The Get Ready Money Podcast

The Get Ready Money Podcast with Larry Frazier and Debbie Todd: Financial Empowerment For Families

• Tony Steuer

Share episode

Send us a text

On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Larry Frazier and Debbie Todd, co-founders and co-CEO’s of The Dollars and Good Sense Foundation about changing the way we think about money and financial empowerment for the family. 

In this episode we discussed:

  • Stay focused on your goals and dreams.
  • The importance of whole family education.
  • How healthy families lead to healthy communities.
  • You are in charge of your money. 
  • Today is the best day to start. 

Debbie Todd, CPA is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation. As the eldest child of a humble, yet proud and dedicated military family, Debbie grew up learning first-hand the value of making your money stretch…as well as understanding how quickly impulsive choices can get you trapped.  With over 25 years as a licensed CPA, her passion to help families learn and grow in their core financial knowledge is the perfect backdrop for teaching practical, fun and financially sound money habits…for kids as well as adults!


Larry Frazier is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation. Larry is an internationally recognized IT, logistics and training expert, with over two decades of business and training experience with tech enterprise giant Oracle. Right out of high school, he began his love of technology during his service to our country in the United States Air Force.  Holding a BS in computer science as well as being Six Sigma certified, Larry knows how to maximize learning – whether in the classroom or in the field - anywhere in the world. Larry’s professional expertise with technology, his passion for numbers and logistics and his “honest school of real life” teaching style allows him to bring a uniquely fresh, understandable and action-focused experience to helping families gain practical skills with their money - for LIFE!

Connect with Larry Frazier and Debbie Todd:


LinkedIn - Larry Frazier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larryfrazier/

LinkedIn - Debbie Todd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahmtodd/


Dollars and Good Sense Foundation:


Website: https://dollarsandgoodsense.org

Facebook: facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DGSFamilyFunMoneyGames

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Larry Frazier and Debbie Todd, co-founders and co-CEOs of the Dollars and Good Cents Foundation. In this episode, we'll be discussing Larry and Debbie's insights on how we change the way we think about money and financial empowerment for families. Larry and Debbie, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for the invite, Tony.

Speaker 4:

Yes, thank you, Tony. We're so excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, glad to have you. So you know, let's jump in. This is where I start. All the shows is tell us a little bit about yourselves. What are your origin stories?

Speaker 4:

Oh boy. Okay, Well, I could tell you a little bit about me, and why teaching financial literacy to families is so important to me is I'm the oldest child of a military family. We grew up poor. We moved around, we didn't have a lot of money, so we knew what it meant to go without. I did have the opportunity to go to college in my 30s and I became a CPA. And within that second chance to go to college, I committed that I was going to help other women and other families not go through the same thing that I did the first 30 years of my life, and that was in 1996. I started teaching in 1997. And I've been doing it ever since. So that's my story, and my goal is to help families just feel better about their money and allow their money to work for them so they can achieve their dreams.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

Larry, how about yourself? My story is very similar to Deb. I was born up in or raised in a military family, so my dad was active duty enlisted and had kids and so money was tight. Um, and through watching my parents we didn't sit down and do family budgets and stuff like that, but through watching my parents, um, you know, balance the checkbook and and when we go to the grocery store, watch my mom use coupons and, uh, look at the price of different things per ounce. You calculated it's not like it is on the shelves now. So I kind of learned how important money was by paying attention. I also, you know, in high school they were still offering financial literacy in home X and some of those classes where they're not doing that anymore.

Speaker 3:

Um, so as I left and went to college, um, you know, my parents always made me pay my way, from about the time I was 16, for any extracurricular activities. Um, I had to start saving for college, cause they weren't going to have money, so I had to apply for grants and stuff, got through that whole cycle and then had, uh, wife and three kids and I was in the military and I saw so many enlisted families come in or young troops come in talking about how they didn't have that much money but they were making the same amount of money. I was living off with three kids but they were doing things. So I got started with the Air Force in the financial literacy program for the young troops Moving fast forward through career, got a pretty successful job after I graduated, went through that career and then I ran into this lady with the puppets and she said, hey, you know, we've got some people in our church and in the community that just aren't making it. And she threw this idea at me and the way we went.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's fantastic. You know just real quickly. You know we. You know this wasn't really part of the plan discussion, but you know you both bring up the military. You know this wasn't really part of the plan discussion, but you know you both bring up the military. You know, are there some good resources for military families with financial literacy, or is that part of what you're doing?

