pull 10% out of, for the most part, I have had times where I did not have the 10%, but for the most of my life, I was like, I can I can trim 10 cents out of this dollar. So I made a decision a long time ago that I had my... I knew how much my core expenses were. And every job that I had, whether it was, like, whether I picked up a gig for acting or whether I was I needed some extra money, and I was working as a stagehand or whatever it was, at least 10% of that income went into my investments. Now some weeks that may have been$15. But that $15 always went in. And that was the difference. It wasn't that I was saving so much money at that point. I was really diggin' that groove.

Cheryl Stuller: 23:46

You were consistent with it.

Stasha Boyd: 23:48

I was consistent. And it became the habit of a lifetime. And then there was a part. So now, you know, fast forward a few years ago, and I think at that point in my 20s I had a I amassed a savings of like $3,000 by the time I was 23. Um, big money. But the habit was there. And then, I started... I got a I got a full time job. And that had flexibility. And there was a retirement plan. And I'm like, Yeah, man! How much, what can we put into this? How much?" And I'm like, max it out.

Cheryl Stuller: 24:21

That's awesome that you did that.

Stasha Boyd: 24:23

But I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Cheryl Stuller: 24:25

No, go ahead.

Stasha Boyd: 24:26

I was that one. Because the other thing was, is that I always believed in roommates when I was, you know, one of the things that people always say, "Well, I can't afford to live, I can't afford to do this." I'm like, Okay, well, if you're in your 30s 40s 50s and you have children, that's a different conversation. But if you're younger, and you're single, how many roommates do you have? Because for me, I mean, I almost always had at least three because I took my expenses from $900 a month, down to $400 a month, because I found two people that we could work it out and we could live together. And And "I don't want roommates. I don't want to have to do that." And I'm like, well, you whiney-ass bitch, then you're going to be poor when you're in your 70s because you cannot suck it up and clean up the dishes now. Really? That's the whole thought process behind it. People like they don't want to be inconvenienced now. And I'm like, well, you think it's inconvenient to be poor now? Try being 80 and being poor.

Cheryl Stuller: 25:23

Right? Exactly. Um, what what rules do you and Mike have for finances? Are you guys in line with that? Do you have like, I can go out and make a certain dollar amount purchase without talking to Brian and he has, you know, we have that rule. Otherwise, we talk to each other and have to agree on a larger purchase. What what rules do you guys have in place?

Stasha Boyd: 25:49

I think, well, we pre COVID again, COVID changed a lot, you know, for us, just like in our regular day to day. But Mike and I both have what we call our stash, we have our stash cash. And for both of us, it's like that stash cash is literally cash. And that's ours, I can go out and spend on anything I want to he can spend his on anything he wants to. Um,

Cheryl Stuller: 26:12

so it's separate. It's not a joint account.

Stasha Boyd: 26:15

It's not even an account. It's literally cash. Okay, we that we both have cuz I keep it in my little a little grandma used to have a little brown, my great grandmother lived in the trailer between granny and granddaddy and our house. Mm hmm. She used to keep this, this little tobacco sack around her neck tucked into her shirt. And she had all of her money in there. And a little notepad and a little pencil. So somebody borrowed like $5 from her, she'd write that in her little notepad. And she'd make a note about it. So I actually in her honor, I have a little sack that I keep this cash tucked in. But since so that's kind of each each other's. For me...like Mike is a musician. He likes to buy guitars. It's like he can buy every guitar he ever wanted. He doesn't tell me I don't even know. I don't need to hear about it. If he wants a guitar, go get a guitar.

Cheryl Stuller: 27:03

What else?

Stasha Boyd: 27:05

For me, the things are, I like to buy magazines, books. For me, it's not the big ticket items so much as it is the little things that add up. So I think I don't even know if we have dollar amount on it. But...

Cheryl Stuller: 27:25

I would recommend that. I would say... so for us, anything over $1,000 we have to talk to each other about

Stasha Boyd: 27:32

Yeah, that makes sense.

Cheryl Stuller: 27:33

Um, anything under $1,000, I can do whatever I want. He can do whatever he wants, and we don't have to talk about it.

