Moving To The US And Taking Out EVERY Credit Card Possible

Summary

Financial Audit Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Moving To The US And Taking Out EVERY Credit Card Possible
Date: October 7, 2023
Host: Caleb Hammer
Guests: Rabab (28, medical graduate from Pakistan) & Salman (31, technical product manager)
Location: Round Rock, Texas

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Overview: Main Theme and Purpose

In this Financial Audit episode, Caleb Hammer sits down with Rabab and Salman, a married couple navigating personal finance after moving to the US. The episode deeply examines how lifestyle, career changes, and the realities of credit card usage and debt accumulation intertwine—especially amid major life transitions like international relocation and marriage. Through candid conversation, the couple and Caleb dissect household budgeting, debt repayment, the dangers of over-leveraging on credit, and culturally influenced support systems, all aiming to educate and entertain listeners on responsible financial management.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Background & Income (00:00–03:01)

• Rabab: Medical doctor from Pakistan, prepping for US residency exams; she has no student debt, thanks to her family.
• Salman: Technical product manager in tech. Recently moved from a startup to a higher-paying position, now earning ~$9,200/month net.
• Household Status: Newer to Round Rock, Texas. Rabab immigrated two years ago; Salman has been in the US since 2009. Newly married (1.5 years).

“That’s exciting because in residency… at least you don’t have to pay to do residency. You get paid a little bit.” — Caleb, (00:37)

2. Debt Origins and Credit Card Usage (03:06–09:47)

• Past Financial Position: Salman previously held $270k in investments; used credit cards to bridge unemployment instead of cashing out investments immediately (concerned about tax implications).
• Economic downturn and a prolonged job search led to asset liquidation after market losses, not at the peak.
• Marriage and Debt: Rabab entered marriage with no debts. Salman’s risk tolerance contributed to increased debt after the layoff and wedding expenses.
• Contracting Work: Salman didn’t collect unemployment to keep steady employment history.

“The tallest blade of grass gets cut first.” — Salman on being laid off (02:44)
“...I started to just use credit cards thinking that, hey, a month from now I’ll have a job...” — Salman (06:58)

3. Mindset Shifts & Communication (09:49–13:03)

• Rabab is focused on essentials, not luxury or lifestyle inflation, prioritizing debt repayment and future stability.
• The couple discussed how debt influenced their goals, but feel aligned in their frugal approach.
• Caleb emphasizes that using credit cards responsibly is a rare skill and critical self-awareness is needed.

“You are not a credit card person at all.” — Caleb, (12:19)
“I’m just focused on studying and building my own career right now.” — Rabab (10:44)

4. Credit Card & Debt Breakdown (13:04–24:55)

• Main Debts:
  • Chase Sapphire: $7,981 balance, $247 min payment, $147/month in interest.
  • Amex Gold: $31,449, reduced to 9% interest under a 4-year payment plan, $209/month interest, $790/month minimum.
  • Best Buy: $3,819, recent purchases after moving, losing $85/month to interest.
  • Apple Card: $2,422, plan to pay off by end of month.
  • Student Loans: $2,000 (4.4% interest), to be paid last.
• Other: No car loan (used, fully owned car); Macy’s and Citi cards are already paid off; monthly total minimum payments are significant ($1,813.75).

“We are not very brand conscious people.” — Rabab (10:52)
“Wall Street Journal is the newspaper…but why are we putting it on a card that’s just cruising?” — Caleb (11:45)

5. Spending Habits & Subscriptions (24:56–28:52)

• Spending Review: High spend via Venmo for used furniture after moving; multiple small recurring charges (news subscriptions, Spotify, pet grooming, apps).
• Cat expenses significant due to breed’s grooming/sedation needs. No pet insurance yet—an area for cost saving.
• Lifestyle: Eating out massively reduced since following the podcast; now only groceries and essentials.

“You have tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt… and we decide smart bulbs are more important.” — Caleb (16:55)

6. Cultural Factors: Family Support (43:25–46:25)

• Salman sends $1,000/month to parents, a custom shared by his siblings.
• His father experienced devastating loss in a real estate investment in Dubai, which now impacts their family’s financial stability.
• The couple are motivated to build their retirement to avoid a dependence cycle with their own children.

“The day our children are born… $20,000 into the college fund, day one.” — Salman (46:47)

7. Budgeting & Repair Plan (39:11–58:57)

• Bare Bones Monthly Budget (major expenses):
  • Rent: $1,725
  • Utilities (inc. internet): ~$210
  • Groceries: $500
  • Cat expenses: $52
  • Car insurance: $50
  • Gas: $200
  • Medical/insurance: $450
  • Family remittance: $1,000
  • Minimum debt payments: $1,814
• Strategy:
  • Build one-month emergency fund ($6k) immediately in high-yield savings
  • Aggressive debt snowball: pay off cards by order (Apple, Best Buy, Chase Sapphire, Amex Gold, Bank of America—which may increase payoff period)
  • Target: all bad debts cleared plus a six-month emergency fund in about 1.5 years, barring unforeseen events.
  • Once debt-free: save/invest 25%+ of income, build towards retirement and college funds.

“A year and a half and it’s completely done. Then… you guys will retire multimillionaires by the time you hit 60/65.” — Caleb (57:43)

8. Impact of the Show (36:40–38:31)

• Salman credits the Financial Audit podcast with inspiring their behavioral shift; now committed to budgeting and debt elimination.
• He highlights how American consumer culture and social media contributed to his earlier comfort with debt.

“If it wasn’t for this show that I realized just how bad my situation is. And that's when I said, hey, let me get rocket money…” — Salman (37:04)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Risk and Regret:
  “You played the game wrong.” — Caleb, (07:32)
• On Budget Alignment:
  “You did. I was just gonna say that. I like you guys.” — Caleb, acknowledging their teamwork and perspective (10:37)
• On Credit Card Illusions:
  “We are not a credit card person. There’s nothing to suggest you’re potentially a credit card person.” — Caleb (12:19)
• On American Debt Culture:
  “I became what we are usually fed when we look at social media and TikTok... live on debts, just make your monthly payments... That’s just the American way. And I got really sucked into that.” — Salman (17:21)
• On Family Obligations:
  “No one’s gonna allow their parents to just die on the street, so… That’s why we’re getting you to a better position, so the kids you guys do have absolutely never have to even...” — Caleb (46:15)
• On the Podcast’s Purpose:
  “If it wasn't for you, if it wasn't for this show... I would still think that living in debt and paying off monthly minimum payments is just the American way.” — Salman (37:04)
• On Future Outlook:
  “You guys have a great life ahead of you... You guys will retire multimillionaires by the time you hit 60/65. Perfect.” — Caleb (57:47)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–03:01 — Introduction of Rabab & Salman, background, income, how they met
• 06:12–09:47 — Origins of debt, investment strategy gone wrong, unemployment period
• 13:04–24:55 — Detailed debt and credit card review
• 24:56–28:52 — Spending patterns, subscriptions, animal expenses
• 39:11–44:01 — Budget breakdown and planning
• 43:25–46:25 — Family remittance, cultural expectations, parents' financial story
• 52:38–57:47 — Debt payoff plan and projected timeline, post-debt strategies
• 36:40–38:31 — Show’s impact on Salman, behavioral shift towards financial responsibility

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, candid, and often humorous.
• Caleb offers tough-love guidance and challenges risky behavior, but advocates empathy and long-term prosperity.
• Rabab and Salman are open, reflective, and demonstrate a willingness to change and learn.

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Actionable Takeaways

• Understanding one’s risk tolerance is crucial before leveraging credit.
• Employment changes require agile financial planning—cash reserves are essential.
• Culturally-driven financial obligations (family remittance) must be accounted for systematically in the budget.
• Debt payoff should be prioritized before aggressive investing or luxury spending.
• Open dialogue and shared goals between partners are vital for overcoming financial challenges.
• Avoid financing non-essentials or habitual spending, even for small subscriptions.
• Behavioral change is possible through education, budgeting tools, and accountability.

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Final Assessment

Hammer Financial Score (at episode’s conclusion):

• Spending/Budget: 4/10 (needs improvement, but trending up)
• Debt: 1/10 (critical, needs drastic action)
• Emergency Fund: 2/10 (must grow for stability)
• Retirement Savings: 3/10 (positive but not adequate for age/income)
• Overall: 2/10

“Grind for a little bit and it’s worth it... You guys will have a fully funded emergency fund and no back debt. It’s incredible.” — Caleb (58:42)

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone facing debt after major life transitions, especially immigrants, young professionals, or couples merging finances for the first time.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, this is RABAB, and I'm 28.