Speaker 4:

Well, I guess I would say that in any big organization, there typically are resources available. However, it's been my experience, especially in dealing with families in crisis is just handing them a book or handing them something to watch isn't going to be enough. They're scared, they don't know what is being told to them, they don't know how to basically implement it into their lives, and so they stay stuck. So there's a lot of resources, just like there's a ton of resources out there for anybody on any various topic. I mean let's just take, you know, being a healthy weight, for example. There's just I mean, there's not a lack of resources on how to maintain a healthy weight, yet we are struggling with that as a society. So it's not lack of resources. It's I believe it's having resources available to people in a manner that they can feel comfortable and safe to be curious and learn.

Speaker 3:

And I'm going to add this, tony. So, uh, my time's dated in the military, right, I've been out for several years, just just a couple. But um, still, when you go to basic training, they have, uh, how to write checks, how to balance a checkbook, uh, so they have some very basic courses in the basic training courses that they do. Um, when I was in an active, most uh squadrons uh had somebody that was there to help with financial issues. Um, because the military takes bouncing checks very seriously, they've got a reputation that they keep up, and so in most squadrons there's somebody in charge of something to do with financial literacy and they have training. They train somebody up in that squadron and they have books and that squadron may or may not run classes, but if they talk to their leadership, there is probably somebody there that can guide them through what the different things issues are they're having, that can guide them through what the different issues are they're having, because they know the military also knows how much that leads to divorces and things like that.

Speaker 3:

So yeah they are very proactive there. On the other side, as they're coming out of the military, things change a ton right Benefits, housing, because some of that's paid by the military. There's all kinds of different organizations out there for vets. There's the DAV, which is the Disabled American Veterans Group, there's Elks Clubs, american Legions. There's a lot of ways that a vet can get engaged with different communities that may or may not have financial literacy. That's a little different world, but in the military, when I was in, all you had to do was ask. The big problem was people usually didn't ask until they got in trouble.

Speaker 2:

So I think that's a key takeaway, you know, not only for military members, but that you have to ask and be curious, and that also is in line with what you were talking about, debbie. I mean ask and be curious, and that also is in line with what you were talking about, debbie. I mean that's excellent advice is you know, as you talk about it, I keep thinking you know how many budgeting templates are available on the internet? There has to be a million different budgeting templates over the internet. So you know, there's no excuse for not knowing your cashflow. It's just, you know, is that you have to really be interested in actually doing it. And you know, like, maybe with your weight is, you're not always going to be happy with the answers you receive, but it's okay. Once you find out, you can make those changes. So you know, let's talk a little bit about the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation. You know what is the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation? What?

Speaker 3:

is the Dollars and Good Cents Foundation. We are a registered 501c3 international, and it's important that we say international educational charity. When we were setting this up, we have some board members that are overseas that said, hey, we have the same problem here. We went ahead and set up a national educational charity so that we could do this globally as we grow. We are focused, though, on community supported financial literacy and life skills for families who are in crisis. We want to get them off of that madness roller coaster and they just don't know what to do. So it was organized to help those families and it's global, but it's also very community-based. With that, our goal is to eradicate poverty through the grassroots community involvement. To do that, we focus on the families to help break that generational poverty cycle that we see over and over again, which is that grows out of a family and they get out of that. That will help generationally, which will give us less poverty globally. So that's a little bit about what we are and what our mission is.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So just you know real quick before we get into the next question is just, do you have a quick tip for families in crisis? The first thing you would just tell them, just something really basic.

Speaker 4:

Just don't be afraid to ask for help. Seek help, don't do it alone.

Speaker 2:

I love that.

Speaker 4:

There are caring people who can give you simple insights and it's just one step at a time, right, and it really is. Having healthy finances and a good money mindset is really a lifelong learning adventure for us and, as we'll talk about later, I mean how we view money and how we actually employ it into our lives can make a huge difference. But the first step is the first step. Ask, just ask. Don't be afraid to ask. There's no shame, there's no anything. It's just come in and say I want to get better. I want to get better at this. Can I get some answers? Can I get some help? Can I get some answers? Can I get some help?

Speaker 3:

And I'm going to add to that ask. One quick point is don't ask from the TV commercials Right, talk to an organization around you, talk to your church leadership, look for orgs on the web or something like that. But there's a lot of advertisement now about we'll consolidate your credit, we'll do this, which a lot of those organizations get you in more trouble. So ask people around you. Be don't be shy, try not to be scared. I know it's a hard topic, but ask for some help through somebody that you trust, and you can also look on the web for org. There's a lot out there to help and don't get overwhelmed by digging through 15. We're talking about the spreadsheets, right for budgets. Oh, I like that one, but I might like that one. I might like that one. A month later, you're still trying to figure out which one you like. The other one is put one foot in front and get started.

