Savings Account vs 529 vs the New Trump Account for a New Grandbaby

Juliet Chuang00:00:07

It is Tuesday, September 15th, and today we are going to start building something.Most people, they have quit creating their budgets or following their budgets at some point, and that happens usually in February, and that's because they built it backwards.It starts with everything you had to give up instead of everything you actually want.So for today, one of the things we're gonna get into is doing things in the right order.What do you want to make your money do?What do you want to make it possible?And what does it actually cost?So we're really diving deep into the framework Ralph came up with, which is the dollar job framework.Plus three quick fixes in the headlines, a 20 minute fix while there are still paychecks left in this year, a form that quietly outranks your will, and a letter that you should not throw away.Welcome to Becoming Financially Confident, where we are breaking free from money shame, one conversation at a time.We're live every Monday through Friday from 11:30am to 12:30pm Eastern.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:01:12

Yeah.And welcome, everybody.I'm Ralph Estepp Jr.If you forgot, today is the third estimate tax deadline.So if you file estimated taxes, September 15th is the day.I'm a licensed accountant, and that's why I threw that at the beginning with 30 years of experience.

Juliet Chuang00:01:28

And I am Juliet.I am a regular person who will ask Ralph all these different questions because you might have them, too.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:01:34

A lot of people have questions, Juliet.And the thing is, we're two very different people having conversations about the things that affect our money and your money, and that's why we do this every day.Now, we've got a couple house rules.No shaming anybody about money on this show.We're never going to tell you you're stupid.We're going to tell you how to make better decisions moving forward, and we're not going to judge anybody for what they didn't know.Today is a new day, and our goal is to equip you to help you make better decisions and truly find financial confidence.

Juliet Chuang00:02:03

If you have anything you want us to talk on this show related to personal finance, please send it over to us@becomingfinanciallyconfident.com no question is off limits.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:02:12

Yeah.And wherever you are on your financial journey, know that you're not alone, which is why we're going to go right to a listener voicemail.We asked our listeners to send in voicemails.

Voicemail from Listener00:02:21

And.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:02:22

And we've got one for today.All right, well, let me get right to the voicemail message that we got today.

Voicemail from Listener00:02:34

Hey, Ralph.I'm enjoying your show and just had a question.I am thinking about starting a savings account for a new grandchild and didn't know if you had specific recommendations.Should I just start a savings account that I can contribute to every year on their birthday or should I start a college tuition plan?If you could help me out with some advice, I would greatly appreciate it.Keep up the great work.

Juliet Chuang00:03:01

That's so nice.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:03:02

Yeah, that's what we love to get those questions and this is a great one.

Juliet Chuang00:03:06

Yeah.So I know Ralph, you have grandchildren.You just have your first one right now.No.Second one.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:03:12

No, this is my first one.Yeah.And he, his name is Carson.He was born, now he'll be, he's about three and a half months old and so excited because he's coming to see us this weekend.His dad, my, my oldest son and I are going to a University of Delaware football game on Saturday.But my daughter in law, my grandson and the grand dog is coming too because I, my wife always reminds me we have a granddaughter also his name is Firefly.But yeah, I've got this exact same scenario going on right here.

Voicemail from Listener00:03:39

Yeah.

Juliet Chuang00:03:39

So I'm very curious like how have you and your son and daughter in law talked about these questions?Do you, do they have a savings account or what?What have, what are the options that they have talked through?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:03:52

Yeah.And I think that's where we need to start.So my son and I have actually had this very conversation and in his case we're doing a couple things and I'm going to start with the first thing we're doing.It's called the Trump account.And the reason this is so very critical is for the next several years a parent can open up a Trump account and the government will give you $1,000 free money if you open up that Trump account.So we'll talk a little bit about that in a second.But basically in my view you've got really three options here.What the caller asked about is a traditional savings account.You can do that.That's a great thing to do.It's a debank, it's easy to get to, it's super simple.You can put money into it.It doesn't have to be complicated.The other thing is what we talked about, I think it was last week a 529 plan which is an education savings account.You can open that, you can put it in your own name and invest that it.And the benefit to that, it's tax free if you use it for school or trade school or credentials.And like I said, the Other one is the Trump account.So those are really the top three.Now I want to take a few minutes and talk about some of the pitfalls in each of these.

Juliet Chuang00:05:02

Let's start.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:05:02

Yeah, the first one's a savings account, and that's kind of the ritual thing that a lot of people do.I don't know if your grandparents did this for you, Juliet.I know my grandparents set up that old passbook savings account for me and my sister when we were born.Did you have something similar in your world?

Juliet Chuang00:05:19

Yes, yes, yes.My parents ended up.I don't think.I don't think my grandparents did.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:05:24

But yeah, yeah, that's kind of the whole thing.The problem with those right now is the savings rate on that's like 0.38%.So that's a small number now.Now you have some options there.You can do a high yield savings account, which right now is paying around 4.21%.So definitely consider that.But that's one of the easiest things.No resistance to that.You can go set it up.You can set it up in your name and then at some point transfer the ownership to your grandchild.The other one's a 529 plan.This is another one that you can set up in your own name and you set up yourself.The cool thing about this is a lot of people think this is just for college.So this is one things we talked about the other day, and I would encourage you to go check that out.We'll put a link to that episode in the show notes.But it covers credentialing, it covers trade licensing.So if you, even if you have a child that doesn't want to go to traditional college, they can do something like welding or H Vac, even aviation mechanics, cosmetology.They can go into accounting like me, or even go to be an attorney.

Juliet Chuang00:06:26

That'd be good.Because then the 529, it kind of just expands to just outside of the traditional definition of college and education.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:06:34

And you can put $20,000 a year in this.And all that money grows tax free up to the point of you.And as long as you use for education, it's no big deal.

Juliet Chuang00:06:42

The final one is I'm go ahead for 529.Can you just do another thing?You said it grows tax free.Is it growing similar rate to a high yield savings account?Or how do you.How's it growing?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:06:55

There's different investments you can get for that.And there's different 529 plans.There's state plans, like for Example, there are some state plans.If you know you want your child to go to college in a particular state, there are some states that they will tell you how much you have to contribute to it every year, and they will guarantee tuition when your child gets to that grade.Yeah, that's a big deal.I am not a huge fan of those, because what if you have a child that wants to go or a grandchild that wants to go to a different school in a different state?Now you've kind of locked into that state program, but all of those investments really vary.It's a brokerage account, like typical brokerage accounts.Very common thing.The last one we mentioned was the Trump account, and that was for any.Now, you can open these up even if your children are born before this.But here's the cool part about this one.If you were born between 2025 and 2028, you're a U.S. citizen, and you have a Social Security number, you will get $1,000 free from the IRS or from the government.So when little Carson was born, his father and I, Ryan, my oldest son, we had a conversation, and that is, son, make sure you go online and get this set up.So he's done that.It's a form 4547.How funny is that?4547.Trump is 4547.But anyway, that's what they did.So you set that up.And then the cool thing about this one is, as a grandmother or a grandfather, you can put $5,000 a year into this account.Now, that's the combined.That's the most you can put in it from all different directions.

