Today we’ve got Andy Hill from the Marriage Kids & Money podcast talking with us about how he and his wife PAID OFF THEIR MORTGAGE! Lots of people consider themselves debt-free even prior to paying off their house, but not Andy! Paying off a mortgage early is quite the under-taking and requires a great deal of determination, but Andy tells us how they made it happen! Andy gives us tips on how to pay off your house and be real-deal debt-free! Listen in!
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Episode forty one, Paying off your mortgage, Should you do it? And how to get it done with Andy Hill. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rights, and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Hello, frugal Friends. My name is Jen, I'm Jill. We have another exciting episode of the Frugal Friends podcast for you today. How are you, Jill? Are you staying warm up in the north. I'm doing I'm doing well. I am staying warm. I'm bundled up. It's snowed here a little bit through the night, so not you know, not enough to do any real damage. But although I will say, if it's going to be cold, it might as well snow. I feel that I'm pleased with with the white on the ground. But I am looking forward to the sun. That will be a good day. Oh I am. I'm looking forward to that for you. I thought I was being cute, and so when we got on this call with Andy Hill, I was like, Andy, are you cold? Because he's in Detroit and He's like yes, And I was like, okay, cool, cool, I'll just be here in Florida being a horrible person. I thought said it was just gonna be funny, but I realized that was really hurtful, So yep, so I did that. But he was still a champ and a friend, and he stuck around and did the interview and we talked about him paying off his mortgage and it was so good. We got Andy Hill. He hosts the Marriage, Kids and Money podcast and he has the blog, Marriage, Kids and Money dot com. He's just a He's a great guy. He has really great info to offer anybody who's married, has kids, wants kids. I'm even if you don't fall into any of those categories, he has stuff to offer. So we were super stoked to have him on the podcast, because when do we get to talk to people who paid off all their debt and then went on and paid off their mortgage to yeah, truly debt free. It's fantastic. So yeah, but before that, let's get into some sponsors. We've got Modern Frugality dot Com. 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No, they're not, they're not with us. UM, But just you're used two thousand five Toyota camera wants to know and wants to you to show your respect by posting about it in our Frugal Friends community on Facebook. Yes, all right, guys, let's get into it. We've got a really really great episode UM with Andy Hill for marriage, kids and money and so not only do we go into talking about paying off debt in your mortgage, but there's also some time management stuff sprinkled in at the end, because obviously to do the stuff, you might need to raise your income a little bit um and you'll need to know how to do that, you know, fit that in with your already busy schedules. So I'm excited. Without further ado, Andy Hill, he's here all right, Andy, it's so exciting to have you on this podcast. Thanks for being with us, Thank you for having me. This is great. Yeah. So we've listened to your your podcast, which is also awesome, and we will direct anybody to go check out marriage, kids and money. Yeah, that's really great. Collect them all. You like them all. You have them all. You've got a marriage, you've got kids, you've got money. What else could you ask for? Working on all those? I'm almost there. Keep keep doing it. You're doing a good job. Yeah. So you've got some excellent tips over there. I recently listened to your episode about ten Steps to Young FA Only Wealth episode and really good nuggets. I particularly enjoyed your tip about celebrating and memorializing big accomplishments or events or you know, when you get at those goals and doing that with your spouse and kids, which is I don't know. It just really struck me as just excellent training for children that can cultivate this excitement in them to handle money rightly. Just little tips like that. I've just Yeah, I really enjoyed that. So thanks for sharing listening to it. Yeah, we love having friends, right, it's the community that helps us to like get at these things that we may not have come up with on our own. And you talk about that too in your podcast of We're all on a mission here, Jill. I think we're all here work together to help people to win. And that's the that's the thing that drives me, that's the thing that makes me want to do this podcast every week and join you guys, because I know that there are a lot of people listening that I could not only just use the board in the advice, but also just like a a frugal friend to go along this journey on. So nice. Well, we're excited to talk to you today about mortgages, which most people probably are like, yeah, I hate my mortgage, I hate that I have that, um and how you paid that off? So I think most people would consider themselves debt free even if they still have a mortgage. So you guys are like real legit doing it. You're legitimately debt free. You don't have a mortgage payment. It is gone. It's gone. That's fantastic. So I'm curious about we talked about sometimes this aha moment not just in finance, but in in other realms of life. I don't know did Oprah come up with that term. I'm not sure, but this moment of one of those billionaire gurus, when it just like hit you, this simple concept hit you. When was that for you of paying down debt? What was your aha momentum, I can get this gone? And and