Speaker 2:

That is awesome advice. We could probably just wrap up the show here, because those are some excellent nuggets. But as you talk about, that is, you know, one good resource for people to start off with. It's obviously your website, but also Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a lot of good resources to start that you can use, you know, as a basis for all those other things. Like, larry, like you talk about, to measure up, you know credit counseling, you know, so that you can see whether that makes sense or not you know. So tell us a little bit about the foundation. What is your unique approach? I know, debbie, I think you're ready to go on that.

Speaker 4:

Debbie, I think you're ready to go on that. Oh man. Well, obviously I think you can tell by my background that part of our unique approach is that we believe in whole family education and it needs to be fun, simple, and it needs to allow the entire family to learn simple and smart money skills and tools. And what we have learned, what I've learned, is that, as we look at this, the whole family is involved in financial decisions. I don't care if you're two years old or 102. I believe that as soon as a child learns to say I want, they can start learning basic, real basic concepts.

Speaker 4:

And, as you can see by the environment behind me, part of the unique approach of ours is that we actually developed an interactive theater program for children. It's called Smart Money Commanders and it's for children age three to nine and a lot of the characters that you see actually are involved in that, as well as myself and several other people. I am Dr Penny B Wise in the videos and I am a super money smart pet vet who helps the children understand key concepts with money through our stories. And, as Larry will talk about, we also have the adult program, which is the dollars and good sense, and it's comprehensive, get easily digestible program for adults. So we believe that when the whole family is involved, it's going to be better awesome, awesome.

Speaker 2:

Larry, did you want to jump in on that now or do you want to weigh in?

Speaker 3:

well, I'll add one thing about the family that that we've seen as well is that you know more and more grandparents are taking care of grandkids, uh and um. So that generational thing that we're talking about trying to get the whole family um, you don't know where somebody's going to run into that crisis. We also know that kids tend to and we'll talk about this more later earlier and it's easier from the grass. So if you can get that going early, that's how we are. Our idea is to eradicate poverty is that you do it for the whole family, not just the ones that are in the crisis now, because they're going to follow the habits of their parents or their grandparents and you're going to end up in the same place in a few years. So I'll just add that.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. Well, let's talk a little bit more about family, since we're on. That subject is why should families learn about money together? What's the reason why should families learn about money?

Speaker 4:

together. What's the reason? Well, it's important for them to learn about money together, because financial decisions within the house come from all members of the house. We all have wants right, and so part of our understanding is that we can have I can have parents that come into my class and this was started way back when and we would spend a weekend and we would actually go through the program and they'd be all excited about what they were going to do. They got their budget, they understand that, the changes they're going to make and their long-term financial future. They'd go home and their kids have been watching Nickelodeon and all the cartoons for a day and they have all these wants.

Speaker 4:

So what happens to the parents when they think they got this thing, I want to do better and I want to have a better financial future for my family and then they face the adoring eyes of their kids who want things, and that just really makes it hard. So when the family learns together, everybody gets to get on the same page and that's really helpful, because the kids can learn that it's okay to want things and the whole purpose of the program is not to tell people you can't have stuff, because that's not what we're about, but it's understanding how to make smart decisions and make decisions that are in alignment with your goals. That's why it's important for the whole family to learn and, as Larry said so well, it's easier for children to learn these concepts when they're young, as opposed to having to unlearn them when they're a teenager.

Speaker 3:

And I've got a quick story, tony, that kind of hits close to home. One of my kids was in their late 20s, uh, and their car that they had bought shortly after high school or whatever was failing. And so they I got this phone call one day that said, hey, will you co-sign for a car loan? And I'm like, wait a minute, where did we miss that boat, right? So, um, I I was talking to them, that person and uh found out that I made a big assumption and we all know what that means from the bad news bears movie, right, uh, that she had financial literacy. So I called and said, why do I need to co-sign? What's your budget? Say you can afford blah, blah, blah. And I got this blank stare when I was talking to her about budget. So I was like, oh, so now I gotta back up and go through this whole thing.

Speaker 3:

And her, uh, brand new jeep that was, uh, what she wanted and blah, blah, blah is and turned into a nissan century used. The fun part about that is, um, from that she's bought a house where she was renting before she's put, gotten her stuff together. She drove that nissan for 10 years and just kept putting the payments away into something else and she went out and bought a jeep for cash. Uh, so she's. She's got it going now and she's teaching her kids and we're trying to expand it.