Stasha Boyd: 27:41

I think for us, it's kind of like, you know, I would say that it's $500. Now, probably what would happen is if I wanted to, if I would, it would be a courtesy call. If I said if I see something I want and that thing cost like 350, 450 to $500, I send a text and say, hey, there's this thing. I want to get it. And what I get back is either "yes." Or "have you checked the account lately?" or something. Because actually, that's another thing. So the way we run our finances, because we are, I was an actor for so long. And Mike was a musician and we worked we have our own business. A lot of people run their finances on what I would call the the river model. Money's constantly flowing, and you're constantly like, you know, dividing it off into little rivers. The way we run ours, it's it's more like a water tower. Money pours in from the top, and we just turn the spigot on just a little bit. If the water tower is full, we can open that spigot up full and it's not gonna run that water that water down. But if it's starting to get low, that spigot tightens up.

Cheryl Stuller: 28:46

Exactly how we are here. Yeah. And you do you handle the finances in your house? Or is it joint? How do you handle that part of it?

Stasha Boyd: 28:55

Well, the accounts themselves are joint and we have them kind of all in different places. Mike basically handles all of our accounting and bookkeeping or whatever, because he does that for our business as well. It makes no sense for for both of us to have our fingers in that. I know how. I know what's there. We have a conversation about budgets and expenses regularly. Um, but for that, but for a long time, I did probably up until the we had our business for like three years or so. First, five or six years of our marriage, I handled them all. And then Mike took them over. And there were there was actually a specific reason for that. Because in our business, my job was sales. So I was spending my time you know, focusing on getting the contracts, preparing the proposals, making sure things are put together. So since that's the thing that drives--again, nothing happens in a business until something sells--so since that was on me, he put the outgo side on him. And that works well for us.

Cheryl Stuller: 29:59

I make sense. Yeah, I handle all of the finances on our side, both business and personal. And I'm very strict about money in money out. If it's not in the budget, if we don't absolutely need it, if I think I'm watching the economy, and we're being told it's not going to do well in the next 12 months, I'm going to say, let's hold off on that. But find out what our sales are going to be. Let's make sure that's going to continue through this. Because I like to have a big cushion, I like to have that faucet really tight, have that big cushion. And that makes me feel comfortable and secure. Because even though I'm willing to work hard and can adapt to situations, we, at 55--and I think you probably feel the same way--we're at a point in our lives where we need to be thinking about retirement when we cannot work. What is that going to look like? Have we set ourselves up, that we can still live the way we want to live, in the way we want to live it, and still have the resources to do that. And that's kind of like our fitness episode, where we talked about, you know, how you treat your body right now is how are you going to be at 80? It's the same thing with finances. How's that gonna translate? And you know, on another thing that factors in a lot with people at our age and up is medical expenses? How have you financial security and medical security kind of go hand in hand, because as we found out with my son, and his accident that somebody hit him, the medical side is so so expensive, and can and has wiped out families because of one simple accident where somebody else didn't have insurance. And now that falls on to you, how are you going to handle that? Are you going to be okay if you get cancer? Are you going to be okay if you have to go into long term care. So I would suggest that being a part of your portfolio as well. Be prepared for that

Stasha Boyd: 32:15

We need to do a whole a whole episode on this because, let me tell you something, I am angry. I am fucking furious. I am angry that I live in the greatest country on earth and people have to deal with this. I have to deal with this. You have to deal with this. We are the people who have created the bus... we did everything we were supposed to do. And still, you're dealing with insurance situation. So I want to I want I want to take us in my table this and just so you know, this will be the most profanity laden episode we do. I hate them motherfuckers. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. And we will talk about this more at length. But for now, yeah, when it comes to like, you know, deal with your finances, you have to factor that in, especially like in your 50s. Now, I'm hoping that most people, the vast majority of people, they do have insurance through either their own employer or a spouse employer or something like that. If they don't, and this is something I want to say, too. I don't care what your political persuasion is. If they don't, number one, you must check out the ACA exchanges that the health care exchanges you have to. Because that's what has happened to people. It's like they are they're like, okay, no, I'm just a healthy person. I'm fine. I'm feeling good. Um, and then, like you said, some fool comes around the corner on the wrong side of the road and runs over your son on a motorcycle. And the thing is, is that yes, that kind of shit happens. And that's the kind of expense that you can't prepare for. And you can't, you can't shop around, you can't go find the best health care deal when you are at... your body is a crumpled mess somewhere. Or, at our age, the ages between 50 and 65, most people who develop significant severe life threatening illnesses, cancer, Parkinson's, all the different things that we've talked about, that's when those symptoms show up. That's when they show up. And so if you don't have some kind of plan for your healthcare, you've got to come up with something. And if you make...and they've just made some changes to the ACA that have really helped it out a lot--don't put comments about it being expensive and not perfect, it's like I hear you. Nobody hates it more than I do. But it is a fact. And if that is not an option for you, then look into things that are called health shares. If you're a they're their religious organizations, so if you're a religious person, you would be able to possibly avail yourself of those. But there's all sorts of things. We'll do a whole other episode on this. We're going to do that. I'm already so hang on. I got to have a sip.

