Denis O’Brien [0:37]
Welcome to Episode 207 Big Life Events. Hey money clan, a very warm welcome to the Chain of Wealth podcast. I’m your host, Denis O’Brien.
Katie Welsh [1:18]
And I’m Katie Welsh.
Denis O’Brien [0:50]
So Katie, quite an interesting episode today about how to handle your money when something comes around that can be unexpected at times.
Katie Welsh [0:58]
And it could be very exciting. So the idea for this show again, came off of another conversation I overheard on the shuttle tour.
Denis O’Brien [1:9]
We should start a podcast just on the conversations you over here on the shuttle,
Katie Welsh [1:13]
You know, with when the shuttle days end what are we going to talk about?
I don’t know.
Denis O’Brien [1:18]
Not going to have any content.
I know
Katie Welsh [1:20]
So this is another conversation that I overheard on the shuttle that kind of got me thinking.
Denis O’Brien [1:26]
Yeah, so before we dive right into today’s episode, we are looking to give away something special to someone in our audience. We’re asking you to guys to do a one thing in return though, if you guys could please take a screenshot of yourself listening to the Chain of Wealth podcast, and DM us on Instagram. It’s @chainofwealth on Instagram. And you could be a lucky winner. Alright Kate ready to dive right into]today’s show.
Katie Welsh [1:52]
Yeah,
Denis O’Brien [1:52]
Fantastic. Let’s do it.
Voice Over [1:54]
Welcome to Chain of Wealth. here’s your host, Denis inspiring you to begin your journey of financial freedom.
Denis O’Brien [2:8]
Alright Kate, you literally got me on the edge of my seat once again. What did you over hear on the shuttle bus?
Katie Welsh [2:14]
Okay, so actually, this came, I was late for work today. And this is not a common occurrence. But while I was on my way to work, like literally 10 cars infront of me, I guess there’s like this massive car accident and they shut down like half of the major road. And I drive with my phone in my trunk. Basically just I don’t need it because I can Bluetooth anything that I need. So they rerouted us all through the neighborhood and everything and I am like a one shot kind of girl like I know one way to get to work. And if you take me off of that, then I am lost.
Denis O’Brien [2:57]
Yeah. But to be fair, you’re on like a major highway all the way there so.
Katie Welsh [3:0]
Yeah, so I was kind of just, you know, going along, hoping the guy in front of me knew where he was going. And I was just like, oh, my goodness was poor person. It’s a Monday morning. And they like so many fire trucks and ambulances and police officers like my heart went out for these poor people. I hope they were okay. So I was thinking about that. And then I finally got onto the shuttle. And I’m a little panicky, because I’m late and I’m never late. And I hear the girls behind me talking and they obviously knew each other very well. And I have seen them, but I don’t know them. And the one girl was talking about how I presume her boyfriend are buying a house.
Right.
And they are again, I presume there’s are all my context clues from eavesdropping. I presume that they are living in his family home. And then they are buying this house and she is all packed up. Mainly because she didn’t unpack really because I think she has only been living there for a short period of time. And this is his childhood home.
Denis O’Brien [4:17]
Right.
Katie Welsh [4:18]
And he has not packed anything.
Denis O’Brien [4:21]
Wow, so.
Katie Welsh [4:23]
And all like all I really wanted to say I want to turn around be like girlfriend. You know you’re packing all that stuff, don’t you? Like, let’s be realistic here.
Denis O’Brien [5:0]
Wait hold on, so are they buying a home together.
Katie Welsh [4:33]
I think they did. I think they did. I think they’re closed because she said they’re closing on Friday. Oh, so those are my context clues for what I want to talk about was big life, things coming up. Now, moving in with a boyfriend or girlfriend can be a really exciting thing.
Denis O’Brien [4:56]
Yeah, I mean, like you did that when you came up to live in DC with me.
Katie Welsh [5:0]
Yeah. And I was so excited. And you know, and I’m bringing back the horrific car accident too, because you need to have money, like stored it up. Because you never know what life is going to bring. I’m sure that person who left for work today was not expecting to be in such a bad car accident that half the highway was closed because of them. So you need to have money saved up. But let’s be a little bit more lighthearted. Because I am a firm thinker that most people listening to Chain of Wealth are probably in their car. And we don’t want to talk about horrific car accident.
Denis O’Brien [5:38]
Yeah. So if you are gonna DM us that thing on Instagram, please stop when you get to work.
Katie Welsh [5:43]
Don’t do it while you’re driving. So anyway, so moving in with each other? What are some costs that are associated with moving because I’m not a stranger to moving, and you’re sort of not a stranger to moving. What are some things that people if you haven’t really moved before, or you haven’t had to pay for it? What are some things that we could really help prepare them?