[B]

Hi, this is Salman, and I'm 31 years old. We live in Round Rock, Texas.

[A]

And this is financial audit.

[C]

Beautiful. Thank you guys for being here. I will just start left to right. What do you do for a living right now?

[A]

So right now I'm studying for my exams. I'm a medical student.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

I graduated from Pakistan and I'm a doctor there. So I completed my MBBS degree and then I did an internship year over there, and. And then I moved here, and now I'm preparing for my exams.

[C]

Okay, so yeah, doctor here. Is it exams to get into medical school or exams?

[A]

No, to get into residency.

[C]

To get into residency. Okay. Because you completed medical school in Pakistan. Okay, very cool. So that's exciting because in residency, so at least you don't have to pay to do residency. You get paid a little bit. Nothing crazy.

[A]

Yeah, very little.

[C]

Or was that all paid for in.

[A]

Pakistan at the med school? Yeah, yeah, my dad paid for it.

[C]

No, that's. That's great. Like, parents can do what they want to do. That's awesome.

[A]

I don't have anything. Any loans.

[C]

We're not bringing in student loans. And what do you do?

[B]

Right now I'm in tech and I'm a product manager. A technical product manager.

[C]

Well, I wasn't technical, but product manager was my most.

[B]

I always wanted to talk to you about that. So that's what I do.

[C]

Very cool. Now, technical product manager usually make a little bit more money. What do you make right now?

[B]

Net would be 9,000 plus.

[C]

9,000 bucks a month?

[B]

Yeah, like 9,200, 9,300 month net.

[C]

Cool. Now this. That's the household income for now.

[B]

That is the household income.

[C]

Obviously, a little more will be coming in soon and then a lot more eventually.

[A]

Yeah, that's the plan.

[C]

How do we feel? $92,000 or $9,200? I'm sure 92 would be nice. $9,200 in Round Rock.

[B]

How are we feeling off that on a monthly basis as a net? I mean, that's obviously far higher than median income, so. Yeah. Yeah. As long as things are budgeted, it should be more than enough for anybody.

[C]

More than enough yet. We went into credit card debt anyway, so it's like.

[B]

Yeah, we can talk a little bit about that. So just keep in mind I wasn't making that much throughout my life. Right. This is more recent.

[C]

Oh, okay. Well, how long have you been in this position?

[B]

This position? I started about six months ago. It's not been that long.

[C]

Were you doing before that?

[B]

Before that, I was a vp, but I wasn't making as much as this. It was a startup.

[C]

Yeah, that makes sense. So more of like a potential equity position.

[B]

Potential equity position. Yeah. So I was there for four years. I was still making six figures. Well, the company during. When they cannot. When the economy basically went down, so they had to lay off a few people. And me being one of the highest earners.

[C]

Oh. But even though you're in a very high position, though, that's.

[B]

That's when you. The tallest blade of grass gets cut first.

[C]

That's a good thing. Yeah. Okay. So even throughout the. I mean, you're still making six figures, so we're making money. Before the episode, we were talking about how you're newer to the area. Where did you guys come from before this?

[B]

We were in Houston.

[C]

Houston, okay. So not too far. So.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Okay. Pretty similar. So good, good, good. And when did you guys come to the United States?

[B]

Well, I moved here. I did my university from U of h. Okay. So in 09 is when I moved here.

[C]

Very cool.

[A]

For me, it's been two years.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay. How'd you guys meet? Not. I'm just very curious. We never even talked about that, but I'm very curious.

[A]

I knew this was gonna come up. So, I mean, we were introduced to our families, extended families, essentially. So we had an aunt in common. So she referred the two of us. And I was visiting the states, fortunately. And then we just met.

[C]

Wait.

[A]

And it just clicked.

[C]

How removed are you guys from each other?

[B]

How. What?

[C]

You both have the same aunt.

[A]

No, no, no, no, no.

[C]

I heard that completely wrong.

[A]

No, no, no, no, no.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

That aunt is his mother's friend.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

And my actual.

[C]

Completely different.

[A]

And my actual friend.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

So we don't even.

[C]

Completely different.

[A]

We didn't even know each other. We're not even remotely related or anything.

[C]

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, cool. Very cool. That's awesome.

[B]

If anyone in Chicago, basically.

[A]

So I was in Chicago visiting my actual end.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, I love Chicago too.

[C]

Chicago's great. Hey, hate the winters up there, but I'm. You know, I used to go to Chicago all the time.

[A]

It's pretty. It's. It's a beautiful city.

[C]

You know, if anyone has any connections out there, let me know because Hinge Premium plus extreme is not working. Freaking out for me. Did you guys buy a house on Round Rock or were we renting for him? Okay. Very cool. What's your rent?

[B]

1725. Two beds. Too bad.

[C]

For your income. I'm okay with that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I think for Round Rock, you get a pretty nice place.

[B]

We looked at.

[A]

We looked at a lot of places, 50 different places, like two days straight, like. Yeah. And there were like 30 places per day. Something like that.

[C]

Yeah, I respect that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This place is pretty good.

[A]

It's really good. It has everything we wanted.

[C]

Good.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So we went into the debts.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

We just wait. Well, did we go into the nuts or did someone. And then we brought it into the marriage. And to confirm you guys are married.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Very cool. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. So how do you feel about that? Very curious. It brings in thousands of dollars of credit card debt.

[A]

How we feeling the debt?

[C]

Yeah. Because it wasn't yours that you took out. So I was bringing into the marriage. Now it's ours.

[A]

Yeah, I mean. Yeah. I mean. I mean, we don't have that many expenses, so we're just trying to pay off the debts for now.

[C]

Yeah. Well, how do you feel about it, though? Because all of a sudden, you know.

[A]

I mean, it's not ideal. It's not ideal, but it's something. We have to deal with it.

[C]

Good. I like that. I respect that. So why.

[B]

So I did not have any debts.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

So when he married.

[C]

Everyone is born with no debt.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. When I married her, I didn't.

[C]

Wait, how long have you guys been married?

[A]

Two. Two years.

[C]

Okay, so that's when you came here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So a lot of the.

[A]

I mean, no, not two years. It was like, we have been married for one and a half years.

[C]

Oh, this is a lot of debt to be built up in just a year and a half.

[B]

So.

[A]

True.

[B]

A little background.

[A]

I'm not the reason, just. By the way.

[C]

I know.

[A]

That's why clarify that.

[B]

So the reason is essentially before. Before everything. The reason why I did not have any debt is I had a lot of. My net worth was really high. I had. I'm pretty big into investments and whatnot. And I had a lot of investments, around 270k worth of investments so far higher than my network. And at that point, I used to just basically put things on the credit card and then I eventually would pay off the credit card. Yeah, I had enough money. Then when I basically was laid off from my position, then instead of selling all of my assets because I was thinking about the tax implications, I started to just use credit cards, thinking that, hey, a month from now I'll have a job, or two months from now I have a job. And it took a little while before I actually found one. And once again, my net worth being 270k, the economy started going down. Wait, when this is just last year or two years ago, sure.

[C]

But the S&P 500 almost recovered.

[B]

But by now out, I had already sold off a lot of them.

[C]

That's what I was curious about. So you sold on the way down?

[B]

Way down, yeah. Because at that point I needed the money.

[C]

You needed the money. And so I. I get that.

[B]

But I had to do whatever.

[C]

Oh, you played game wrong.

[B]

And you know what the crazy part is? Back in March of 2020, when the market was actually going down, this is before our marriage, I was on my flight to. For. For work and at the gate I realized, you know, the market is going to go down soon. So I sold 50% of all of my equities. I stayed in cash. And then as soon as the market went down and it started to go down, started buying back. So back then I had like maybe 150k. Then because of that, like once the market is going down and I'm buying more, that's how it rose up to like 270k. My goal was after I hit half a mil, I would take quarter million from that. Buy a rental property in cash.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Keep the other quarter million as is like put into S P500. Keep it in, some of it, sell.

[C]

It off anyway, so.

[B]

And then, yeah, I was not looking after, like, I was not thinking about I would lose a job. Right. So once, once we got married, that's when my company told me like, hey, they have to like let me go. And by then I heard a lot of wedding expenses and all in total.

[C]

Did you go unemployed?

