Finding your money purpose with Money Made Easy author Allison Baggerly Encore

 

Episode Description: Inspired Budget’s Allison Baggerly shares her financial wellness strategies to manage anxiety, stay motivated to reach money goals and get comfortable when your goals are not the same as your friends and family.


Allison’s Bio:

Allison Baggerly is an author, podcaster, money coach, and founder of Inspired Budget. As a former teacher, Allison blends her talents for teaching with her passion for personal finances to help others learn how to start budgeting and build a life they love.

Allison and her husband paid off over $111,000 of debt on 2 teacher salaries while growing their family. During the process, she learned how to take back control of her money, stay consistent with paying off debt, and stop emotional spending once and for all.

Allison has been featured in notable media outlets such as Forbes, Business Insider, and Parents as a budget expert who gives women a step-by-step process to break free from the grueling paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Her book, Money Made Easy, offers a variety of solutions to help you write a budget that works, pay off debt, and have a better relationship with money.

 
 

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Full Transcript:

Bobbi Rebell:

The other day I was watching the news trying to relax, and there was a story that came on about using confetti, yes, confetti, to de-stress. I have to admit, it was pretty appealing. By the way, it's called The Confetti Project if you want to look up what the story was actually about. But guess what is the top thing that we stress about and why we apparently need all this confetti? Well, given that you are listening to this podcast, you guys know the answer. It is money. According to the American Psychological Association, money continues to be the top source of stress for Americans, and that's where Financial Wellness Strategies comes in.

Financial Wellness Strategies provides educational resources for companies' employees so that they can find the balance between financial wealth and mental health. Financial literacy is absolutely important, but we also need to go beyond academics and learn how all of this actually fits into our real lives and what we want to accomplish with our hard-earned money. Learn more about how you and your company can invest in peace of mind at financialwellnessstrategies.com. That's financialwellnessstrategies.com.

Welcome to the Wellness for Financial Grownups podcast. my friends. I’m your host Bobbi Rebell- Certified financial planner and author of Launching Financial Grownups. I also just this year started Financial Wellness Strategies as you probably have heard. Go to the website- its just the company name- financial wellness strategies and check it out and be in touch if we can be helpful to you and your company. I’ve been doing workshops on things like how to have really constructive multigenerational conversations about money- and financial wellness for women which are both very important to me and should be really to everyone. We do in person- we do virtual- so be in touch. I’m booking for the fall and would love to share what I’ve learned over the years. 

This being the end of august- I’m taking some time off but I am also doing some rewinding- for example I am re-reading Don’t Split the Difference by Chris Voss. I also by the way watched his masterclass which is excellent. 

So in that spirit, I’m sharing a podcast episode that is absolutely worth listening to as a refresh- or a first time for those of you that are new. 


Before we get to our guest- a quote to get us thinking. This one is from Jason Vitug- author of Happy Money Happy Life 

“I learned some time ago that I simply didn’t want to take vacations from my life. I wanted to figure out how to create a life I didn’t need to vacation from”

Love that. DM me friends and let me know what you think about that. My insta btw is bobbirebell1. Ok let’s get to Allison Baggerly- our fantastic guest. She has been here before. But I asked her back to talk about her new book Money Made Easy. The title alone makes you feel better right?

Let’s get to it. Here is Allison Baggerly. You are a financial grown-up again

Allison Baggerly:

Thank you, Bobbi. I'm so happy to be here.

Bobbi Rebell:

I'm happy to have you back to celebrate the launch of your book, Money Made Easy, best title ever, following up on your successful multimedia platform Inspired Budget. You actually, by the way, have two podcasts we should mention as well.

Allison Baggerly:

Yes, I do. I feel like I'm doing it all, but it was not all at once. But yes, my new book is coming out April 4th, and then I have a podcast, Inspire Budget Podcast, and then I get to do a really fun podcast with my friend Chris called, This Is Awkward Podcast. It's fun.

Bobbi Rebell:

Chris Browning, also a favorite guest here. Yes, okay, wait, so we have to talk about this new book, Money Made Easy. Like I said, best title ever. One of my favorite parts of the book is you start off talking about your family. I'm not going to say too much about it because I want to leave the surprise for the book, but a lot of important things happened that started your journey to focusing on budgeting and controlling and hopefully getting rid of your debt. You talk a lot about the importance of finding your catalyst. Tell us about that.

