Budget Breakdown: Episode 1 - Guest K.W.

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K.W.'s Budget

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00:00.84
Zach Whelchel
All right, welcome everybody to Budget Breakdown. This is the show where we get to know somebody through their numbers. We look at their budget, we look at their finances, and we get to know them by those numbers. So we're gonna start this show not by introducing our guest. We have a guest here. Guest, I'll let you go ahead and say hi, just so people can hear your voice.

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00:18.55
Kristin Wade
Hello. Yes, hi.

00:19.90
Zach Whelchel
Okay. But don't say too much because we don't want to give too much away. um Yeah. So before the show, our guests had a chance to submit their budget to us. So we allowed her to redact anything she wanted to redact in her budget. And I will say that you chose not to redact that much information.

00:39.91
Kristin Wade
Yeah, I'm putting it all out there for you guys.

00:42.78
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. So this is exciting. We've got kind of an open book for our first episode here. Um, so yeah, I will try very hard not to say your name, we refer to you as guests until you introduce it yourself, but we'll let you introduce yourself at the very end of the show and we'll kind of get to know you along the way through your numbers. So we'll go ahead and dive right in.

00:57.98
Kristin Wade
call.

00:59.57
Zach Whelchel
And the first question is, um, I've got your budget right here in front of me and it looks like you've categorized your budget in a pretty specific way. So do you want to talk about how you broke down those categories, why you put them in the way you did? or let's start with the category groups and then we'll dive into the actual categories themselves.

01:16.38
Kristin Wade
Yeah, so it's quite funny, actually, because I coach the same way I function, and it's just the way that fits in my brain. And how I tier my category groups is the highest consequence, if you will. So the very top are my credit cards, like, those gotta get paid.

01:34.29
Zach Whelchel
Sure.

01:34.42
Kristin Wade
Then I go down to the bills that are coming out of my checking account. Like I have to have the money in there. They can't be living in savings or hiding somewhere else. Moving into the credit card bills and what I mean by that are the transactions that will be put on a credit card to later than be paid off as a credit card bill. So a little bit ah more complicated there, but I don't necessarily have to structure that one as importantly as something that will draft from my checking account.

02:04.70
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. So that was the first thing I noticed is a lot of people will put like a, you know, a group for their bills, but I've never seen it split out by checking in credit card. And this is so that you can specifically know like whether you're going to run out of money in your checking account essentially. So you can know that you can forward those bills.

02:21.10
Kristin Wade
Exactly. It gives me an indicator like if I have enough for those checking bills and to pay my credit card bills, those top two category groups, who I don't have to you know pay myself for my business until that next bill comes. And so the credit card bills, you probably should rename that, it's really like a 30-day window I have to actually pay those things.

02:41.12
Zach Whelchel
Got it.

02:42.30
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

02:43.23
Zach Whelchel
Got it. So as far as like immediate cash flow concerns, like your top two groups are really all you kind of have to look at, right? Because below that is like credit card spending that will come due in the future. But for cash flow purposes, you just need to be able to cover from your checking those credit card payments and those checking bills.

03:00.12
Kristin Wade
Exactly. It really helps me to see, like, what do I need, bare bones, and then what can, you know, I believe in getting as many points as you can on our credit cards, so putting whatever I can on those.

03:08.99
Zach Whelchel
Sure. Sure. Cool. Yeah. And we'll talk about that too, because we'll dive into each of these cards. But yeah, anything else about the groups that you want to point out before we dive in line by line here?

03:20.28
Kristin Wade
Yeah. um And you know it's not that anything else is less important. I have a group for my rental property. It just helps me keep it separate as it is a separate account.

03:30.16
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

03:30.18
Kristin Wade
And then some variable stuff. So like all of this eventually comes out of my accounts, right? It's just when. And if there is a bill with a set due date and a set amount, I can plan for that. And I can put that in order and know, hey, I need to pay this bill before I start worrying about funding something that's going to happen later down the line.

03:43.07
Zach Whelchel
Sure.

03:51.58
Kristin Wade
It's a priorities thing. And this was huge when I started my business and my income was a little bit dicey. So being able to prioritize top to bottom is how I teach.

04:01.72
Zach Whelchel
OK, so it sounds like we already know that you run a business. So we're we're learning a little bit about you. But yeah, this is great. Keep keep going.

04:09.38
Kristin Wade
Yeah, yes, my variable expenses are things that happen pretty much every month, but they're going to be a different amounts. They're going to be different periods of time. Like if I'm traveling in a month, I may have less groceries. um So things that are flexible. um And then the last category group are goals that live in my savings account. But these are things that I don't want to forget. And let me preface this by saying like, I'm a little bit crazy. I have a lot of categories, maybe um too many for some people, but I don't want Christmas to sneak up on me.

04:38.29
Zach Whelchel
Sure.

04:43.37
Kristin Wade
And I don't want the tires in 2026 to sneak up on me.

04:49.69
Zach Whelchel
Wow, you actually plan for specific tires in a year. Good for you. That's better than I do.

04:52.89
Kristin Wade
I do the warranty. I know I'm a little neurotic. So by showing you my budget, you guys, this is like me being the most vulnerable. Like I don't even show my romantic partner my budget in full.

05:02.00
Zach Whelchel
so

05:02.66
Kristin Wade
So you guys are getting a bigger scoop.

05:05.17
Zach Whelchel
this This is great. Okay, cool. Well, let's go ahead and take it from the top and dive in kind of line by line. So you you mentioned first that you love to get those like credit card points, right? So I noticed that you have three different cards on here. How did you choose those cards? Like what are you trying to max out points wise on each of those? Do you try to split up your purchases? Like how do you think about those three cards essentially?

