This Therapist Has $45k of Debt and is Nearly House Poor

I used to have this extra, you know, $1,200 for rent and bills and all this stuff and then now I don't. Three days after I closed, my bathroom flooded. I've got $2,500 just in those three housing expenses alone. And I know this is gonna mess everything up. This feels worth it to me. So explain this because this is, this is so much. This is like $1,700. When I didn't have an idea, I can ignore it. Lindsay is a therapist from Minneapolis making about $80,000 per year. She has $45,000 of debt and spends nearly half her income on a house she bought a year ago. Today, we're trying to answer one question. Is her house quietly ruining her finances? Because the reality is she bought a home with her partner with the intention of building a life together. But after the breakup, she was caught shouldering all of the housing costs on her own. Until I discovered she's actually getting financial support from another source. In this conversation, we're going to break down her spending, her debt and the true cost of her house. And together we'll build a plan to get her back on track. This is Millennial Budget Review. Tell me where you feel like you're having the biggest money struggle right now. I think it's like the adjustment of I had a budget and I was doing really well with it. And then my partner moved out. Like that was the biggest change. So that's like me figuring out, hey, you know, I used to have this extra, you know, $1,200 for rent and bills and all this stuff. And then now I don't. So I had it down and I was doing pretty good. And I was like paying off certain debts and stuff. And then it just kind of went to the wayside now that it's like a big change and trying to figure out how to like do it all. I know it's possible, but it's like, I don't know where to start. And I think I was really overwhelmed with just in general of how do I get back to that? Like, okay, I'm doing this. And yeah, basically the starting point after a big adjustment. Can I ask, are you guys still together or? No, no, I'm sorry. No, we're good. Like we're on really good terms. We were together for five years, but we just realized that mental health was not good for him. And now we have to like, he moved out. We're still friends. And like, we're actually doing pretty like I was just texting him earlier today and we're good, but we are no longer together. And that's good for both of us. Okay. So he was living with you. You guys were sharing like living expenses, the bills and whatnot. And then when he moved out and you guys ended the relationship, now it's all on you. And it sounds like that's where the pressure is coming from. Yep. Yeah, definitely. And I know it's possible to afford it. Like I can do it. I make enough money, but it's like navigating that. Okay, now what? I got to really kind of structure things differently and figure out like all of the, you know, house projects that need to happen and how to, you know, prioritize, you know, where the money is going. Yeah. When did you buy your house? I bought it in April of last year. So it's been about a year. So walk me through that. When like, what made you decide like this was this was the right time to buy? I was like coming upon the lease with like my lease ending in my apartment with my roommate who I love dearly and wish she would just move in with me. And that would be amazing. But she lives in the apartment building that she works for, which has been really good for her too. But I was like, you know, I'm ready to buy a house. Like it seems like the right next, like the next right move. I'm sick of having to deal with, you know, all the fun apartment stuff that we've always had to deal with of like loud neighbors, management, and just kind of feeling like my money isn't going to anything, even though now I'm like, oh, I really miss not having to pay for everything that needs to be fixed. So that was it was like timing wise, it felt good. I had discussed it with my parents and they helped me with the down payments and they really wanted me to buy a place and feel, you know, just like secure and in a good spot. I love my house. I have a little townhouse and I love my neighborhood. And it's like five minutes away from work, which makes my life so easy. And it has like a little yard for Annie, my dog. And it's, I love, I love where I'm at. So it's, I'm definitely paying for the location, but it's, it's perfect for us. And by us, I mean, Annie and I, my dog. Yeah. Yeah. And you're, you're based out of outside of Minneapolis, correct? Yep. Yep. Okay, cool. Cool. So I mean, what excited you, but it sounds like what excited you most about the house was like having something that you could own, having the stability. How has that been compared to your experience so far a year? I mean, I definitely feel like stable where I'm living. Like I know I can afford the things that we need to do. Like we've had some fun house issues that have popped up like three days after I closed my bathroom flooded into our garage. And like, it was a whole thing and yeah, it was expensive, but then the company we worked with was not such a great company. And I ended up, they ended up giving me money. So I only paid like a thousand dollars