Juliet Chuang00:08:24

What do you.Can you, can you define that?What is it?What do you mean by all different directions?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:08:29

So the most that any people can put in in a particular year is $5,000.So if your children and somebody else wants to fund this every year, the maximum contribution is $5,000 combined.Whereas with the 529 plan, there really is no contribution limit.You can put as much as you want in there, and it's gonna grow tax free.

Juliet Chuang00:08:49

Got it?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:08:49

The issue that I have with the Trump account is how it ends up when they turn 17.And that is it becomes a traditional IRA at that point.It's not something you can use for education.I mean, you can use it for education, but it's not tax free like a 529.Now, it grows tax free as the money is accumulating in there, which is a good thing.But once the child turns 17, it gets converted into their own IRA.Account, which again is a good thing.It's starting them for retirement.But if they go to use it for college, that's going to be ordinary income to them as they take that money out.And that could create a tax issue.

Juliet Chuang00:09:29

So then is like the way to think about the Trump account is it's better if you get the money and then don't touch it until you're retired.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:09:38

Yeah, effectively.And so what I've been telling people as they've asked this question in my practice is go get the thousand dollars free.Whether you choose to put anything else into it is really an individual decision, but at least get the thousand dollars because, you know, in 18 years, that thousand dollars is probably going to be worth $10,000.Just that $1,000.So go get it and then make a decision at that point what to do.And then you really have to have a discussion, you know, with your family.This is one of the sit down with, you know, your kids and they just had their grandkids, but sit down with them, talk about the options, talk about what they think would be best.And then honestly, and I've had to learn this the hard way, Juliet, as the grandparent, you got to kind of sit back and just kind of let them take the lead because it's real easy to jump in there and say, well, I'm going to do this for them and I'm going to do that for them.And, and I caught myself with little Carson saying, well, I'm going to do this for him and I'm going to do that for him.And I may still do some of those things.But I really needed to have a conversation with Ryan and my, and my daughter in law, Hunter, and say, hey, here's what we're thinking about doing.How does this feel to you?I just think it's important that you have that conversation.I think it's really important.

Juliet Chuang00:10:48

I totally agree.So, you know, Ralph has spelled out all the different possibilities.There's the high yield savings account or a regular savings account, a 529, a Trump account.Abby, our producer just put in to the chat a poll.So let us know for a new grandbaby, what would you open first?Okay, we'll come back and see what the audience voted later on.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:11:09

All right, well, let's move into our headlines today.

Juliet Chuang00:11:15

So our first headline is there's an envelope landing in millions of mailboxes between now and September 30th.And it is the most boring looking piece of mail anybody will get all year.It's called the Annual notice of change.And every Medicare Advantage and drug plan has to send one.Here's why this is for you.Even if you're 34 years old, 2027 is a big year for plans being discontinued.And the person who opens that envelope is very often the adult kid, not the person on the plan.So, Ralph, what actually happens if it gets thrown out?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:11:48

Yeah, and I want to spend a lot of time talking about this because this is not going to affect a lot of our audience members.But you may get a call from mom or dad or Grandma or Grandpa and talking about what this is.This is basically giving Medicare people what their insurance opt are moving into 2027.It's an.It's one of the things.And it looks like some garbage mail that you would just throw away.So just the whole reason for putting that into today's show is just to remind people, hey, it's coming out.Be aware of that because there may be some options or a lack of options that you need to do.Now, these are going to go out on September 30, and the coverage runs through December 31.So make sure you're aware of this.Make sure you're taking advantage of the October 15 to December 7.Is that that deadline between dates?And listen, you're going to start seeing these commercials all over television, all over the Internet.They're going to pull out all the, the old GS, you know, the people you recognize from films and TV when you were younger and say, it's time to talk about Medicare, you know, so that's going to be coming in.So just be aware of what's going on.Understand that you've got to make a quicker decision this year because like I said, I think it was last week, the timeframe used to go through the end of the year.Now it's through December 7th.So just be aware of that.Not a big deal here.But understand what the options are, because if you're like me, you might get a call from mom or dad or Grandma or Grandpa and saying, hey, can you explain this to me?

Juliet Chuang00:13:13

Yeah.Important to know.So this one isn't necessarily news, but it is.It's a hack that has a time on it.So if last April tax season was a bad surprise, you owed money that you didn't have.There are still a handful of paychecks left in this year to do something about it in January.There's going to be none.So, Ralph, what is this?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:13:37

I'm going to give you the quick and dirty version of this.This is A great time to take a look at what your taxes are going to look like come April.This is the thing I'm doing with my clients right now.We're sitting down and doing year to date math and seeing where we're going to land because you've still got time to change it.So here's what I want you to do.Pull your most recent pay stub today.Find the box that says the federal income tax line.Multiply that by the number of checks you have left this year and add what's already been withheld and compare that to what your tax return looked like last year.What you may find is that your withholding has gone down.You may find that you need to make some adjustments.This is a great time to make those adjustments.The IRS has a withholding estimator that you can go take a Look at it.IRS.gov here's another thing you can do.If you want to reach out to me, you can actually schedule an appointment with me directly.We can do a Google Meet and I can walk this through with you to help you make sure you're in ready for the end of the year.Because what we don't want to have, and I see this all the time, is a big surprise come April.If we can prevent the big surprise come April, that's a great thing because I don't want you stressed out and you still have time to make changes.You can change your withholding.You might be able to increase your retirement planning.You may do some charitable contribution giving all before the end of the year.So that's why I wanted to put this in today, because there's still time.Even though it's September 15th and I can't believe it's already the middle of September.

Juliet Chuang00:15:06

I know.Seriously, I'm just like hearing this one.I'm just, it's a great reminder for me to be like, ooh, I'm going to have a very spicy and a little bit confusing tax season this year.So I should just get started right now and review everything, get my ducks in a row.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:15:22

Yeah, I think it's a good idea, especially if you've had changes.And Juliette was honest about that.She's changed careers, she's doing some freelance stuff now.So she's going to have the perfect mix of a little bit of W2 income, some self employment income and some changes.So if you're in that place, this is a great time to do some planning.You don't want to be doing this in April when it's too late to make any change.That's really the big thing here.A lot of people don't think about that right now.You have the capacity to make dynamic changes that will get you better numbers come tax time.But you got to get to it now because there's only a couple months left.