[B]

About a year.

[C]

Did you collect unemployment?

[B]

No.

[C]

You paid taxes into it though?

[B]

I did not collect. See, the thing is, I was then doing contracting work on the side.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I was not really getting paid a whole lot for it. So I could not collect unemployment because of that.

[C]

Oh, I see.

[B]

The reason is I. For me, what was more important was having a good employment history. Right.

[C]

Yeah. And that's what I'd recommend anyone doing it. But I mean, you could just say you had it.

[B]

Yeah. The only thing is when they're doing.

[C]

Don't do that.

[B]

Yeah. But when they do background checks, which they did for me, they had to call up my prior employers. So thankfully, because I was contracted. So it was okay. It went fine. But had I not done that, it was. It was going to be really hard for me to find a job, especially in the tech world with so many people being laid off.

[C]

Yeah, that Was a hard time.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it hasn't fully recovered.

[B]

It hasn't fully recovered. And those people are far more competitive. Like, they're very competitive. If you worked at Google, Microsoft, you don't care about a guy like me. Right.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, so we went into credit card debt.

[B]

So we went into credit card debt. Yeah.

[C]

Lovely. Now we have a Chase Sapphire card.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

To kick things off with the good old Sapphire card. So do you feel any of. I'm curious, do you feel like any of your desires and goals and stuff that you expected in your life have been put on hold because in the marriage situation, all of a sudden debt came into it and you're. We're having to use more of our time and money to pay it off instead of meeting whatever goals you planned for.

[A]

I mean, no. As long as, like, we have our own place, we have food, we go out on weekends, everything is under budget. I don't feel it that much because I feel that recovering the debts is more important right now and securing our future.

[B]

I married a smart woman.

[C]

You did. I was just gonna say that I like you guys.

[A]

I don't care about bags or clothes that much.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I'm just focused on studying and building my own career right now.

[C]

Yeah. I love that.

[A]

So that's why these things don't matter.

[B]

Yeah. We're not very brand conscious people.

[A]

We're not. I. I barely ever wear brands.

[C]

Okay. Very cool. Well, awesome. Well, it's not awesome. It's $7,981 on this card that we still have to pay off.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So with a minimum monthly payment of 247. Yikes. That's a lot.

[B]

Yeah, it is.

[C]

Interest loss, $147. But we didn't. No, we did. There's 36,000 purchases. Why are we. Yeah, see, dude, Wall Street Journal. Something and.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Truth Finder. More Wall Street Journal. So that was purchasing on a car though.

[B]

Yes. So it's a good. That's a good point. I've actually already canceled Truth Finder. What if that true finder was for me to do background checks on people, whatever.

[A]

When you get like spam calls from people.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

So to be able to do that. Wall Street Journal is the newspaper. Wall Street Journal.

[C]

I know, but why are we putting it on a card that's just a cruising.

[A]

Yeah. Why would you do it?

[B]

So now I've switched that over to another card.

[C]

Okay. Another card though. But you're not. You're not a credit card person.

[B]

I.

[C]

What? No, don't roll your eye. You're not a credit person. You've demonstrated you went into the credit card debt. We're losing $147.46 of interest. We're putting money on a card that we're not fully paying off. We are not a credit card person. There's nothing to suggest you're potentially a credit card person. Even when you thought you were a credit card person. You're putting everything on credit cards. And then you had to sell your investments, bringing your net worth down to zero, if not negative, in order to just pay off the credit cards that you already accrued. You are not a credit card person at all.

[B]

Yeah, well, I would like to be.

[C]

So I'd like everyone to be. But you're not. And that's okay. The average person isn't. So we're not a credit card person.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I care more about your financial future than if you're a credit card person. I would much rather you guys be lovely, nice, wealthy, living forever than getting a couple of points here and there, a couple of points here and there for the small minority who are able to finesse the system. You try to finesse the system up. You did too much risk. Your risk profile and tolerance for it was off the chart compared to someone who should be a credit card person. So.

[B]

Yeah, well, yeah, I guess that is true.

[C]

Oh, dude.

[B]

Yeah. American Express. That is what you do. Yeah.

[C]

Is this like your life? Will you put your whole life on this card?

[B]

So most of these actually came from me traveling back and forth to Chicago. I looked at the transactions and I was spending about $3,000 a month on it.

[C]

New balance.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

$31,449. But what is just as disgusting, if not more, minimum monthly payment of a thousand sixty dollars.

[B]

So there's more.

[C]

That's like 15 of what hits your account on a monthly basis is immediately gone, stolen, destroyed, burned to make up.

[B]

I am fully aware of that.

[A]

I hate it.

[C]

So, okay, we're fully aware of it.

[B]

I have already spoken to American Express. They have basically lowered down my interest rates so they on a payment plan. So it's like 9% now.

[C]

That's still terrible.

[B]

So terrible.

[C]

Like, if we do stock market average, if we're comparing to investments, it's like 8%.

[B]

It's horrible. But it's no longer the 30% because I was paying about 650amonth on interest, which is insane. Which is basically a car.

[C]

Yeah. 6:44. So what's it now?

[B]

Now what they have done is they've basically taken the 31,000 and divided it by 40 months. They've given me a four year plan. Basically a four year plan. And then right now my monthly minimum is 790.

[C]

Right now, 209 is still going to interest, which is still.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Vomit.

[B]

Yeah, it is. So I have to figure, see, this is the reason why I was here is. So then we can discuss after we have gone through what all these debts are. I already have a debt payoff plan on my own that I've built.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

And I wanted to discuss, like, you know, you have far more knowledge or experience.

[C]

I'm very curious to see it. I'm actually quite excited to see it and I hope I'm not disappointed when I see it.

[B]

No, you shouldn't be. Just so you know, I've already paid off four different cards already.

[C]

Very good. Very good. Yeah, you just lived way too high risk profile out of this planet.

[B]

I was a single guy making a lot of money. Didn't really care about anything. I.

[C]

Now we're married, our kids in the picture.

[B]

Yeah. Once she. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, yeah.

[C]

But it's like relatively desired.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[C]

Okay. Do you have anything in investments? Do you have anything in investments? How much?

[B]

About 50k.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

So my net worth right now is still positive.

[C]

Yeah, barely.

[B]

Barely. Like by a thousand dollars?

[C]

Yeah. So 50k for the household. You want to be set up for retirement.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

For your kids sake. Just for the sake. Your kid or kids, you want to be able to send them to college. If you want. If you want. And if they want. And all. Whatever. If the stars align. Right now we're not in the position. If we were just in this credit card mess.

[B]

Nope.

[C]

So now we have a Best Buy. Best Buy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He loves Best Buy.

[B]

I love Best Buy.

[C]

I love Best Buy too. But why are we. Why do we have $3819 owned on a Best Buy card?

[B]

So this Best Buy card, once I. Once we moved to Round Rock, I basically made a whole bunch of purchases for.

[C]

So this just happened?

[B]

I mean, no, this is. I had like $1,000 on there, and then I bought like $2,000 worth of. What the.

[C]

That doesn't make any sense. You're losing $84.82 of interest on here. Why are you purchasing $2,000? You already make money. Just go buy it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

What are you doing? You were okay with this?

[A]

I didn't know this.

[C]

You didn't know it. So you didn't discuss. Do we not sit down, talk about money?

[A]

I. I Not the best by party.

[B]

Yeah. Not the best. Yeah. The reason.

[C]

What is that your special card?

[B]

It's. No, no. What do you mean by special card?

[C]

You said we, like, we talked about finance, but not his best buy card.

[B]

Yeah, because I just went ahead, bought smart burps and like you just need white bulbs.

[C]

Like $2.

[B]

Like our apartment.

[A]

We have smart bulbs, dude, I love it.

[C]

And I'm all about that. You have tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. $11,000 minimum payment there, $227 minimum, $123 minimum payment here, Losing thousands of dollars in interest. And we decide smart bulbs are more important.

[B]

Yeah. At that point, I did not think about it. This is before I started watching your show. For me it was like, hey, I'm making enough money. Who cares? Like, I'll pay it off sooner or later.

[C]

Well, do you care now?

[B]

Oh, hell yeah.

[C]

Good. That's.

[B]

Yeah, that's the reason I'm here is because, see, I became what we are usually fed when we look at social media and TikTok. And I'm guilty of that is that, hey, the American life is like, live on debts, just make your monthly payments and pay for your mortgage, pay for your car payments. And that's just the American way. And I, I got really sucked into that. I was like, okay, I'm making enough money, I can easily pay 200amonth here and there.