Cheryl Stuller: 34:52

By the way, I love this drink. I wish I could go get more. This is awesome.

Stasha Boyd: 34:57

I know why don't we have our minions that can like bring it out. While we're doing this, this is so wrong. Why are we so abused, Cheryl? Why doesn't anybody care?

Cheryl Stuller: 35:04

I don't know. Where's where's Jeeves? Come and mix up another drink!

Stasha Boyd: 35:08

Where's Smokey? Where's the cat? [crosstalk]

Cheryl Stuller: 35:13

Do you have a financial mentor, or advisor, or resource that you look to to give you financial advice when you don't know what the next step should be.

Stasha Boyd: 35:25

Kind of. I mean, I think, first of all, my mother is also very good with finances, because here's the thing, she grew up in a family that had had nothing, none of that, no idea. And then she started working for a doctor as his personal PA, she was a physician's assistant. And, um, he knew a lot about money. And she started working for him, I think, in her middle 30s or so. And he taught her a lot. And they pass that on to us. And in fact, this, this doctor's son, became a Merrill Lynch advisor, and ultimately Vice President, because of the relationship with his father and my mother, my first little$3,000, when I said, when I start investing when I was in my 20s, it was because, I had$3,000, and I went to Merrill Lynch, and they're like, going, you can be under your mom and dad's plan. And they took my little $3,000 and opened up my own... I had a Merrill Lynch account, with three grand in it, because of this doctor's son and my mother's relationship. So that was definitely a blessing. But so that was the start. So I would say him, my mom, him. We have gotten good advice over the years. But for the most part, I would say no, I would say basically, as always come down to just money in and money out and think long term.

Cheryl Stuller: 36:53

And I would say, ask your friends and your family, who do you use for financial advice? Or are you using a financial advisor like an Edward Jones or Merrill Lynch or somebody like that, ask around and get somebody who is recommended to you that has done well for that person that they trust that you can then use for to start something for yourself or your spouse or whatever?

Stasha Boyd: 37:20

Yeah, we were talking about the Google thing earlier. It's like, if nothing else, you can go online, you can buy a Vanguard fund, you can buy Vanguard funds, and you can buy those online. They're completely steady and stable. There's actually, you know, one of the things I was going to mention this, this somewhere, um, I love this video blog, and it's this website called mister money, mustache, m r, Mo ne y mustache. This guy's all about, like, basically financial independence by being super, super cheap kind of thing. But one of the things that he talks about is like, if you are able to amass a certain amount of money, by scrimping and saving, until you get to that point, you now have something that if you have a basic Investment Fund, you can live off the interest. Now, that's something that's it's a little bit more aggressive, and that I would ever want to do. But a lot of his concepts are good. So I do I have looked at advice, people like that people who are always saying, oh, here's another way to save some money. Here's another way to make some money. I find those, I find those folks interesting. And if I, if I hear something that resonates with me, I'll be like, Yeah, man, I'll try that I can give that a shot. But I'll do what I don't like, you know, you your on Pinterest, or you know, Facebook, and there'll be that sign that says, Here's how you can save X amount of dollars and like this month, and they have the stupidest things in there. You know, oh, just have one less cafe latte and you will have... I'm like, let me tell ya something. I'm sorry, you are not broke bbecause you're buying cafe lattes. Broke people don't buy cafe lattes. broke people are spending their money on something else. What they're doing is is that if you have more money coming in, then you have going out, buy all the cafe lattes you want. If you don't figure out what's the thing you can do to get you back in balance, fastest and easiest like you said, sell the car, get rid of the fancy car, buy the cheap car. In my case, I sold my fancy car, I got my free car.

