Introducing: What We Spend

Summary

Podcast Summary: Here's Where It Gets Interesting Episode: Introducing: What We Spend Release Date: May 7, 2025

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Introduction

In the premiere episode titled "Introducing: What We Spend," host Sharon McMahon delves into the intricate relationship Americans have with money. This episode serves as an introduction to a new podcast project called "What We Spend," hosted by Courtney Harris. McMahon sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of understanding personal finances within the broader context of history and societal influences.

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Introducing "What We Spend"

Sharon McMahon begins by highlighting the significance of history in shaping our understanding of social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional landscapes. She transitions to the contemporary relevance of examining personal finances, introducing "What We Spend" as a podcast that explores the multifaceted relationship individuals have with money.

Key Points:

• Purpose of History: Understanding the factors that shape actions and how history is written.
• Transition to Personal Finances: Exploring how personal financial decisions are influenced by broader societal factors.

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Courtney Harris on "What We Spend"

Courtney Harris, the host of "What We Spend," is introduced with enthusiasm. She discusses the universal curiosity people have about others' financial lives, often fueled by observing others' spending habits, lifestyles, and financial achievements.

Notable Quotes:

• Courtney Harris (01:08): "I think we should be talking about money more and all the ways, big and small, that it impacts our lives."
• Courtney Harris (02:00): "Money is always about more than your balance."

Podcast Concept:

• Weekly Profiles: Each episode features a new individual from diverse backgrounds across the country.
• Financial Documentation: Guests document a full week of their financial activities, including income, expenses, and the emotions tied to their spending habits.
• Deep Dive into Finances: The podcast aims to provide an intimate look at how money influences daily life, decisions, and long-term goals.

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Case Study: Kelly's Financial Journey

The episode features Kelly, a 32-year-old resident of Salt Lake City, who shares her personal financial story, shedding light on the challenges faced by many Americans with student loan debt and aspirations for homeownership and family planning.

Background:

• Personal Details:
  • Kelly (03:50): "I turn 32 in one week, and I live in Salt Lake City."
• Employment:
  • Kelly is the Director of Client Experience at a medical spa and also serves as an online mental wellness coach.
  • Her husband, Ben, is an engineer earning approximately $78,000 annually.

Financial Overview:

• Income:
  • Kelly earns around $50,000 annually before taxes and insurance.
  • Combined, their household income is just below the average for married couples in Salt Lake City.
• Debt:
  • Total debt amounts to $202,728, primarily from student loans.
  • Kelly (03:04): "I have 150,000. I had more. I had 300,000 after my master's."

Relationship with Money:

• Kelly describes her relationship with money as "all-consuming," likening it to an addiction that is always present and difficult to escape.
  • Kelly (05:00): "It feels like—Cause you just can't get away from it. It's just clinging and it's present with you all the time."
• She strives to maintain control but feels perpetually caught in a tug of war with her finances.

Budget and Expenses: Kelly meticulously manages her expenses through a detailed spreadsheet, categorizing her monthly expenditures to maintain financial stability.

Breakdown of Monthly Expenses (06:06):

• Rent and Utilities: $2,800
• Gym Memberships: $108
• Car Insurance: $254
• Gas: $125
• Phone Payment: $75
• Pet Insurance: $76
• Physical Therapy: $250 (for chronic back pain and osteoarthritis)
• Groceries: $600 (including toiletries)
• Medications and Supplements: $650
• Hair Care: $40
• Streaming Platforms: Minimal, as they rely on family accounts

Total Regular Expenses: Approximately $4,800 per month, excluding debt payments.

Student Loan Debt: Kelly shares the burden of $202,728 in student loan debt, reflecting a common struggle among her generation to balance educational aspirations with financial stability.

• Kelly (09:00): "The math doesn't make much sense."

Emotional Impact: Kelly expresses a mixture of anxiety and curiosity about tracking her finances more closely.

• Kelly (10:37): "I'm feeling nervous because maybe I will just realize through tracking every expense that I'm actually just a dum dum."
• Despite her fears, she remains curious about the insights this detailed tracking might provide.

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Conclusion

Sharon McMahon's inaugural episode of "Here's Where It Gets Interesting" effectively sets the tone for a deep exploration into personal finances through the lens of "What We Spend." By introducing Kelly's compelling financial narrative, the episode underscores the pervasive impact of money on everyday life and personal well-being. Listeners are left with a heightened understanding of the complexities surrounding financial management and the emotional toll it can take, laying the groundwork for future episodes that will continue to unveil the diverse financial stories of Americans across the nation.

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Final Thoughts

This episode emphasizes the importance of open conversations about money, challenging societal taboos and encouraging a more informed and thoughtful approach to personal finances. As Sharon McMahon and Courtney Harris embark on this journey, they invite listeners to reflect on their own financial habits and the broader implications of money in shaping individual lives and collective history.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Hello, friends. Welcome. Delighted. You're with me today. You know, one of many reasons history is important is that it allows us an understanding into the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that help shape actions and ultimately, how history is written. But it's also important to examine those factors within our own lives, specifically as it relates to personal finances. And that's why we'd like to present a new podcast we think you'll enjoy. It's called what We Spend. In each episode, host Courtney Harris talks with one person as they document a full week of their lives and all the ways money has factored into it. People from all over the country and all walks of life examine and share the ways they make money, the ways they spend money, and all of the thoughts and emotions they have along the way. Their revealing conversations lend a unique perspective into people's relationship with money and may even help us understand how our own spending habits are shaped. As you enjoy this preview, be sure to search for the full episode of what We Spend on your favorite podcast platform.