Juliet Chuang00:15:57

Sounds good.Yesterday we had a question where we talked about new babies, and we also talked about new babies today.But Raoul said something that I have been thinking about, that your will does not control your 401k.So I just want to go a little bit deeper into that because it's too important to be a footnote.So, Ralph, can you tell talk to us what that sentence means?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:16:25

Yeah.So what I was talking about yesterday is a lot of people now, we said 70% of the population doesn't have a will, which is a problem.But those who do assume that all of their other accounts will be handled by that will, but they aren't things like 401ks, IRAs.Some brokerage accounts have what's called a named beneficiary.And you want to make sure that you keep those named beneficiaries up to date.Because maybe you had a divorce, maybe you got married, maybe you had a child.There's all kinds of life event changes that you need to be aware of.And here's where this becomes a huge problem.And I've seen this in my practice several times.If there's no named beneficiary, this causes a huge potential tax problem.So be aware of all the accounts that you have.Here's your thing I'm going to encourage you to do.It's not more homework, but it's one of those things where you really need to pay attention to this.Make a list of every account that would pay if something happened to you.Your 401ks, your IRAs, life insurance through work, any policies you bought outside of work, even your bank account.Log into each one and find the word beneficiaries.Beneficiary basically means if something happens to you, here's who owns that asset, here's who owns that account.So let's say you have a 401k at work.God forbid something happens to you.Your employer needs to have a beneficiary listed to where that money goes.There's still tax consequences.But here's what happens if there isn't.If there isn't, it goes through the probate process and it goes into an estate.Why that's a problem is because the estate tax rates start at 35%.So instead of paying as low as 12% personal income tax on a retirement distribution right from the jump it starts at 35.I had a dear older client a few years ago that ran into this exact situation.Her husband passed away and he had missed one of the IRA accounts listing a beneficiary.He had listed them on all the other ones, but on one particular one, he didn't.And this happened to be one that had about a half a million dollars of money in it.So what she was faced with of these distributions had to go into an estate.And then there was a 35% tax before she could get the money out of that.Now, I'm happy to tell you because I am very good at what I do, we were able to develop a program to cut back on a lot of that.But you can fix that now.So go log in, make sure all of your accounts have beneficiaries.If they're blank, fix that.Add a backup name underneath of that.It's free.It'll take you less than 15 minutes and it'll give you peace of mind.It really will.

Juliet Chuang00:19:18

Sounds good.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:19:19

Very good.Well, let's talk about what we just talked about a few minutes ago.Let's just say you lent your brother in law $4,000.Now, I'm one of those people that says don't lend to family gifted to him.But in this case, you decided to lend them the money, but you didn't get any paperwork for it.And there was never going to be any paperwork because he's family.And I've watched that exact same loan end a Thanksgiving dinner with people getting upset with each other.Well, Law Depot has a boring document that prevents that.It's called a promissory note.Or maybe you're selling your car or maybe you're going to rent out an apartment or something like that.Law Depot has guided questions that are built for your state and helps you print the legal documents that you need.And the best part about this product is it starts with a free trial.Now, I'm not an attorney.I'm not giving you legal advice.But here's where I would give you legal advice.Go to becoming financiallyconfident.com lawdepot Again, that's becomingfinanciallyconfident.com lawdepot.Check it out.I've actually used the service myself and it's a great tool for solving these type of issues that all of us run into from time to time.

Juliet Chuang00:20:33

I am so excited for what we're going to talk about in today's breakdown.We're going to revisit and really get into the details of the dollar job framework, which is something we started the conversation last week.So before we even get started, if you are around the house, you know, if you can grab a piece of paper or maybe type on your phone.But I think doing a piece of paper and writing these things down would be really good.Good.So please go grab that.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:21:00

I'm a big fan of writing things down because as I get older, typing them is one thing, but if you write it down, I feel like it commits it to memory and you have, like, skin in the game.

Juliet Chuang00:21:10

I totally agree with you.Have I have I showed.I don't know if I showed the.The audience here, but I personally just went out and have a dedicated financial notebook, and I just write little things down that Ralph and I talk about all the time.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:21:25

When I saw this for the first time in full disclosure to the audience, I started thinking about when my kids were younger and Blues Clues.And it was the Handy Dandy Notebook.And I could hear this song playing in my mind.I don't have that queued up today, but Juliet's Handy Dandy Notebook.

Juliet Chuang00:21:40

Yeah.And so I'm gonna be taking notes alongside everybody.So grab yours if you have one.And so, Ralph, before we get into it, can you just remind us the seven steps of the dollar job framework and before we dive into the first thing?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:21:55

Well, I honestly don't have those in front of me right now, but you kind of stumped me with that one.I wasn't quite prepared for that.So if you would like to share those, that would be great.

Juliet Chuang00:22:05

I would be happy to share because I got my notebook.So the seven.The seven things dream, Right?Define discover, design, deploy, debrief, and develop.Did I miss anything or get anything in the wrong order?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:22:21

I think you've got those in the perfect order, my friend.

Juliet Chuang00:22:25

Amazing.So where are we going to start today?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:22:28

Today, I want to start with the dream, because that's the part that really gets all of this started.And I think it's super important that we start there so that we understand exactly what we're working towards.Because here's what I have found.In practice, what happens to a lot of people is they hear the word budget and they just immediately shut down.It just.It doesn't click with them for.For lack of a better way of saying it, because all they hear is restriction.All they hear is can't do this and can't do that.And the problem with that is if you start it off on the Wrong foot.It becomes a willpower issue.And I don't know about you, Juliet, but I've got strong willpower, but it's not strong enough.And that's why so many people, they start off these New Year's resolutions.And I'm going to stick to a budget this year.I'm going to make this work.This is going to be fantastic this year.But what ends up happening, and it's usually be now, for some people, it's the second day.But for a lot of people, you push through the first month, you got to pay attention because you maybe you spent too much during the holidays, and you're like, well, I got a budget this year for sure, but come February, it is completely broken.So that's why we start off with this, with the dream, because the dream is what makes you want to do it.If you don't have a dream about where you want your money to go, I think you really are going to struggle.Now, I want to differentiate a wish and a dream, though, first.