Denis O’Brien [6:10]
So Kate, I think that the first thing that I’m going to say for this topic is, whatever you think you’re going to spend, you probably
Katie Welsh [6:18]
Are wrong.
Denis O’Brien [6:18]
Are wrong,
Katie Welsh [6:19]
And your going to spend more.
Denis O’Brien [6:21]
And it’s probably going to cost more than what you think it will. And that’s for a very simple reason is that this isn’t something you do all the time,
Katie Welsh [6:27]
Right.
Denis O’Brien [6:28]
So when it comes to movings in particular, like there’s, there’s costs that add up with the things that you can control. So maybe you can choose whether you’re going to buy brand new boxes, or go find somebody that’s got boxes, you know, and if you’re buying brand new boxes, you’re going to pay a fortune for it, but there’s a convenience aspect. So there’s always the way to pay yourself out of a situation, you can always pay a way out of something with convenience, you know, the problem with that, though, is it can cost lots of money. So if you were to buy a whole bunch of boxes that are cost you a lot of money, if you want to hire a really big U-Haul it’ll cost you a lot of money. If you want to movers to move stuff for you, that will cost you a lot of money. Or you could do it all yourself. And you know, you’ll probably get done, you know, and you’ll be very tired after it. But just it give you an idea of something that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to pay for the cost of breakage, you know, inevitably when you move stuff, somethings going to break and it could be something cheap, you know, like maybe a glass you know, and there’s no big deal with breaking a glass or it could be something sentimental like some crystal, you know that someone gave to you and that means a lot to sentimentally and and value as well. So there’s this hidden cost to moving just on that side of breakage. But there’s a million other costs that can creep up.
Katie Welsh [7:42]
Yeah, when I think I don’t know why my brain always go straight to food. But when you are moving, typically you hire and I usually would hire loosely your friends. And then usually payment is in the form of
Denis O’Brien [8:1]
Food.
Katie Welsh [8:1]
Pizza and beer.
Denis O’Brien [8:2]
Beer,
Katie Welsh [8:3]
Usually what it is. But if you have like 10 friends that come and help you move. That is not cheap, because when on a few occasions. When we eat pizza, we do like a DiGiorno frozen pizza, because its so much more cost effective.
Denis O’Brien [8:21]
Right.
Katie Welsh [8:22]
But when you order a pizza, and if you’re feeding a bunch of people it’s going to be expensive. And that a pizza a couple of pizzas alone could easily be $100. That maybe that’s just because where we live is super expensive.
Denis O’Brien [8:37]
I don’t think so I think that’s just the cost.
Katie Welsh [8:39]
Yeah, so that is also like an added cost that you don’t really think about and then going and buying you know, a 24 pack of beer, that if it’s good beer could run you a little bit.
Denis O’Brien [8:52]
Yeah and let’s be honest, you don’t have any pots and pans or anything else because that’s all packed away at this point. So you got to go out and buy some plastic cutlery and crockery. And, you know, like, the point is, is that there are these added costs at every little juncture when it comes to a big life event like moving that you can’t always anticipate. So, right before we dive into how you can sort of start planning for that. I’d like to take a very quick break and say a very big thanks to our sponsor. Are you looking to get ahead in life Savvyi Financial is an awesome tool that may be right for you. It’s completely free and is backed by a team of MIT trained data scientists, they’ve developed an app that Kate and I both love. And it connects to all of your accounts and makes money easy. You don’t have to pay a financial advisor, thousands of dollars for one on one time to learn how to manage your money these days, Savvi Financial can do it all for you. And it’s as easy as looking at a screen and planning out a goal. Kate and I ourselves, we’re looking to buy a home. So we put that as a goal for ourselves. And Savvi Financial let us know that we are on track based on what we’re currently doing. And it can give you an idea as to how much you end up saving up by whatever date. It is a fantastic tool, I highly recommend you guys check it out. And it’s free, the base cost is totally free. So why wouldn’t you try it out? You can claim this offer. Head on over to chainofwealth.com/savvi. That’s chainofwealth.com/savvi]S A V V I Savvi Financial, make your money work for you. Alright Kate, so now that we’re back from the break, do you have some ideas as to how we can actually sort of anticipate these costs?
Katie Welsh [10:44]
Yes, first and foremost plan and I heard this girl it made my heart sing. Because although her boyfriend is completely ill prepared. Girlfriend is not. And she is collecting boxes and she like put the word out to everybody. And she’s getting all of her boxes used and as you said before, boxes, surprisingly can really run you up because yeah, it is weird. It’s one of those weird things like you wouldn’t think would be expensive.
Denis O’Brien [11:16]
Yeah, and you’re buying stuff on Amazon. You’re like, Oh, it’s another free box.