Cheryl Stuller: 39:20

Or make coffee at home and don't buy it at Starbucks. It can be the it can be one of the factors in you know, lowering your expenses if you can't, you know and i i know friends that buy a lot of shit that they don't need, you know, like, you don't have to buy every single wreath that you see in TJ Maxx. ` Scale back on the material items and let's be less materialistic because in the end that's not going to bring you happiness when you are 80 years old and you are relying on just Social Security, that's going to be hard for a lot of people going forward and unstable. We don't know where that's going to be 10 or 30 years. So, plan now and have that under your belt for yourself.

Stasha Boyd: 40:15

I would not what I would... What I would add to that is that you know if that is part of the problem or situation, yeah, absolutely. But for me, my thought is, is I call it like... know what means something to you. If honest to god, if all them wreaths, as you walk in your door, and you're like, I feel pleasure, I feel joy, I can afford these wreaths. And this is what I this is what makes my life have meaning. Or it's like, hey, I want to like wave at the cube barista every day. I've got it. It's not i'm not buying the coffee. I'm trying to get laid. I don't know what it is. But know what has meaning for you. And then plan your money around it. Because I think a lot of people are told over and over again that, yeah, what you what you value, you shouldn't value. You shouldn't care about that thing. You shouldn't spend your money on that. It's like, well, but yeah, what if what if you're a wreath freak? What if that...what if that really is the thing that brings you joy? If so, figure out what else you're going to cut to keep that thing that brings you true joy. Now if you're buying it and you--only you know this only the person knows that--if you're only buying it because you know Cindy Lou down the streets got three wreaths and you've got to have a wreath, then that's different, or that... or

Cheryl Stuller: 41:23

That's what I was talking about being materialistic, and that that's what you're valuing over money in money out concept. You can't, you can't have it both ways all the time. Sometimes you can. But I would rather have less material things now and have more money and wealth later on. So that I'm comfortable in my later days.

Stasha Boyd: 41:45

Well, I think I mentioned I may have mentioned earlier like there's one little weird thing that you know, I get to spend as much money as I want to on as magazines. For some reason, I love magazines I love especially like I like home improvement, home building. Art Design, Southern Living garden and gun. Oh my god, I love garden and gun. You know, I love them. I used to have them organized and like this big closet thing until I found out that this is nuts throw them out. But um, but because it's not having them it's getting them. And so I have a standing thing where any magazine I want I buy it. They truly bring me that much joy. And if somebody said to me is like, "Oh my god, Stasha, you're spending too much. You shouldn't...Why are you buying all these magazines?" I'd be like, you need to kind of go fuck off because I like them. Now that somebody that I know and love, I would explain to them the things behind it. The thing behind it was when I was a kid, and this is kind of a big deal for me when I was a kid and we didn't have any money. Daddy was starting his business. And you know, mom was working late as a nurse and all this kind of stuff. We got the Sears and Roebuck catalog.

Cheryl Stuller: 42:53

Very big deal back in our 80s. And then JC Penney catalog.

Stasha Boyd: 42:58

And I would sit th re and I would just flip throug those pages. And I would loo at those the things that were i it. And I would think it's l ke, Yeah, man, and I wasn't bein materialistic about it. I kn w that I wasn't going to go out nd buy these things. But just lo king at these catalogs, I

Cheryl Stuller: 43:10

But you could still like put gas in your car. just really enjoy. And so now th t I here I am in my 50s. And a tually, I found this notebook... so back when when I bought efore I bought my first house, had this little spiral bound n tebook that I would go through magazines, and I would cut out pictures of things that I liked and houses and design and I w uld staple them into this no ebook. And I would like write n tes next to them. And I would f ip the page. There'll be the nex one. I have like three or four of these. I found one recentl. And if you look at my house n w, a lot of the ideas that I tapled in this book in my 20s t at I cut out of magazine are in my house.