what was your realization around that. I was in a similar position that Jen is in right now. Actually she is waiting her first child. I don't know, have you announce Did I just announced that? To your own They? Okay? Um? But for me back in uh eleven, um, we found out that we were having our first baby, girl, and we were super excited about it, and something clicked in my brain where it was like, all right, you're not living for yourself anymore. You're not just living for today. You are literally bringing a human into this world and it is your responsibility to make sure that little human has an incredible life. And one thing that Nicole and I were talking about as we got together for our marriage, was hey, we got some debt. Um. I had about let's see, thirty thou dollars in student loans, and she had a car loan of about and we thought, hey, you know what, if we're going to try to give our kids the best life possible, let's try to get rid of this debt so it's not something that's even a part of our lives when they when they come into the world, and we can maybe limit the amount of fights that we have or that they would see, and also just be really you know, responsible and then and then have them see that action and get inspired by it. So we said, all right, let's do it. Let's buckle down and pay off this dollars. And since both of us were making some good money at the time, some dinks, you know, double income, no kids, making a little just a bit over six figures, we said, okay, you know, we got fifty thou dollars to pay off and we're making a little over six figures. Let's live on half and pay this thing off in a year. And we did that. We we met on we met every month for what we do to the budget party where we'd get together and talk about our talk about our our expenses and our plans and how we're moving along on that debt. And we got together every month and um, we were able to pay it off in about twelve months and before our before our daughter came into the world. So it's great. So this happened while you were thinking about having kids or was she pregnant when you guys were going for it right around that time? So we started talking about it and then we got kind of super serious about it when we when we found out that we were expecting. So yeah, we found out early. We found out what the gender was, and we named her super early, like kind of, you know, way too early, like the people were people were calling Nicole's stomach at like whatever, twelve weeks Zoe, you know, so funny. I think, oh, absolutely, I don't regret it at all. So the takeaway says, if you want to get on the same board and pay down debt us, get pregnant. Yes, pretty much. In actuality. I mean, that's usually when people do do kind of crazy amazing things. Right. It's like, hey, when when you're up against the wall or you have an epiphany in your life, like Hey I want to make I want to make a change, or hey I want to head in this type of direction that inspires me because I want to be inspiring for my kids, or you know, so it makes sense where there's someone else to consider, this is going to impact somebody else. We may just have the money to provide for our child if we keep up are this lifestyle I loved. I loved borrowing from my student loans to go to the bar, borrowing from my student loans to go on trips, borrowing from my home equity line of credit to go on trips. It's just was like, hey, it's fair, it's available, and maybe I'll make some more money eventually. But it all sort of changed when we came to the picture that eventually, you know, someday I'll be rich. It's that just gonna happen. It's gonna fall in your lab you would You're gonna have to save money if you want money, Yeah, definitely, so Andy. Yeah. A lot of people say that once you've paid off your debt, you're like good to go your consumer debt. And that's kind of like where I'm at right now, Like we have we're debt free, and we did it because we wanted to like give me the option to stay home, you know, when this baby thing did happen, like it has. But now I struggle with, like should I prioritize the mortgage? Like I go back and forth and like, so how did you guys decide to like hit that after? For me, it was a conversation that my wife and I had together where she was interested in getting a larger house than my tiny bungalow that I bought when I was out of college. So she said, all right, where we've had this one child and we've got another one on the way, I would like to move out of your bachelor pad bungalow and find something that's like a little bit more of the adult house, you know. And I said, okay, I guess so I'm fine with this bachelor pet bungalow. I'd like it. I mean, it's just another little tiny human They don't take up that much space, but you know, all that stuff. But she, um, she started researching some houses and you know, I begrudgingly looked at them, and then I want to go see the one that she really liked. And I said, all right, this actually is a really great house. Great schools really close to the highway for my new job would be like a five ten minute commute, so super short. And um, and it was great. The neighbors were awesome, just beautiful. And I said, all right, let's do it. But let's pay this mortgage off in five years, because I don't want to live with a very very big mortgage on my shoulders because I carry that stress. For me, debt equals some stress, and that's maybe just me, but I thought, if I have a two thousand dollar a month mortgage that I'm going to have to pay for a long time, that's gonna not make me feel all that great. So let's make a plan to get rid of that in five years so that I'll feel less stressed. Um, if I get let go from my job, UM, if