[C]

And you've seen what happens. Making money doesn't always sustain.

[B]

Yeah, the, the biggest thing is, is that I did not account for losing. I, I had a job for four years, I was making good money. Like, I had no reason to believe it would ever go away. And, and plus my investments, my net worth is really high. So even if I am in legislate 50k debt, which I was at that point, I have 270k, 50k in debt. My net worth is still 220.

[C]

Yeah, I mean you could just.

[B]

I would just like. And which is what I did before I got married. I was like, okay. I sat down with my younger brothers and I said, okay, how many Tesla shares to sell? How many Apple shares to sell? And I paid off all my debts. And just so you know, I also had savings. I had like $12,000 in savings, two months worth of savings at that point.

[C]

But you're living with $6,000 to survive. I want to take a brief moment to thank today's episode sponsor, sondermind. You know, I'm a big proponent of mental health and I'm very open about my own mental health struggles on the show. So that's why I'm very excited to to have them as a continuing sponsor on this series. When it comes to personal finances, a lot of it really stems down to mental health. And even if you don't have mental health struggles that are ongoing, when you have a lot of bad debt, a lot of financial stresses, it can really weigh down on you. And that's where sondermind is here to help. They're a mental health care app that is all about getting the right personalized support to help you along your mental health journey and feeling better if you it can be confusing starting therapy and seeing where do I start. And that's where they step in. They know the impact of the right care with the right person at the right time, so they make finding a therapist easy. Just go to sondermind.com, answer a few questions about yourself and let Sondermind find the right person for you. After 24 to 48 hours, you can be talking to a therapist who actually gets you. And luckily they also accept a wide variety of health insurance plans. And if you prefer face to face, they have therapists near you who can meet with you in person. They want to prioritize comfort in guiding you along the way. So go to care.sondermind.com Caleb or check out the link at the top of the description below to get started today. Thanks again to sondermind for supporting this episode. It's expensive. What do we have in savings right now? Not your retirement.

[B]

I have recently started saving again, so I have like $2,000 in savings, which is not a lot. But that does not include the retirements or.

[C]

No, it doesn't. But I'm looking for an emergency fund and this is 683 eventually lost this year so far. Yeah. So you used to own Apple stock, but now we're just deciding to be in debt. Yeah, so we went from owning equity to debt.

[B]

I still own equity in it somewhat, but not as much as the maybe I should use Apple my Apple stocks to pay off the Apple card.

[C]

New iPhones. Didn't excite me personally.

[B]

No, it didn't excite me either.

[C]

Well, there we go.

[B]

Yeah, I already have. Like I'm a big tech guy. Same big tech guy. Like I love technology.

[C]

I'm about smart homes too, man. Yeah, like my the actual place that I live in all smart homes.

[B]

That's great.

[C]

Like I like that hue bulbs everywhere. I'm all about the life.

[B]

I went with the GE because they're cheaper than Hue.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Even in this place. I have like two Google speakers in each room.

[B]

I have a. Yeah, same. We have a speaker in like every. We have the hub Max in the living room, the hub in the bedroom.

[C]

Hub Max is good.

[B]

Yeah, it's all those little things.

[C]

So we own 2422. You say that the Apple stock you own is less than that.

[B]

Probably more than that. More than 2,000. And just so you know, these are, these are older because I've been paying extra. I, I paid about a hundred dollars a week on their. On this card. So I want to pay off this card by the end of this month and then I want to pay off the Best Buy card by the end of next.

[C]

We'll talk about your plan and. Oh, let's just get through the debts and yeah, I do see we're making 75 payment there. 75 next week and 75. And you know, it sounds like you ramped it up recently.

[B]

Yeah, pretty recently.

[C]

$40 interest, I guess. Well, those are actually. No, those are like return credits or returns. 59.

[B]

Yeah, I have five payments for the, for my iPhone and then for her Apple watch and stuff like that.

[C]

Yeah. And you lost 60 of interest.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I, I mean I wouldn't, I wouldn't finance if we're losing 27.24, but.

[B]

It was 0% interest to finance it. These, these just came on like when I was, when I started using the card for other things than just financing. Once again, when I lost, I never used the card for anything else. But without a job, I just started maxing out my cards.

[C]

You have student loans?

[B]

Yeah, I do.

[C]

Is this it?

[B]

This is it.

[C]

So not too much.

[B]

No. And the reason why I've never paid them off is because credit history. I just wanted them to be on my profile. But now I'm thinking I should pay off the $2,000 one.

[C]

Why is that?

[B]

So, because I don't want to pay interest on that.

[C]

But it's 4.4%.

[B]

Yeah, it is.

[C]

And if the stack market averages.

[B]

So this would be the last, the last thing I would want to pay off. As you can see, they're already subsidized.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The minimum payment and the payments.

[B]

I just, I got an email saying that the payments are going to start next month.

[C]

Yes. Yeah, I would have auto pay set up if you do not already.

[B]

Yep, I already do.115 minimum payment extra.

[C]

More than a minimum 2007 or 2.3. I wouldn't, I would. Minimum monthly payment. I would focus all on one debt at a time. Minimum payment on the other.

[B]

Okay, fair.

[C]

Just keeps the money focused into the. Whatever we're killing and attacking.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

First, so the Highest one's at four point. Oh, they're both at 4.41. Okay, cool. Now, Macy's. Looks like this is a card that we paid.

[B]

This is paid off. Yeah. This already paid off.

[C]

Yeah. Interest charge, 21.7 though. That's your new balance. Is because the interest. So you had a balance.

[B]

I already then paid it off. The $21.

[C]

Yeah. But again, we're not a credit card person. If any interest has been accrued, 229 this year of interest and 30 of fees.

[B]

If we have that all. Once I lost the job, I was like, hey, I still need to buy stuff.

[C]

So that's why we have a fully funded emergency fund. And not having one is an emergency because things like that can happen. Also paying off the city card. Good.

[B]

This is already paid off. Yep, yep.

[C]

And no new purchases there, so. Good.

[B]

And I do make purchases. I mean, I just basically made her the authorized user.

[C]

And guys checking accounts for you guys. Just checking accounts, debit cards set to.

[B]

Statement balance and whatever it is.

[C]

Even still, man. Even still. I don't know. Because you having access to that weapon, because it's not a tool for you, it's a weapon against you.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

It's scary for what you've done so far, even the. Even the freedom one that you've paid off, I mean, you've lost a dollar of interest this year so far. Losing even a single dollar just shows me you cannot manage having credit cards. Okay. We have a Bank of America checking account. Do we have any other debts? No card debts? No. Nothing like that.

[B]

Nope. No cars paid off. Yeah.

[C]

Single car for the house.

[B]

Single car.

[C]

Okay. Is that okay?

[A]

I have my own, like, personal one.

[B]

Yeah. But single car.

[C]

Oh, car.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, single car.

[C]

Okay. Because Round Rock is incredibly car dependent.

[B]

The thing is, she doesn't have a license.

[A]

No, I don't.

[B]

So I have to, like, she has to go for.

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to go apply for it. Yeah. So just a single car.

[C]

And it's paid off.931 in a checking account. I'm okay with that balance usually.

[B]

And now it seems even more.

[C]

Okay, good.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Started with 306, though.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Pretty much all the money went in. All the money out.

[B]

Yeah. But let's see. Once again, that was for last. That was last.

[C]

What is up with Venmo, guys? Venmo.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So same.

[B]

So by the way this is, I was buying furniture from Facebook Marketplace.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So I don't have any Venmo debts or nothing. And I don't ever use Venmo.

[C]

But you spent 33.3 of your income on that.

[B]

That's because all the furniture.

[C]

Or if you're spending on this.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So Venmo, Venmo, Venmo, Venmo, Zelling. Also money. And Venmo. And Amazon. And Venmo and Amazon. And Amazon and selling out money. Venmo, Venmo, Venmo, Venmo, Waterburger. Venmo, Venmo, Venmo, Venmo. Pizza Hut. Am better.

[B]

Yeah. That's over. Health. Health insurance.

[C]

Oh, totally, Joe. Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Hollywood Ranch and Mickey D's subscription to something Whataburger. Amazon, Spotify. We don't need that. We can listen to ads right now.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Queen's Beauty. Doing some grooming for the pups.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

And Amazon over cat. What I would. For a cat.