Stasha Boyd: 43:52

Oh, yeah.

Cheryl Stuller: 43:53

Not like you bought all these magazines, and then you couldn't put gas in your car. That's what I'm talking about.

Stasha Boyd: 44:00

Right, right. Yeah, I would. I would. I would not. I mean, no, I would probably buy the magazines over. If I had to have a lot of magazines and cable. I choose the magazines.

Cheryl Stuller: 44:10

Well, there you go.

Stasha Boyd: 44:11

Yeah. But But again, that's my point. Know what has value to you and own it if you really like it and own it. But find a way to make it work on the money and money out. It's like you still because that's our that's, to me, that's the bottom line. I don't care what you're into. I don't care what you like doing. I don't care. As long as you have more coming in, than you have going out. You will always be okay. Even if it's just $1 $1 is enough. More coming in then you have going out you'll be okay.

Cheryl Stuller: 44:44

And I'd also like to talk about briefly. What How much do you help friends and family or your children with money? That can create that can create a dependency and it can create them not being able to hand handle money correctly, or using you for that as an abusive thing. So be careful about giving money out to people as well, you know, I know you're trying to help them or whatever that situation might be, but have some rules around that as well before you just are handing people money, because that might be an enabling thing for them.

Stasha Boyd: 45:26

I think you and I should talk about this on the opposite sides of the cup, because I don't have kids. But I have... one of the most important things that that we ever did, or that I've ever done is that there have been times that my parents have either loaned me money that I have paid back with interest, or have done something for us that was that was important. And we tried to steward that money as best we could. But there was one point where my parents had, like, you know, bought into a project that we were working on, and we were paying them back, we were doing what you're supposed to do. But they started like, you know, having an opinion about how we were doing we're supposed to do. And it's like they were trying to like wade in on decisions. I'm like, No, we we borrowed the money, we've had a deal, we've written it down, we're paying you back, we don't need the input. Well, then they started getting mad. And we're like, Okay, I think this went on for like two months. And we went to we said, No, this is not going to work. Here's, here's how we're gonna deal with it. Here's all the money back, y'all are done. And I don't mean, we have to do several things kind of make this make this work out. But and it was quite a to do. But my parents, bless my mother's heart, she cannot give you $1 and not think that she can tell you what to do with it. Or how to live your life because you have it. And there are people that will do that.

Cheryl Stuller: 46:44

It comes with a price.

Stasha Boyd: 46:45

Always, don't ever think money doesn't come without without a price. Every bit every bit of money, especially from your parents comes with them being able to have a say in how you run your business. And that was actually one of the questions that we mentioned earlier was you know, how did you know when you really were financially responsible and had financial independence? And for me, it was when I was able to tell my parents no, you know. No, I don't. It's not. I will, I would rather eat ramen noodles for the next 10 years, than have my mother one more time Tell me in my house with my husband what she thinks we ought to do.

Cheryl Stuller: 47:23

Right? I agree.

Stasha Boyd: 47:24

And I have other family members who have not did not heed that advice. And now 20, 30 years later, she has even more of a say and an opinion of how they run their life. How can you be an adult, if somebody is constantly telling you what you ought to do, and oh, by the way, the reason you want to do it is because I gave you X amount of dollars.

Cheryl Stuller: 47:43

That's not a good healthy situation to be in.

Stasha Boyd: 47:47

Especially give money to your kids. So as as a parent who gives money to your kids when they need it? How do you feel about that? How do you feel about you know, you have limits on what you give? you have rules about it? Now, I've always signed an agreement with my parents when we bought borrowed money, we always had a note. Did you use that with the kids?

Cheryl Stuller: 48:04

It depends. I haven't ever had a note. But it depends on what the situation is. Obviously, I don't just give my kids money for anything they want to do. It has to be a responsible thing that we're either helping them grow their life with and we don't expect it back. Or if we do here's the terms on this. Or it has to be like education. We helped our kids with their education. Yeah. So there's limits and boundaries to that. And we were also parents who did not go into a department store or a toy store and our kids wanted A, B, C and D and we gave that to them. You got something on your birthday and for Christmas, and that was it. Other than food and clothing that was all you got during the year. So they didn't have that expectation of handing their hand out and wanting things because we set that precedent early on.