Juliet Chuang00:23:54

Okay.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:23:55

The difference is you might wish to be out of debt, you might wish to own a home, you might wish to do all these things.Those are wishes.A dream is something you can actually picture.So that's what I want to start off with today.

Juliet Chuang00:24:09

Okay.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:24:09

Right now, what is that money dream that you have?What does that look like for you?So let me ask you that yourself, Juliet.What is your big dream that you have that you can picture right now, what you want your money to do for you moving forward?

Juliet Chuang00:24:25

Wow.Now that you put me on the spot, I'm like, oh, I don't think I have something.Set a visual dream.I'm gonna shout out to Duchess of nj, though.She said, love that handy dandy notebook, Duchess.Get one, and we can be notebook buddies together.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:24:39

You know, I think that might be a great idea for the show.Maybe we should get becoming financially confident notebooks or stickers.Or stickers even.Either one.That'll work either way.

Juliet Chuang00:24:49

Yeah.Yeah.Okay.So the thing that I that keeps coming up in my head is like, I wanna make sure I'm dreaming big enough.Right?Because I think the wish that you talked about, it's kind of like, oh, I' this situation right now, and I want out of my situation.But the dream is bigger than that.So if I had to say what my wish is, is since starting my entrepreneur journey, I want to be able to replace my former salary with entrepreneurship.My dream, which should be bigger than that, I.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:25:23

Let me help you here.Here's what I want you to do.I want you to finish this sentence and everybody who's watching or listening, write this down.This is what I want to start with.I want my money to help me.Blank.What is that?I want my money to help me, and everybody's different.There's no right or wrong answers.

Juliet Chuang00:25:41

Yeah.I want my money to help me live a comfortable life.And what does a comfortable life mean?I'm guessing you're gonna ask me that question is.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:25:52

We're going to go there, Juliette.We're going to be very specific about what this looks like, because a comfortable life is a wish.

Juliet Chuang00:25:59

Is a wish.Yes.Okay.So in the past, on a previous show, I definitely said that I would love to take.Be able to take care of my parents or, like, give them back in some way monetarily.But I think what's also super important to me is I have friends who have kids, so I have a lot of, like, nieces and nephews.I want to be able to help them out because I think over the last few years, I have just really started to feel that community is important.Ralph and I, we've had conversations about, you know, your blood family and your chosen family.And I want to show up in my chosen family's lives in a very meaningful way.And so that means, like, I would love to assist and be the fun auntie and then be able to contribute to my community monetarily with time and all of that.And so I think the comfortable life is I basically have money growing its own money, like passive incomes or, like, not have to work 80 hours a week just to earn money, because time is money.I want it to be able to grow so then I can spend more time with the people that I love.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:27:02

So the way I would phrase yours is I want my money to help me find more opportunities to spend time with the people and help the people that I love.

Juliet Chuang00:27:11

That's a great start.I'm gonna have to rewatch this show so I could write that sentence.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:27:14

Yeah.And the dream isn't necessarily a number.I just want to make sure everybody understands.It's just the thing.Like, for example, I wrote some ideas down here.Maybe for yourself.For me.Well, for me and for other people.So for some people, I want my money to help me get out of debt.So many people right now have this mountain of credit card debt or personal loan debt, even mortgage debt, whatever that looks like for you.I want my money to help me get out of debt.I want to help.I want my money to help me move.Maybe you feel like you're stuck in an apartment and you'd like to own your own home.Maybe you're in a home that you don't love and you're like, I'd really like it to help me get to that next place.

Voicemail from Listener00:27:54

Right.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:27:54

Maybe I want my money to help me stop being afraid of the mailbox.

Juliet Chuang00:27:59

Oh, that's a good one.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:28:00

A lot of people are afraid of the mailbox because they know that next bill's coming or that credit card bill.They just don't want to open up.So I want my money to help me do that.

Juliet Chuang00:28:09

So you put me on the spot.I'm going to put you on the spot right now, because what is your dream right now?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:28:17

So I want my money to help me build a secure retirement because I waited till age 47 to get started.So for me, that is the dream that is going to become a reality for me, because I want it to help me do that.Because as I shared last week or the week before on the show, and we'll put a link to that in the show notes, Ralph the accountant, the person who knows better, waited until he was older.So that's a dream for me.Maybe your dream is you want to help your mother.Maybe you want to take a trip.That's not a funeral.

Juliet Chuang00:28:50

Yeah.Oh.I was going to say, if anybody in the audience wants to share what their dream is or, like, what's their working dream.Right.Because I think especially for dreams, when you first start dreaming, it's going to be a little.You're being like, I think it's this.You have a rough outline, but then once you talk more about it and start moving towards it, then you can really start to define it more crystal clear.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:29:16

Yeah.And the thing is, today is about the starting point.You know, whatever that is for you, write it in your own words, write it in your own handwriting.Because once you get that dream, that's what we're going to build the rest of this whole dollar job framework on.And just so we understand each other, you may have multiple dreams.We're going to start with one dream.And then as you accomplish that, we might have additional dreams.That's the whole benefit of.Of the whole dream and the whole.The job or job framework.Because we get to that point at some point of debriefing, where we say, okay, here's what we've accomplished.We can do this.What does the next one look like?So that's where we start.What do I want my money to help me?Do you notice I didn't start with, I can't do this and I can't do that, and I must do this, and I must do that.Because when most people hear budget, they hear diet.I heard diet for year upon year upon year, and it kept me big and fat without making any better decisions.The word that I love to use here is intentional.What we're talking about building here is an intentional spending plan.The reason we're using the word intentional is it's building that dream.It's getting us to that point of that dream that we're.That we see.Close your eyes and just think about what that looks like.Think about what it looks like when Juliet can help her.Her nieces and nephews.Think about what it looks like when Juliet can help her parents, maybe take them on a vacation that they would never have done on their own.

Juliet Chuang00:30:47

Right?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:30:48

Maybe it's.Juliet is that person that goes out to the mailbox and is not afraid anymore, because whatever's in there, she can handle it because she's got the savings account, she's got the emergency funding.She's got all those things in place.

Juliet Chuang00:31:02

Ralph, you called me out a little bit there because I. I am still scared of the mailbox these days.Like, yeah, you're not alone in that.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:31:08

And.And just to be clear, Juliet is also in a time in her life where she's undergoing a lot of business change.

Voicemail from Listener00:31:16

What.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:31:16

What Juliet thought was going to be her career path, what Juliet thought was going to be her corporate job, her whole world got turned upside down.And I'm not sharing anything out of school, because you basically shared that with the audience.And.And that's the thing we need to understand is we are all going to have seasons of our life where things don't go in the way we expected them.