05:25.09
Kristin Wade
Absolutely. I'm really not a pro at this. There are some like credit card hackers out there and I like to balance not having too many things because money is complicated enough and I use my budget coach to keep it simple and the three cards I have are the Southwest Airlines card because that's an easy win.

05:43.83
Zach Whelchel
Okay. Okay.

05:44.86
Kristin Wade
I actually have taken 20 free flights in the last 10 years with Southwest.

05:49.84
Zach Whelchel
Wow. Wow.

05:51.27
Kristin Wade
I know.

05:51.38
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

05:52.89
Kristin Wade
all from stuff I had to pay anyways, right? And I was able to just pay that card in full because of using my budget coach. So that one's strategic so that I feel like I can travel.

06:02.09
Zach Whelchel
Cool.

06:03.17
Kristin Wade
Just travel seems like an extra for a lot of people. Costco is my love. If you can't find me, I'm probably at Costco.

06:11.75
Zach Whelchel
Nice.

06:13.20
Kristin Wade
The card just made sense. So I put all my gas, all my Costco purchases, um all my dining out on this card. And then I get cash back, which a lot of people don't know you then can cash out at Costco. You don't have to spend it there.

06:27.76
Zach Whelchel
Nice. What, what type of percentage do you get on like gas and groceries with that Costco? I'm curious.

06:33.37
Kristin Wade
Yeah, it's 4% on gas and it can be any gas station. and

06:37.20
Zach Whelchel
Wow. That's nice.

06:38.23
Kristin Wade
It adds up. Yeah. So I always get my Costco membership paid from this amount as well as some leftover, which ends up paying for groceries or, you know, toilet paper, things like that. Yeah.

06:52.40
Zach Whelchel
Cool. Cool.

06:52.55
Kristin Wade
And then a chase card. That's just an extra. I had a promotion. I wanted to kind of pad my credit limit, and a credit score strategy. Um, so I got that one just to keep a little balance on and I get cash back from that purely.

07:07.98
Zach Whelchel
Nice. Okay, cool. So it sounds like you've picked cards that kind of fit your lifestyle. um with With the travel cards, I'm always curious, like, yes, you can save it for points, but what's the opportunity cost? Like, is it cheaper to save up for those points that way? Or if you've just done a cash thing, I think it's a little bit better if you plan on spending it for flights to use one of these flight specific cards.

07:29.40
Kristin Wade
Totally. There are so many ways to think about it. And I'm like, you know, I've been a long time customer of theirs. I've got a really good limit. And for me, I can focus on the detail work of these things and just be like, all right, I have points there. This will get me, you know, sometimes it's a short flight, like just one state over and that's a free flight. But to me, it helps to have the simplicity of, all right, this many points, I can get a flight, you know, I can go travel and feel like it's free when really it was just paying those bills I had.

08:00.15
Zach Whelchel
Cool. And then for those of you who are keen listeners here, she said Southwest Airlines and lots of flights. So I'm assuming she probably lives near a Southwest hub. I don't know if that's a clue or not, but.

08:11.16
Kristin Wade
They're everywhere now, yeah.

08:12.95
Zach Whelchel
okay Okay, so I don't know if we're trying to piece together here more about you, but let's go ahead and dive into these checking bills. So it looks like you've got here term life, ah your IRA, something called WL with an um umbrella emoji, which I'm not sure what that one is, and then your debit household. So can you dive into those and so tell us a little about them?

08:32.42
Kristin Wade
Yep, so I do believe in financial products to support all of these goals. I've got a term life insurance and the WL is a whole life policy that I pay into.

08:41.97
Zach Whelchel
Got it. OK, cool.

08:43.21
Kristin Wade
Um, and then the IRA is just that, you know, my retirement account. And so those are the kind of my three longer term things I invest in every month. Then the debit household, those are things it's target. So there's literally a target emoji because that is the only time I will put household things on a debit card and it's the target red card. So that's my favorite way to save 5% of target.

09:05.66
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay. So you almost snuck target under the radar here because it was an emoji and I didn't know, but yes.

09:09.41
Kristin Wade
Yes.

09:10.94
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

09:11.07
Kristin Wade
Yes.

09:11.47
Zach Whelchel
Okay. Cool. Okay. So let's look at, um, credit card bills. So these are now the bills that you'll put on your credit card. Um, and you've got quite a few of these. So I guess we'll start with daycare. First off, I would like to ask how in the world is your day care? $5 and 38 cents. that This is something is wrong here.

09:30.91
Kristin Wade
Yes. Oh gosh. And people laugh at me when I show this. So I really believe in diversifying yourself as well as your income. So something I do on the side is I teach at local gyms and I teach group fitness.

09:45.75
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

09:46.28
Kristin Wade
And with that, I get the perks of free gym membership. So like you'll see there's no gym membership bills in here. um But I also get discounted daycare for my daughters. I have a daughter that's another hint right there. I won't give away much more.

10:00.14
Zach Whelchel
and Okay, okay.

10:00.48
Kristin Wade
But I could drop her off at the gym. And this is a strategy I use early in my business is I would take her to the $5 a month daycare and I'd sit in the gym lobby and I would work you know effectively for free on my business.

10:14.74
Zach Whelchel
Okay, so the $5, is that like the portion of the gym membership that you're attributing to this? Or is it truly they charge you an extra $5 for her to be watched? How does that work?

10:24.87
Kristin Wade
They truly charge me $5. So I think a kid's membership is like 25. And so I get a discount. um And it's it's something that really helped me before she was old enough to go to school.

10:36.87
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. My wife and I do this as well. We we use the the gym as an opportunity to to get a break from time to time. So that's that's great.

10:45.66
Kristin Wade
Yes.

10:46.75
Zach Whelchel
Okay, cool.

10:46.74
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

10:47.35
Zach Whelchel
What is Fit Radio? $8.60.

