[Music] well welcome you guys and happy New Year it still feels like the new year three days in which is very exciting I'm ready for 2024 and I'm excited that you're back hey back here H it's a January tradition it is I know and people love this video and we're going to keep at it because the tradition is great so we always start the new year with a video with you and talking about things to do with our and so 2023 had some highs had some lows 2023 I think I think the housing market for a lot of people was probably a low people were like oh my gosh what is happening that's one uh the student loan you know the whole thing I guess depending on where you fall and in the discussion it was either a high or low but people that were expecting the the Forgiveness did not happen in 2023 uh there was a lot I just feel like kind of going on people I do feel like held their money A little bit the the scare of a recession kept looming in 2023 uh interest rates were up yeah it was an interesting year yeah it was it's tough for a lot of people yeah student loan payments had to start back and um and in some cases the house they thought they were going to be able to do they couldn't do and so there's a lot of disappointment going those two things M for sure but it's a New Year yay I know so we'll see what happens because no matter what you guys whether it's the economy the government all of it we really do believe that you can put yourself in a place today financially where you are prepared for whatever this year lies right and we have no idea it's an election year too in November so like there's just a lot that could be happening so we want to make sure that you're in a place where you feel financially secure in your own home because that's what you can control which is huge so we've made a list of eight things to do differently with your money in 2024 so we're going to walk through these things make sure that you feel fully equipped to take control of your money this year so uh I'll go first okay first one get on the same page with your your spouse this is this is the one that people hate me for I had a couple of Reals in 2023 about this subject and they went into the millions and the comments were like who is this woman of course a woman would say that I mean it was just like every comment was like rolling their eyes at me people hate this idea of combining money with your spouse and you guys I'm telling you the what's so fascinating to me is people that come in and do their debt free screams or they hit a financial goal together if they're married we hear it all the time they're like you know we did this we did this you know our marriage has never been better like they put their marriage in the list when they're talking about their money and it's funny because we're not talking about their marriage right we talk about money and and combining things yes and being on the same page but yet the outcome is that they are closer they are closer in their relationship when they hit financial goals because they are working together because they see themselves as one so in 2024 I would challenge you encourage you if you haven't already with your spouse get on the same page you guys have a goal that you're you're working towards together combine your accounts don't it's not his income her income does she have the right to do this does he have the right to do that I mean all that language like throw it out the window and see yourselves as one as one team because that's a key part of winning financially and it helps your marriage well the data says if you don't agree with that you're wrong that's what the data says I mean our study of millionaires found that out of all the millionaires we studied one of the key things they said that caused them to be able to build wealth was working together with their spouse the data says the number one CA of divorce in North America today money fights and money problems well guess what that's people who are not aligned on where their money's going they're not talking about it they've not combine things it's just like you're over there in the corner doing stupid stuff and I'm throwing grenades at you and we get a divorce as a result so you know I I don't you know some of you have little Independence problems or you got other kind of little philosophical issues or something but you're just wrong it's just wrong okay it's not morally wrong it just doesn't work longm okay and the data's in I always have the aster you guys if you're in a situation that there's an addiction that's not being dealt with there's abuse I you don't combine money with that yeah yeah yeah I mean if there are things that are harmful that you have to protect yourself we are all for that all for that but if you're just the run-in the-mill couple with not a perfect marriage but you're just doing life like you guys combine your money so do that differently in 2024 next it's probably one of my favorites yeah get on a budget get on a budget get a plan no one accidentally wins the Super Bowl the World Series or the World Cup it's not an accident no one accidentally is successful at business no one accidentally has a successful marriage and no one accidentally builds wealth it doesn't happen it's with a plan and the plan on a monthly weekly basis is called a budget write it down get on every dollar get on there with your spouse be in agreement and when you're aligned on that if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time you know and my friend John Maxwell says a budget is people telling their money what to do instead of wondering where went for 35 years I've been encouraging people to do this and for 35 years I've been hearing people say you know Dave we get on a budget we felt like we got a raise you got to try it yeah and regardless of income too because I think some people think well if I make x amount I don't need to budget but that x amount of income that you could be using for your future needs a purpose like you could look up in five years and like oh my gosh we just made a lot of money we have no clue where it went right so I mean regardless of income regardless of debt level anything you guys do a budget most successful parts of Ramsey you know tens of millions of dollars inside of Ramsey they do a budget a business budget I mean they're doing a budget on their p&l this is what we're projecting our revenues and our expenses to be the more money you make the more you've got to do it that's right that's right so stay on that and next is to pay off your student loans so again I feel like the government led us on a wild goose chase the last year or two with promises and all this stuff but you guys it's here and it's one of the types of debt that I feel like people do just kind of hang on to it's just it's like it's just there I think because it's so normal