Juliet Chuang00:31:37

It's so weird, because I know I've talked on this show that I'm making a pivot and becoming an entrepreneur, but every time I still hear that I'm going to be on it.There's, like, a little tear in my voice right now because I'm making this pivot.There's still a picture, very small voice inside of me that's like, oh, I think you failed.I think you failed in the corporate world.Right.Which isn't true.Which isn't true.Right.There's.I think Ralph and I, we've talked behind the scene, behind the stage, how entrepreneurship feels more comfortable to me, and it feels more like part of my identity, but there's still a little voice inside of me that's like, well, you failed corporate, so now you have to figure out what your new dreams are.And it's.It's a weird thing that just came up right now.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:32:25

I want to speak to that.And I want to speak to that from a level you weren't expecting.As you know, I'm a Christian guy and I don't put my faith on the shelf.

Juliet Chuang00:32:32

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:32:32

But honestly, Juliet, I think things happen in our life that open and close doors for a purpose.

Juliet Chuang00:32:39

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:32:39

So it could very well be that you had this trajectory planned out for your life, that I'm going to be in corporate.I'm going to do this, I'm going to ascend to this point.I'm going to do all those things.

Juliet Chuang00:32:49

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:32:50

But maybe there's a plan that you don't even see right now.

Juliet Chuang00:32:53

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:32:54

You know, and that's the thing, like, it's so easy to get stuck on identifying ourselves with our career, identifying ourselves with our job.You know, it's funny, when my wife and I first met, she said, every time you introduce yourself to somebody, you tell them what you do for a living.

Juliet Chuang00:33:08

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:33:09

And I said, that's true.But as human beings, I think that's what we hang our hats on.And I think the thing that I love the fact of the journey you're on, and I'm sure it's not comfortable.

Juliet Chuang00:33:19

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:33:20

But don't ever consider yourself a failure because those things, and trust me, I know this.Working with Juliet on the day to day, you have no concept of what goes on behind the scenes to make this program for one hour work.It's several hours a day that we put into this.Juliet is not a failure in anything that she has done because all the things that she's doing have prepared her for this.So if you feel right now that you're not where you should be, I'm going to tell you something.And this is going to be a Christian thought.God has you exactly where he wants you to be.Now, you might not agree with the same faith statement that I have, but you can say the universe, whatever that is, all of these things have put you in a place of where you are now.Those are challenges you've gone through.They're struggles you've gone through.The Bible says iron sharpens iron.Again, it doesn't matter what your faith is.You are where you are for a purpose.You're not a failure.You may have made some mistakes.Listen, I've been very honest about my mistakes.Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't Dream.And that's where we start off with here.What is that Dream.I want my money to do this for me.

Juliet Chuang00:34:28

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:34:29

That's the key to the whole thing.

Juliet Chuang00:34:30

Thank you dages for the encouragement.I can do it.Yes.But dream.And I will say one more thing about dream before we go on to the next step.So you may be responding to that sentence, I want my money to do this.And you have a bunch of different ideas.Write it all down.And then afterwards, take a step back and then you can say, I'm going to focus on this one dream right now.Like we said, it takes time to crystallize and figure out which one is your top one.Dream right now.And that's okay because time has to run its course.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:34:59

Yeah.And don't try to grab too much right now.Take one dream.Let's just say, for example, your dream is, I want to get out of debt.

Juliet Chuang00:35:09

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:35:10

Don't even say, I want to get a complete.I want to get out of the debt with this credit card, which takes us to part number two.And this is where we're going to park and spend a little time.

Juliet Chuang00:35:18

Okay.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:35:19

And that is the word define, and that's an intentional word.Because it's one thing to have a wish.It's one thing to have a dream.It's another thing to put a number and a date on it.So once you've got that sentence, you already know what you're going to have to do.You got to put a number on it, and the number needs to be set for a particular period of time.So let me give you an example.Let's just use this example for today's conversation.Let's say you've got that $5,000 credit card and you just want this thing to get paid off.It's 25% interest.You dread getting the statement.But you say, I.My dream is I want my money to help me pay off this debt so I don't have this thing holding over my head.So the defined stage looks like this.You've defined the amount you want to pay off that $5,000 credit card.But now we got to talk about what does the timeframe look like?Because if you say to me, ralph, look, I want to pay off that $5,000 credit card, and I'm going to take my magic wand, it's my magic pen today, and I'm going to go bing.And it's going to be gone.It doesn't work like that.Now you can go buy lottery tickets, which I think are A waste of money.But go buy some lottery tickets and then we'll have a real conversation when you come back.And maybe you'll win, you'll get lucky.But bottom line is you got to define the number and you got to define the time.

Juliet Chuang00:36:39

Yeah, because reminds me of.Have you ever heard of smart goals?Smart, smart goals, absolutely.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:36:45

And I think specific, measurable, attainable results.Enter results oriented and time consistent.

Juliet Chuang00:36:52

Time bound.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:36:52

Yeah, it's so important.I learned that when I went to the Dale Carnegie training.And the thing is, every single goal.Okay, hold on a second.Hold on.Ralph.Ralph rant.

Voicemail from Listener00:37:05

Here he goes.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:37:08

I want to thank my producer, Abby for coming off the.It's a little bit long, but I like the Ralph rant.I'm going to take a Ralph rant right now.

Juliet Chuang00:37:14

Okay.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:37:15

I love what Julius just took us.Because here's the thing.We are going to go there in not so many ways.If you ever set a goal for yourself, it's gotta be smart, it's gotta be specific, it's gotta be measurable.It's gotta be something you can attain.It's gotta have some result to it, and it has to be within a certain period of time.That's exactly what we're talking about here.So as we're thinking about this credit card debt, we know the number.We've got a $5,000 number that we want to pay off.So we know it's specific, it's measurable, because we can say, hey, $5,000 is what we owe when we get to the end.It's a zero.

Juliet Chuang00:37:55

Right?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:37:56

It's attainable.I think that everybody.It might take a long time.It's not going to be an overnight thing.You can achieve that.It's attainable.It's going to be a positive result in the end, that's what you want to accomplish.But now we got to add that time frame to it.And that's what this gets complicated.So for today's illustration, I laid out some math.Let's just say that that credit card is $3,600.

Juliet Chuang00:38:21

Okay?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:38:21

Okay.So you got $3,600 that you want to pay off.Now, if we think about 3600, we divide that by 12.That means you're gonna have to pay 300amonth, right?So that's the specific goal, $3,600.And I. I switched to 3600 because it's easier for the math instead of the five.