for like almost a full bathroom run out, which the emotional toll was a big part of it of working with a terrible company. But like, there's been just stuff that goes wrong. Like our heater went out and like during the winter, this winter, and like, there's, there's stuff that I feel like I can, I can handle all of the stress related to it. It's just that day to day, like, how do I get to the point where I have savings where something like that comes up? Like, it's not as like, oh my God, what am I going to do? Like, what's, what do we need to do to, to help this? And I don't know if that is exactly the answer or the, if that answers the question. Yeah. It kind of gives me a sense of like, you feel like you can manage it, but then there's also the unexpected that happens. And then it's financially being able to cover it, but also how am I emotionally responding to these things? Because that can be so hectic. It's not like when you were renting and you could just call up property management or the landlord and say, hey, my dryer broke or the, the toilet is leaking everywhere and come fix. Like now you've got to source the contractor and the funds and scheduling and be available for that. Yeah. At this point, Lindsey's giving me some conflicting responses. She experienced a huge financial change when her partner and her broke up and that $1,200 was just gone overnight. But she also told me that she feels stable and that she feels like she can afford the things she needs. Yet she experienced things like her heater going out and that her bathroom started flooding. And these are all really expensive housing costs. So those unexpected housing costs coupled with the lack of financial support she was receiving from her ex is making her question whether or not she actually has enough in savings. And in this next clip, we're about to expose her real numbers and get to the truth of what her reality is. I want to hop into your budget because I was looking into the numbers and was seeing some surprising things that were related to the house. So I'm going to share my screen and show you what this looks like. All right. So I plugged in the stuff that you sent over to me. And what I saw was the mortgage is $1967. You've got a 6.875% interest rate and then you owe about $240 on it. And then you've got some other debts here. So we've got the car, you've got a credit card with some balance on it. You've got a built credit card, the windows loan. This is a new thing. Can you explain what this $17,000 is? Yeah. So we have to replace the windows in my house because they are actively letting in the air from outside. Like in our basement, we have a sliding glass door that doesn't lock. And so, yeah. So we're getting those fixed because, one, safety purposes. Right now, I just have a pole that holds it locked. But I want to make my house energy efficient and not have to spend so much money on heating and cooling, especially in Minnesota. If it's letting heat out, that's not what we want. It's cold. Yeah. $17,000 to... It's a full replacement of every window in your home? I have two other windows that we're not replacing because they don't let in as much. There's not a draft with them. We have basically two... I'm getting eight windows replaced. So the whole side of my townhouse is all windows, which is really nice for natural light. And it's letting out. And these are the original windows of the house. So basically, 1979 it was built. 1979? Yep. Okay, okay. And these are the original windows? The original windows. They are cheap. And they're apparently commercial windows. The windows guy was like, I've never seen these on a house. So I'm like... It's very reassuring. Yeah, I was like, great. Was this something you had anticipated? Yes, yeah. When you were in the middle of purchasing? Yeah, we knew right away that would be something that would need to be replaced in the next few years. And we definitely felt it this winter when we had negative 20 days where we're like, oh, if we stand by the window, it's cold. So that's not giving me super, super great vibes. Yeah, and I'm sure that did some damage to your electricity bill. Yeah, we have very high electricity bills. Okay, okay. So you said you've applied for this loan, but you actually haven't started making payments on it yet. So they're actually coming in next week to replace the windows. So it'll start once the project's done. And any idea on the interest rate? Oh, I didn't look it up. I'm sorry. I wanna say, yeah, I have no idea, but it's like 15 years is all I know. It's a 15-year term to pay off the 17K. Yes, yes. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, I would definitely want to know that piece of it if we were mapping out a debt payoff plan for you as it relates to everything else. So we've got your car loan at 6%. You only owe 6K left on it. So I think that's just basically gonna take care of itself. You've got your Wells Fargo card at 15.65% interest, which honestly not bad compared to some of the other interest rates I've seen out there. You owe $5,700-ish on that. Then you've got your mortgage, the built credit card at 26% and there's $2,900 on it. And I know built was kind of used originally as a way for you to build rewards and points for paying your rent. Yep. What attracted you to using their card? Essentially that, I was like, I pay this every month, why am I not getting rewarded for it essentially? And they just changed it to now they'll do it with mortgage. But I didn't know that there were stipulations to it of you have to spend a certain amount to get the reward. It had closed when I moved into the house. I had had the built card for when I lived in my apartment and that was nice because it was giving me points and stuff and I could get gift cards and all of that. And then they just added in mortgage now. So they gave me a whole new card and all this stuff. So I was like, oh, okay, great. That sounds good. If you have to spend a certain amount to get points, I'm still figuring it out because this was the first month that or maybe last month was the first month. It was the last couple months, I would believe, where I was like, oh, it's up to this amount. And I'm like, am I getting points for it? So still a work in progress there to see if it's worth it. But as long as it just directly takes out of my account, which is nice. Okay. They don't have to be like, oh, okay, did I pay this? It's like, oh, built takes it out. And that's nice. So there's something for it. But yeah, some automation. So you don't have to think about, did I make the payment? Yes. It's automated, which is really nice. So the question is, is the rewards program actually benefiting you? Are you utilizing those points? And it sounds like not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we've got that going. We've got the Windows loan that's coming in. And then you had a personal loan. The minimum payment's quite high compared to everything else. It is the highest minimum payment you have at 460. How much do you owe on that? I want to say it's like 13,000. I had like consolidated all my credit card debt. So I used to have another card that I don't use anymore. It was like an Athleta card. And I just was, when I worked at Lululemon, which was my big issue is I kept like use, my discount was there. And I was like, hell yeah, let me use this. Let me use this discount. And that was really what I was using it for. Yep. So I don't work there anymore. They're a great company. But I realized that working two jobs and feeling really stressed out all the time about my time, it wasn't paying out enough. So I left that job in like last summer. So they're great. I love them. They're a good company. And I just don't need to work there anymore. But that's where I was spending a lot of my money. And I didn't, not that I spent $13,000 on Lululemon. Like there was other stuff that came up, but I was just not looking at it and like not, I was paying like the monthly minimum, but I was just adding onto it and not being intentional about it. And that's where things get messy when you have a debt balance on something and then you continue to use it as a way of like managing your day-to-day expenses, but you still have a balance. So you're trying to pay off what you just spent plus paying off past expenses. And that gets really messy. And that's where I would say, make sure all of the spending is being done on a debit card and definitely not on these two cards for sure. Like that's where I would absolutely be freezing and getting back to this mentality of, can I afford to pay in full right now? Like, yes, no. If yes, like we're proceeding and we're using our debit card. So if I was to take out the mortgage, you've got about 44, almost 45K of debt between the car, the credit cards, and then the loans. All right, so if I was to take out the mortgage, zero that out, you've got $1,100. Does that feel about right? $1,100 going towards your minimum monthly payments on the debt. Then as I was going through your transactions, I was seeing some kind of funky things here. So I went down to the daily expense tracker and I clocked everything for the past 30 days. I saw a ton of spending on what I thought was pets. So explain this, because this is so much. This is like $1,700. Okay, so if you're enjoying the interview so far, don't forget to like and subscribe. I've got more interviews lined up for you. Okay, so before we get into the $1,700 that she spent money on, let's break down where we're at right now. By now, all debts have been revealed. So not only does she have a mortgage that has a seven, close to a 7% interest rate, she also took out a $17,000 loan to replace her windows, something she knew was going to happen. Plus she has the credit card debt and a car loan and she had missed a poor spending habits in the past. But things are still messy and we're about to find out why she was totally okay spending $1,700 next. So I participated in a fundraising campaign. So what that was, was for a therapy dog organization. We were running in like fundraising to be pet of the year. And basically it's like raising money for therapy animal teams. So every time that I got cash donations or Venmo donations, I would move those to my account and then put that money towards the donation. So it would donate under my name because they didn't want us to send cash. They would just be like, whatever you get, put it in your account and make the donation that way. So I did not spend that much money. It