everyone has it you guys get motivated to get this out of your life like it is time this year is time to get rid of it or to create a plan to get rid of it we want all of your debt gone but for some reason the student loan is like the sticky one it's the one that kind of just ends up being around and people just kind of are apathetic to it but get motivated to get it out of your life and get that payment back in your life and you don't have to worry about student loans anymore it's done it's done all right up next is protect the emergency fund yes people will want to dip into this let me help you with this okay if it's not an emergency you don't use the emergency fund I mean day we're getting a couch that's not an emergency we need a bass boat that's not an emergency Christmas Christmas is not an emergency it's always in December they don't move it it's always in the same spot so these are not emergencies an emergency is an unexpected event and I can tell you this the more planning you do the more budget in do you do the more margin there gets to be in your money the less likely you are for something to be declared an emergency Yeah the more likely you are to cash flow it out of the budget I blew a tire well let's cash flow that out of the car repairs instead of out of the emergency fund but you can't do that until you've been doing this a little while that's right but the more you do this stuff the more you've got everything dialed in the more wiggle room there is in the budget you okay we got a decent car repair fund over here so we don't have to touch the emergency fund even though that is an unexpected event for a blown tire right so so don't mess with the emergency fund it is not it's it's there for one thing and one thing only it's not an investment it's it's Insurance to give your life peace yeah and it's funny because once you have it around for a while it something does kind of like when you first have it and something happens you're like oh God thank God it's there and you use it and you got to replenish it and all of it but once it's been there for a while and you kind of go through life you when something does come up it is funny how you naturally are like can we have a way not to touch it that's how I am I'm like can we do anything and not have to touch that money because it becomes such a security to you that you're like I don't want to touch it so we haven't touched ours at Sharon and Dave in decades yeah Lally you still have one we got lots of margin yeah number one number two uh we're just not as you know we just don't let drama intersect our finances like we used to y y yeah and the margin probably creates less drama at a time for sure so one of the things I always hate thinking about what if something happens to me what if something happens to my husband Winston what's going to happen to the family there is a great solution you guys that really takes that part of worrying and stress and the not good feeling kind of puts it at ease and that is term life insurance and Winston and I personally use Xander insurance and they're the best they make the whole process you guys so easy you give them your information and they go and they shop the top rated companies for the best policy for you and your family's needs so no one should go without term life ins insurance so go check out Xander Insurance just go to zander.com to make sure that your family's future is taken care of all right number five try out a new side hustle and create more margin in your budget so the baby steps especially those of you that are like okay this year is my year I'm going to get on track I'm going to be doing this stuff I'm going to follow the ramsy baby steps I'm going to do it one of the best ways to especially get through your first three baby steps is you got to look at both sides you got to look at your income and your expenses but your income can change drastically like you can be able to say hey I have the power to take four nights a week and go do a part-time job to take a full Saturday maybe every Saturday for the next five months and I'm going to work eight hours like you have the ability to say hey where where do I have margin in my time that I can fill up and get that part-time job get that side hustle so there's so many great ways I mean there's there's so much that we talk about when it comes to side hustles but I think one of the best things you can do is like what are you naturally good at what are the things that you're naturally good at that you can charge for that you can say Hey you know I can tutor I can be um you know do Sports is like a thing my kids are at that age of like sports and people pay to have someone come in and and help with their Sports so I'm like if you were an athlete back in the day like what do you know what skills do you have like think about what you have anything in those rooms of income but then also it's a great we have a great world for side hustles so whether it's Uber you know a grocery delivery serves anything you can do to pick up extra money to get some extra cash especially for those first three baby steps 2024 it's your year get that side hustle yeah and here's the thing 98% of the people that stand on our stage and do a debt free scream their income went up during the journey yeah which means they either changed jobs took on overtime uh Andor added side hustles so we always see an increase in income even if it's a temporary increase in order to punch that debt in the face that's right that's right prior prioritize contentment is the next one contentment Rachel and I have written about this a lot teaching children that you've got the contentment Journal um here's the thing when you don't have to have it all of a sudden it changes everything it might be godliness with contentment is great gain contentment might be the most powerful Financial principle there is when you're content you can avoid debt when you're content you can get out of debt when you're content you have margin to be generous when you're content you have margin to invest but when you're just consume consume consume consume consume and you're just living in the in the in the basket of materialism that's the opposite of contentment you you can you can't make enough money to live like that you can't make enough money to out earn your stupidity and so you know this idea of it's going to be okay it's just some stuff get you some stuff we're not against stuff but this idea that stuff is going to make you happy is a joke yeah and it's an it's exhaust in that that race purs of const it's constant because there's always going to be something you guys there's always going to be something and I think because of even social media it's a dopamine hit Yeah in our world I'm like you just are flooded with stuff all the time so like it's so tiring versus just