Speaker 3:

So again, it's that whole generation thing that we can't make the assumption that the littles are getting taught and a lot of times we're having to take care of our parents, that we're in that age group, that we're having to take care of our parents that may have put things away, but now they're not sure how to navigate Medicare, long-term care, assisted living, because all that comes into place. So there's a lot going on out there. So the more you can get somebody started early, as you said, it's like riding a bike. Once they get the habits, those will continue through their life.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome advice and I think a key that's running through this is communication and talking. The families need to be open to talking about this as a family. You know both like you talk about with your kids and, larry, as you talk about with aging parents is that financial literacy isn't going to work unless you're also communicating as a family to deal with these issues.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I don't know where you were brought up, tony, but I know Deb and I have talked about this a lot In my family. It was not a subject that was talked about Me too, right, it was. I watched, like I said, I watched how my mom did things. I watched them balance checkbooks, but I did not get involved in family budgets or. But my parents were really good with this other word called no, can we go to Disney World? No, can we do this? No, right, we're going to go camping over here. So they had the plan and I got the no part of the plan. But I learned from that, watching them, and then I I took a class in school.

Speaker 3:

Today's world, kids are getting more knowledge through the web and stuff, so it's more important to talk to them, and finances is is a tough subject on. Where do you talk to them about this and that? Right, I still struggle with that. Uh, at the house and that. You know, my dad doesn't need to know how much money I have and what I'm spending my money on, but he does. I'm working with his finances. I do need him to understand where his money's going and what he's saving for and stuff like that. So yeah, that communication, uh, I think 20 years ago was not held very often. But in today's world, with all the stuff coming through the TV and web, you've got to start early.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome and, larry, I think you said something that's super important is that it doesn't always have to be the nitty gritty, full details of the numbers. It's more the bigger picture and the concepts that need to be communicated with the generations. You don't have to give your kids your latest investment statement, but you can talk to them about how investments work. They don't need to know your 401k balance.

Speaker 3:

A game that she introduced to some parents is that have your kids plan and build a budget for a dinner Pretty easy, right and then have them go to the grocery store and add up the items going into that. They're not learning how to manage a whole house, but one dinner a month. Right, you've got $40, you make dinner you can do whatever you want, but you've got to buy the $40, you make dinner you can do whatever you want, but you got to buy the supplies and you make dinner. You can start that pretty early, right, because they give them a little addition, subtraction, so they're learning some arithmetic, but they're also getting to understand what a budget is. And then you can go on through that and make it more challenging as they grow, but you could start that pretty early.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, With this four-year-old, you know they can come in with mac and cheese all the time under budget.

Speaker 4:

That is one of the things I do tell the parents do not be surprised at what may be served for dinner. And then, as Larry said, it's a really is a great game because as the children get older you can add in things that are more than just the money part, Say, OK, how do you make this a nutritionally balanced meal under budget and there's all kinds of fun stuff? Or you get the kids if you've got more than one child, make it a contest, a little bit of a contest.

Speaker 4:

Let's see who can come up with know interesting or unusual that is nutritious and under budget yeah, don't let them cut out uh vegetables to save on money, right, yeah, yeah I can come under budget, but we're not going to be able to have vegetables, mom right, exactly, yeah, there won't be, yeah, there won't be much protein and we won't have any vegetables and a whole lot of starch, but that doesn't necessarily work.

Speaker 4:

But yeah, larry gave a great example of just one of the tiny tools that we use in the program and you know, tony, to go back to what you were talking about, as far as the communication, that is such a core, foundational belief that we believe is one of the key things to help break generational poverty is to be able to communicate.

Speaker 4:

And I will tell you that I've talked to parents and grandparents and they're just, they're afraid to talk to their kids or their grandkids about money because they don't feel competent, they don't want to teach them if they don't feel like they know they know. So part of the tools that we do is we have communication sheets, we call them cheat sheets, and for the parents and the grandparents, for the children in particular, we have what we call commander coach's notes and it's basically a little script that says okay, here's the video, lay it to here, stop it, ask a question, here's some potential answers, and start the dialogue, and you would be amazed at how much more comfortable and engaged the parents and grandparents feel and how much the children love it because they're getting quality time with people that they love it's a win-win-win.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a great resource. You know, and I take the approach as part of my Get Ready program, you know, with how to run a family financial meeting, and so you know this is very complimentary stuff that you can do. I think one of the other things that really appeals to me about the program that you're running is that it's fun. So why is it important for financial learning to be fun?

Speaker 4:

Oh man, that is well. We could talk about that all day, but I think we've really talked about it in you know quite extensively so far. It's just that money causes people stress. You know it doesn't cause too much stress if you have enough, but if you don't have enough, it causes you a lot of stress. You know it doesn't cause too much stress if you have enough, but if you don't have enough, it causes you a lot of stress.

Speaker 4:

And, as Larry so aptly said, money stress leads to stress in other parts of your life. And part of what we believe is that they don't feel like they can handle it, they don't know what to do, but it's simply a tool. So we show them that through games and through fun learning and yes, there might be puppets that show up in the adult program, you just never know Because we want to take the stigma and the fear out of it. And by making it fun and making it interactive, you'd be amazed at what they learn. And again, that's why we call it family fun money games, because we want everyone to realize that they can be a smart money commander and that they can make their financial dreams a reality.