I'm not the flavor of the week anymore because I'm making good sales, then I'll still feel good. UM. So she agreed, so we we kept on that same path of living on. She was working for a period of that time, and then when Calvin came into the world, our second boy, our second child, she went down to the full time stay at home mom deal. And um, and for all you gentlemen, out there. If you want some perspective on how hard it is to be a stay at home mom, just leave your job for one week, take a week off, let your wife go on a nice vacation, because then you will realize how difficult that job really. It doesn't it doesn't take long to realize how difficult. How about two days? Yeah, yeah, I get it on the weekend, right, but it's it's weekend kids. It's you're sleeping in and you're making pancakes and you're watching cartoons. Were like, And then yeah, weekend dad, Like my wife likes to joke about that. Yeah, it's completely different Monday morning when Dad's not home. So she decided, we decided to do that situation where she'd stayed at home. Um, that that knocked on our income quite a bit, but we kept up that same pace of living and we were able to pay the house off in just under four years actually, So we kept at it. We worked hard, and now we are mortgage free. So to your question, to your point to where you're hinting at, it's all personal. You know, Um, I don't think there's a mathematic equation that said what we did was smart or you know, h and that that seventeen time from when we paid that that mortgage off our mortgages three and what did the stock market do? From bonkers? Right? Quite a bit more if you don't know, Yes, you're you're listening. It went high, uh, much higher than the three percent that we paid off. Would I do things differently? No, I don't have a mortgage now and I feel so less stressed. And what I would have done with all that skyrocketing money in the market. The first thing I would have done with all that money is pay off my mortgage. So mm hmm. Yeah, that's what we did. And that's what we talk about here. Is what works for you? Yes, right, like you, it needs to work for you. Just like exercise. You're not going to get anywhere if you hate running, but that's all that you do. Don't run, Find some other way to exercise, just like financial planning, find what works for you for you. It was eliminating the stress of that mortgage. But I'm wondering if you can share a bit more about your plan of attack while paying down this mortgage, Like did you put other things on hold? Were you in investing? Still? You know, if you don't mind sharing what what was your income. How were you able to do that in five years? Did it go according to plan? Yeah? Talk to us about that. Yeah. So, um, we were probably in between the I'm not going to show the exact number because I'm still working right now, but between like a hundred and two hundred the whole time, so between our household income. So essentially, the mortgage was a hundred and ninety five thousand dollars when we got it in we put down on the house. It was a down payment, which is a lot, but we had saved up a time because we're living on half after we had paid off our um, after we had paid off our consumer debts, we developed a very large down payment in order to pay that down. So we had a essentially two mortgage and uh during that time frame, we lived on half of our income, again through money at it each month. And in the beginning it doesn't about that much of the principle, but as you continue to go down, it goes down and goes down and goes down. Um. That the difficult part was when we got to that point in our second year of living in the home, when Nicole stopped working. She was she was working part time at that point. But then she went to you know, uh, no time, and that was a cut in our in our incomes. We had to get a little bit crafty. So we did some things. We said no a little bit more to going out because you know, when you got two little kids, you can't really go out to dinners and drinks as much anyway, so we said no a little bit more. We went on less vacations. Um so those are some of the unpleasant things, but some of the easier things that we did. Uh. We re examined how we did our grocery shopping. We used to go to Kroger. I don't know if you guys have that where you are, but it's essentially, you know, a large grocery store chain. And we decided to go to Aldi and make a change there on Aldi. Between making a list going there weekly and going to Aldi, we went from nine dollars in our grocery shopping per month to six hundred dollars. So that's thirty six hundred dollars per year in savings just from groceries. We looked at some high deductible plans for our insurance instead of the plans that we were on because we had built up a big emergency fund just by doing some of those things. We would did a high deductible insurance plan at my office for our health care UM that saved us a boatload. That saved us probably a year, and then UM some of our home insurance. It essentially just looking at your insurance and saying, hey, the more risk that you're gonna take because you have your own emergency fund, you pay the insurance companies a little bit less. So we looked looked at little things like that and chipped away at it. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't It wasn't. Um. We weren't living lavishly. We're definitely tight, but hey, we had two little kids, and we didn't mind doing Friday night movie night at the house with the little kids where we go to the library and get a free movie, hang out, eat popcorn on the couch instead of you know, going out every weekend and things like that. These these little things are changes. It's all about priorities, right, If you make your budget and you look about what you what you think is most important in your life, and for us it was family. We put that first and then our our financial goals. Crushing this mortgage so so that we could have the house of our dreams and Andy could be a little less stressed, you know, working working in a job. So yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Keeping that why in sight helps? Yes, Yes, are why are? Why was to be able to have this great house and also to allow our family to for our two kids to have a mother that's at home with them and raising raising them. And there's nothing wrong with you know, ladies who want to work while they have kids. It's just again, it's all personal. This is something that Nicole and I were very passionate about and it's a priority that we put forth for us. Yeah. So how long between paying off your consumer debt and student loans and um getting your house? Was that? Like? So like, how long did it take to amass that large down payment? So we paid off the student loans and the consumer and the car loan in the fall of eleven and then we bought this home in the fall of thirteen, So in two years we developed that amount of money. So yeah, so you did. You took your foot off the gas a little bit, but you were still like on it. Yeah, that's encouraging. That's what we We definitely took our foot off the gas when we after we paid off our suit loans because we needed a break, but we still built up those habits that like allowed us to stay save um. So yeah, but you don't have to have your foot on the gas like full throttle to save that big of a down payment. That's so encouraging. Absolutely, And you know there's some rule bending. You know, I was really into Dave Ramsey in the beginning, and I really loved a lot of his advice. But there's some rule bending that kind of helped us to still have a little bit of fun and save some money. So we do a little bit of credit card rewards doesn't so we love that. Went to um We went to Cabo San Lucas last year. Is a trip and we got it for bucks because of rewards. I love me some travel rewards. It's a lot of a lot of work. You've got to be careful with it. For anybody who carries a balance on their credit card, no, no zone. This is sort of advanced stuff. But oh I love it. Yeah. We always say get out of your consumer debt, and then yes you can. Credit cards are a great asset, but you have to have those habits, those good habits built up, you can't do it, and until you do, Dave Ramsey is great for beginners. And then once you get your feet wet and you get in a rhythm and you know what works for you. Yeah, bend those rules. Take hold of that for them, because like, not one person is in charge of the rules. There's a bunch of people making rules. And I didn't realize that. I read his book in and I'm like, well, these are the rules, so I'm gonna follow all of these rules. And Nicole, you gotta you gotta cut up your credit card. And she's like, what what are we talking about. I don't like my credit card, sweetheart. The book you can't think about this. The book says it, so we have to do it to think about it. And I joke around. I'm a Financial Peace University coordinator at my church. I love the program. It helps millions of people make a big difference in their life. But I think you said it right that once you get to a point of okay, I got this, you can you can kind of make your own rules. Yes, we we love the course as well. Once so yeah, we love it. It's really great when you don't have the capacity to think too much. About personal finance. But when you do, you can start thinking for yourself. When you're enough to start your own podcast, I think that you can jump ahead when you reached have to start a podcast first, that's right, that's it advanced level. Yes, all right, So Andy, what do you recommend for people who want to pay off their mortgage quickly? Gives to your best tips quickly? Um, I would say, yeah. One of the one of the top things I'd be ignoring it if it wasn't true, is you've got to grow your income. Um. You know, if if it's something that you want to do, because it's a mass amount. You know, some people are paying that amount in student loans right now. So in order to collabor those student loans, you know, hopefully for the two dollars they might have in student loans, they've got a doctor job or a veterinarian something associated with Yeah, I hope it's not like liberal arts to not um, but it happens. So grow your income. Figure out a way to grow your income. So um. First things first, if you have been working at your job for a while and you are exceeding expectations and you're you're killing it, and you haven't gotten a raise in a while, to go on glass door and find out what you should be making and talk to your supervisor about you want to raise this is this is the time, like you know, have some conversations. They are ready for this. Their HR department is ready for this. They are ready for this. Go in there and ask those ask those questions. Make sure and if you don't know what your goals are, find out what your goals are, because you have to be tracking to something in order to ask for that money. Say hey, you told me to do this, I've done it, and um I would like X y Z for a raise, and have that compared against what you would find in glass door based on your industry and the area that you work. And if you're in New York versus Detroit. I live in Detroit, Obviously the salary is a little bit different from New York City or something like that. But grow your income, you know, increase your income if you if if works not the place to grow it. Let's say you're you know, a teacher or something