Allison Baggerly:

Oh my goodness! I think that so often we walk through life and we're just doing things that we are supposed to do and we're not always thinking fully about it, because life is stressful and it's overwhelming and it's exhausting. However, sometimes we have to make big choices in our life, especially when it comes to our money, whether it is to start investing and prioritize investing or pay off debt, which is what I was doing. Sometimes we need a reason because we just lose motivation without a catalyst. In the book, I really lay out my own catalyst for change. And in a surprising twist, it wasn't me at all. It wasn't even my husband.

When we decided to really take control of our money and learn how to budget, pay off debt and start investing, it wasn't even about us to begin with. But during the process, I came to learn that I am enough. I am reason enough to change my financial situation, but it didn't start out like that. I feel like a lot of people, it doesn't start out like that for them. They hit this rock bottom moment. The first part of the book is really focusing on finding a reason to make a financial change that might be uncomfortable for a period of time, but not forever.

Bobbi Rebell:

How do you find that?

Allison Baggerly:

Oh my goodness!

Bobbi Rebell:

I know for you it was largely your kids. Now I just spoiled part of it.

Allison Baggerly:

That's okay.

Bobbi Rebell:

What if someone is not in a circumstance, but they feel lost and they're looking for that north star?

Allison Baggerly:

It doesn't always have to be held in our rock bottom moments. I think it's very easy to say there's going to be something happens in your life. For instance, I got pregnant. That was our catalyst, and we couldn't afford daycare. That was a big moment in my life, this massive shift. This very much the clouds parted, everything shown down, the light bulb went off. But that's not the same for everyone, and it's okay that that's not the same. I think that your catalyst can be just the small annoyances in your life, annoyances like, oh my gosh, let me think about this. I'm getting paid on Friday, but my car payment is due on Thursday.

Do I have enough money? Or just wanting to be able to take trips that maybe you can't afford, or you're tired of that interest rate on your credit card debt, or you're frustrated thinking about the fact that, okay, I'm 35 years old and I haven't quite safe for retirement. And oh yeah, my parents might need support along the way because they haven't really saved for retirement either. Just that awareness really can be a catalyst. It all comes back to awareness and being intentional. I think so often it's hard to do that. We live very busy lives, very busy schedules.

What I recommend doing is just taking time to sit down and maybe even journal out just, what are you wanting to change with your money and why? Just being able to almost go through that process can reveal to you a catalyst for change that is something that is strong enough for you to stick with whenever you might be distracted when it comes to your money.

Bobbi Rebell:

On point, when we talk about wellness for financial grownups. And in fact, my favorite chapter, to no one's surprise probably, is chapter five, in case you have the book in front of you, pay off debt while enjoying life. This is really hard because sometimes we do get motivated to do these things that we know are good for us financially, but we do it to the elimination of just living our lives. You and I talked before we started recording about these vacations and the mixed feelings that we have when we splurge on what we feel is discretionary, but maybe it's not. But how do you balance that?

I mean, do you just go all in? A lot of people feel that you go all in and just spend all their money paying down their debt or saving up for a goal, but then life is going by, and especially for parents, your kids are getting older. You don't want them to "outgrow" Disney World before you can afford it.

Allison Baggerly:

Yes, and this is such an important thing to talk about, and I don't think enough people talk about it, Bobbi. I really don't. I think that there are so many people out there, so many financial books that tell you, do this, do this, and do that and live without any spending for a period of time. It's okay, just sacrifice everything and it'll be worth it. But I tried that, I did, and it sucked. I ended up going completely opposite and spending money just as a way to feel like I had some control. During our debt-free process, I had to find a way to balance what I wanted for my money goal, which was to pay off debt, but also what I wanted for my daily life, which was to be able to spend money on things that were important to me.

But I think here's the key is that we sometimes don't know what is important to us and what we want to spend money on. We are pulled in so many directions and we see what everyone else is spending money on, and we think that everything is of the same priority level, but it's not. In this chapter, what I talk about is creating a payoff debt process, but also prioritizing those other expenses so you can still spend money on what you want and reach your goal at the same time. Because like you said, I want to be able to have those experiences with my kids. That is a priority for me, but other things aren't. I can cut out something so that I can still reach my money goals and have those experiences.

Bobbi Rebell:

What would be an example?