seems like I did, but it was a wonderful cause. And I did spend money on marketing stuff for that. We did a bunch of events, yeah. So I ended up spending about $1,200 just like admin for this project essentially. And we ended up raising about $8,000, which is awesome. And the whole campaign raised over 50K more than like their initial goal, which was really awesome. So there was some, yeah, there's a lot of camaraderie and competition of like, let's do this together and do a cool thing to raise money for an organization that we care about. So I did not actually spend that much money on. Okay, that makes sense. This was through your company then? No, this was just a volunteer organization that we're a part of. Oh, okay, cool, cool. Okay, so were any of these, at least the ones that I highlighted, any of these transactions related to your dog? The animal hospital one, the foggy doggy one is also, it was a bandana, it was cute. Okay, so we've got just, not that one, 29 and then the 50. All right, so about 80 bucks was going towards your dog and then everything else was towards the fundraiser. Yep, yep. The thing that got kind of messy for me is because things with your expenses and where we're at with just payments going out right now is I actually saw on two separate lines in your checking account that you got to a point of overdraft and there was a negative balance. Now you were quick to move the money, so I didn't see any kind of fees associated with it, but it was like, oh, we are getting danger, we're in danger territory. Were you aware of that when this was happening? Yeah, so when I was like, oh, I need to move money over, it was like, oh, planned expense, okay. And the fundraiser just was like, oh, yep, I made this amount of money and this amount of cash. So it was like, oh, I would do a vent at the hospital to raise money and I would have this stack of cash and I was like, oh, I need to now put that money towards it and I felt very anxious about the idea of people giving me money and being like, I wanna make sure that people know that I'm not stealing their money. Not that anyone thought I was, but I was very like, I have this cash, I need to make sure that this goes into that account right now and that is paid right now. And I think every time, and this is an unusual circumstance for me of having this fundraiser now that it's done, it was very much like, oh, ----, okay, I'm doing this and I'm like, oh, I should have not done that right away and like gone to the ATM to turn in the money kind of thing first. Yeah, yeah, I think whenever we're handling fundraisers or doing any kind of what I would call like a business, this is a business transaction, even though it's like nonprofit, that we're able to separate out those transactions from our personal ones because it really screwed with your personal budget and because you didn't have kind of money set aside for that it was bleeding into some of your personal spending and just your day-to-day stuff. So something like, even just doing like the 30-day trial with FreshBooks, I switched over to them for my business expenses and it's just like, you just dump your transactions into it and it'll categorize things for you and then at least you have a running total and you know exactly like what was a donation, what was a business expense and then keep it really clean for tax time, I think could be helpful. Yeah. If you have a side hustle freelance or even participate in fundraising activities like Lindsay, you need a clear way to keep your business expenses separate from your personal and that's why today's sponsor is FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a software designed for small business success. It's for business owners and freelancers who want an easier way to get paid, manage finances and deliver work all in one place and what makes this truly easy is you can upload any receipts directly into the app and mark it as a business expense and categorize it. So you'll get a running total of all your expenses throughout the year and keep it clean so everything's ready to go at tax time. I also really like their estimates and proposal feature so you can list out any expenses ahead of time and get approval. Lindsay could use something like this to create an estimate for the next fundraiser. This way she sets clear expectations and financial boundaries upfront. Plus you can accept online payments directly through FreshBooks. There's no third party app. Everything is seamlessly integrated. FreshBooks is something that I personally use after my old software was just a nightmare to deal with. It makes expense tracking so much easier. FreshBooks is offering a free 30 day trial by heading to the link in the description below or scanning the QR code you see on screen. So thank you so much FreshBooks for your support of the channel. Okay, so we can basically, if I zeroed that out just to see what's going on, I still see out of a $5,400 monthly income a negative $1,400 balance for the month. And so the other big line items that I saw, let me just undo that, was you're a therapist. You, I'm sure, value your own mental health and just taking care of your body. So I saw that as a value and a priority to you, which I think is great. It just only