like that, and it's like, hey, they have a system and I get two percent every two years or whatever. Find a side hustle something that you are passionate about and figure out a way to make money from it. Make make two lists. Make a list of your marketable skills from uh, your your life, so you you know you're let's say you're a teacher, you're really good at presenting, and you're good at writing, um. And then on the other list, make a list of things you're passionate about, and then see what you can do to mash those things together and say, all right, I'm good at this skill and I like this thing. I'm gonna do this thing anyway because I like whatever, let's say artwork or photography, and I'm gonna put it together with my marketable skill and i'm gonna make I'm gonna make thirty dollars a year. On the side, you know, it's something that I'm gonna do. At every dollar of that thirty dollars, I'm gonna throw out the mortgage because then in five years my mortgage is gone. Isn't that cool? So many people live at their mortgage for the rest of their lives, and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that, especially when when you look at the math of like a three percent interest rate. But if you're interested in paying off the mortgage. Hence you're probably listening to the show based on the title those are those are two two ways to do it. Growing your income is the thing and then obviously spending less. So spending less can you know be a want was sometimes? But there are little things in your budget that you can look at and say, all right, well, I can eliminate some of these things that don't actually bring me joy, that don't you know, make a big difference in my life. Or hey, I've had that gym membership for a long time. Do I even go to the gym? Is it easier for me just to run outside? Or am I fooling myself that I'm actually going to show up, Like, get rid of the gym membership, get one of the things that are low hanging fruit where you you aren't using them anyway, and then look at some of those bigger things, the main big things that are in your budget. Are you paying a big car loan or you are you have too much car in your life? You know, some of those big things transportation, food, housing, You know, where are you living right now? And is that eating up so much of your you know, your money. So looking at the big things first and then go down to the small thing so make more money and spend less. That It's there's no magic to it, really, it's like you gotta make more or spend less. Those are just some you know, individual ways to to take a look at it. But that's really how it is. I mean, when we started this journey, we were living on a hundred percent of of of our income because we whatever we came in, we would we would spend it. We weren't saving anything for retirement. And then we just figure it out a way to to live on fifty and it hurt in the beginning, and maybe you can ladder it, you know, maybe hey, for the first month, we're gonna go I just interviewed this guy, or actually he called into the show and said, hey, we are living on two incomes right now, and we want to go down to one income so that my wife can stay at home with the kids. How the heck do we do that? And we worked on it, and we said, what if you just ladder it? So you've got twelve months. Over those twelve months, go from you know, needing a hundred percent of her income down to zero and then progressively get used to it over that time, so that it's not such a ripped band aid. Yeah, and then you have that relationship absolutely. And we talked about this too that sometimes people will approach this as an either or like where do you land? Like is it better to focus on spending spending less or growing your income? But man, is it a powerhouse if you can combine the two and say let's do both. It may not be sustainable for long term, but if you've got a specific goal you want to accomplish, like paying off a mortgage is probably gonna be the most massive thing you ever try to pay off in your lifetime. Yeah, growing income and spending less my goodness. And then if yeah, if you can stick to a budget, like don't get excited about all that money and then spend it elsewhere, stick to your goal. But that's it's fantastic advice. And that's a big thing too. You know, when you're married, it's not just your idea, it's the collective of your ideas too. So, um, I don't mind spending a lot less, but my wife does. Right, So there was there was a point where I was like, all right, now, what can we do to max out r H S A and max out are four one K and our I like, what yeah you heard? Was like, dude, we paid off the mortgage, Like, let's have some fun. And that was sort of a moment for me where I was like, oh, you know what, You're right, let's let's do that. And if I want to keep going towards some other goals, like let's touch the other bucket of making more money. Right, So what can I do on a side hustle to make a little bit more money instead of just continuing to pull away with the spending less thing? Because I want to be married for a long time. I love my wife and this is effort. So yeah, any it's not about goal hopping or like just seeing which things that I can accomplish next. It's really about the journey and then getting those goals along the way. Any time management tidbits that you found in this as you are spending less and earning more income, Like to me, that sounds like, holy smokes, where am I going to find the time you have? Do you have any suggestions for people who are thinking like what could I add on top of my full time job? Well, first things first, if you are married, this is a conversation you need to have with your spouse before