Stasha Boyd: 49:03

Are your children okay, Cheryl?

Cheryl Stuller: 49:07

Absolutely, are okay. And it's a little disturbing about the kids that are coming up these days. And the expectations that they have on "Well, I'm 10 I need a phone, I need a Facebook account." I need you know, I need I need I need I see that a lot more now. And I that's that's gonna be a hard row for them to handle if they are not successful going forward. Yeah, keep that standard of I need and I get.

Stasha Boyd: 49:40

And I think that's that's a hard thing too, because a lot of what I see and part of this, I do blame the wider society, this whole idea that a parent owes their child a college education. So when that kid goes to college, they factor in the parents income. I'm like, No, no, this child became an adult at eighteen They can sign their own contracts, they can they can.. . how did this become a thing?

Cheryl Stuller: 50:06

Right. I agree with you.

Stasha Boyd: 50:07

And so we've kind of set up a societal idea that, you know, if you're not out there, like, you know, just shelling out money left and right, that you're a bad parent. And, and this is something that, you know, I'm gonna be a little bit controversial on this maybe, but I'm sorry, raise your child to be an adult. Now I was raised to be an adult, when I turned 18, I was told, you know, get your feet out from under my table. I needed more guidance until I was 20. Because you know, that's when I left college. But I still have their their guidance and I had their their assistance. But when I when I was ready to when I moved out on my own and had my first apartment by myself, but I paid for it, you know that an all them car titles had Stasha Boyd's name on it and everything. When I have that. I felt like an adult. And I tell I tell my friends, kids, I tell them now like, here's the thing, you know, you want to be grown, you want to be an adult, you want to go in there to your house and tell your mom and dad how it's going to be. Right. But let me tell you something until you can like financially, physically and mentally take care of yourself, you are not an adult.

Cheryl Stuller: 51:09

No matter what age you are, you are not an adult. No, you are not owed anything. You don't need a TV in your room, and a phone when you're 10 or 11, 12, 13. I don't care. If you don't earn that through chores, respectful behavior, and good grades, you shouldn't have that step. I don't care what everybody else has. And there's a lot of parents who cannot draw that line. And and they feel like oh, I'm being a bad parent, because everybody else has a phone, but my kid doesn't have a phone. Okay, you need to be okay with that.

Stasha Boyd: 51:45

Yeah.

Cheryl Stuller: 51:46

You are not your par..., you are not your kids' friends. You are their parent, and you are supposed to be guiding them on how to be the best adult, independent, hardworking adult, that they can be. Period. The end.

Stasha Boyd: 52:01

Right. Yeah, I think that's that is one of these I do see a lot like a lot of people that I know and and sometimes my friends, kids and some of its, you know, just other people in general. But I understand that the world is different now I understand that it's things are more expensive. And that is a fact. Housing is more expensive. Cars are more expensive. All the shit you got to pay for is more expensive. And yet as an adult, yeah, you got to have a phone, because you know, how are you supposed to get a job, people expect you to call them back right now. To work. Oh, I get that. But What I don't get is the idea that there is some kind of, there's no terminal point. It's like, in my case, like I said, my turning point with my parents and I knew that was coming from the day I was a small child. It's like the day you are the day you leave college, whether it's because you quit or because you graduate, get your feet out from under my table.

Cheryl Stuller: 52:55

Well, and you can't expect your kids to do well with that type of terminology unless you've taught them to be that way. If you haven't taught them how to work, if you haven't taught them how to be respectful and on time, and do what you're say you're going to do They're not going to be successful as an adult.

Stasha Boyd: 53:15

Oh, no, it's not even respectful, teach them that. I know people right now who have done... their their grown children bring their laundry home for mama to wash it.

Cheryl Stuller: 53:25

Exactly. Yeah,

Stasha Boyd: 53:27

or people who've grown children. I mean, these are people who are like 18 19, 20 years old, who don't understand the concept of first, last and deposit. I'm like you want to go, you want to be independent. And you say that you want an apartment, but you don't quite understand apartments. You don't understand insurance. You don't understand bills. You don't understand. You don't underst... And a parent didn't teach that? I don't... "Well, they don't teach it in school." I'm like, Well, fuck, they're not paying bills in school. You pay bills at home. You teach them at home how to pay a bill. And better yet, open something up for them. Give them the one thing that's their responsibility to pay.