10:51.03
Kristin Wade
Yes, that is my kind of radio app I use when I teach bootcamp classes where I have to supply the music. So I keep it in there. I don't track every single one of these expenses, but this reminds me I have to save it for my taxes to write off.

11:07.52
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay. Cool. Um, Disney plus looks like you don't bundle.

11:11.29
Kristin Wade
We know and love that one.

11:12.67
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. You don't bundle your Disney with like the Hulu and everything else. You just pay for Disney.

11:16.91
Kristin Wade
Ooh, I do bundle, but I have ads. So that is the poor version of Disney Plus and Hulu.

11:23.35
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Nice. I think Disney is going up in price too. So yeah.

11:26.48
Kristin Wade
I know, luckily we can change that, right? I can edit that category and increase it.

11:31.89
Zach Whelchel
That's true, that's true. Okay, cool. The next two you've got on here are things called Ember's eye drops and Ember's eyes. So I'm guessing Ember is the name of your daughter.

11:42.74
Kristin Wade
Yes, that is my daughter's name. And she is in a little like eye program. So she needs glasses and she needs more vision care. And that's probably one of my biggest monthly bills right there. It's a big chunk of change, but that allows her to get care beyond our vision insurance. um Yeah, those are the two things for her eyes.

12:00.99
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

12:03.69
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, so inverse I's yeah, that's a larger is 193.73. So that's one of your larger bills.

12:08.20
Kristin Wade
Yes.

12:09.85
Zach Whelchel
So I'm curious how that works because I've i've never had like kind of extensive I like cost. So this is above like vision insurance as well.

12:18.92
Kristin Wade
Oh, I could so talk about this. So I did come from health care in the past. That's all I will allude to. We'll see how long we can keep my identity under wraps.

12:29.14
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

12:29.49
Kristin Wade
But insurance is tough. ah Vision insurance really doesn't cover much of anything. And my daughter has myopia. And so she needs like eye doctor appointments every couple of weeks and she needs special glasses and these eye drops. This program that she's in is the standard, but it's not covered by insurance, which I don't think I'll ever understand.

12:53.03
Zach Whelchel
Huh. Okay. Yeah. and Interesting. Yeah. Insurance. i i yeah I don't even try to understand it all.

12:59.14
Kristin Wade
No.

12:59.26
Zach Whelchel
um Okay, cool. Well, I mean, cool though to see that you're able to prioritize those things for her, right?

13:05.62
Kristin Wade
Yes.

13:05.69
Zach Whelchel
Like it's a big chunk of change, but the fact that you're able to prioritize it is awesome. um Yeah. When I first saw that number, I thought maybe it was like a a savings goal that you're like working up towards like some large purchase, but this is actually something that you need to spend monthly, right?

13:19.74
Kristin Wade
Right. And it's their savings plan. So they were like, you can either pay us like $4,000 or you can do this plan. And, you know, I didn't have the liquidity to give $4,000. So this is what her dad and I can pay for to ensure that her eyes are healthy.

13:35.14
Zach Whelchel
Cool. All right. Next ones. We've got a couple more subscriptions here. We got Spotify, iCloud, and Netflix. That Spotify looks like it might be like a family plan at like 1828. Is that correct? Or you split split that with somebody or?

13:46.49
Kristin Wade
and Oh, my best friend who's up in Seattle. Shout out to her. So don't tell Spotify. I may be giving myself away because she's she's my family.

13:55.65
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. Okay.

13:57.12
Kristin Wade
But yeah, we split it because it's cheaper. or I'm not even sure with prices these days. At the time it was cheaper than two single plans. And so she pays me half. It's not really reflected because I am responsible for the full bill. So I'll put her half in there. um But that's kind of a fun thing I'll do. Like if people are splitting a subscription, like we can work that out in my budget coach.

14:20.57
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, so how do you handle reimbursements? Do you like split the transaction and categorize half of it as as a reimbursement? Or do you just take her money and just include it kind of as your two budget money?

14:30.88
Kristin Wade
Yeah. So what I'll do is I just want to know it's paid. And so I'll put my money up and then she'll pay me. And then the amount she pays me, the $9 and 15 cents ish is free money. Like that's money that I then take and I can give it another job. I can go out to lunch. I can put it towards a different bill. Um, so it's a little bit different way of thinking of it, but I, it works for me.

14:55.49
Zach Whelchel
Cool. Okay. So Apple iCloud, you're paying a dollar and seven cents. And I just want to point out that I i love that you you have a line item for this, right?

14:59.47
Kristin Wade
Congratulations.

15:03.53
Kristin Wade
Yes.

15:05.12
Zach Whelchel
Like you you've taken control of your finances so much that you know exactly where your money is going, even if that means having a whole line item for for iCloud. So to me, this tells me you're like on the what, 200 gig plan or something, which means you take a decent amount of photos.

15:20.61
Kristin Wade
Yeah, I just want to be able to back up my phone you know because I have so many important things in there. And later you'll see I have a Google storage as well. But I really wanted, if there's a subscription, I wanted to know about it. Because you don't need to pay fancy software to tell you, oh, you don't use this subscription.

15:32.41
Zach Whelchel
Yeah.

15:35.90
Kristin Wade
like This is how I see little TV emojis. Two is enough. If I add a third TV emoji, that's too much TV we're watching.

15:41.00
Zach Whelchel
Oh

15:44.05
Kristin Wade
So it kind of helps me see how I'm doing.

15:44.84
Zach Whelchel
nice. ah Okay, cool. Yeah. So your Disney and your Netflix are both like that TV emoji, which we should say for the listeners, like you have emojis on pretty much every one of these categories, which I love because it makes it very, very clear and quick to look at.