you do anything that draws more time away from your family. And that's a learning lesson for me. I've never done entrepreneurial stuff before until a couple of years ago. I've always been the career guy, and I still am. I'm doing both. Um. But before I started the doing some side hustle stuff, I talked with my wife and just said, hey, I'm going to get up early when you like sleeping in and the kids luckily sleep into. Um, I'm gonna try to crack out a couple hours of work, um on my side hustle stuff before I go to work every morning, and it shouldn't really affect our family life. UM. So that's the kind of time I carved out, just based on based on my family sleeping in a little bit. So I'll get up, you know, I get up at like six and get a couple of hours of work in and then I can help to get the kids ready for school, and then I'm at the office and um, I'm cranking out my day until six. And then UM, I usually just work maybe like a couple of hours or a couple of evenings per week, So usually Wednesdays and Thursdays but a big part of it is, you know, setting up those boundaries between work and family. So one practice that I learned from this this book that I read by Kurt Steinhorst, is what he calls minding the gap. So when I get home from work from my full time job, I come in, I take first to take a deep breath in the garage because I'm because I'm about to jump over that boundary of going from work guy to family guy. So I walk in and then the first thing I do, obviously is greet my family, but I say, hey, I need five minutes too, you know, change out of my work clothes, splash some water on my face. I'm gonna turn off my phone and put it away so that I'm not checking my email, not checking you know, text messages, social media. I want to focus my time on my family for the next three or four hours. And that's just sort of a practice that I do, and I've I've tried to keep really good at it. I do it of the time, depending on how crazy it is. But it's little practices like that that helped carve out the separation of of the important parts of your day. And yeah, I mean I like to talk about work like work like work life balance, and some people say it's a it's a myth. I think we can construct the lives that we want, um, based on our needs and our values. Um, it's uh, it's it's it's all up to us, and there's there's special ways to do it. A book that I just read called it was called Essential is m. I would highly highly recommend it if you something you read it. I just read it maybe a month ago. It's it's put a new perspective on my life. The one thing that he said that really resonated with me. He goes, there's so many opportunities for you to do things throughout the day, whether they're you know, opportunities that work, opportunities with friends and family, opportunities with a side hustle or a hobby. But if it's not a hell yes, that it needs to be a no. And I love that it's like unless, because there's so many things coming at us. So if it's not a hell yes, it's got to be an know. So you've got to align your priorities first. Does it align with my priorities? Does it align with my my goals, my family goals, my financial goals, and if it doesn't, then it's enough. Which I think just budgeting in general can help correlate to time budgeting. That's what we're talking about here too, giving every minute a place to go and making the most of it too. Right, So we probably all have an extra two hours in our day that if we're not budgeting it well, it gets wasted and we're not making the most of where we are in that moment. So to say that you are intentionally splashing water on your face, changing your clothes, now I've got three hours with family, to know that that's the time that you have with them, then it sounds like it's more intentional time, more focused, more interactive memory making, versus if you didn't have that plan in place, three hours could just go and it's like I didn't connect with my kids, I didn't connect with my wife or my husband. And so some of this, even incorporating new things into your schedule could almost help to create greater intentionality with the time that you do have. When you name every minute and name every dollar, like these skills can carry over into other aspects of life. That's a great point. I love that. That's awesome. I love I love that because we're the three of us are all into budgeting, right, so we named we name the dollars. But I love that naming the time. That's that's a really good insight. I got to it because of you, Andy. So this is you know, we need friends. It's a new revelation. We are crugal friends together. You know what else is really amazing? Um, I think I know what you're talking about, Chill. Is it the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week. Andy. We invite our listeners to share their favorite bills with us, and since you are a guest on the show today, we would love it if you would share your favorite bill uppercase or lower case on the show today. Do you have one for us? Oh? Yeah, So I I really like reading, and then I had kids, and so they don't they don't let me do that anymore. So my favorite, my favorite bill is Audible. I love listening to books on the road. I love listening to him while I'm running. I love listening to him on my commute to work. So it is a very worthwhile investment. It's you know Spotify type price, Netflix type price that they're really smart with that. It's like, it's like it shouldn't hurt that much. But then when you're like a mass, like seventeen of them, you're like, I like Audible. It helps me to um catch great books. You know. I chat with a lot of folks like you guys and get inspired by what we're talking about. Her