Katie Welsh [11:18]
Yeah. Save them if you’re going to move along even was like packaging tape. If you’re moving like a whole house. Your going to need a lot of tape and packaging tape. Yeah, it’s 8 bucks for a roll. But if you need 2 rolls, or 3 rolls, suddenly
Denis O’Brien [11:37]
Or 10 rolls.
Katie Welsh [11:38]
If you need 10 rolls of tape,
Denis O’Brien [11:40]
It depends on how much stuff you have.
Katie Welsh [12:10]
You either A. have too much stuff or you are overtaping.
Denis O’Brien [11:44]
If you’re moving like a whole family. 100%, you could definitely be using 10 rolls.
Katie Welsh [11:49]
Real? I guess you’re right. Yeah. So that that’s a lot of money just in itself. So I was really happy to eavesdrop hear that she was collecting her boxes. So plan what you’re going to do. And obviously another big one, and this is a hard one for me because I love having a full refrigerator. Eat up all your food before you move.
Denis O’Brien [12:10]
That’s such a critical one.
Katie Welsh [12:11]
It is and it’s so hard, because you know all the good stuff goes first. And then you get left with the crumbly things and like lived in the back of your cabinet for who knows how long and it possibly might have legs growing out of it. Okay, if it has legs, maybe don’t eat it. But towards the end, it’s really hard to not order takeout. Because you have all the stuff you don’t really want to eat leftover. So make sure you eat all your food. And that way, it’s also nice when you’re in your new place. You can go grocery shopping for all your new stuff.
Denis O’Brien [13:16]
Yeah, and your money will go a lot further.
Katie Welsh [12:49]
Yeah,
Denis O’Brien [12:49]
Yeah, and you know, just carting around stuff that you don’t actually need, Kate, you know the thing is, there’s a lot of stuff you can do as well, like try and downsize a little bit before you move might be a good idea. There’s tons of stuff you can do. But let’s take a bit of more of a holistic view. We always advocate having an emergency fund and that’s 3 to 6 months of savings depending on where you are on your journey. That’s a lot of money that you could have saved up. And you know, that could be used for a time like this.
Katie Welsh [13:16]
Exactly.
Denis O’Brien [13:17]
You know, because like moving, it’s suddenly a massive financial cost to you. And
Katie Welsh [13:22]
Hopefully it’s not an emergency though.
Denis O’Brien [13:24]
Well, hopefully it’s not an emergency. But you can still start tapping into that fund if you need to. And then quickly rebuild up your emergency fund,
Katie Welsh [13:31]
Right.
Denis O’Brien [13:31]
That’s the whole purpose of an emergency fund. It’s money, that if there’s something big that you need to fund you can.
Katie Welsh [13:38]
Right and you don’t have to put it on credit and then
Denis O’Brien [13:40]
Exactly.
Katie Welsh [13:41]
Let it live on your credit card for like if you want to use your credit card to get the points. That’s a different story completely, but you don’t want it to have to you don’t care about your credit card, and then it live there for 3 4 5 6 months.
Denis O’Brien [13:54]
Yeah, exactly. And even talking about that other situation that you spoke about earlier, the car accident so that that person was involved in the car accident. Hopefully they’re okay, hopefully there’s nothing wrong. However, if something was wrong, you know, maybe there’s medical bills, maybe there is co-pay for the insurance on the car or a decuctible.
Katie Welsh [14:14]
Even the deductible on a car $500
Denis O’Brien [14:15]
$500 is a lot of money for people that don’t have it.
Katie Welsh [14:18]
Exactly.
Denis O’Brien [14:48]
And most Americans do not have $1,000 in their emergency fund. So that just goes to show how dire straits we really are.
Katie Welsh [14:26]
Yeah, so make sure that you have that emergency fund funded, Den. So then let’s take a step back.
Denis O’Brien [14:36]
Right.
Katie Welsh [15:6]
Because what if, you know, you’re not moving for a couple of months? We’re all gonna knock on some wood, that we’re not gonna get in a car accident tomorrow.
Denis O’Brien [14:48]
Yeah.
Katie Welsh [14:49]
But we need to start our emergency fund, what is the first step, even if you have debt, even if you know life goes on, even if you are making payments towards something, but you know, a car accident or something? An emergency is not going to wait, what advice do you have for somebody.
Denis O’Brien [15:6]
Kat this comes down to like budgeting 101. And the first thing that you should do in budgeting, you know, obviously jot down how much money you going to bring in, your first expense should be paying yourself. So when it comes to paying yourself, there’s a couple different ways you can do it. Like number one could be, you know, like your retirement funds so your 401k or something that’s like maybe an IRA, whatever it is, the other thing could be an emergency fund is trying to build up that emergency fund. And you can sort of determine how aggressive you want to be in terms of how much money you want to put into it. And once you’ve done that, whatever money is left over, that should really go towards your bills. If you find that you have more bills, and you have money left over, you need to re-evaluate your life and determine what’s important, like Is it really necessary that you’re paying $110 on your cell phone plan, where you could be paying $50?