15:55.80
Kristin Wade
Everyone.

15:59.09
Zach Whelchel
So, but okay, cool.

15:59.77
Kristin Wade
Yes.

16:00.50
Zach Whelchel
um Let's keep going down. Everybody knows what Netflix is. um Let's dive into your rental. So you mentioned this earlier, I think, but you have a whole rental category. So tell us what that is.

16:12.19
Kristin Wade
Yeah. So very interesting. My budget has changed so much over the, like I've been diligently using zero based for over a decade now and every year is slightly different. And these last five years have been remarkably different. And what I love is that I can save my old budgets and kind of have some nostalgia, look at that, but also create something that works for me now. So you'll notice we didn't talk about rent or mortgage payment until now.

16:39.83
Zach Whelchel
Correct, yeah.

16:41.80
Kristin Wade
Yeah. So very interesting. I am living with my boyfriend and we have an arrangement. It works out well. I pay for some things. He pays the household bills. So that's not a line item for me, but because I have this rental, I still do have to pay my mortgage. And so I take the money from the renters, put it into here, set aside the mortgage and some other things we'll talk about. And then I pay myself with whatever's leftover.

17:08.37
Zach Whelchel
Got it, okay, so this was presumably your old house then that you just kept as a rental when you moved out?

17:14.38
Kristin Wade
Exactly.

17:15.68
Zach Whelchel
Awesome, yeah, I love i love that. Like that, if you are able to do that is such a kind of a wealth hack, right? Especially if you will, did you get this mortgage during kind of the the golden age of the mortgages in the last few years or?

17:22.46
Kristin Wade
yes i did I was so lucky, so most people wouldn't call this lucky, but I divorced in 2020, which meant I had to refinance. And by being forced to refinance to get my ex-husband's name off of the property, um I went from a 4.5% interest rate to a 2.8, and I'm thrilled.

17:36.13
Zach Whelchel
Oh.

17:47.72
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, that's that's a huge, I mean honestly like when people look at selling or keeping their house as a rental, the fact that some of these houses are bought in the two percents makes it so attractive to to try to hold on to that as a rental.

17:48.07
Kristin Wade
with

18:01.12
Zach Whelchel
I'm actually talking to one of my friends right now who's in the similar situation. It's like please, you know, try all everything you can to to keep that house because the long-term impacts on your net worth are going to be huge. So I love and love that you did that here. um Show me a couple of these other things. It looks like you've got um this shower head emoji for $300 in April 2025. What is that for?

18:23.31
Kristin Wade
Yes. So not only do I plan for the monthly, but I hate being hit by a big expense. And it may not even be that big. You'll see later on I have some things for like $50, but sometimes you don't want to fork over that surprise amount of money. And I don't believe anything is a surprise. I have a water softener in that house. So I live in a place where our water is very hard. This is tough for me.

18:49.10
Zach Whelchel
Another hint. This is great. Okay.

18:51.24
Kristin Wade
I'm not sure that means much, but we have a water softener that I don't want to break. So every year it costs $300 for maintenance in April.

19:00.76
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

19:00.85
Kristin Wade
And I put aside a little bit, like right the second I haven't um put money in there, but I know I should be setting aside a little bit of money. So when the time comes, I can just put it on a credit card, right? Because I want those points. Pay it in full and the softener is taken care of.

19:17.81
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay. And I think that, I don't know if we actually said the number for the listeners who who don't have a visual here, but the number on the mortgage is 1087 94. I just want to point out once again that that's on a 2.8, right? If that was on the four or today's like six and a half or seven, like you'd be looking at like.

19:30.80
Kristin Wade
Yes.

19:34.41
Zach Whelchel
14, 15, 16 probably. So again, so cool that you're able to to cash flow um probably the excess there, which is great. um But it also looks like you have a savings cushion under your rental category.

19:43.14
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

19:46.09
Zach Whelchel
So you've got $1,000 that you've budgeted all of that this month just to kind of have it there and be ready, I guess.

19:53.80
Kristin Wade
Yeah, so I'm nervous. The house is not very old, but I'm just terrified our refrigerated air is going to die. And that I've already gotten quotes is like $20,000. So really big. I can't afford that right now without taking on some debt or, you know, moving things around drastically. So my goal is to stick some money in. You know, I had a little extra I could put in this month. I would love to just have 20,000 sitting there so I could sleep at night. Something breaks. I got it.

20:24.46
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, 20,000, man. That's that's a <unk>s going to take a bit to to get up there. Are you trying to do that at a certain pace or is it just kind of whenever you're able to?

20:29.37
Kristin Wade
Yes.

20:33.16
Zach Whelchel
Do you sweep your extra money? Is this the is this where the extra money goes at the end of the month when you save in other categories?

20:39.69
Kristin Wade
It is, so I'll always make sure I can pay myself a little bit because it feels good and rewarding to have that. So I'll pay myself some, I'll of course pay the mortgage, put aside to these goals, but I really want to be intentionally putting the savings money in because things happen. Maybe it's not that, maybe it's garage door breaks and it's a smaller expense and a thousand could be the difference between debt and in my opinion, sleeping at night.

21:03.15
Zach Whelchel
should

21:06.79
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, totally get that. um do you So this savings cushion is for your rental kind of category. Do you have a savings cushion outside of your rental category for just like other problems in life?

21:13.85
Kristin Wade
right?

21:17.61
Zach Whelchel
Or is this kind of the area that like really stresses you out the most?

21:22.08
Kristin Wade
This is the big one. And so how I like to function is I like to put the money in the correct envelopes in future months. And that is my savings account. This drives some people crazy. And I'm ah kind of more comfortable with zero base. So I can keep that money in savings, but show it in the same view, if you will, with the checking dollars. So I know, okay, my money will last me these many months forward for these jobs versus just having a chunk that sits there and is really tempting. Oh, there's $20,000 sitting there. There's this much money. No, all of that has a job. And that job is saving my butt if I can't work for three months.