laying it down and be like okay I'm done I'm good I'm good I'm good that contentment it's huge number seven which kind of Coes into that contentment piece is to be aware of Lifestyle creep so one quarter of the top 10% of tax filers so people that make approximately $175,000 a year identifi themselves as poor very poor or getting by but things are tight and we all rolled our eyes and said oh brother just then oh my gosh so it's just it is wild how you can just uh learn to to live up to that edge of what you're making I was watching there was a real and it was some guy sorry dude I don't know who you are but it was really good because he was just saying he he's worth like I don't know $30 million or whatever he was saying and he was like yeah I I get the car buy the buy the crazy cool car and I'm happy for a week and then that goes down and then I go you and he's he's like and he's like I've chased Chas he's like I've done it all and it's not and the guy interviewing I was like so what makes you happy it's fishing with my friends like when me and my buddies go out like that's what I enjoy like I enjoy being with my PE like he was just saying it's like the stuff money can't buy and there was something about that that you think oh my gosh if I could just make X you know for and he said this he was like for a period of time yeah it's awesome like if you're a $100,000 guy and I bump you up to 200,000 yeah you'll be happy but then you're going to get used to that 200,000 and then you're be like well what's the next thing what's the next thing because that Finish Line keeps moving and what happens with lifestyle creep is you get that raise you bump up the lifestyle you get the raise you bump up the lifestyle and you think like oh my gosh I thought that raise would give me margin give me peace but you didn't check your spending and your lifestyle so keeping that portion small living below your means you guys if you're not doing that 2024 is your year to do that lifestyle creep it's so easy it's so sneaky but be so purposeful especially if you're getting a raise of what you're doing with that because if you just live up to that raise you're going to be in the exact position you are today number eight buy a house only when you're ready calm down oh my goodness people go completely berserk about buying houses I want you to get a house our data says that home home ownership is a key part of becoming wealthy so longterm you need to get a home when you buy a home improperly it slows down your wealth building it adds stress to your life the home is not a blessing it is a curse impr properly is a couple of things so let's just say what properly is and then anything that's not that number one you need to be out of debt before you buy a house I don't care you need to be out of debt before you buy a house period the Heat A's going to go out the roof's going to leak as soon as you move in and you got payments everywhere but you thought this house was going to be it's not you just added a mess to your life if you have a student loan Sally May needs her own bedroom don't do that don't buy a home until you're out of debt the second thing is you need your emergency fund in place so that when that heat and air goes out you can fix it because you don't know home ownership is more expensive on a monthly basis than renting cuz the landlord fixes all the broken stuff so it is more expensive in the short term over the scope of your life with the increases in values that's where the wealth building comes but if you're starving to death right then because you didn't have an emergency fund and you had debt that's silly and then when you do buy don't buy more than a 15-year mortgage and don't buy where the payment is more than a fourth of your take-home pay well it isn't the house I I'm sorry buy a house you can afford and then it'll be a blessing and it'll be part of your wealth building plan the problem with houses is it's such a big number number that when you do it wrong it clobbers you when you do it right it blesses you there's really no middle ground there's nobody that just goes oh I just squeaked by I mean you really you're going to do it right it's going to be a big good deal or you're going to do it wrong it's going to be a big bad deal for you so you've got to stay away from the housing market until you're ready so good all right you guys those eight things hopefully you will do different in 2024 to set yourself up but just remember these two things number one there's always hope okay regardless of where you are financially right now we meet people literally every single day I mean millions of people have walked through this plan and can we just tell you every income level every debt level every uh background every marital status number of kids I mean any situation you can imagine we have seen and every situation some take longer than others but they have the ability to change what they've been doing which is number two that you hold the power to change your circumstances so there is hope to that and you have the ability to change and change is uncomfortable change is hard it's weird when you do something new it's not fun because you're like I don't really know what to expect like it's it just feels off and it will feel off for a bit but then you actually start to gain traction and you start to win and that's what it is you guys and listen yeah life may be unfair right there's there's going to be times where things are harder things are easier for you but regardless of where you are you have to start somewhere and that is now so use that list we just walked through be patient this is a Marathon it is not a Sprint but you are able to do this and we see it all the time that hope and that change it is such a reality for people so if you need one tangible practical step make sure to sign up for our budgeting app every dollar this is the thing that's going to launch you into this plan because a budget really is your road map it is the thing that is going to help you dayto day literally week to week month to month to know where you are and it's going to help you walk through the baby steps it's going to help you change the things we talked about here on this video so make sure to check it out I'll put a link in the show notes to learn more all right you guys that's it Dave thanks for coming by again that was fun Dad I know I love always starting the new annual tradition the new year off with you and we're so excited for you guys this can be a great year for you financially but make sure to share this video with a friend who loves setting up goals for the new year maybe they're kind of struggling with money and you're like hey here's some helpful tips and you guys can do the journey together so remember you guys to take control of your money and create a life you [Music] love