Cheryl Stuller: 54:08

Absolutely. And that starts early on with chores and having a sense of responsibility and a family. I think that's something we're missing. With a lot of the kids going forward in this day and age that I didn't see when we were growing up. I don't think you have to work at a young age as much as myself and you did. But I also don't see kids doing chores and having responsibilities consistently. And I see a lot of the gimme, gimme, gimme. And not a lot of this is how I know how to get there on my own. And this is what I'm going to do to get there.

Stasha Boyd: 54:45

But I think this is part of that whole overly over sheltered parenting, where you know, I mean, how far was it from my house to your house when we were growing up? half a mile a little farther?

Cheryl Stuller: 54:56

It was at least a mile.

Stasha Boyd: 54:57

Yeah. You know, I walked from my house to your house by myself, from at least age eight or nine, nine, definitely maybe eight. But I mean, because fourth grade, I walked there in the fourth grade. And the thing is, is that, you know, a person now? They would lose their mind if they saw child walking by themselves. It's like, the you can't raise someone to be independent if you never let them have any independence. And there's actually a whole school of thought about this, about how, when you have a child who from birth, till they're 18, has never experienced life unsupervised. Either a parent was around a teacher was around, a babysitter was around. You know, shit girl, we used to, like, take the motorcycles out, when we were like 14 and 15, you I had the Three Wheeler, you had the motorcycle, and we would just be gone for hours. We had to ride through Cheryl Acres. We just be gone. And we didn't hurt anything, I don't think. But also, we had the responsibility of getting ourselves home, we had the responsibility of not getting in trouble. We had... which means not annoying the neighbors. So there was a lot of things about that... raising being a child between the ages of say 10 or 12 and 15, 16. When you finally get your driver's license, you are becoming independent, that you started developing these skills of independent thinking. And I think that's happening to a lot of the young people that I see.

Cheryl Stuller: 56:26

I agree. Yeah. And it's it's going to be interesting to see what happens going forward with the workforce, and people gaining access to skills, and money sense and all of those things. How is that going to turn out for them going forward? So I hope that shifts a little bit? Yeah, for sure.

Stasha Boyd: 56:47

Well, I would say let's, let's ask our last question, and then like set to put into our last thing, but if we have one person, I think that real quickly, the last question we had was, yo, do you feel ready to retire? Or when do you plan to retire?

Cheryl Stuller: 57:00

Well, because we own our own business, we're going to our plan was always to work longer. Um, so we we have to work longer also, because we didn't plan far enough ahead. So that's on us. So we know that. So not at this time, do I feel secure in that, but I also know that we have a plan going forward. And I have also know my husband and I well enough that we will stick to that plan. And we'll be okay.

Stasha Boyd: 57:28

Yeah. And for us, again, thank you COVID. Because of COVID, in theory, we could semi retire now, we could we could actually, we could actually... we've run the numbers. We could we could do it. We would not have the future that I had envisioned, if we never worked again. But we could we could manage relatively comfortably between now and 65, 75 85 into our 90s. Um, but it's not where I want to be. So our business has started to come back. So that's a nice thing we have like things that are, but our business is slow, we have like a 12 to 18 month sales cycle. So for us to recover, it's going to take a little bit more time. In the meantime, like I said, we were doing our podcast, which is a lot of fun. And we're doing different things. It's not like we're sitting around doing absolutely nothing. The business itself still needs itself still needs our attention, which we enjoy and have fun with. And we do have small projects here and there. So I think that what we're going to do is we might officially at some point retire from our, our company, in maybe two or three years. Either close it, or sell it, something. Um, and for he and I, we will move into what we call our post super work years because that was our original plan was like, you know, in like three or four years from now we were going to close the business or sell it and then go to do something else. Um, we're still mostly on track for that. Like I said, if we if we didn't, if we didn't, if we never got another job again, we'd be okay.

Cheryl Stuller: 59:08

That's good.