22:04.59
Zach Whelchel
For sure. Yeah, my wife and I do the same thing. we We budget out a couple of months. I think we try to do like two months out or like this month and the next month. And if we have those, then we feel like the extra we can start putting towards like goals or investments or whatever. But like that two month buffer is what makes us kind of be able to sleep at night, like like you said. so

22:23.34
Kristin Wade
yeah exactly

22:24.38
Zach Whelchel
That's cool. All right, let's jive into these variable expenses. And I love love the emoji you have by this category group, which is like the the girl with her hands up like, I don't know.

22:33.63
Kristin Wade
yes

22:35.76
Zach Whelchel
of So I love that sets the tone for for these. But um okay, so you've got groceries, clothes, business, gym, expenses, gas, there's a lot here.

22:46.05
Kristin Wade
Yeah,

22:46.52
Zach Whelchel
So I'll let you just kind of highlight any of those that you want to talk about.

22:50.19
Kristin Wade
Yeah, there's this is a catch-all. There's a lot of stuff, so I'm really granular on some things, like $1.07. Most people wouldn't even want in their budget for the Apple.

23:00.14
Zach Whelchel
Sure.

23:00.96
Kristin Wade
um However, i with these things, I'm not super worried about the detail with the household supplies. With dining out, you know I shared before that I love to dine out. And I love to grab a coffee and make time with friends in that way. So with these, I don't have dollar amounts next to them if you'll notice. Everything else I did.

23:21.67
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, so you've got you've gotten a certain amount that you've budgeted for this month, which is like July, right? So is these numbers kind of specific to July or are you just covering spending as it happens? Like what what are you kind of doing here?

23:33.78
Kristin Wade
You know, this one I used to be really good and I said, okay, groceries will be 500 a month, you know, when I was living alone and I could do that. And clothes, I'm not going to spend unless I have this much in there. And I found that was so restrictive that I would feel some guilt and shame. Like if my gas, how much control do we really have over how much gas costs? Like, let's be honest, you could put a number.

23:58.49
Zach Whelchel
Sure.

23:58.52
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

23:59.54
Zach Whelchel
Yeah.

24:00.05
Kristin Wade
So I just leave it. you know And honestly, this is an area, this is my this is my admission to everybody here. I cover overspending here.

24:06.43
Zach Whelchel
Okay.

24:07.56
Kristin Wade
So I have a rough idea. I'll put some money ahead of it and I'll say, well, I probably will spend this much. But these are the areas where I tend to have to move from other categories and play around with. Because sometimes special dining, you know I'll take a friend out for her birthday. or it'll be date night and that's different than going to the drive-thru to get a coffee. So I separate those things out, but I don't feel the need to put money aside every month because I think those dollars could be put elsewhere.

24:37.47
Zach Whelchel
Okay, cool. So as far as the numbers here, groceries, you've got 282. Now that's not your whole month, right? Because we're only about halfway through July.

24:44.84
Kristin Wade
Correct.

24:45.89
Zach Whelchel
So that kind of reflects that maybe maybe about 500 or 600 is what you are kind of looking at for the month of July for groceries. um Dining out looks like it's on pace to be about 400 for a month. um And I will say that those I don't, I guess, i compare it to myself, but we have a family of four. So that those numbers seem low to me. do Do they feel low to you? Do you feel like you're you do a good job of reining in kind of spending on food or?

25:13.93
Kristin Wade
Keep in mind, um so this is kind of unique. and Well, I wouldn't say unique, but I live with my boyfriend. We do split things. So I'll buy half the groceries on my card, he'll buy half the groceries. So I'm not factoring in a whole other person. So that number is probably doubled for our family of three.

25:29.94
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay. And also another hint here is I'm going to guess your doctor isn't a teenager because teenagers eat more food, right? So I'm just, I'm just.

25:36.79
Kristin Wade
Right. Although I could put a berries category, she would blow that one off the budget.

25:41.24
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, and berries are expensive.

25:41.63
Kristin Wade
and

25:43.91
Zach Whelchel
Fruit is so expensive.

25:44.89
Kristin Wade
Yes, yes.

25:46.09
Zach Whelchel
um Okay, cool.

25:46.07
Kristin Wade
yeah yeah

25:47.41
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, I like how you have dining out and special dining as like separate concepts, right? Because they they fulfill kind of different roles for you, which is cool. um You've also have gifts slash seventh tradition on here, which is 93 a month.

25:56.87
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

26:00.18
Zach Whelchel
Do you you have like recurring gifts or do you kind of just in general say oh there's about this many birthdays in a year like how do you but this is always a not a contentious one but when me and my wife are always like uh how much how much do we put in there so i'm curious how you do that

26:17.13
Kristin Wade
Oh, that's another one. and So for example, later on, I have Christmas. Very intentionally, I set aside money for so that I can buy all of those gifts and things at once. I have a lot of people who I love and who I buy gifts for throughout the year. And this is one where I'll just look ahead and i'll say, OK, for the month of August, I've got two birthdays. And I usually spend this much on a friend. And I usually spend this much on the other. And I'll kind of give myself some grace there. um But I found that I want some freedom to be able to do what I want and maybe pat a little more. So if it's less than $100 for any individual, I don't plan specifically. But if it's a bigger thing, you know, like my boyfriend just celebrated a milestone birthday, that one was a bigger gift. I'll make it a savings goal and I'll like ship away at it slowly.

27:07.18
Zach Whelchel
Nice, okay, cool. So yeah, anything that's large, you you make kind of a separate category for it, but if it falls within kind of that reasonable range, you just do it here. And then I noticed you have fund money as well, and fund money doesn't have like a specific goal to it. So how do you kind of judge how much or how little of that you do in a month?