[B]

Yeah, a Persian.

[C]

A Persian cat. Okay.

[B]

Pretty long hair.

[C]

Yeah, no, I get that one. I was gonna say for the average.

[B]

And he's kind of aggressive, so you cannot really cut his nails. Nails. He will kill you.

[C]

Yeah, okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay. Amazon.

[B]

Well, we actually.

[C]

I get it for the. I get it for the breed.

[B]

Just so you know, we have to sedate him. We have to pay extra money to go to a vet. We have to pay $100. And then they do his grooming.

[A]

Yeah, he's very aggressive because we took.

[B]

Him to, like, two different groomers, and they were like.

[A]

They're like, we're not gonna touch him. It's very aggressive.

[C]

Oh, my gosh.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay. Amazon some. We went to the stadium in Houston, got some concessions. Washington Post. More. Washington Post.

[B]

Yeah, I canceled that, too. I'm a big news person.

[C]

No, I love you, but, like, let's get out of debt.

[B]

Yeah. So that's why I canceled it.

[C]

Yummy burgers. They better have been yummy. Promise. Pizza, Scruffies. Mediterranean. Something.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Busting buns. Okay, so Cinemart again. Come on. Health Uber in Shadow Cree. Shadow Cree. Rhythm. Self love.

[B]

Rhythm is my electric bill.

[C]

Oh.

[B]

Energy. Yeah.

[C]

Self lender.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So you're doing a credit builder.

[B]

Yeah. Wow.

[C]

It's a credit.

[B]

Well, now it's like 650something.

[C]

Okay. Well, I mean, you certainly pay a fee for that. Yeah, I know.

[B]

I. I find it to be too stupid.

[C]

I'm okay with something like that. Paying for. To game the system when we're out of debt.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

We have a fully Funded emergency fund. This is not something we do to me. This is a want. We put this in our wants category. You do not have a wants category right now.

[B]

Yeah, affirm.

[C]

We done with that? Are there more?

[B]

No, there's. This is for her mattress. It's still there.

[C]

How long? How much longer?

[B]

It's just a 0 interest 12 month.

[C]

And you're gonna. You're gonna finish it in the full 12 months?

[B]

Yeah, for sure. I don't want to pay interest on anything ever again.

[C]

No. You want to be collecting that interest?

[B]

Yeah, no, it's actually 157. So what I did is I paid 57 and then I paid a hundred dollars like so.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Manpasan.

[B]

I don't know.

[C]

GoPro subscription. Need a 50 grow post.

[B]

This is an annual subscription.

[C]

Come on, man. We don't need it right now. AMC at least go to a good movie theater if we're gonna go to a movie theater. But we're not going to a movie theater right now anyway.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Incredible burger. It better have been incredible, guys.

[A]

They were good. No, we don't eat out that much. That was the only time.

[C]

So we actually the only time I.

[A]

Went through quite a few, so that was my. My family visiting us.

[B]

So her family was here that I wanted to take her out. And this is once again before I started seeing your show. So I didn't really have a budget. It was like, hey, yeah, let's just.

[A]

But now we don't eat out.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Is this.

[B]

This is my. This is my savings. This is basically automatic savings.

[C]

That's what we have is a thousand four hundred in savings.

[B]

Now it's two thousand.

[C]

Okay, good, good.

[B]

Yeah. So this is two thousands. And then I have betterment which has additional like two thousand. So it's four thousand. Oh, and this one does not have a high yield savings, but the other one.

[C]

Then why use this?

[B]

This is an automatic. Like, just.

[C]

Just automatically put it into like SoFi. 4.5.

[B]

Yeah. So that's so the other account that I have, that's like 4.7% manual is more fun.

[C]

Anyway, I love transferring, so I. I.

[B]

Do do that too. I transfer Lake 401K.

[C]

So when you gave me your 50,000, that included this. And then the rest is an individual brokerage. Okay.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

6,799 total in this and that is. Okay. So hey, just a quick reminder that we are giving four of you 250. All you have to do is fill out the survey near the top of the description below. Just trying to learn what Kind of debts and incomes and everything like that we have in the audience. And then we're going to be keeping you up to date with exciting things going on around here. You have until the end of this Friday to fill out the survey. And four people will win 250 bucks. Yeah, that's Whatever. Evenly. Yeah, it looks like you're just in a.

[B]

And this does not.

[C]

So this is a targeted retirement fund broken down potentially probably.

[B]

This is a very crappy company. I want to move my. I've already allocated to move my funds to Fidelity or something.

[C]

I love Fidelity.

[B]

Yeah. My current employer offers me fidelity 401k. So that's what I'm using.

[C]

I would. What's this, chase? We have 3,000 bucks in here.

[B]

How much?

[C]

3,000.

[B]

That's hers.

[C]

We're not combined?

[B]

No, we're not combined.

[A]

This is the personal one because these are not my transactions. This is my family's transaction.

[C]

So it's like a family account? Your family account?

[A]

No, no, no. This is my personal one. But they just had some of their money in it. And so these are.

[B]

So they're from Pakistan.

[A]

So they're from Pakistan. So my aunt here owed them some Pakistani currency. So when they came here, she paid them in dollars. Yeah, it's so very complicated. I had a. An account here, so she put it in. In my account and then they use my account to pay their things.

[B]

So it's pretty.

[A]

This has got nothing to do with.

[C]

Weird.

[B]

So that.

[C]

Is that your money at all? Does any. Is any of that yours?

[A]

No, no. Yeah, Some of it. Yeah.

[C]

How much?

[A]

So, like. Okay, this is not recent, so I think I have like two twenty two hundred of my own. But that's just personal.

[C]

And are you guys combined on everything else, though, financially speaking? Okay.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

So everything goes through me. Like, everything goes through my account.

[A]

Basically, we have a city combined card. This is my own personal.

[B]

The reason why we do not have a household income. And that's one of the things that I always wanted to talk about is the joint account. I mean, is. Because she does not have an income.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When she does have. Once she does have an income, then. Yeah, then I want to have a joint account and everything goes through there is budgeted from that joint.

[C]

When's residency expected?

[A]

So just to pass her step one.

[C]

Yeah, but like, when do you think you'll be in residency?

[A]

Well, my, like, max. Couple years. I should be max.

[C]

Okay, but when do you plan to be in residency? Start residency?

[A]

A couple years because I have to clear my exams and Step one and.

[B]

Two, she's gonna do. So she's gonna drop one at the end of this month.

[A]

Then step two and then two years. Yeah. And then step two and then maybe step three. And along with. I have to do some researches and then rotations.

[C]

Is it for international only or is that.

[A]

No, no, everybody has to go, but.

[C]

They usually do it while they're in middle school, so.

[A]

Yes. So that's not the case in Pakistan. Had I known for sure I was coming here, I would have already given myself.

[C]

That makes sense. Okay.

[A]

And this would have been way quicker. But it's taking me to something.

[C]

Keep those studies and that's your job.

[A]

That's it. Yeah.

[C]

That's all you make enough for the household.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We're going to get out of the debt. Yeah. Your total net worth? 783. At least at the time of this.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

A little higher now, but not very much.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, considering the fact I have so much debt and I still have a positive net worth, it's not great, but it's not. It could have been worse. It could have been negative.

[C]

That saying right there is why I go on. On people. I. I always say it. It's not good, but it could have been worse. It's not that bad. No, you. The interest you're losing on this stuff is terrible. I refuse to accept this in any other way than death. Absolute horridness. Terribleness. That's why I'm not going out to eat like you guys. And if I were in your situation, I'm not having all those subscriptions. I'm not doing any of that bull that happened. I am not spending. I mean, it's only 1% of your money on subscriptions, but I'm not spending 13% of miscellaneous bull.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Let's see. Food, 4.6% of your spending. Of course, that's not absolutely crazy, especially compared to a lot of people on the show. But that's 4.6% of your spending. That could be going towards the debt. That's not.

[B]

I've already cut that down.

[C]

Yes, I absolutely would.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Other large purchases. 33. Let's take a look. We have some cvs clear me the grooming, animal hospital, which, you know, when that happens. It happens.

[B]

That's for the Sedition Global.

[C]

Corporal Monet Monat.

[B]

Yeah, monet.

[C]

Pre check. TSA pre check. Well, yeah, yeah, we have 10. Money. Credit karma. Paying Credit Karma.