Juliet Chuang00:38:39

Okay?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:38:40

So if you say, I want to be out of credit card debt, I've got 3,600 in 12 months right now.Can you put $300 a month to pay that off?Now, of course you're probably saying, but Ralph, wait a minute, they're going to add interest yet.Let's just assume the interest is zero for sake of our discussion.So you might say, okay, Ralph, that Sounds good, but $300 a month?Dude, I can't find $300 a month right now.So you go into the next iteration, you say, okay, well how about 18 months?Okay, so 18 months, it would take $200 a month.But here's the cool thing, and this is where we're going to start breaking this down.Let's say you get paid every other week.So for 200amonth, that means a hundred dollars a paycheck, right?Can you afford a hundred dollars a paycheck?And in 18 months at a hundred dollars a paycheck, you've wiped out that $3,600 credit card balance, right?But maybe that's too much.Still, you got too much.A hundred dollars can't work.But what could $60 work?Because if you could put $60 per paycheck, that's $120 a month, you will have that debt paid off in 30 months.You know, yesterday I mentioned that with credit card debt, depending upon the interest rate, that's how many years it takes to pay it off.So let's just say this credit card is $3,600 at 35, at 25%, right?Would you rather pay for 25 years or 30 months?

Juliet Chuang00:40:02

30 Months.Of course, 30 months.Because to me, I've gotten to the point where I'm like, once I pay that off, then the money that I would be putting towards a payment, I can put that to high yield savings or like making my money grow money, you know.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:40:15

Here's another number.It's going to shock you.

Juliet Chuang00:40:17

What is?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:40:17

Remember I said 18 months at $200 a month.$200 A month.Yeah.So let's just say you want to pay it off in 18 months.$200 A month.You know how much that is a day?It's $6.60 a day.

Juliet Chuang00:40:28

Oh, that feels like a more, you know, doable number.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:40:32

See if you're not watching, if you're listening, Juliet's eyes just lit up when I said that.Yeah, you need to do the same thing in your head.What does this equal a day?Because think about $6.60 a day.Does that mean you don't go to Starbucks?Does that mean you brown bag Your lunch instead of eating out.

Juliet Chuang00:40:51

And I think the mindset here, right, it's like when the dream is too big.When we started talking about the dream, and I was sharing my dream, and you're sharing your dream, right?Those are really, really big dreams.And so sometimes when you don't break it down into small milestones or smaller goals, it just feels like it's going to not never happen.But then when, once you got down to, oh, that's $6.50 a day, I'm like, oh, that makes sense, because I can already feel, do I actually spend 650 a day?If I do, then I can make adjustments.If I don't spend that money because I'm, you know, working from home or something like that, I'm just like, oh, I. I do have that Runway.I can do that.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:41:30

You know, and to think about it, we.We envision this dream.Well, envision $6.60 every day.Where do you find it?I would venture to guess that most people can find $6.60 a day.But it helps you make better decisions because you've narrowed it down.So whatever your goal is, whatever that is, maybe you want to save money for a vacation.Take that number.Divide by the number of months, Divide that by the number of days that gets you the number.And then every time you make a purchase, you say, wait a second.If I spend this over here, that means I can't do this over here, right?And like you said, I think it makes it.It makes it attainable.Because it doesn't look like.Because if you look at $3,600, you're going, oh, Raf, I'm never gonna get this paid off.

Juliet Chuang00:42:14

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:42:15

This is such a big number.Or maybe you wanna take a vacation and you want to spend $3,600 on a vacation.It's the same $6.60.

Voicemail from Listener00:42:24

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:42:25

I just think it makes it more so it's kind of like buying a house.So you get this mortgage.You don't.You don't look at what is the total cost of what I'm buying.You look at how much does it cost me a month, right?Take your mortgage payment, divide by 30, and look at what your house cost you a day.It'll rock your world.Because most people have no concept of that.

Juliet Chuang00:42:41

I think that's probably one of the reasons why I've never even imagined about buying a house, because I'm like, I. I don't know how to think about that, because I've never broken down, never really tried to see what does that look like for me?So for me, buying a house has always been, oh, that's unattainable.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:42:58

Yeah.So getting back to our.No.And that's what I think that the more linear that you can break this down into little compartments that you can put into small pieces.So under that sentence of my dream is.

Voicemail from Listener00:43:10

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:43:10

Next thing I want you to do is write, what does it cost?What does your dream cost?Is it the $3,600?Getting out of credit card debt, $5,000?Putting money into retirement?What exactly is that cost?

Juliet Chuang00:43:23

Right.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:43:24

And then under that, you put your target date.And this is simple math that you can do with finger and toes.You take that number so you can.

Juliet Chuang00:43:31

Do those four things real quick.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:43:33

Yep.You're going to put in my dream is what it costs, and my target date.Once you have those three things, then you get to your monthly number by dividing that by the number of months and the amount of debt that you have.Small bites is what Dutch has just put.And this is a great point.It's small bites, you know, and that's the thing.And that's the thing where it doesn't feel overwhelming because you're taking it one step at a time.It's that one step.It's like I remember when I first got on a health kick, I couldn't make it to the end of the driveway.I started getting up, and I walked to the end of the driveway.Your finances are the same thing.Take the first step, delineate what the dream is.What does it cost you?What's your target date?And then divide that number.You figure out what that is by month.And if you want to take it even a deep further, divide that by 30, and then you'll know.How much does it cost me every single day.

Juliet Chuang00:44:31

I like that.All right, so I feel like we've done a decent job going into define.I'm going to set some time later after this show and really break down my dream real quick because I think there's so much that I. I personally have to do for my own.But let's get to part three, which is going to be design.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:44:49

Yeah.And I want to.I just want to call it what Dutchy said.It's like saving your change in a jar.Exactly, exactly.And the cool thing about this.And then we'll move on to the design piece is the momentum you're going to build, because this thing builds on itself.Every day you're putting that 660 in.Then the next day, it's up to $13.Then the next day it's up to $18.And then the next day you start to feel it and you start to, you know that self doubt you talked about a little while ago?It helps you break that self doubt and you're like, I can do this.Yeah, I can make this happen.In fact, I'm going to tell everybody right now, we're going to be launching some challenges here coming up pretty soon.And one of the ones that we're going to launch is a savings challenge.So make sure you join us every day.We're going to do a savings challenge, probably a 10 day savings challenge.And we're going to help you do what you think you might not be able to do.

Juliet Chuang00:45:39

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:45:40

But let's move on to part number three, design.