27:27.81
Kristin Wade
That is really kind of my my slush category there. And it sort of ends up being like stuff I forgot about or like, oh, just something I don't really want to have a category for. It could be, oh my gosh, just parking for a fun event. And that's like $5 that I really don't care about tracking how much I spend on parking because it's so in frequent. So it's a bit of a catch-all category. And if it's anything related to fun, I'm like, sure, that's a good label for it.

27:55.31
Zach Whelchel
Sure, nice. Yeah, it's cool. We're seeing kind of like what matters to you and what doesn't matter to you both in how you allocate your money but also in where you care about like really tracking things, right? Some things you're a little bit more lenient with yourself on and some things you're more strict with yourself on and that kind of gives us a good clue of like

28:07.21
Kristin Wade
Great.

28:14.60
Zach Whelchel
how you kind of control your whole financial situation. So that's cool. All right, we're going to keep going through categories here. um Next up, we've got your goals category. And you have a lot of goals. And they're all it says here that they're SOFI goals. So do you have these like also in a specific account? Is it like ah like a money market account? Is it making money on these? Or are they just a normal savings account?

28:34.83
Kristin Wade
Yes, so this is a normal high yield savings account, because I really want, as you'll see, I've got like 4,200 set aside, which is no small amount.

28:42.97
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, that's a lot. ands Yeah, and it's broken down, just for our listeners here, it's both broken down over storage, shoes, car, auto, you have car and auto.

28:53.86
Kristin Wade
I know, I couldn't fit, all I'll break those down, yeah.

28:56.79
Zach Whelchel
Okay, cool, cool. LM with like a punching emoji. So I'm excited for that one. um Fees, Christmas, it looks like. Auto, dental, Costco, RN.

29:05.45
Kristin Wade
Another one.

29:08.97
Zach Whelchel
That might be a hint right there. It's got a little little stethoscope on it.

29:12.40
Kristin Wade
Uh-huh.

29:12.70
Zach Whelchel
Or is that called stethoscope?

29:14.08
Kristin Wade
Yeah, this is a stethoscope, yeah.

29:15.51
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay. And then May and tires. So yeah, share with us some of these and maybe some of the numbers as well and why they're those numbers.

29:25.96
Kristin Wade
Yes. So these are all the things that I don't want to forget. And they're pretty far out. Granted, there are some August ones coming up. But if it's more than a couple of months and I've got time, I want that money to be getting interest. And I don't want it to be sucked up by inflation, right? So I'll sit it in a high yield savings. Every dollar I get is just one less dollar I have to worry about finding to save for these goals. So it feels good. It's also locked away. So if I'm like, Ooh, I really want this thing. I'll just pull from savings.

29:56.78
Kristin Wade
I have to pick what thing am I not paying for? So it's like another stopgap for me so I can see.

30:00.55
Zach Whelchel
yeah

30:03.66
Kristin Wade
Okay. Maybe I don't need the thing because I really want to be able to pay my dental insurance. Like that's probably a good thing to keep up with.

30:09.30
Zach Whelchel
ah

30:10.66
Kristin Wade
Yeah. Yeah.

30:10.97
Zach Whelchel
yeah yeah Yeah, I love that you do this, because a lot of people, when they do their budget, they'll budget all of their like checking money, and then savings, they'll be like, ah, well, it's it's savings. It's just for savings, right? But the idea that you split out your savings into all the things that you're actually saving for means that if you want to touch any of that money, you have to make a real decision, right? Like like you said, like if you if you want to go without dental insurance, then fine. You can choose to do that if you have somebody that's a higher priority, but at least you know what you're pulling from. So I love that you have these enumerated here.

30:40.30
Kristin Wade
Yes.

30:41.77
Zach Whelchel
Let me just look and see if any of these numbers stand out to me. are you are you look look You've got car and auto. Car is at 700 and auto is at 650.

30:47.68
Kristin Wade
Yes.

30:49.93
Zach Whelchel
Are you saving for a new car or is this just for maintenance? or how do you What is your kind of car situation?

30:55.94
Kristin Wade
Okay, so with these guys, um the auto with a little red car, I have two of them September and March. Those are my every six month car insurance payments.

31:06.17
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Okay, cool.

31:06.74
Kristin Wade
So I will plan for the entire year. It seems really silly. A lot of people I work with are like, oh, well, I just want to worry about the next one and not stress about the one after that. But I like to see the snapshot of what's coming up and what it truly costs me each month, even though I don't pay it monthly.

31:23.72
Zach Whelchel
Got it. Cool. And then the car one is that maintenance.

31:25.10
Kristin Wade
Then the car, the tiny little wrench though, I, Okay, so here's another vulnerability. I look at my car manual and I see what maintenance is needed at each point of mileage, like, you know, big round numbers. So I'm over $100,000. I believe in driving older cars that drive them until they die.

31:43.63
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. know

31:43.86
Kristin Wade
um There's about $700 of maintenance. So I took what is going to be required when I get my September maintenance. I called up the local mechanics. price compared, and it's going to cost me about $700 to get what I need. So it's not, again, none of these things. Oh, cars are a mystery. Things happen, but there's a lot within our control, too.

32:03.91
Zach Whelchel
Sure. Well, first of all, kudos on the fact that you started by saying you looked at the manual. I don't think I've ever looked at my car manual or like referenced it in order to decide what I should do. So that's great. ah The other thing that you said that was good is that you calling cost compare, right? Like the fact that like these large expenses, it's so good to like, you know, get a couple of bids or talk to a couple of different people.

32:19.65
Kristin Wade
so

32:25.15
Zach Whelchel
So that was encouraging to to hear you do that as well.