[B]

Am I paying? Oh, I'm actually transferring into Credit Karma Savings. I've not even accounted for any of.

[C]

Those Savings yet the venmo out was 2,770 bucks.

[B]

That's.

[C]

That's.

[B]

Yeah, that's all furniture.

[C]

$210 of payments.

[B]

Yeah, the thing. So for all the Venmo, I barely ever use Venmo. The reason is I didn't want to go buy furniture and pay monthly payments for that. So we decided like, hey, we were just going to a Facebook marketplace and yeah, we want to buy our stuff from there.

[C]

Yeah, I would get used as well. Did you guys not have any furniture coming from Houston though?

[B]

No, no, no.

[C]

You lived in a place with nothing.

[A]

That wasn't our place. That was his parents place.

[C]

Well, okay. I'm glad you went to used Right route. Yeah, that we went with furniture still. Okay.

[B]

The one who came here for the ivf.

[C]

Oh, yes.

[B]

Yeah. She is a person who referred me.

[C]

Oh, you're the referral. I knew there was a referral happening. I did not know who it was. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. That's very cool. So you guys are friends?

[B]

No, actually I commented on your YouTube video and then she was like, I actually commented that, hey, I want to be on the show as well. So she then replied back saying that, hey, I was actually on a show not too long ago. I just did my shoot last week and I was like, how do you do? What's the process? And she's like, oh, you know, it's in this description. Because I first looked for it in the description. It just didn't make a lot of sense. Like it was hard for me to look for it. And then she's like, no, here's the link. Like this is where you go. And this is the form that you fill out.

[C]

Oh, it's so cool. I'm so glad you guys did.

[B]

And then I got to see her episode too.

[C]

So yeah.

[B]

Yeah, it was pretty cool.

[C]

And that was a great episode. No, I love talking to couples. So that's. I'm so glad you guys are here.

[B]

You know what? And. And after we start again, I do want to also address the. Just I think it was two videos ago there was a wife that was here and she was like, I don't. What's the purpose of the show?

[C]

Oh, yes.

[B]

How does it help other people? Came out Monday, I think so that came on Monday. So I want to also address that too, because it is very useful. Had it not been for other people coming on the show.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I would have not created a budget.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

I would have not started paying off my debts because I would. I mean, again, I would thank you for vocalizing that.

[C]

That's what I tried. Do you care if that's in the episode?

[B]

I do want it to be in the episode.

[C]

Oh, yeah. We're recording, right, Brandon? Yeah. And then we can. This is a little behind the scenes, but yeah. Little bathroom. Little bathroom break, but okay. Yeah.

[B]

So, yeah. So because of that.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

What I do want to tell people is that if it wasn't for you, if it wasn't for this show, I agree. I would still think that living in debt and paying off monthly, Monthly minimum payments is just the American way. And it's because of this show that I realized, like, just how bad my situation is. And that's when I said, hey, let me get rocket money. Funnily enough, I used to use rocket money. Was true Bill. Many years ago, but I never cared for it. Like, I was like, yeah, I have a budget. So what it was like. But this time I'm pretty strict with it because I. The plans that you lay out for other people, people could be in fifty thousand dollar debts and you're like, hey, you know what? In six months you could be out of it. It's like, yeah, life changing, life changing stuff.

[C]

Well, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate that.

[B]

That's because I hate the fact that every day I wake up and some minimum payment has been taken out of my account and I have no control over it. You get what I mean?

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

When you have no debt, you don't have to pay anybody. If you have a thousand dollars in your account, it's going to remain a thousand dollars unless you spend it. But for me, it's like, oh, I wake up, oh, where did this $30 go? Oh, it went to the. It went to pay that off. Or where did my $50 go? I went to pay that off.

[C]

You have no idea how much that means. That means so much. That's what this whole thing is about. The fact that even if this made like a tenth of the money or even no money, the fact that this is like actually helping people like you and then you came on the show. It's incredible.

[B]

It really is.

[C]

Some people. Sometimes I get a little discouraged because some people are upset with my yelling because that's just who I am as a person. But thank you for. Thank you for just saying that.

[B]

You're doing a great job.

[C]

Reinvigorating.

[B]

You're doing a great job and you should definitely keep it up.

[C]

Thank you. I really appreciate that. That's. That's very kind of you should we get into the budget.

[B]

Let's get into the budget.

[C]

Yeah. So we have your rent. What. What do we think? All utilities and Internet combined.

[B]

So I just paid my water bill for, like, 25 is my water bill. My electricity is about 120, so electric 120, water 20. So a water 25. Internet is 65.

[A]

Then the rent.

[B]

And then the rent.

[C]

We have the rent.

[B]

17.

[C]

25.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Perfect.

[B]

And that actually includes the facility fees.

[A]

And the washer dryer.

[B]

Washer dryer. Everything else. Yeah.

[C]

So what do we allocate to the pets for insurance and food?

[B]

We do not have pet insurance. And I think after. After looking at your show or. Yeah, I think so. We should.

[C]

I've saved thousands of dollars.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Because what do you guys have? A dog. Oh, a cat.

[A]

It's a Persian cat.

[C]

Well, I know less about cats. I love cats just as much as dogs. I know more about dogs, though. And animals are always up to some. They're always getting sick or hurt. Somehow you just look away and all of a sudden they're just on the ground just, like, struggling. And you got to, like, take them to the.

[B]

Yeah, Yeah, I think so. Yeah. The fact that I have to pay $100 just to sedate him for grooming.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

If I have pet insurance, I might. Might as well use that.

[C]

So let's do.

[B]

And then we also have renters insurance.

[C]

Yes. How much?

[B]

But I already paid that for the whole year. $70 for the whole year.

[C]

Okay, Sick. So let's do some penins. We'll call it 30 bucks a month.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Could be a little more. Could be a little less dependent. Shop around. I use lemonade. Not a sponsor, but I. That's what I use. And I've had a good experience. How much do you think you spend on the. The cat's food?

[B]

Oh, we have not accounted for that at all.

[C]

So you think, like, we usually just.

[A]

Get one bag and one bag a month. How much?

[B]

So the cat litter.

[A]

Maybe one and a half months.

[B]

Yeah. So the cat litter costs about. I just bought it recently.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like $30 for the cat litter box.

[C]

That's like. How often do you get a box?

[B]

One. One month.

[A]

A month? Yeah.

[B]

And then the food, I think, was 15.

[C]

And you do one and a half a month.

[A]

One and a half, yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He doesn't eat much.

[B]

He doesn't eat much.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So.

[C]

And how often do you need to get him groomed? Because once.

[A]

Oh, once a year.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, lovely.

[B]

Because I would love to get him groomed twice a year, but I don't.

[A]

It's too expensive.

[B]

It's too expensive.

[C]

We'll get you to the place where you can.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So Cat Fund. 52 bucks a month.

[B]

52 bucks a month.

[C]

What it should be, obviously adjust, you know, a couple bucks up, couple bucks down as you need. This is just our light outline of a budget. So rent, utilities, cap. Okay. Food for you both. We're not going out to eat anymore. It doesn't exist. Paid for. Fun does not exist unless it is paid for by someone else or it is free. You guys are just. You're studying and you're working and you're studying and you're working.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So groceries, 500 bucks a month.

[B]

Yep. That's what we have.

[A]

That is the budget.

[C]

Beautiful. Toilet paper, makeup, all that good stuff. Everything else we need to keep the house in order. 150 bucks a month.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. Basically I put that as a shopping category in. In that. And it's 100 bucks.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

150 is fine.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Let's keep that.

[C]

Car payments we don't have. But the car insurance. We do have one car.

[B]

Car insurance would be 50 bucks a month.

[C]

Not bad at all.

[B]

Because it's an old car. It's liability insurance. That's the beauty of having old stuff. Right. You don't have to worry about used car, gas.

[C]

What do we think?

[B]

200Amonth.

[C]

Phone bills.

[B]

Phone bills is also 100 bucks a month.

[C]

Do you have like some monthly expense with the studying and all this stuff? Is this something that needs. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, he's talking about like for the books. He's talking about for.

[A]

No, I just study online.

[C]

Okay. And then when things come up, it's like a one time thing.

[B]

It's a one time thing. So we already bought those things. Perfect.

[C]

Okay. So any ongoing medical prescriptions things we should put in. You don't have to say what they are, but just make sure.

[B]

Yeah. Put in like a extra 50 bucks a month.

[C]

So call medical. 50.