snowballed and added to everything else that you've got going on. And then I saw this $1,600 and just, I categorized it as shopping, but I'm unclear, where do you do your grocery shopping? Target. Okay. Yeah. Everybody does their grocery shopping at Target and I'm wondering if this is a good idea. Yeah, I only do Target pickup now because if I go into Target, I will 100% spend more than I want to. So if I'm buying stuff from Target, 99% of the time it's groceries. Okay. And that's where truly I'm spending my money. And of course, with this fundraiser, there are stuff that I bought that aren't necessarily groceries or there's probably variation on random things that I'll buy that I'm like, oh, I need that for the house or something like that. I did accidentally buy a chair on that $210 one. I bought a chair on accident because I had put it in my cart. It's literally sitting in the box over there and on my list of things to return today. So we have something. Accidentally bought a chair. Yeah. But do you see the $200 like this is what you need to pay? Yes, I saw it, but I was moving fast and I was like, oh, I need to get this in now. And I think I had it in my cart because I was like, oh, it's on sale. It's like one of those crisscross chairs and I didn't move it from cart to save for later. And it was like, they were having some sale and I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. And then I accidentally bought it. Yeah, because sometimes I just am not paying. I was just moving too fast. Okay. Yeah. So it may be intentionality when you are doing your target orders, but everything else like these 99, are these like groceries? Yep. Okay. This is making more sense. So I'm going to hand this budget over to you. And when we're done here, then you can kind of clean it up and see which ones were truly groceries. You can flag that in here. Are you getting reimbursed for all of the marketing spend that you did for the fundraiser? No, no. Oh, no. That's just out of the goodness of your heart. Yes. Oh my. Okay. So I thought this was really unique. Most people emotionally spend on stuff, but Lindsay was actually giving away $1,200 of her personal money on a campaign and a fundraiser that she really, truly loves and connects with. But that same thing that she values, therapy animals contributed to overdrafting her account. I mean, at one point, her account balance for the day was negative $209. So technically this is emotional spending, but it's socially acceptable because she was spending on a good cause, but the result is still the same. It's still financial instability. And we're about to see how this type of spending coupled with high housing costs is causing quiet destruction. I love that you care about that so much. Again, like animals and therapy. It's all important. And there's so many things that I'm like, I probably shouldn't have spent as much as I did. And I know now in hindsight, it was like, yes, it was a six week competition and we knew about it. We decided to do it. I like had a team of friends. We decided to do it pretty. It was like my breakup, post breakup project to like sink all my energy into and like focus on. And like the intentionality of it is like I knew I had money and I had some money in savings that I was willing to move over from. I have an ally high yields account that I was like, I'm willing to like part with this money as like my contribution to this cause. So that was my thoughts. It's important. And I didn't have the money to like kind of back up all of the spending I do on a regular basis. I would agree with that. Yeah. I think it was the intent. So spot on. I think it connects with you and it's just with everything else that you have going on. Because if I scroll back up here, we've got mortgage. Let's factor in windows because that's a housing expense. Yeah. Your HOA is 379 a month. I've got $2,500 just in those three housing expenses alone, not leaving room for regular maintenance, like a furnace tune up or buying even just new wall art for your walls. And I've got close to half of your income going towards just these three things, which leaves less room for the things that you truly care about, which is things like raising money for therapy animals and taking care of like your own health and therapy. So it feels from my perspective that the money is just over committed to the house. I would agree with that. So I know when you first bought it, it felt very manageable because you had, you know, your partner living with you, you were sharing the expenses and now it's all on you. And also it sounds like you did some emotional spending. And it's interesting because when I think about emotional spending or spending to cope, most people are just blowing it on stuff. But you took a different angle. You're like, let me just push it all towards this amazing non-profit and raising money and just giving. But you gave so much that it just left very little room to cover your basics. And so that's where I feel like things kind of for this particular month where things were just not balanced. Yeah, exactly. All right. So let's break this down. Her mortgage is $1,967. Her HOA and the windows loan coupled together is $519, which means she's got $2,486 going towards those three