32:29.36
Kristin Wade
Yeah, and there's there's a lot of things, some are big, some are small, like shoes, like I teach in a gym, I burn through shoes, and yet you go to a shoe store and you get fitted and you get shoes and you get insoles if you're like me, and you walk out with two pairs of shoes, it's 400 bucks, and that's a lot for me to scrape together, so I plan for it.

32:47.79
Zach Whelchel
Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Shoes. Yeah. Wow. 400 bucks. Inflation everywhere.

32:54.28
Kristin Wade
Yes, everywhere.

32:57.40
Zach Whelchel
um Any other thoughts on any of these?

32:58.56
Kristin Wade
helped

32:59.00
Zach Whelchel
I guess we'll talk about ah December because that's that's another large expense. It looks like you set aside $700 to get towards December.

33:07.52
Kristin Wade
Yes. So that's Christmas. That's my little goal. And that's about what I've averaged. So I love how my budget coach keeps track of my older budget. So I can be like, what did I even spend last year? And I put the work in in the past. So now I can see what it is and what I can anticipate. probably need a little bit more. You know, I've got that one funded, but I'm leaving some wiggle room because things change, right? My daughter's getting older. Her gift requests are bigger. You know, these kids come up with some crazy lists and I'm Santa, you know?

33:38.39
Zach Whelchel
Sure. How do you, yeah, I'm curious. What do you, what's the expectation around lists? Is it like you make a list, you'll get something on the list or is it like, oh, nice list, but we'll see what happens. Like, how do you guys do that?

33:50.85
Kristin Wade
Oh, she just last year figured out, like, you can write a list and Santa may give you something. And then she changed her mind the day before Christmas and was so upset that Santa didn't bring her what she wanted. So I'm trying to lower the bar a little bit as to who Santa is, you know, and keep it you you know, something really big she wants, but she can't change her mind on because mommy may buy it in October. And I've got the 700 to pull that trigger when it goes on sale, you know, like when she asks for something that might be a little tough to scrape together normally.

34:22.75
Zach Whelchel
for sure. Yeah, that's another great thing about setting this aside early is like you're able to take advantage of the deals or or whatever when those actually come up. so Cool. Okay. Well, we've only got a couple more categories here.

34:32.95
Kristin Wade
Yes.

34:33.89
Zach Whelchel
So I'll go through these next ones here is your income category.

34:34.69
Kristin Wade
yeah

34:38.60
Zach Whelchel
And I will say this is the only part of your budget that you have redacted from us. So I can see that you've got income from five different sources, but the amount you get has been redacted, which totally makes sense.

34:44.07
Kristin Wade
Yes.

34:48.79
Zach Whelchel
But let's talk about what, what these sources are. Cause that part was not redacted. So it looks like you get income from NBC, from miscellaneous, from coaching, from your rental, and then from your gym. So I think we've talked about a lot of those already are they that you want to expand on.

35:06.37
Kristin Wade
What I just love about this is I can see what is happening month by month. I used to have a spreadsheet, and so I would do my whole process. I would have my cup of coffee. I put in my income in a spreadsheet and type it in, and then I would go to my budget. and do my budget and then feel really good, but you can mess up and you can put a decimal in the wrong spot or a six where it should have been a nine. And then I would take that spreadsheet at tax time and be like, Oh my gosh, this way it's already in there. I can't mess it up. I have labeled any of my income from these sources and I already know what's there. And I can do a quick snapshot and like, Oh, e I should probably make some more from coaching or well,

35:49.60
Kristin Wade
Huh, I'm teaching a lot at the gym that's paying off. So it's a great way for me to just do a quick like test and see, am I making enough? How am I feeling in the budget? And where's that money even coming from?

36:03.13
Zach Whelchel
Sure. Yeah, that's great. And um I guess we didn't even talk about this, but do you do like linked bank accounts or do you manually put things in still?

36:11.39
Kristin Wade
Ooh, I have to link. So I'm a little bit of both, so I haven't linked. But if I've done a day of spending, I feel good about putting it in immediately. So I will manually enter my transactions if I'm motivated, not every day. And then I'll wait for them to link just to verify. But that has been helpful to catch things. like I actually caught fraud because my account was linked. And I saw a charge attracted from a budget category.

36:33.73
Zach Whelchel
Wow.

36:36.13
Kristin Wade
And I was like, what? I didn't buy this. um So having it linked has been amazing, but knowing I can also manually add in if I write a check that won't be cached for a couple of weeks.

36:48.21
Zach Whelchel
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I like to do the same thing because I want to know how much I have left in a category and having to wait a couple of days for the bank to like fully process that. um Sometimes that's just frustrating. So it's good to do kind of both. um Cool. Also like five sources of income. That's great, right? Like they say like it's good to diversify your income streams and like have all these different ways. So that's that's really cool that you've got five different sources coming in.

37:13.28
Kristin Wade
Yeah, and the miscellaneous, sometimes that's like, okay, so you said when my friend pays me back for Spotify. That's how I label it is it's random, a Venmo transaction, or, you know, when my daughter's dad pays for something for her. Those are the things that I'm not going to track so diligently, but it is money coming in. So it does need a label.

37:33.39
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, for sure. And in the zero-based world where you're controlling like every dollar, like we you know you you have to account for that somewhere. So that's cool.

37:39.58
Kristin Wade
Yes.

37:40.90
Zach Whelchel
All right, well, we got a couple more categories left here. They're all under Ember's expenses. So after these, we'll finally let you kind of fully introduce yourself. I feel like we've gotten to know a lot about you already, um which is cool.

37:51.82
Kristin Wade
I love you.