Speaker 2:

I love that you know that making it fun and interactive takes the stress and stigma out of it. Active takes the stress and stigma out of it. You know make it light is you know, I think when people think about money is you know it gets pretty heavy pretty quickly and people don't want to deal with things that are heavy.

Speaker 4:

No, but but when you realize that just by taking those small steps, as opposed to looking at this big, what do you think is this big problem? Well, okay, so let's take this and say how do we, how do we chip away at it a bite or two at a time, and which bites help? Help you most? First, and it really does. Once they start to see that progress being made, they get more excited, they get more engaged. Then the games really start to take off with them, and that's really what matters. It's the long-term success that we're looking for for them.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, Awesome. So you know, let's get ready. Let's switch into the get ready questions. The first one is what basic money concept do you wish people knew?

Speaker 4:

Oh boy, oh, that's a tough one. I would say. I don want to say all of them, because they, but I personally think that they're all important, but I would say for me there's two that I would say that are really basic, but they're important, and Larry's talked about it several times. And the first one is budgeting, and that is not a bad. You know what they call bad six letter word. Budgeting is a good one.

Speaker 4:

And the time value of money oh, I cannot emphasize this enough. And then people would look at that and go, well, hey, deb, that seems more transactional instead of money mindset, but it really isn't, because you really do develop a mindset of seeing that your budget is your friend. Your budget is a tool. Your budget is really just a numerical map of what your goals and dreams are. And the other thing is that when you can actually start earlier and, believe me, today is always the best day to start, even if you're 20 years behind today's the best day to start and it will help you, because it's going to help you harness the planning and use every day going forward, the time value of money to help you reach your goals.

Speaker 4:

So that's, why time value of money and budgeting are big for me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm going to. So she talked about budgeting and time for money. Those are really critical and I agree with that 100 percent. There's so many first steps, so where do you start? I actually like to start back at the, the mind, their brain setting up. You know where do you want to go, what do you want to do? What are you dreaming about? What are your goals? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What are you dreaming about? What are your goals?

Speaker 3:

And the people that we've worked with that are in crisis. Those are gone right. When we were little, we used to dream I want to be a pilot, I want to be this, I want to do that. As you get into life and crises happen, a lot of that goal setting goes away. And I think my coaching career at the high school level and stuff like that. You know I took some pretty bad teams. They were not very good when I picked them up and the first thing we started with is what do you guys want to do with this season? You know where are we going to go with this? How hard, what do you want to get to? Then we could back into how hard do we have to work, how many practices do we have to have? And then, when they got lost and started to lose direction, we'd just go back to that goal sheet and say, remember, our goal was to win the title for our conference. Well, we said that we had to do this right. Because you'd say, well, we're going to do two-day practices today.

Speaker 3:

Oh I don't feel like it. But then when they go back and look at that goal sheet, right, it's like, oh, that's right, I committed that I was going to do there. So I think direction and not how to do this, how to do that. But where do you want to go? Do you want to pay for your kids to go to college? Do you just want to be where you own a house? But then they start. And if you start that little bit of peace, you'll find out that you dream bigger and bigger. I still set goals and review those on an ongoing basis to keep my focus on what's important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's so important, because what's not part of this conversation is the specific tools to get there. Now, the specific tools to get there are super important, but really that's what the questions people have is like am I going to have enough money to retire? Am I going to be able to buy a new house? Those are the questions that we all want to answer. So, as you talk about Larry, it's good to stay focused on that big goal. So you remember why you're doing certain things, because then you can answer a question like with investments will Bitcoin help me buy a new home? Maybe, maybe not. You know we can. That's a whole other discussion.

Speaker 2:

I like picking on Bitcoin for people who watch and listen to the podcast, but it is the question to ask you know, is this the right tool, instead of starting out with a tool going hey, you know my neighbor's buying Bitcoin. I need to buy Bitcoin. Wait a minute. You know, let's back up. Let's focus on the goal, as you point out, because you know like if your goal was to win the conference championship, then going out and learning how to play chess for your football team is really not going to help you know, you're exactly right they know how to play chess, but well, tony, what you said is brilliant because I'll tell you, um, I do that in my tax practice, right?

Speaker 4:

um, I mean, I'm still practicing cpa, and one of the things that happens is anybody that comes. Tony, what you said is brilliant because I'll tell you, I do that in my tax practice, right, I mean, I'm still a practicing CPA, and one of the things that happens is anybody that comes into the tax family. We go through what I call an onboarding triage and that is where they answer questions, not just about their tax history and payments and all of that stuff, but what are their goals and dreams? I actually incorporate that into their tax portfolio because when they come to me in year three and say, hey, deb, I've got this question and I want to do X, y or Z, I pull their goals back up and I said, okay, so let's look at this.