Allison Baggerly:

Oh my goodness! An example, here's an example in my life. My example. Now, we don't have any debt other than our mortgage, but let's say that we did. Let's say that I had to go buy a new car. I get in a car wreck, and I have to go buy a new car. I don't have the money to pay for it in cash, and so I decide to go finance a car. My thought process would be, okay, I don't care as much about the car I drive as much as I do about the experiences I have with my children or the travel. Now, other people might be different. Other people might really care about the car. And I'm not saying that's wrong.

You have to figure out what you care about. But for my example, I would rather finance a used car if I had to that was not fancy. I've always thought I wanted to drive a Range Rover. But when it comes down to it, I don't really want that, as much as I want to be able to take at least one family vacation every year that I do spend 5,000 to $6,000 on. In my mind, I make the decision, I would rather spend less on that car and have that money earmarked for a family vacation. It's just making those choices in a head space that is what's important to you and your family, not what everyone else says is important.

Bobbi Rebell:

You talk in the book a lot about coping with financial anxiety. Do you have advice for people on that?

Allison Baggerly:

Oh my gosh! I mean, as someone who has financial anxiety and just general anxiety and depression...

Bobbi Rebell:

Don't we all?

Allison Baggerly:

I know, right? I feel like, I don't know, something happened between after the year 2008 where everyone was like, okay, we've all been through it. I would say with financial anxiety, a lot of times we let our anxiety overwhelm us when it comes to our money, and I do this a lot. I will let my feelings and anxiety take over my mind. What I have to do personally and what I recommend anyone do is to actually stop, acknowledge the thought, and then ask yourself if it's actually true. I learned this, this is not my own process, but I learned this through Byron Katie, her book, Loving What Is and the work. I've been able to adapt that to really dealing with financial anxiety.

For instance, if you're having a money anxiety thought of, oh my gosh, I'm going to get laid off. My company is scaling back. I'm going to get laid off. I'm going to lose my job, and I'm not going to be able to pay my mortgage and my house is going to get foreclosed on. That is very much a whole story and anxiety thought. Well, then you ask yourself, well, is it true? Do you know for sure you're going to get laid off? Well, no, I don't. I know that for sure. If it happens, do you know you won't be able to make your mortgage payment? Well, no, I have money in savings.

Being able to work through those thoughts and acknowledge that not every thought that comes into our mind is necessarily true, we can't tell the future, for me, it alleviates some of the anxiety, not all, but some of it to where I can not make impulsive decisions or be very reactive based on my fears or anxiety.

Bobbi Rebell:

You also talk about making progress visual.

Allison Baggerly:

Oh, yes. I love good visual progress. Here's the deal, working on paying off debt, it is a very abstract thing. There's these numbers floating around and sometimes... Actually not sometimes. There will come a time when you lose motivation and you want to give up, but that's why making your progress on your debt payoff progress or any money goal you have, you can really make it visual is so important because what I did when we were paying off debt is it was a long journey for us. It was four and a half years. It was not this quick four month process or eight month process. It was lengthy. It was long.

It was overwhelming, and it wasn't fun overall. Most of the time, it wasn't fun. There were moments when I was very motivated and I didn't need to be reminded why we were sacrificing for a season. But then there were moments when I was like, nope, not worth it. I feel like we've been doing this forever. It's never going to end. And that is when, when I hit those moments, I would go and I would color in on a little homemade debt-free thermometer I made, I would color in my progress. I saved it for those moments when I needed the motivation.

And being able to visually see, "Oh my gosh, we are making progress. Wow, this is actually working. It might not feel like it's working, but I can visually see that it's working," that gave me the motivation that I might have been lacking in the moment. I think keeping your progress visual is wonderful for motivation. It's also wonderful just for a benchmark especially if you're doing this alongside a partner or if you're with a family and the whole family is along for the ride, it's a really good visual for others to just gauge how you're doing financially.

Bobbi Rebell:

And that can work for any financial goal, not just for debt, which is one reason why I love that. You also love inspiring quotes. Before I let you go, send us off with an inspiring quote.

Allison Baggerly:

Oh my goodness! I think that it's okay for me, I would say I am willing to sacrifice for a season to live the rest of my life in abundance. Sacrifices don't have to be miserable. They don't have to be difficult. They can be very small sacrifices that add up to a life that is just completely filled with abundance.

Bobbi Rebell:

I love it. Thank you so much. Tell us more about where we can find you. I know the book is going to be everywhere, Money Made Easy, but tell us more about you and everywhere you are.