37:51.93
Zach Whelchel
But let's let's go ahead and um yeah talk about these. It looks like you've got Ember's birthday, you've got summer camp, great escape, co-pays, activities, and Ember's items. So I'm curious what Ember's items are. That sounds mysterious.

38:06.70
Kristin Wade
Oh, Ember's items are when mommy can't say no at Target and she gets an allowance. So part of that is from, so like when I pull cash for her allowance, because she's still so little, she needs the tangible.

38:14.09
Zach Whelchel
Nice.

38:19.99
Kristin Wade
I can't wait to get her on my budget coach, but it's going to take a while before she can use a computer.

38:23.32
Zach Whelchel
Sure, sure, sure.

38:25.82
Kristin Wade
So I'll pull out cash and I'll label, say, my $20 as Ember's items. um My budget was getting a little heavy. I didn't want an allowance category. And then I'll pay her that, or if I'm at the store, Mom, I really want this thing, and I don't have the energy. I want to split my transaction so that my grocery bill doesn't look inflated because I bought her some makeup set.

38:49.09
Zach Whelchel
Cool, yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. um Summer camp, great escape. What are these? These sound fun.

38:55.88
Kristin Wade
Yeah, so another perk. um Again, it's really cool. I make some money on the side teaching at gyms and they also have a summer camp. So I pay each week for her to go and I get a discount. So look at how frugal that is.

39:09.07
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, so summer camp is only 167. I will say this this looks incredibly expensive compared to your $5 childcare.

39:15.90
Kristin Wade
It is very

39:17.14
Zach Whelchel
But in the world of normal camps, I'd imagine this is pretty good, actually.

39:20.32
Kristin Wade
cheap. It's insanely cheap. So she goes three days a week for eight hour days. And so it works out to such a spot. And her dad actually pays me half of that. So it's a super affordable way for me to me to get real childcare. And then Great Escape is fun. So I can pay a little bit extra. So I pay $5 just to save her spot. And then I can pay $20 for a four hour. I can leave the gym. I can go into work type of a scenario. And its they call it Great Escape.

39:50.19
Zach Whelchel
You can leave the gym?

39:52.06
Kristin Wade
I can leave the gym so I can escape.

39:53.50
Zach Whelchel
but's

39:53.83
Kristin Wade
So they joke. They're like, are you escaping today?

39:55.96
Zach Whelchel
That's...

39:55.95
Kristin Wade
I'm like, yes, I am.

39:57.28
Zach Whelchel
Oh, that's amazing. I mean, okay, so my wife and I like joke about this.

39:59.06
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

40:00.88
Zach Whelchel
Like, we'll take our kids to the gym playroom and then we'll start to go to the gym and it's like, do we just leave?

40:02.21
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

40:05.24
Zach Whelchel
But like, we know we can't, but you actually have a way to do that.

40:06.13
Kristin Wade
yeah Yeah.

40:08.17
Zach Whelchel
That's awesome.

40:09.45
Kristin Wade
Yeah. So those are again, like anything related to her, I like to block out and not cause I care so much about that, but I want to make sure like, okay, her birthday's coming up. She's got some co-pays for some other health things or gosh, taking her to the trampoline park. Like that's fun money, but that's not my fun money. That's for hers. That's her activity, you know? And so when I look back and I'm like, what did I spend in July of 2024? Oh yeah, those things were for her.

40:37.00
Zach Whelchel
Awesome. Okay, well, we've officially made it through every single one of your categories. And because you do zero-based budgeting, this is this is like all of like your finances, which is super cool, right?

40:41.63
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

40:47.43
Zach Whelchel
So we know kind of now what all your priorities are, like how you spend your money, what you set the aside for. And it's cool to see kind of, um yeah, like what you care about through your numbers. so We've made it to the end. I'll let you officially kind of actually introduce yourself so you can say your name and where you live and what you do and yeah your profession and all that stuff.

41:08.22
Kristin Wade
Oh my gosh, that was so hard. I feel like if you know me, you figured it out right away. But hi, I'm Kristen Wade. I live in New Mexico and I am a financial coach and I am thrilled to be on the My Budget Coach platform as one of the budget coaches. So this is my real life. um But as I mentioned and hinted at, this is how I train people to do their own budgets.

41:30.91
Zach Whelchel
Cool, yeah, that's awesome. So that's why your water, is it like the softness or the hardness of the water? Is that like a Southwest thing?

41:38.08
Kristin Wade
Oh yeah, New Mexico is terrible. And I have such sensitive skin and so does my daughter, Ember. So that was a good investment. And I'm sad that the renters get it and I don't have it at my current house.

41:46.19
Zach Whelchel
Oh, so you paid for that and then you left the house?

41:50.42
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

41:50.97
Zach Whelchel
Yeah, yeah.

41:51.54
Kristin Wade
Yeah.

41:52.04
Zach Whelchel
And then the Southwest Airlines, is that ah is that a hub in your area?

41:52.14
Kristin Wade
Okay. Southwest. It is, I mean, I feel like they're everywhere now. That's not a huge hint, but yeah, Southwest is super easy for me and I'll be using them, you know, just to hop out of New Mexico and explore different places.

42:08.03
Zach Whelchel
Cool. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on. And thanks for introducing yourself here at the very end of the show.

42:13.02
Kristin Wade
on.

42:13.86
Zach Whelchel
um Hopefully, for our listeners, they got to learn something about how you budget and maybe some ideas about how they could budget. If you are listening and you're interested in starting your own budget, My Budget Coach is a great place to start. You get to not only create a budget, but work with a coach. And like Kristen just shared, she is one of the coaches on the platform as well. so um you know kind of already have an insight into how she thinks about money and the fact that she could help you with that as well, um, could really, really help. So thanks for being on the show today, Kristen. And, um, yeah.

42:46.08
Kristin Wade
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.