housing expenses alone. Now, when we compare that to her take home, she's got close to 50% of her income going towards housing costs alone. We haven't even factored in regular maintenance or like I was saying, any kind of fun stuff that she wants to do, like buying new furniture or wall art. And that's getting dangerously close into that house poor territory. But here's the twist. This is what's so crazy about all of this is she loves her house. She absolutely loves it. She says she has no regrets buying it. She feels stable. And yet here it is, this house is quietly squeezing her financially, which can feel really suffocating. And I want to know in the comments, do you think Lindsay is house poor? And just when I thought she was actually going to admit and kind of come to the realization like, oh yeah, this is actually suffocating to me. She reveals that she's getting financial support from another source. The goal is in the future where my parents and I are working on getting our basement finished so I can get a roommate in the future. Oh, I love that. Yeah, so my parents are paying for that element because I was like, I can't afford it. And like, this is how it needs to be. Like my dad is more than willing. Like he, we had a conversation about like once my partner moved out, like I was like, it's going to be hard. Like I'm going to need some time to adjust. And like, this is, I need help essentially. And he was like, yeah, of course, like I'm more than willing to help you with your mortgage as you basically adjust. Wow. Yeah. So that's been great. So he really has been really helpful and I'm very lucky in that regard. So we're talking to a contractor right now about that work being done downstairs. We just have to build a wall and the windows and door are part of that process of like, if someone is going to live in my basement, it's like semi-finished, but it just needs a wall and a door and some electrical stuff. And basically any projects around the house, my parents are helping with making it so that someone would want to live here essentially. Is the financial support from your parents like a short-term thing? Did they say like, until you get a roommate or we're only going to be able to support you for a couple of months? Yeah, there's not like a timeline on it. Like they have done really well with their money and they had very high paying careers. So they're like, you know, you'll either get this now or when we're dead and I'd rather have you have it now. So it's a little bleak, but yeah, it's like, this is when I need it, need it kind of thing where they're like, okay, like we know where you're at. This is what's happening. And I'm like getting a roommate is the priority. So they're helping me with that process so that they won't have to help in the future in that same way. So the roommate, that won't happen until basement gets fixed. Yeah, essentially. So it should be a couple of months, but depending on timeline, we just are finalizing kind of all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. Who you're going to work with? Yeah. What the estimate's going to be? Yeah, we have an idea of the estimates and my parents are covering that. So 100% they're covering that? Yep, yep. Oh, wow. So I didn't include it on there because I won't be paying for that. So I'm very lucky. Yeah. Well, I think my recommendation for you is, and that was one of my recommendations, was how can we temporarily reduce housing costs to get you in a place where we can start building up the savings again? Because I think you have $1,100 in- Yeah, yeah. And this absolutely needs to be higher. I mean, even your mortgage alone is more than what you have in savings. And so we'd at least need 6,000, which would be three times your mortgage payment. And ideally, and you and I used to work together in private coaching, we said three years ago? Yeah, I think so. It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a while. And one thing that I've always talked about was having your starter emergency fund of two to three months of living expenses. And now that you are a homeowner, it's even more crucial that you have cash to take care of some of these unexpected housing costs that come up. And as you know, they will come up. They will, and they have. Yeah, three days into your home ownership, it was like flooded. Got to deal with this. So that would be kind of priority number one before you even start thinking about paying off mad amounts of debt. So for my health and therapy, I had some medical bills that I'm on like payment plans for. And they should be done in either like the next three months, I believe. So there's one that's like 111 and there's one that's 200. So those won't be necessarily continuing on with me as like a normal part of it. Yeah, so I meet my deductible every year pretty quickly because of all my medical stuff. But so I believe the $200 one will be done next month. And the 111, I think has like two months left on that. Okay, and then what about the $600 payment? Oh, that's not for, that's not health. That's our home. It's, what is it called? It's not insurance. It's like a warranty from our, we renewed our warranty from last year. Okay, so was that a one-time payment? Yes. Okay, so again, and