Juliet Chuang00:45:43

So this is the whole part, this is the part where the whole thing is named after like the dollar job framework.Right.Every dollar gets a job and this is such going to be a huge mindset shift depending on what your relationship with money is.So Ralph, let us know what does this actually mean and what does this mean on a Tuesday with a checking account that has whatever it is has in it right now?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:46:06

Yeah.So let me back up and give you a little background information.When I started thinking about budgeting and why it doesn't work, one of my good friends and a mentor of mine named Dave, he says, Ralph, he says, what you've got to figure out is how to make budgeting sexy.And I said, well, how in the world am I going to make budgeting sexy?

Juliet Chuang00:46:26

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:46:26

But I think I figured out a way to do it.Because here's the thing, first of all, the word budget, we don't use it anymore.It's the dollar job framework.Because I think almost everybody understands what a job looks like.All of us have jobs or have had jobs.We understand what that looks like.Because I think when you use a budget, we get into this spreadsheet mentality and this category is this, and this category is this.It tells us a category, but a job is an assignment.What is this money's assignment when you get hired for a job?I remember my first job.I worked at Roy Rogers.It was like a McDonald's, but Roy Rogers.My job was, I came in and I stood at the front counter and I took orders.That was my job.Somebody walked up, I typed it into the computer.And I'll tell you a funny story while we're here.So the guy that hires me says, always be doing something.You always be moving and doing something.So it's funny.Three of my friends from high school all started working here.We had the shiniest counter in Roy Roger, because all three of us, when there was anybody there, we just sit there and rub like this, keeping this.But he said, always be doing something.That job didn't last long, but we understood the job.Your money needs to work the same way.

Juliet Chuang00:47:37

Yeah.I will say something is like, when I first heard about the dollar job framework from Ralph, I thought it would be.It would make people feel empowered because it's basically saying, any money that comes to you, you have to give it a job.So in some way you have control over your money.And it's.I think there are some people who easily say, well, you know, fomo or I wanted.I. I just had to.I felt really bad.Or, you know, something like that.But when you say if, when you assign every single dollar that comes into your pocketbook a job, that means you.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:48:13

Are in control, you're being intentional.And here's the best part of this framework.If you want to go do other stuff, you want to go have fun with your money, I am totally cool with that.It's your money.You get to pick the job.Every single dollar that comes in gets a job.There's no leftovers.There's no.There's nobody that doesn't.Every dollar gets a job.And if it doesn't have a job, guess what happens.So it gets lost.

Juliet Chuang00:48:35

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:48:36

So that's why we had to be so intentional about this.But I want to break this down into five job types.We're not going to have a lot more time to handle this.We're actually going to talk about this again next Tuesday.But I want to introduce this five job types, because what you're going to start thinking about is as I look at my spending, because one of the first things we're going to do is we're going to talk about looking at where you're actually spending your money now.Because in order to make this work, we've got to have clarity and we've got to have a vision of where you are right now.See, we have that dream.We see where it's going, but we need to understand where we are right now so we can figure out how to bridge the two.But here are the five job types.They're basically survival, stability, future, joy, and generosity.And I'm going to break each of those down right now.So survival, stability, future, joy, and generosity.Now, honestly, I could put these in different orders, but I think survival is the first one.We need to start.

Voicemail from Listener00:49:29

I agree.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:49:29

These are things like housing.You've got to have a roof over your head.These are things like food.You got to be able to pay for food.You got to eat.That's the way the body works.You know, you gotta.You gotta feed the body.These are utilities.You gotta have lights on, telephone, all those type of things.You have to have transportation so you can get to and from work.You gotta have medicine so you can keep yourself healthy, and you gotta have insurance.So those are all the survival.Housing, food, utilities, transportation, medicine, insurance.That's at the top, those things.And here's the problem, what I found in practice.A lot of people never get past the survival stage.All of their money is going to survival.And that's why.Listen, I'm not sitting here telling you that this is easy.I'm not sitting here telling you that this is a simple path.This may be some of the hardest work you will ever do.But I will tell you this.The payoff is amazing, but it starts with survival.

Juliet Chuang00:50:28

I'm just reminded of, like, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where it's like foundation.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:50:32

It's very much like that, because if you can't get past the foundational things, you can't get to these other things.So that's the first one, survival.And we'll spend a lot more time talking about each of these things in detail.The second one is stability.This is things like your emergency fund.This is the debt payoff.These are the repairs and maintenance and those irregular bills that aren't survival bills, but you know they're coming.

Juliet Chuang00:50:56

Right.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:50:56

Stability is the second one.Then we go to the future.Future bills, future jobs are savings goals, retirement goals, education goals, maybe starting your own business.Juliet's in this right now.Her future is.She's trying to build a business.

Juliet Chuang00:51:12

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:51:13

Then we move on to Joy, because like Juliet said, I want to be able to do things.Ralph.Joy are things like eating out your hobbies, travel, personal spending, spending on your grandchildren or your aunts or your cousins and all the.Your nephews and nieces.The gifts, the things that make make life happy, make, like joyful.We're building that right into the equation.So we got survival, stability, future, and joy.And this is the one that I battle with in my own mind.Should this one have been put first, Generosity?Because honestly, I'm.I come from a place, from my religious background, but also as a person, I think we all have to start with generosity.So we build that into the model.

Juliet Chuang00:51:58

You know, how I See, I.Like, you mentioned the five job types, but to me, it's not linear.Right.Like, it's just like a ratio of depending on what.Because if you think about it, or if I think about it, I am building for my survival, but at the same time, I'm also.I'm like, building for survival, stability, and future at the same time.Right.And there's a lot of things where it's like, okay, well, even if I'm in survival mode, it doesn't mean you have to live so strict and so harsh on yourself.Like, you should be able to experience joy.But it's like, what is that ratio?How much joy do you need in order to say, all right, I'm ready to get back into it.I'm back in survival most of the time.And I want to get past just being in survival mode.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:52:44

And that's why this is so important.And thank you for bringing that up.Even joy and generosity are jobs.These aren't the leftovers.These aren't the things that.Well, if anything is left, these are intentional.You have to build in joy and generosity into your dollar job framework from the very beginning.And I know, I hear you saying, ralph, there's nothing left, dude.I can't have any joy.You've got to figure out ways to do that.

Juliet Chuang00:53:10

Yeah.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:53:11

Because if you don't, you are not going to do this.