Speaker 4:

How does that play into your goals? How will this work and are your goals still the same? So it kind of helps them understand that decisions of all kinds will impact what their goals are. So it helps kind of keep them on focus. So I love the fact that we're all talking about goals and appropriate goals. And will this be chess. Are you learning how to play chess when you're out there trying to figure out how to be on the football field?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. So what is one simple thing that people can do each year to set themselves up for financial success?

Speaker 4:

Well, well, I guess we've talked about budgets, so I'm going to just say for us, I mean, it's this has been in my family for 30 years but making a commitment to review your budget, review your goals and see what's working, see what's not working, because life changes. Your job could change, you may move, you may have another baby be born all these things happen, so life changes. So coming back to review your budget and review your goals, I think is a simple way for you to be able to look at this and say that is a tool you can use every year to say is my plan working? Do I need to adapt and continue on? And then re, you know, refresh your goals and just say, okay, now we're ready for the next year and keep going. That's one of the things I like, because, again, what I would say is that budgets are stars to steer by, not sticks to beat yourself up with, and so keep looking at the stars.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, hey, Deb. Debbie, I wanted to back up on something that we didn't define. Can you give us a quick definition for time value of money?

Speaker 4:

Well, it really is just as it says. Right, the time value of money has to do with how long you allow something to sit right. I mean because money, if you think about in reality, money kind of loses absolute value over time. So if you have a hundred dollars today, right, it was worth probably 103 dollars 10 or 15 years ago.

Speaker 4:

And what you want to understand from the time value of money, as we look at it, is that like if you're saving for something, it starts out here and it goes like this and like this, and pretty soon what happens is interest keeps adding on and interest keeps adding on. And as interest keeps adding on, pretty soon that interest gets enough to where your trajectory looks like this and then it starts to do this number and it's like a rocket taking off. Your trajectory looks like this, and then it starts to do this number and it's like a rocket taking off. And so the longer of time spans that you have for that to happen, the less you have to put in because you allow time to help build your wealth. We talk about that in retirement all the time. Somebody that starts retiring at age eight, their retirement program at age 18, is going to have to put less of their own real dollars in to get to the same result as somebody that doesn't start until they're 50. That 30-year time value is huge.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome and this is something pretty much every guest talks about. Is that time value money works because of compounding interest?

Speaker 1:

It does.

Speaker 4:

It's all about youring interest, your interests, go to work. Yeah, exactly, that's exactly what it is.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so thanks for defining that. Mine was a little more of an example driven basis. No, but I think that's helpful for people to hear the concept in a different way that resonates with them. So you know that's awesome. So next question is what is one habit that people can?

Speaker 4:

change when it comes to their money. One habit that people can change when it comes to their money I would recommend this is now. This is a little bit of an interesting habit. I talked to Larry about this and he kind of looked at me. But one habit that we developed at the Todd ranch and this was 30 years ago was we call it the sleep on it method, and that means that it's about impulse buying.

Speaker 4:

I was at work one day and my husband showed up at the CPA firm that I was working at and all of a sudden people were looking out at where the truck was. And I'm going, why is the truck parked out there? Well, I go out to Big Double Doors and I look and there's our truck. And the truck didn't stop. There was this really fancy, low-slung, big-engined boat on the back of it. We didn't own a boat, but apparently we did so, and so we came up with this kind of this method that says if a purchase is going to be over a certain amount of money, we have to wait 24 hours. If the purchase is more money, it gets two nights of sleep, 48 hours. If it's a really, really big purchase, it could take a week, and what that does is it makes it, it resolves that impulse or that pressure buying, and I can't tell you how many times that method has saved both our budget and our bank account. And my husband didn't have to sleep on the couch.

Speaker 2:

Larry, what do you think?

Speaker 3:

um, mine's a little different. Uh, I would say at a high level, is maximize free money. And what I mean by that is I've talked to several people that their corporations offer 401ks but they don't feel like they make enough money to put into the 401k, even though the company matches. Well, if somebody's going to match you some money, then that's free money. If it's 3%, 6%, whatever it is put in, enough that you get that free money Now you percent, six percent, whatever it is put in, enough that you get that free money now, you may have to save it a little longer. So, of all the different rules out there, but maximize free money.