that's an annual expense? Yeah, we figured we'd keep it. So we had it for a year and that did really help with appliances and stuff that broke. Our original, the original owners added it on. So they had the warranty for our appliances, like our microwave broke, or like any appliance in the house, like the heat was covered, like the, actually the heat wasn't covered, but that's a whole nother story. But so like all the appliances and they're like to the point where it's like, they could probably, they might go out in the next year. Like our washer and dryer might stop working in the next year and then we have that coverage for the next year. So I don't know necessarily if we'll do it again next year, but it's more of like a, I can sense that these things aren't going to last forever. And if we can, if we can kind of cover it, take care of that ahead of time, that's ideal because like the dishwasher barely works and like the fridge is super old. So it's like these, these things are like, this is going to save me money long term. Yeah, yeah, it's, it would be 50 bucks a month for you to kind of set aside in a sinking fund. If you wanted to continue covering the $600 annual expense. So we just discovered another housing related expense. So like even more of a priority to get some cashflow, either like you saying a roommate, great idea. My other idea was what can we do to increase your income and then reduce expenses? So my other recommendation was to do a spending audit on some of your like trouble areas. So I thought it was health and therapy, not so much anymore because you're, you've got two payment plans on that, but I think for sure it would be target. And just figuring out what is groceries, what is just stuff and then, and then making a plan of how can we babystep you down on that so that we can be putting more money towards the savings, which ultimately creates your housing safety net. And then having a plan to get your, and it sounds like you've already got this emotion of getting the basement figured out and fixed up so that you can get somebody in there to help take care of the mortgage payment and some of the utilities. Do you pay for a cell phone? I didn't see that. No, I don't. Okay. Parents cover that too? Yep. Okay. I think eventually they'll ask me to pay for it, but they know where I'm at right now, so. No worries. And then water, do you pay for water? Usually it's quarterly. So I want to say last time it was like $55, something like that. Okay. It's wrapped in with like our garbage and stuff like that. Okay. So it's like 16 bucks a month if I was to like bring it out on a monthly payment there. Okay. And then car insurance, do parents take care of that too? Yes. Okay. Wow. I mean, they really are covering a lot for you. Is that the norm or is it just because you're in this financial spot? My car insurance, it's like our Christmas gift every year is they pay for my car insurance for Christmas. That's like me and my brother get that from our parents and that's really nice. They've been doing that since we've been 16. So like, I mean, he's a bit older, but still like that's a wonderful Christmas gift. Okay. So I'm getting a sense on that now. All right. So this was one of the most surprising elements. Lindsay admitted that her parents are financially supporting her right now. They are paying for her mortgage, a basement renovation, and they pay for her cell phone and car insurance premium. And even with all of that financial aid, she still overdrafted her account and had a negative monthly cashflow because next Lindsay shares her biggest mental block with money. And then do you go out to eat? Not really. Yeah. My former partner was like very much we can eat at home. We don't need to spend the money he is in finance. And like, really, we just, I really, I go out maybe like once or twice a month to eat. And it's pretty rare. I'm also on like a gluten free diet, which is a little bit more expensive. So if we were to go to a restaurant, my stuff would be more expensive. So I really have gotten out of the habit of eating out. I used to eat out all the time. And I think when we worked together, I was constantly doing. But yeah, no, I really don't eat out very much. It's very much like eat at home and not spend in that way. So got it. Yeah. And then your subscriptions were $300 for the month, which I thought was quite high. It looked like some of these were. Yeah. The CapCut is for I just got that for the campaign. The FSA was a one time $70 payment. The Reader's Digest was my mom's Christmas gift. I get her subscription every year for Christmas. And this is when it comes up. So yeah. So there's a few that aren't like recurring subscriptions. And you're using Monarch. Yeah. For your budgeting. Yep. So I basically didn't look at Monarch this whole last six weeks. And that is where my problem. I'm aware. Okay. Yeah. I would definitely if the budgeting app is something that you normally stick with, this is an area where I would say, go back and clean up your expenses. Or if you end up going back to the budget template that I have here, I've got it filled out for you. It's just recategorizing some things. And then making plans for next month to say, okay, I need to take a look at my spending