[B]

Yeah. And then health insurance.

[C]

That's not taken pre.

[B]

No, that's not take. So my health insurance is from the company is really crap. So I pay about 400amonth on.

[C]

And you're on that.

[B]

And she's on that. Because the employer health insurance was $1,200 a month. If it was just me, it's like 200amonth. But if it's you and your spouse, then they jack it up to 1200.

[C]

Okay. I got mine from taking care of our health. There's no point to this whole thing, if we're not taking care of our health. So I'm totally chill with that. Perfect.

[B]

And I also pay my parents a thousand dollars a month.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Just to support them. It's not just me.

[C]

Okay. And that's a very common thing for people who come.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

From overseas.

[B]

See what, See here's the thing. When you talk about. This is, this is the critical part. And everybody who I'm speaking to the camera here. But when he talks about have your retirement set. This is exactly why I have a retirement set. Because my parents are actually. Or my dad, my mom never worked. My dad, financially speaking, phenomenal.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Never had debt in his life. He bought even brand new cars would be in cash. But my dad's health, even though he's not very old, his health and my mom's health, both of them are really poor. That's the reason why I focus on our health so much. And because of that, my dad has been retired for the past five, six years.

[C]

How old they are?

[B]

My dad is like 58, less than 60.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

My mom just turned 56 or 54, I can't remember. But she's in her mid-50s too.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The thing is, all of us siblings, I have four brothers, each one of us pays a thousand dollars a month. Our parents house is paid off. So their house is paid off. Their cars are paid off, but the $4,000 is just property tax and for them to like live.

[C]

So he did not save anything.

[B]

He had. We bought a house then, that was it. So my dad had like a lot of savings, but his investments is just bad luck. His investments. We used to live in Dubai and my dad invested back in 08 before 08 to buy. He bought a whole floor.

[C]

So we're not talking like general stock market type stuff. We're talking like he bought real estate.

[B]

He bought a whole floor in an apartment complex, like the largest building. And the economy collapsed and he, he never took a loan for it. He just used his life savings even in Dubai.

[C]

So did he get rid of it before it recovered?

[B]

No. I mean, so this is what happened because even though it's Dubai and it's now far better, but the person who was building the project, the company, the guy ran away.

[C]

Oh, there it is.

[B]

So the guy ran away when the economy collapsed. So he took all the investors money and then ran to a different country where he could not be found. So even though my parents sued him or my dad sued him and there was a class action suit, you could never find the guy. So good Luck. Like taking the money.

[C]

Yeah. So how do we agree upon each of the four brothers given a thousand? How did this come about?

[B]

So my mom basically said, like, hey, look, you guys are not living with us, and we need, like, you know, my dad can't work, and no one's.

[C]

Gonna allow their parents to just die on the street, so. Yeah, that's why we're getting you to a better position. So the kids you guys do have absolutely. Never have to even.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

That's the plan.

[B]

This is what I tell her. I was like, hey, we need to have, like, two to three million dollars in our retirement funds, and we want to live off of 90k per year off that 2,3 million. And we want to have a college fund for our kids. And I want to be in a position where the day my children are born or our kids are born, $20,000 into the college fund, day one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then put additional like a thousand dollars a month or 500amonth, but you're starting with 20K. So this should have like, 150 to 200K by the time they're 18 and they go to school. But now, why did I start thinking this? Thanks to you.

[C]

Well, thank you. Right.

[B]

I was like, okay, I see. I know how to make money.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. I have figured out, like, options and this and that, and I've had enough net worth. The problem was I just did not know how to save money.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And the reason is because my dad was a big saver and not a big investor. So I saw my dad, like, we could have lived a super lavish life, but because he was always like, nope, I'm gonna pay from cash. So we couldn't, like, go beyond our means because he never leveraged anything.

[C]

Well, you guys are clearly very talented people. I mean, going through medical school and then eventually getting into residency, that's like a huge fee. It's like one of the, you know, the hardest things you can do educational wise. Then you're gonna be a doctor serving people. Just awesome. And you've been very successful in the tech world, and you've grown a good investment portfolio. At one point that's gone. But you guys are both clearly impressive, so let's make sure we can keep it.

[B]

Yeah. And that's all I care.

[C]

Set you guys up for success. So is there anything else in our monthly budget that we need to have?

[B]

So did you add the thousand dollars for that?

[C]

Yes, I did.

[B]

And then I also give her 200amonth as pocket money.

[C]

Do you need this?

[A]

I mean, for Now? Yeah.

[C]

For why?

[A]

For personal grooming.

[B]

And I basically say, hey, I still pay for everything. Like, here's $200 for you.

[A]

Stuff like, like if I have to buy assessments when I'm like studying.

[C]

Well, that's what I was asking, things like that.

[A]

Yeah. So from time, they're not fixed or anything, but like from time, it's nothing.

[C]

Like, does it need to be $200 a month?

[A]

No.

[C]

How much? Name a number.

[A]

Okay. I don't know. It depends.

[C]

Name a number. Average month. Some months might be higher, some months might be lower. Give us an average month.

[A]

I mean, I don't know.

[B]

You want to do 100?

[A]

Let's do 150.

[C]

We'll see. We'll see where things land.

[B]

And this is despite me paying for everything.

[C]

We'll see where things land after that. I'm not thrilled about that. For the, for the school stuff, totally different.

[A]

So I don't exactly spend all of that. That's also my way of also saving while also doing the basic things that I don't have.

[C]

So we, we save. We pay off debt. It's not, you know, give little money to use so that you save it.

[A]

I agree. But like if he blows away his money or whatever and he wants some from me, I would have some.

[C]

Well, we're also preventing that in the future too, so we can't use it as an excuse. Dude, I get it, trust me. You know, like, you don't make any money right now, but you're about to be like the breadwinner come few years from here. So trust me, you're gonna make it back. We don't need to be. You know, that's true. We don't need to be going wild right now. Not that 150 is wild or anything, but priorities. Right, Priorities. Anything else on a monthly basis?

[A]

No.

[B]

So we already put on health insurance. Let me, let me look at my rocket money.

[A]

What else do we.

[B]

Great. The Internet. Okay. I pay Grammarly. 140 per year.

[C]

Okay. So when that comes, just, you know.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, okay.

[B]

And why do you need that? I mean, Grammarly is important to like for my work.

[C]

And it can be very nice.

[B]

It's very nice. Yeah. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to write the emails that I do.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. You already put in the 157 for a firm?

[C]

Nope. Or the debt? Not yet, but yeah, that is the debt.

[B]

Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Basically apart from that, no.

[C]

Okay, so let's add up the minimum payments for debts and then we'll get Your budget.

[B]

Yeah, let's do that. What am I. Are we forgetting something for. For a budget perspective.

[C]

And it's okay if you do. We'll just. You just put that in your budget. Your plan. This will give us a rough plan so we can see where things land.

[B]

Grocery, transportation, housing.

[C]

Oh, man.

[A]

Entertainment.

[C]

We don't have entertainment. We have free. Yeah, we have ads. 1,813.75 for debt. Minimum payments. Ruin me.

[B]

Which one are you. Are you putting in?

[C]

That's all. Minimum payments that we do.

[B]

Is that for the American Express?

[C]

It's for all minimum. Yeah.

[B]

Well, American Express has gone down, though.

[C]

Yes, we. I think I put that one down.

[B]

Yeah. That is 790. So put it as 800, I guess. So American Express is now 798, which is 800amonth.

[C]

The gold card.

[B]

Yeah, the gold card.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So, okay.

[B]

Gold card is 800.

[C]

So, okay. Minimum to survive on a monthly basis is now $6,150.75.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, that's. That's pretty much what I have too.

[C]

Okay, perfect. So what we need to do. $9,200 minus $6,150. We're gonna have $3,000 left over. Essentially. We'll just round it to three to keep things simple. Yep, 3,000 bucks. What I need you guys to do for two months is we're not making extra payments on that. Well, wait one second. Never mind. The $2,000 that you have in that checking account, we're taking it out and we're putting it with the $4,000 in a high yield savings account. Boom. That's a. That's a one month emergency fund. If anything happens to your income. Because right now we're just a single income. So if anything happens to you, we can at least survive for a month while you scatter to find another job.

[B]

She has a minimum requirement on her bank.

[A]

I can't hold that account.