Allison Baggerly:

Of course. Of course, you can get the book at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, anywhere you want to buy books, Money Made Easy. If you like listening to podcasts, which I'm guessing you do because you're listening right now, then you can check out my podcast. I have the Inspired Budget Podcast, and I also host a podcast with my friend Chris called This Is Awkward, where we discuss people's awkward money situations. It's really fun. And then you can always find me online at inspiredbudget.com or on social media at @InspiredBudget.

Bobbi Rebell:

Thank you so much, Allison.

Allison Baggerly:

Thanks, Bobbi.

Bobbi Rebell:

We all want to live our best financial grownup lives. One way to do that is to note that the people that we care about are also in a good place when it comes to their money. That might mean our kids, our grandkids, and yes, even our friends. But how? I mean, it's kind of awkward. You see them struggling pretending to know more than they do or just making bad money decisions, but you don't know what to say. Even if you say something supportive, then what? That's why I wrote Launching Financial Grownups. In Launching Financial Grownups, I share the tools and strategies so you know what to say to take the pressure off and give those you love the confidence they need.

It's all about giving those we care about the right amount of help at the right time, so that they can not only learn what they need to know about being financial grownups, but also be confident that they can do it and that you'll be there to cheer them on. Pick up a copy of my book, Launching Financial Grownups. I promise you'll be so happy that you did. I love that. Allison ended our interview with such a meaningful quote talking about the idea of sacrificing just for a season to live in abundance for our lives. We face so many obstacles that cause us anxiety, they seem so ominous at the time, but Allison points out that they are often just a season of our lives.

Okay, time now for our extra credit segment. It's a goodie. Allison hosts a podcast with Chris Browning called This Is Awkward. That's actually not the extra credit assignment, although definitely check out This Is Awkward. It's a great podcast. Anyway, that made me think about what was one of the most awkward scenes that I have ever seen on a television show. It was the first scene of the first episode of the first season of the HBO show Girls. You can see it now on H b o Max. It was more than a decade ago. I actually feel like it's grown in relevance. Here's the summary in short, basically Lena Dunham's character, Hannah Horvath, is very focused on her purpose as a writer.

She's writing her memoir because I guess she just thinks that she's the voice of her generation. She references a job, but she's caught off guard and kind of offended frankly at dinner with her parents when they seemingly out of the blue tell her that they are cutting her off. Literally the mom says, "No more money," because she doesn't seem to be getting it. Then it comes out that this job she has is actually an internship with no paycheck, and it's been two years since college. The conversation gets more eye-opening from there, incredible entitlement and incredibly awkward conversations about money and the lack of communication between the generations and just a lack of awareness on both sides.

But I have a lot more thoughts on this and I want to hear yours. I'm going to be putting the clip of it. You can find it on your own, but get on my newsletter list because I'm going to put the clip in the newsletter and I'm going to also have some additional perspective. And then the great thing about Substack, which I just switched the newsletter too, is that you can go there and you can also leave your comments. You can go there and sign up for the newsletter at bobbirebell.substack.com. Super easy. We'll also leave a link in the show notes to sign up for the newsletter.

You can also, by the way, get it in the show notes at bobbirebell.com under the podcast tab, which, by the way, you also can get the free transcript of this entire podcast. I'm excited to hear though what you guys think about this iconic first scene. So many thoughts, as I said. All right, big thanks to Allison Baggerly, author of Money Made Easy, for helping us all be financial grownups. Wellness for Financial Grownups is a production of BRK Media. Editing and production by Steve Stewart, guest coordination, social media support and show notes by Alliee Borbon. Artwork by Chelsea Perez.

To get even more out of this podcast, make sure you are also on our newsletter list to get more free content to live your best financial grownup lives. There is a link in the show notes, but you can also sign up by going to bobbirebell.com or financialwellnessstrategies.com. And be a friend. Share the podcast with your friends and anyone you think might like it by taking a screenshot and sharing it on social media. Make sure to tag me on Instagram at @bobbirebell1.

While you're there, follow me. If you DM me that you listen to the podcast, I will follow you back. You can also leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Rating each one means the world to me. Please support our merch shop, grownupgear.com, by picking up fun gifts for your grownup friends and treating yourself as well. Finally, my grownup friends, don't forget to invest in peace of mind. Thanks, everyone.

 

 
Bobbi Rebell Kaufman