book recommendations, and I love all the books that come out of this community that say, hey, this is something that's really gonna inspire you. Check this out. So it's something that I'm like, Yeah, was Essentialism your last Audible? Yes, like literally finished it maybe three weeks ago. I listened to it on audiobook too. I just I don't even have kids yet, and I can't read. Well. It's tough, you know what I mean. And when when you do find that time to read, it is so pleasant, just like whatever on a beautiful day, or just sitting there having a coffee or tea, whatever you like and just you know, relaxing. But sometimes that's yeah, and someone else's thoughts as long as they're positive influence. Yes, So if you have a bill like that that you want to share with us, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us a bill. Our bill tank is empty right now, and we're looking for good bills. You know, we're always in the market for good bills. You don't want to hear it when I share my bills. Has Bill Curtis been mentioned? Yes? From Yes, I knows my bill. Bill Curtis is my bill still my favorite bill still of all the bills, Bill Curtis. I think I think you need to have him on the show, so he could be your your voice over for that segment type good. That would be good. It would be my dream, it would be my dream. Well, let's get into our Lightning Round. It's not a real thing, but we saying that. I like it. We're still going to keep calling it. It's just what it really is, is like the second half of the episode, like, but we're calling it lightning Round. It's fun. Yeah, So I try to call it final thoughts, But Jill never says that. She always says lightning round, and I respect that it feels right and have a new name each time. It could just be something different. We just came off of the building, we're wrapping up. It feels like here we go. Let's get into it. Get back into it, lightning. Yeah. Anyhow, Andy, So if you could go back, we know you can't, so this is all fictitious. If you could go back and change anything and how you paid down debt, the way that you did it, what you prioritized, would you change any of that. I would spend more time being open with my communication with my wife. Sometimes I would have thoughts of how I would like to do things in my own rain and I would not share them very well with her, And she would have her own thoughts of what she'd like to do with the money as well in her brain, and she wouldn't share them with me. We needed to spend more time talking with each other. And something that we started doing just last year was marriage counseling, which has been awesome. In the beginning, I was thinking, oh, man, it's like marriage counseling is like when you're like failing in your marriage. Right. Nope, it's like a coach man. It's like, you know, if you want to exercise and get really fit, then you get with a fitness trainer. It's the same thing with our marriage counselor. She helps us to communicate better when we've got a six and four year old hanging on our legs. This is designated time for us to spend talking with each other and grow our marriage. I'm super excited about it. I look forward to going every month. Though. I like that plug because I am actually a therapist as well. So thanks for that plug. There doesn't have to be the stigma attached to it. Come see us will help give you another perspective. Mental health should be just as important as physical health. I agree. I love that. Uh write that on a bumper stick. I hate bumper cigars, you know I still love them. And then Andy, what do you have going on at marriage, kids and money? I love the podcast which I openly share, and uh, yeah, what can we expect going on over there in the future. Well, I every week on Monday, I have an episode and at the beginning of the month I answer listener questions and it's all about trying to help people build their young family wealth, so making more money, figuring out ways to grow your wealth and also to create a legacy for your kids for the future. That's the stuff that really excites me having those conversations. So I invite really smart experts to come on the show on the other three Mondays of the month so I can learn from them, share that knowledge with you, and then we we can all strengthen our family tree together. So the show happens every Monday. I also write a blog, and it's a great way for me to share some knowledge that I've learned and connect with you. So check it out Marriage Kids of Money dot com. Yeah, we really just scratched the surface on your tips for paying off debt and paying off your mortgage. There's so much more on your website, Marriage, Kids and Money dot com. It's really great. And yeah, you just had Chris Hogan on your podcast, Like yeah, yeah, absolutely, he's He is a super exciting guy. If you if you listen to the episode and you think there's something wrong with the audio, there's nothing wrong with the audio. That man has a booming voice. It's just that dat millionaires and any shared what the actual facts are about millionaires and some some shocking stuff. It's very cool. That's exciting. Yeah, you related back to how like married couples and couples with kids can can interpret that. So I love it, love what you're doing over there. Thank you so much for doing it. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thanks for joining us. Andy, good to hear from you. Absolutely any time. I look forward to the next invitation. Yes, it'll be there. Nice man, that was really good. What do you think about that? Jen? I love that Andy is so personable, so I'm really glad that he was able to come on our little podcast and dropped so much wisdom on on everybody listening. I did feel like that's what happened. It got dropped, and then I was sitting here like trying to catch it all. You know, you did think I caught most of it. It's why I'm wearing this like big, big shirt. And then I caught some of it in like the bottom of my shirt and the rest. You were just typing in the outline while he was talking. Did you hear that? I saw, I'm and I have to do right now. I wanted to make sure that our show notes had some of these wisdom tidbits that I'm catching in my shirt. The weird visual, weird visual, but yeah, you'll catch it in the show notes. If you're like, oh, that was good, I probably wrote it down for you. You're welcome. I'm like that overachiever sitting next to you in the classroom and you're like, yo, can I get your notes afterwards? And I'm like, yeah, if you pay me five bucks, little entrepreneur, you learned a little something about there. Anyhow, let's talk about our book club that's still happening. It's February. Welcome to February. We are reading Meet the Frugal Woods by Elizabeth Willard Thames. So that you pronounce it, yeah, close, I think close? Okay, So join us, because who doesn't like Meet the Frugal Woods. Yes, if you listen to our very first episode, you heard me refer to Mrs Frugal Woods Smith Willard Thames as the Queen of frugality. She is our queen, and she didn't call herself that, and nobody else call her calls her that, just me. So we are reading. Yeah, we're reading her book. And if you want a free copy, you can go in the running by leaving us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, screenshotting the review before you hit submit. And then sending that screenshot to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com after you hit submit, and we will select a winner for every five reviews, no limit, and we will announce it at the end of the month. See how many books we can give away and if you want to know an example of a helpful review. If you're sitting there like, yeah, I want to do this thing, but I need I need, I need some inspiration, I need an example, We've got it for you. So this one is from sit Nick. Very elusive name, not sure what it means, but love the review. They say nice and refreshing. I listened to a lot of money podcasts, and a lot of them are hosted either by dudes or by women who have it all together. This podcast is more relatable to me. I'm in my late twenties just trying to figure out how to be more frugal and pay off debt. The girls are fun to listen to and have great chemistry boom, sit thank you chemistry that it is very clear that we don't have it all together. I'm glad that you picked up on that. If there's any message we want you guys to get, it's that we're not perfect, and we're also not dudes. I was personally trying to hide it, but if I can't, then far far be it from me to pretend. Guys, thank you so much for listening. Definitely check out Andy's podcast, check out our show notes for any insight to what we were saying in today's episode, and then chat with us in the Frugal Friends community on Facebook at Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash group, and of course, as always, we're going to see you next week with another Frugal Friday, fun fantastic episode. See you then we'll be here. Join us by Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria. Mm hmmm, m m m m m m m m m m mmmm, getting some of that frugal goodness. It really is true that being a part of this community has and I don't know if inspired the right word. That sounds too dramatic, but it's helped me to do things that I probably would not have done if I weren't talking and listening about it and engaging with people who are doing like I thought that I was one of those people who was self motivated, and I think it's still true to some degree, but like, no, I can do this on my own. I don't need a community, but I am realizing that I'm accomplishing more than I would have if I would just be doing this on my own. I think friends and community always help, even for self motivated self starters. That, yeah, is if you've got someone in your corner, you go a little further. Yeah, it was cool. In one of Andy's podcasts, he talked about that too, of the things that he's accomplished since starting his podcast, not just since starting his frugal debt Free journey, but literally since starting his podcast, and what that's done to him. I think that'd be an interesting I mean, we're not in it too deep yet, but to think through, gosh, what have I done because of the podcast. I'm normally a frugal person that was frugal before we were friends, but I've definitely done things I probably wouldn't have done if it weren't for this. I know it's because of our book club book. This month that I stopped wearing makeup, and every time we record an interview, I am reminded of to question the choice I've made because you're seeing yourself in the video. Yeah. Yeah, but I think you look fantastic. I love the choice that you've made. It was a frugal decision thanks to Meet the Frugal Woods, and so if you so. If our listeners want to make the same frugal decision and constantly question it, go for it. Read the book. I mean, if I didn't look so young without I makeup, maybe I would consider it. It's just that it's already an uphill battle with people thinking that I'm so young, and it does something professionally, I think, yeah, I wouldn't want to be counted. Look yeah, I mean I'm not twenty one, but I like I look fourteen without I makeup on. So yeah, I mean not fourteen, like somewhere between sixteen and twenty. For sure. It looks like you could sit at a bar. Thank you. An. That's how I measure success, because whether or not I look like I can sit at a bar,