Juliet Chuang00:53:14

I would rather it's just going to be so difficult.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:53:16

Yeah, no, absolutely.I'd rather this take you twice as long, but you stay in it because you've got to build that joy.And the generosity, the generosity piece is the part that is so important because it makes it worth doing.That's the giving and supporting family, supporting your community.And again, those are not leftovers.Those are all part of the jobs.I want to give you a real life example.So as an example, let's say that you like Friday night pizza nights.You just assign those dollars to the joy job.They may not be the survival job because you could eat something a lot cheaper.

Juliet Chuang00:53:52

Right.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:53:52

You don't have to get a pizza.I like pizza.Pizza's good.Put that into the joy, and then you enjoy them without feeling guilty.

Juliet Chuang00:54:01

Right.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:54:02

That's the whole thing.Now I think we kind of have to pause it there and we'll continue this next week.But I just want to reiterate again.We started with the dream, then we defined it, and now what we're doing is we're actually building that design of the plan.And there's a methodology to this.There's an order to this.So go get your piece of paper, start with the dream, define it out, and then start to design it.And if, if you're going through this and you want to talk with us, go to our website and leave us a voicemail.Tell us what your dream is.Tell us what you're going through.We would love to hear.We'd like to partner with you on this.Becomingfinanciallyconfident.com voicemail.You can record.You can say, hey, this is, my name is Joe.Here's what I'm working on.Exactly.And I see a comment here from budget friendly.Yeah, great idea.Yeah, budget friendly joy ideas.I think that's a great.Abby is our producer.Abby put that on the list of things we need to talk about because that is a great idea.

Juliet Chuang00:54:59

But this is not going to be just for us.So if you guys have what are some budget friendly, joyful things that you guys are experiencing, share with us, send us us, leave us a message comment or leave us a voicemail.We want to hear it.Right.Because everybody's idea of what budget friendly and what joy is are quite different.Right?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:55:19

Absolutely.

Juliet Chuang00:55:20

Please wait, Ralph, I have a.Let's just spitball real quick.Do you have one that comes off your mind, like what is something budget friendly that you.That brings you joy these days?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:55:30

Are you gonna laugh when I tell you this one?I love to go to flea markets.

Juliet Chuang00:55:37

I love flea markets too.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:55:38

Yeah.Because to me it's like, it's joyful.Like I just like looking through other people's junk and maybe I find a treasure.But I know I don't have to buy anything.There's no pressure that I have to buy.I can kind of go there and just look around.I get to spend time outside.If it's an outdoor flea market, I just love that.For me, that's a joy thing.

Juliet Chuang00:55:56

For me there are flea markets out in Delaware.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:55:58

There is.There's quite a few.And the other thing I really enjoy doing, I love motorcycle riding.So for me, one of the joys of life is hopping on my now I used to have a two wheel motorcycle, but as I've gotten older, I went to the Can Am with the two wheels in the front and just feeling the air in front of me.It cost me a little money to have the motorcycle, but that's one of the things that I do that's joyful.I just go for a ride down the road.So for me that's a huge part of it.

Juliet Chuang00:56:21

I like that.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:56:22

I want to End with a question.And that is what did you spend last month?Not what you earned, what you actually spent.And I've spent 30 years of doing this and I've never once had a person guess that number high.They always guess low and they believe it.Quick and Simplify connects your accounts and answers that question for you.So that as you're working through this dollar job framework and you're trying to understand this is where we're going next.By the way, when you're trying to understand where your money's going, Quick and Simplify helps you do that harder thing.It shows you what's safe to spend for the rest of the month and after the bills and after the savings are already spoken for.And if you want to find out more about Quicken simplify, go to becomingfinanciallyconfident.comquicken Again, that's becoming financiallyconfident.comquicken.It's a great tool and it's one that I personally use and I think you'll find it to be very useful for you as well.

Juliet Chuang00:57:22

Yeah.Money move.So remind us, what is our money move this week?

Ralph Estep Jr.00:57:25

Our money move this week is to open a separate High yield savings account account and set up one automatic transfer timed with your money coming in.So whatever you're doing, is it a percentage, it's an amount.But set up that account and then set up an automatic transfer so you don't have to think about it.It's on co pilot.Just think about this.This is part of that future that we just talked about.This is the future.This is help building that future, building that emergency fund, building that savings account.That's all part of what we're doing here.

Juliet Chuang00:57:55

Yeah, so I know, Ralph, you said that you've already done it right before we had the, we started this week's show.I do have a High Yield savings account already.I just have to set my automatic transfer.So I'm gonna do that.Well, I have four, four more days, so I think I'm gonna procrastinate a little bit.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:58:11

No procrastinating.The sooner the better.

Juliet Chuang00:58:14

I, I have other priorities right now, but it will be done.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:58:18

I have every confidence in you, I have every confidence in anybody else.Just, it's super simple.You can log into your bank site, set up that High Yield savings account because what we Talked about this earlier, 0.38% is the average savings rate.High yield savings accounts, that number is over 4%.That's a 21 time improvement on your money.It will definitely Be impactful.And listen, when we said set up an automatic transfer, it can be $5 a week, it's just about building that muscle and getting into the habit.

Juliet Chuang00:58:46

You know what, Actually, I might just set that automatic transfer for $5 a week.I think I'll do that for now.And then once I feel confident about, you know, what the ratio of my money is going to, then I can adjust that so I can do that.I can do that.You can.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:58:58

We're at a time for today, Joy.Do you want to talk about.We're going to talk about tomorrow.

Juliet Chuang00:59:02

Yeah.So tomorrow we are going to talk about a side hustle.We're going to talk about is it actually worth it to board dogs on Rover.So we'll do.We'll talk about everything.Like is it worth how does the money work out?How does the time and energy work out?And then we're also going to do a deep dive into credit reports.So if you have not pulled your credit report, go to one of the three, what do we call them, Credit bureaus.Right.Tax, Trans, Transunion or Experian.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:59:28

Or you can go to annualcreditreport.com you're entitled to a free copy of all three credit reports by going to annualcreditreport.com bring that with you to tomorrow's show because we're going to break it down line by line and we're going to explain exactly what's on your report and more importantly, how you can change to make your credit better.That's what we're going to talk about on tomorrow's show.

Juliet Chuang00:59:51

Yes, that is.So that is it for today's episode of Becoming Financially Confident.I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I am Juliet.

Ralph Estep Jr.00:59:59

And if you've got a question for this show, don't Forget, go to becomingfinanciallyconfident.com and don't forget to join us tomorrow for the live show because every day our goal is this.We want to help you break free from money shame.One conversation at a time.So everybody, have a great day.Juliet, have a great day.Go set up that high yield savings account and set up that automatic transfer for it.

Juliet Chuang01:00:21

We'll check in tomorrow on that.But thank you, everyone.