as it relates to shopping targets specifically. And then making sure like, we've got to put a pause on you putting money into fundraisers and nonprofits. Because you're just- Luckily, I have no plan to do that ever again. Great. And then really building up the cash savings right now to make sure that you've got enough to get your home back in order and cover those expenses before you go into the debt. Like, I don't even want to talk to you about a debt payoff plan because I feel like we're not there. We just need to focus on covering our basics. So spending audit and then building up the cash savings. And it does. I mean, if I'm looking at your income of $5,400 a month, we've got $4,800 in expenses so far. I've got $600 left over. I can still do some stuff. I did not account for anything here. So this is where I'm like, I need to figure out if you're truly overspending or if there's a way that we can still dial you down so that I can put- Because I don't have anything left over for savings right now. And that's where I started to get some red flags was we need to take a look at the subscriptions and some of these other bigger categories and see what we can reduce. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that sounds good to me. How are you feeling? Good. I mean, I knew this was all a thing and I was like, all right, because I had reached out to you when you were doing that class last like six weeks ago. And I was like, I am doing this fundraiser and I know this is going to mess everything up. I knew that going into it, but I was like, it is worth it for me right now. Like this feels worth it to me to focus on that. And now I'm like, all right, let's get back locked in and figuring it out. Are there any mental blocks that you feel like that's preventing you from taking next steps? I don't see any at the moment. I think the mental block, the biggest thing is like seeing the numbers laid out. Like really, I think when I didn't have an idea, I was like, it's not there. I can ignore it. But now I'm like, OK, I knew that this was a thing. I knew this is what I was like. I knew after this fundraiser was done, like I could be locked in again and be like, OK, I can do this because I figured it out before and I've done it before. So it's a matter of being like, OK, now we have this big change. Now, how do we how do we get back to that? Like, all right, we're rocking it out again. Circumstances have changed for you. The biggest change being you're in a house where it's all on you. And so you've got support with your family and you also have a plan on how you're going to help reduce those expenses, which is great. That's all great news for you. It's now being able to make the changes that are within your control, which are some of the spending things that we talked about so that you can build up your safety net again because I know you've done it before. And so I know you have to do it again. It's just getting you to be consistent, just like what you did with automating your mortgage payment. How can we automate the savings into Ally? Yeah, the rest of it. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I think that's going to be so helpful and supportive for you. And I think that's only going to add to like your own just health journey. Like money does have a ripple effect like that where once I get my finances right, I feel like I can breathe again. And removing that stress impacts your health so much. And I know you know that working in your career. So I'm so happy I got to talk to you today. Yeah, me too. Thank you. You're welcome. So I don't think Lindsay's reckless. I think she's overcommitted and overextended and she's still adjusting. So here's the fix in Lindsay's order of priority. The first thing is what I would consider the easy stuff that she can lay out. And that's a spending audit. And she needs to do that for subscriptions, Target and Amazon specifically. I want her writing out all of those transactions from those categories and retailers over the last 90 days. Then I want her to identify the spending that actually brings her joy and cut out the rest. And she's going to do that by putting a positive, negative or neutral symbol next to each transaction. Then she truly knows, okay, this is what I love to spend money on. And this is what I can remove from my life so that she can work on the next priority, which is building her starter emergency fund. Right now she has $1,100 saved, but as we saw her mortgage is close to $2,000. When I added up all of her basic living expenses, it's actually closer to about 3k per month. So ideally I'd love to see $6,000 set aside in a starter emergency fund. Then she can work on stabilizing her housing costs by adding in a roommate. And when those pieces are in place, only then can she tackle the debt. And to me, this really isn't so much a spending problem as it is a structural problem. And when she gets structured down, she builds better budget behavior. I'd love to feature your story next. You get free coaching and guidance from me without the name calling or Jerry Springer theatrics, fill out the casting call form below so we can put together a real financial plan for you. Thanks so much for watching and I'll catch you in the next episode.