Katie Welsh [15:58]
And a little side note there, a lot of times when you call and just ask for it to be lowered. They do it.
Denis O’Brien [16:4]
Yeah. Because they know the value of you as a customer, rather have you as a customer paying less than lose you all together.
Katie Welsh [16:10]
Well, and that’s not to completely get off track here. But that’s a life lesson in anything, because so many times I’ve had an electric bill or a water bill or some sort of cable bill for my internet, and they just would randomly raise it. And I would call and all you have do is, politely say hi, I would like it to be this much. And a lot of times they will give you a little uphill. But they usually do drop it a little bit for you.
Denis O’Brien [16:42]
Yeah. And because that long customer lifetime value that they associate with you they’d rather have you as a customer then not.
Katie Welsh [16:49]
Exactly. Little life hack.
Denis O’Brien [16:51]
Yeah. So that’s definitely one thing you can do any other ideas if you’re trying to put money towards an emergency fund?
Katie Welsh [16:58]
Well, a little bit of a fun way, maybe not as aggressive as what you were talking about. But my mom and I used to do the 52 week challenge. Are you familiar with it?
Denis O’Brien [17:9]
I am, yeah,
Katie Welsh [17:9]
Whoever is not familiar with it, you can do it one of two ways. You pick a certain amount. So we would start with $1. And the first week we would save $1. And then the second week, we have saved $2. And then the third week would save $3 do you see the pattern going?
Denis O’Brien [17:30]
I do. Yeah.
Katie Welsh [17:31]
Okay. Now I know
Denis O’Brien [17:32]
It could have gone to 4. So I wasn’t to sure. I don’t know if we were doubling or if we’re just adding one.
Katie Welsh [18:7]
Well you could double it too you could even triple it.
Denis O’Brien [17:41]
That would be an expensive exercise.
Katie Welsh [17:42]
Well, that’s my point. So it gets to the point when you’re getting up to like $20 and $40. Like it starts to get a little bit more intense.
Denis O’Brien [17:52]
Yeah.
Katie Welsh [17:53]
Or you could flip it because it’s a little easier if you start at this way. You start with the 52. And then the next week you do 51. And then the next week you do 50.
Denis O’Brien [18:4]
Right
Katie Welsh [18:4]
And then 49. And do you see this pattern going.
Denis O’Brien [18:7]
I got this pattern this time.
Katie Welsh [18:9]
And that is just like, obviously, you can twist it and turn it to however you want. You could do it every other week, you could do you know, different increments like just what my mom and I would do when I was younger. And it was a lot of fun.
Denis O’Brien [18:25]
And yeah, I like you can keep track with each other and having that accountability partner is kinda fun.
Katie Welsh [18:29]
It was it was fun,
Denis O’Brien [18:59]
Near the end of it you can have money for Christmas or something.
Katie Welsh [18:32]
Yeah. And, and that’s what we did use it for we started in about Augustish. And granted, that’s obviously not 52 weeks, but we would slowly build it and then we would take that money and that would be our holiday fund
Denis O’Brien [19:46]
Right.
Katie Welsh [19:47]
Yeah.
Denis O’Brien [19:47]
So it’s more like a 20 week challenge, or even 16 week. I forget the math, but like whatever
Katie Welsh [18:55]
It was something.
Denis O’Brien [18:55]
In any case, like small little habits like that can make a massive impact.
Katie Welsh [18:59]
Yeah. And it was really nice when we were able to finally spend the money because mentally in our minds, we weren’t spending money that we needed.
Denis O’Brien [19:10]
Yeah, that makes sense.
Katie Welsh [19:11]
Now is it the best idea to always have a bunch of cash laying around your house?
Denis O’Brien [19:46]
Maybe not.
Katie Welsh [19:47]
Maybe not.
Denis O’Brien [19:47]
Yeah,
Katie Welsh [19:19]
But if you are starting from nothing, then I definitely think that that is a good way to get a grip going.
Denis O’Brien [19:25]
Yeah, and I’m gonna throw another one out there just before we close out. That’s side hustle, pick up an extra job, you know, if you pick up an extra job, whatever money you make, that’s on top of what you ordinarily make so you can put that money towards something good. Alright Kate, it’s been a very fun episode. And yeah, guys, we would love to hear from you. Don’t forget to DM us on Instagram. It’s @chainofwealth.
Katie Welsh [19:46]
But not while you are driving.
Denis O’Brien [19:47]
Take a Screenshot. Let us know if you enjoyed today’s show. Catch you on the flip side.