[C]

Okay, 1500 out. It will. It'll be very close, but just. Just bring out as much as you can. Put it in there. We'll call it a one month emergency fund. And just like kind of round that. Yeah, in your first month, but. Okay, so we're doing that immediately then. First month. What I would do is pay off the Apple card as you said this month. So that's gone. So Apple card is gone. Month number two, we're almost paying off the Best Buy card. Month number three, we're finishing the Best Buy card.

[B]

I should be able to pay off the Best Buy card by next month.

[C]

Okay. So month number two, Best Buy card, is paid off.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Now we're gonna attack the sapphire card. We're gonna say it's like 7,000.

[B]

Following exactly what I was thinking, man, that's. I'm glad that we're on the same page.

[C]

And then now you have a little bit more money to work with on a monthly basis. So it's going to take two months to pay off the sapphire card. So we're entering month number five. So the gold card. This is obviously, again, this is going to be our grind.

[B]

This is going to be a grind for sure. So that's the reason why I put it as like I set up a payment plan with them.

[C]

Yeah. So let's say it's at $30,000 at the time. Now, again, at this point, we have about $3,600 left on a monthly basis. Now that's gonna take eight months, eight and a half months.

[B]

So we are eight months until when?

[C]

That's eight months from starting your gold card to when it's done.

[B]

This is. These are all the different accounts that I have, as you can see.

[C]

Oh.

[B]

So I don't know if you want to then look at that and be like, hey, you know what? Maybe we should take out money from this.

[C]

I don't know. I don't. I think we can attack these without having to do that.

[B]

Okay, cool.

[C]

Really do. It's up to you. If you want to speed the process up, go for it. But we don't have to. So this is a year and one and a half months. A year and one and a half months. And we're out of our credit card debt completely for all. You can speed it up by selling off some of the things if you want.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

All the credit card debts, the bank.

[B]

Of America credit card on there.

[C]

People always ask me, what High Yield Savings account do I use for my own money. Some of you know by now it's sofi. I love them. It's great for my checking account needs. It's great for my high Yield savings account needs. And right Now I'm getting 4.5% interest on my monies. I love that rate on my monies. So if you want to get a great rate like that on your monies, just check out the link in the description below. I have a paid affiliate, affiliate link there. You can get bonuses all the way up to 250. And I took advantage of that. And you should too.

[B]

There should be a Bank of America.

[C]

Bank of America. What?

[B]

Platinum?

[C]

No, I don't have that.

[B]

I think so. I sent it because that was like $7,000.

[C]

Oh, geez. Okay, so then if you do that, that'll add an extra couple months at that time if we put it in the snowball. So it'll be a year and three, three and a half months. Year and three and so let's call it a year and four months. Just be a little more conservative. Year and three and a half months without you selling anything, without getting any bonuses, without getting a raise. Okay. At that time and throughout this whole process, the mattress, I do minimum payment. Sales paid off, no interest. Your student loans, I would honestly do the same. I have minimum payments until it's paid off.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

If you want to just knock it out. It takes a month. Do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But that's up to you. What I need you to do from there though.

[B]

Mm.

[C]

Save up another $18,000. Which now I have an extra. Like.

[B]

My six month emergency fund is probably gonna be like $50,000 for emergency.

[C]

Why?

[B]

What? My minimum requirement is what, 6,000amonth, right?

[C]

No, but. Well, yes, but now that the debt minimum.

[B]

Oh yeah, yes, yes.

[C]

So you need $18,000 on top of the $6,000 you already have in there. So $18,000. We're going to divide that by the now $7,500 you guys have left on a monthly basis. That only takes two and a half months. So let's just be uber conservative and say a year and a half. You guys are completely out of any bad debt and you have a six month emergency fund. Your guys lives are changed.

[B]

Dude.

[C]

That's what I want done. A year and a half and it's completely done. Then if we. Especially once you get your higher income in years to come. If we are 50, 30, 20. If you just do 50 on needs, max out, cut it if you want, but max at 50, no higher. Yeah, you can do 30 on want live quite a lavish lifestyle and then just 20% in investing. You know what I would do? I would do 25% in investing.

[B]

I'd probably do 30% in investing.

[C]

You can if you want, but just to catch up for the age, I would do minimum 25. So I would do like 50. 25. 25. But if you want to do 30, go for it. Live a little though. We're working so that we can get to the point where you can live.

[B]

I just want that our kids never have to like we. I don't ever want us to be relying on our kids.

[C]

If you invest 25%, especially once you get your income and we're investing 25% of the household income on a monthly basis. You guys are going to retire multimillionaires. It's not going to be an issue. If you want to do more, you can. But don't forget to live, too. We're doing the year and a half sacrifice so that at that point then you can live budgetedly. Smart. We're doing it in an appropriate manner that we have not done historically. Yeah, but at that point, you guys will retire multi millionaires by the time you hit 6065. Perfect.

[B]

Yeah, that's what I want.

[C]

You guys have a great life ahead of you. Now, what excites me about this is you guys are clearly fired up and ready to go. It has been a recent thing, so don't let old habits creep up. Have conversations about this. You guys are on the same page, which I love. Like, you know, a lot of the stuff that you said, full in agreement with what he said and vice versa. And that's very exciting and encouraging. Have open, honest conversations about the financial goals we have. Make sure we're on the same page. Make sure one person isn't pushing harder than the other and making someone uncomfortable. You know, we're on the same page. And then you guys are going to do so well. I promise, if you follow this plan.

[B]

Yeah, I think so. The most important thing is having a budget. I believe that you follow budget that you follow. The thing is, 99 of people just don't have one. Yeah, don't even have one. It's just like, hey, whatever comes in, I spend all of it.

[C]

Someone will make a quick spreadsheet and then they'll never follow it as well.

[B]

Never.

[C]

Constantly.

[B]

Yeah. So I really appreciate that.

[C]

No, I think you guys have a bright future ahead of you. Just grind, grind for a little bit and it's worth it. You'll only be 32 and a half. And you're. You'll be 29. You won't even be 30 yet. And you guys will have a fully funded emergency fund and no back debt. It's incredible.

[A]

That's great.

[B]

Yeah. Eventually I want to get into like, real estate. Property. I'm a big invest. I'm big on investments.

[C]

Yeah. And, you know, but first pay off.

[B]

All the debts.

[C]

One step at a time. But that is exciting. I get it. Like, I own a few rental properties. I love it. It's good. And I, you know.

[B]

How come you've never told your side of the story?

[C]

What do you mean? I have. They're older videos.

[B]

When you say that You're a product manager. I still do not know. Product manager. Manager. And what. How. I mean, it's so cool that I have another product.

[C]

Interestingly enough, I don't know when it's going to be uploaded, but I was on Iced Coffee Hour and we talked about that a little, so.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[C]

Good tuned.

[B]

Good, good, good. Yeah.

[C]

Any final thoughts?

[B]

Well, no, thank you so much, actually, for everything that you do and for everything your channel does and no, thank you guys behind the scenes and everybody.

[C]

Thank you guys. Because you're here, you're here to put your situation on this way that other people are going to relate to just like you related it to other people type of situation. So thank you guys.

[B]

I'm glad that you started this.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

It was fun. It was interesting.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You're a very kind person.

[C]

I appreciate that.

[B]

No matter what you guys think, he's actually passionate about what he does.

[C]

I am. My voice gets raised and I get emotional.

[A]

Fine.

[B]

But that's fine.

[C]

That's what's required for Rabab and Salman. I think overall they're gonna do really well. It sounds like they're willing to sacrifice. They are on the same page and they. That is the most important thing when it comes to a marriage and getting on the same financial progress plan and making it in the world. So I'm happy with that. For the Hammer Financial Score right now, spending a budget 3 out of 10. Certainly not the worst we've seen. But also too much overspending and not really budgeting, categorizing things very well. Not very happy about that. In fact, I'll give them a 4 out of 10 debt 1 out of 10. The only reason it's not a zero is because there's no IRS data or collections. But it's still really bad. Credit card debt with really bad interest rates. 2 out of 10 for emergency fund, There's a little bit there. Nothing. Too much retirement, 3 out of 10 Again, there's a bit there, but certainly behind for the household age and real estate. Not a part of the conversation yet, but it will be. And I know he wants to get into it. 0 out of 10 Hammer financial score right now, 2 out of 10. Don't forget to check out all the resources linked in the description below. They are what I use or would use in specific situations. If you want to be in an episode of Financial Audit and you're able to make it down to Austin, Texas, fill out the survey in the description below.