Speaker 3:

Another thing on free money uh, I've got a good friend that does some of this is um ice cream cones. Uh, we talk about how expensive things are today, right, not a lot of people know that on uh first day of spring, every year, dairy queen gives away free ice cream cones as their thing to uh get the season started, right. There's a lot of those little programs that are out there that are free money. Um, if you're a veteran since I am, you know applebee there's a lot of those little programs that are out there that are free money. If you're a veteran since I am you know Applebee's. There's a ton of restaurants that I can get a free meal on Veterans Day and Labor Day and Memorial Day, so why not? You know, you look at your budget and say, well, I really can't afford to eat out five times, but I do like eating out, so go eat out when it's less expensive. So maximize free money.

Speaker 3:

If you're going to purchase uh, we do a podcast on our site. Uh, we did one around president's day, right, what goes on sale at president's day? Mattresses and cars. So if you're going to buy mattress and car, can you get to that point of the year where everybody starts slashing and then? So just think of ways to maximize free money.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome advice and you know, of course, we know that there's an obvious connection between presidents and mattresses and cars, so it does make sense.

Speaker 2:

That is a whole other discussion, but that is the point I I think is really valid is that things do go on sale sometimes, you know, or you can take advantage of two-for-one offers. Um, like, my wife likes going to kohl's but she knows that if she waits long enough she's going to get a 30 off coupon when she's. You know, when it's waits long enough, she's going to get a 30% off coupon when she's. You know, when it's been long enough that she hasn't gone shopping so she does not shop at Kohl's until she gets her 30% off coupon. So that is wonderful advice. It's really easy, you know, and keep a journal. If you know, that will help you. You know to, like you said, it's like you know, do research. When do cars normally go on sale? I mean, with the Internet, like we were talking about earlier, all that information is available and it will say hey, cars go on sale July 4th and Memorial Day and you know whatever. So Toyota-thon.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, great, great tip, tony, and I'll tell you we actually have one of the shows for our Smart Money Commanders programs. It's called being a Savvy Shopper. So we start to teach them those really just small, tiny concepts. But it can save you. As you said, it could save your wife 30%. If you could save 30% or even 10% on, say, 10% of your purchases a year, how much money would you save? And if you took that money and put it into your retirement?

Speaker 2:

you could get it to work twice. Exactly, exactly, gosh, we could do a whole episode on this, because I, I think this concept is so valuable, and that's what I talked, you know, about is you don't necessarily need to increase your income, you just need to be a little bit more, uh, strategic with your spending, because what you're talking about, deb, debbie, is you're not giving up anything, you're just timing it differently. And you know, larry, that's, you know, it's wonderful advice, you know what you're suggesting and it's something everybody can do. Um, you know, so it takes a little patience. That's that's probably the biggest key is, it takes a little patience, which which gets back to your role, debbie is you know you don't have to buy it necessarily today. Maybe buy it next week, right?

Speaker 4:

That's what we talk about, the want monster, because there's a little want monster in all of us and if we can tame that and kind of think about the impulse buying, we can do amazing things, amazingly more with the same amount of money.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, think about our two-year-old. You know, I know, when my son was young and we take him into Target, it was just like everything you know. Walking to the store, it was like I want this, I want this, oh, I need this. I really need this new Lego set. To go with the 3,000 other Legos that he's got at home already. Exactly, Exactly. So you know we talk about money, myths a lot.

Speaker 4:

What money myth are you both trying to break? Well, I would say, for me, one of the things that I want people to understand and it's why people, I think, are sometimes afraid to even start learning or asking about how to get better at their money is that they think it's going to cost a lot of time and a lot of money for them to be in charge of their money, or that you have to do it all on your own, and that's a huge myth. So people are afraid and they don't want to do it, and so that's a myth that we're trying to break. So we show them and that's what our hearts are. Our hearts are to help families in a caring, fun, simple, building blocks way, where we guide them so they're not alone.

Speaker 4:

And I think hopefully people by now have known see a little bit about Larry and I. What our hearts and our passions are for is that we want to show people that they can do the things that they want to do. And I will tell you there was a time in my life when, as I was going back to college, when I had the opportunity at 30, with three, you know, when I had small children of my own I had somebody that believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that's what I think people don't realize is that you can actually learn and grow over time, and so we're sharing that same hope with people. So it's a myth that it doesn't cost a lot of time. It doesn't cost a lot of money. It's just a journey. You don't have to do it alone. It can be fun and you can succeed.

Speaker 2:

And I'm going.

Speaker 3:

I would like to add what I think it is, and that is that money buys happiness, right All of a sudden. That, to me, is a myth. You've got all this money right, everything's good. Now I'm not sure that's true. I watch that, you know. Go to watch the movie in the park for free and they're living on their budget and stuff and and they're really happy over people I see in the news like the bidens that are under law things going on. They got all his money.