Stasha Boyd: 59:09

Yeah. But it's not what I wanted,

Cheryl Stuller: 59:13

I hear that, what do you want the listeners to take away from you about finances today?

Stasha Boyd: 59:20

I would say if there was one thing if there was one thing that I would credit as to why we are this way right now, it is the money in money out formula. If you internalize that, and if you from a young age, it's like you know, okay, I've got $1,000 coming in, well, that means I can't be spending a thousand and one. Whatever I have to do to make that fit. And if you really internalize that idea, you will never go wrong. And especially if within that money in my out part of that money out is going into being put into savings and you build up your first of all your $1,000`cushion and then you fill up your $3000 to $6,000, you know, safety fund, you can do that within a year or two, on a two person salary or one and a half person salary. If you sacrifice and once you have those cushions, then you can move forward at a faster pace. But Honest to God, money and money out, man. That's it.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:00:24

And I would say if you have credit card debt, try and get rid of that as quickly as possible. let other things go that are non essential, until you can get that paid off. And then don't take on any other credit card debt unless you can pay it off the next month, it has to be paid off every month. And then I would say plan on retiring now or younger, get in the habit of like you did, and you're at your first job, even if it's just $5 teach your kids this, teach your grandkids this, if it's past your time to do that. Teach them to save early on, don't touch the money. Keep it there for your retirement. So you have that when you get older, because when you cannot work, your options close down on you and you want to make sure you have that money in reserve to live the way that you deserve and want to live. Yeah. And then the other thing I would say is work hard at what you do. Don't expect a handout from anybody. Make it come from the hard work that you are willing to do. Do what you say you're gonna do, and you'll always be okay.

Stasha Boyd: 1:01:35

Yeah, I think that is the thing is like, I I never went out needing money and not being able to find something to do to make some. And again, I've worked some shitty jobs, I have done some difficult things. I mean, but the thing was, is that... So? This was unpleasant for a little while. So what mattered was the money in money out. The other thing too about you were talking about the the debt and the credit cards I have never encountered like I said, even especially if I started when I was young, almost no situation that I couldn't carve 10% off of.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:02:14

Right?

Stasha Boyd: 1:02:16

If you just carve 10% 10% for your long term future 5% for your short term needs. If you do that, with every dollar that comes if you find you know, $1 on the floor, you know, change it for some nickels and dimes and put 15 cents in a jar. Honestly, if you create that, that's just kind of your default go to... you, it becomes a habit. It's just, it's just what you do and you would and you will get to the point where you would no more break that habit, than you would not brush your teeth in the morning.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:02:45

And you don't miss it when you make that habit too,

Stasha Boyd: 1:02:48

Right.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:02:48

And you don't Yeah, you don't miss it. Well, thank you for today. Today was good. I hope everybody else got something out of it.

Stasha Boyd: 1:02:56

I do too. But do you want to know where next week's topic supposed to be, Cheryl?

Cheryl Stuller: 1:03:00

I'm a little afraid to hear but go ahead.

Stasha Boyd: 1:03:03

Oh no. Next week should be fun.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:03:05

Okay.

Stasha Boyd: 1:03:06

Food.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:03:07

Oh Lord have mercy. This is not one of my

Stasha Boyd: 1:03:12

You shop for it. You go out to eat. We have got better subjects.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:03:14

I am not. I'm annoyed and irritated that we all the things about the food. How do women in their 50s handle have to talk about this. Thank God I have a week to think about and manage food? I am so excited Cheryl. This is gonna be a lot o fun it.

Stasha Boyd: 1:03:23

Are you annoyed and irritated to eat?

Cheryl Stuller: 1:03:35

No.

Stasha Boyd: 1:03:38

You can manage you'll be able to handle this. Alright, honey, that's that's next week. It is always so much fun. I hope I hope our listeners once again we appreciate you. We We love you. We hope you got something out of this. Leave us a comment, like and share all of that kind of good stuff. And if you think you got something out of it, that's great. And if you didn't get anything out of it, just scroll on by. Keep your mouth shut. Don't worry about it. Just move on.

Cheryl Stuller: 1:04:06

Have a great week Chica,

Stasha Boyd: 1:04:07

You too, baby. Talk to you later.