Speaker 3:

There's all kinds of people out there with money that I don't think that's the happiness. The happiness is am I doing what I want to do? Am I raising my family the way I want to Do? I have life-work balance right. Am I so worried about money that I'm using coupons all day Saturday to get some groceries? Or have I figured out a way that I can make that time management thing go so that money is going to solve all your problems? That is a myth, right? The happiness comes from your relationships, your work in the community and stuff like that. So that's the biggest myth that I that I think through.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome. So you know, to wrap up up, what are your number one tips on changing the way we think about money you want me to start this one, deb?

Speaker 3:

all right, so, um, mine goes right along with what deb talked about a few minutes ago about delayed gratification. Right, if you think about it, delayed gratification in today's world is four, four letter words. If you divide it up, you get four, evenly four letter words. But the generations today are seem to be I want it now. So that delayed gratification thing and so major things fit in your budget. So number one tip for me is changing is that you can still buy that car that you want.

Speaker 3:

But I gave the example of one of the people in my family that you know. You can't necessarily go out and buy the brand new Jeep at $67,000, $70,000. You can if you go to the auto place and tell them that you can afford a payment of $200. Now they'll extend it out 15 years, but then you're in trouble. Right, that's not good wise use. So if you look at it from the perspective of what can I really do and afford and help my family? So the number one tip that I would have is that major but major purchases still work and you can still have some of those things. You don't have to everything up, but you just need to be smart about how you go about getting it.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome advice. Think it through a little bit. It is Be smart and strategic about our purchases. Debbie, how about you?

Speaker 4:

Well, I would say, probably the number one tip I would encourage people, whether they're in crisis or anywhere in their walking life, is just to remember that money is a tool. It really is just a tool and it's up to you, it's up to each one of us individually how we are going to use the tools of money. You are in charge of your earning, your saving, your spending, how much debt you incur, what credits you hold, and planning. All of that is based on your goals and dreams. It's personal to you and money is that tool that you can harness to make those goals and dreams happen. Use it as a tool. It really is just a tool. It doesn't hurt you. You can be in charge of it. Be a smart money commander.

Speaker 2:

Well, that is an awesome way to wrap up the show, I mean, because that is a drop the mic moment. Right there, you are in charge of your money. I think people so often forget about that, is it? As we've been talking about this through the whole show. There's so many places where you can make a choice and have a really positive impact on your money and, as you both talk about, it's not necessarily going to cost you anything, right? It just rearranges things around sometimes and maybe takes a little patience.

Speaker 4:

So you know we're oh sorry, no, it's fine. I said I totally agree, tony, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's wonderful Appreciate both of you sharing these insights. So where can people learn more about each of you and the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation?

Speaker 3:

foundation. So we have a website, tony, and it's dollars and good sense dot org. Uh, dollars is pretty easy, right, uh, and is pretty easy. Good is easy. The sense is a little different. We're using as common sense instead of c-e-n-t-s, it's s-e-n-s-e. So and good cents all one word dot org. We'll get them to our website. On the website, they have the ability to fill out a form if they want to ask us questions. We have our bios are up there, we have our programs up there, so there's a lot up there. We also have a Facebook page as a dollars and good cents foundation on Facebook and LinkedIn and we also have emails, so info at dollarsandgoodsenseorg will also get things to us. So we're leveraging that digital platform to allow people to get to us and we'll respond pretty quickly to any questions that come in about what we're doing, how we're doing it, things like that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and especially if it's people that are community leaders, tony. That's a great way for them to get a hold of us, because we do a lot of community work with civic groups or financial services professionals, banks, kiwanis all of those types of groups reach out to us and ask because, again, it's community driven. So there's a ton of people in the communities that say, hey, we want to help make this better Because, again, healthy families lead to healthy communities, lead to a healthy country. So it starts at the family and there's a lot of folks that want to help and we're there to provide resources and provide the curriculum to help them make that happen.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's awesome. And so for everybody watching and listening, as always, links to the Dollars and Good Sense Foundation website and social media pages will be in the show notes, so you know you don't have to go back and rewind to get the spelling two or three times. It'll all be in the show notes. So, Larry and Debbie, thanks for joining us today on the Get Ready Money podcast.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for the invite, Tony, and the time. It's been really great talking to you about some of these money issues.

Speaker 4:

I agree, tony. Thank you for inviting us and just love your passion to help families get smart and just change the way they think about money, because it really does make a huge difference. So thank you for what you're doing.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, and I appreciate what you're doing and I hope for everybody watching and listening. Today you were able to pick up a nugget and definitely, if you want to learn more, reach out to Larry and Debbie. They have some wonderful stuff up on the website and for everybody tuning in today. Thanks, as always, for tuning in to the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today, please share this episode with a friend and be sure to subscribe to the Get Ready Money podcast. You next time.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Tony Steuer

Host