[Courtney Harrell]

You know how you always want to know about everyone else's money? You do, right? Like, you'll see someone buying something you want or taking some amazing vacation, and you think, how can they afford that? Or you meet your friend's new girlfriend and she has some very impressive job and you think, how much money does she make? I think when it comes to money, even if you don't want to admit it, we're all a little nosy. But I don't know, I actually think that's good. I think we should be talking about money more and all the ways, big and small, that it impacts our lives. On this show, we are actually going to do that. We are going to go somewhere that we almost never get to go deep into the heart of someone else's finances. Here's how this is going to work. Each week, I'm going to introduce you to a new person from somewhere across the country, and they are going to tell us everything about their finances. How much they make, how much they want to make, what they worry about, or if they don't worry at all. And then for one week, we'll follow them through their daily routine. Every day, they'll record an audio diary with all the nitty gritty details of how they're spending their money. I mean, the coffees, the groceries, the rent that's due, the car accident that suddenly upends everything. And after that, we'll talk about what the week brought up for them, what it's made them feel. Because whatever you're buying or not buying or saving or spending. At the end of the day, money is always about more than your balance. I'm Courtney Harrell, and this is what we spend. How much school debt do you have?

[Kelly]

I have 150,000. I had more. I had 300,000 after my master's. I had a great uncle pass away who was an artist. And my parents chose with their share of that that they would help pay off all my private loans. And so that was a crazy night. We, like, I remember pressing submit on $150,000 payment and just being like, holy sh T. And they were like, yay. Doesn't that feel so much better? And I was kind of like, it feels like 50% better. And it still feels like I have still $150,000 of debt.

[Courtney Harrell]

This is Kelly.

[Kelly]

I turn 32 in one week, and I live in Salt Lake City.

[Courtney Harrell]

Kelly is One of the 42.8 million Americans who has student loan debt. And also, like a lot of her generation, she wants to buy a home and have a baby. And she's trying to figure out if it's possible to make all that work. Kelly married her husband about a year ago, and eight months ago, the two of them moved from Tennessee to Salt Lake City, Utah. Ben is an engineer for a software company. Kelly's a director of client experience at a medical spa, and she's also an online mental wellness coach.

[Kelly]

I used to be a therapist, and for lots of reasons, I'm not right now, but I will always have therapy or coaching in my life, and I will probably go back to that full time at some point.

[Courtney Harrell]

Kelly is paid hourly, but she makes about 50k a year, and Ben makes about 78k. That's before taxes and health insurance together. That puts them just under the average income for married couple families in Salt Lake City. How would you describe your relationship with money consuming?

[Kelly]

Oh, I would describe it as all consuming. Yeah. The thing that keeps, like, coming to mind is, you know when someone has, like, an addiction or a struggle and they call it like, the monkey on their back.

[Courtney Harrell]

Yeah.

[Kelly]

Cause you just can't get away from it. It's just clinging and it's present with you all the time. It feels like that. And I try really hard to, like, be in control, like, maintain my control.

[Courtney Harrell]

Yeah.

[Kelly]

But it's kind of this tug of war.

[Courtney Harrell]

What do you do on a weekly basis to manage your expenses?

[Kelly]

On a Sunday, I will sit down and look at the budget. And I made a spreadsheet.

[Courtney Harrell]

Okay. Yeah. So walk me through your spreadsheet. So I would love what all of your regular expenses are and, like, what you kind of typically pay in each category.

[Kelly]

So rent and utilities. 2,800. That's pretty expensive for rent. Anytime I tell someone that, they're like, that's more than my mortgage. I'm like, yeah, I. I know. Please don't tell me what your mortgage is. I don't want to know.

[Courtney Harrell]

Two gym memberships, 108. Car insurance, 254.

[Kelly]

Gas, 125.

[Courtney Harrell]

Do you have a car payment?

[Kelly]

No, we just buy used cars.

[Courtney Harrell]

Nice.

[Kelly]

Ben's car. Basically, the. The roof flies off, but, you know, just don't take it on the highway, you know, we don't have a car payment.

[Courtney Harrell]

Who needs a roof?

[Kelly]

Yeah, who needs that? It's. It's a convertible.

[Courtney Harrell]

Phone payment. 75. Pet insurance, $76, and physical therapy for 250. It helps with Kelly's chronic back pain and osteoarthritis.

[Kelly]

And then groceries. This one sucks the most right now, and I really feel like everyone will understand. I put 600amonth for our groceries. And I mean, that includes, like, toiletries and stuff, too.

[Courtney Harrell]

They have a Costco membership, but they pay that yearly fee with the cash back they get from their credit card.

[Kelly]

Medications and supplements. Like, Ben works out, so he has like, this huge bag of protein powder that he gets from Costco. So Ben's is mostly workout supplements and just one medication. And mine is, I think, like four medications and like a probiotic and some multivitamins. Total for that is 650 streaming platforms. No, we mooch off of our families.

[Courtney Harrell]

Some of the subscriptions are on them, though. Dropbox for 12. Soundcloud for 6. Spotify for 10.

[Kelly]

Hair. My hair. I put $40 next to my hair, and that's so I can spend that $40 and get my hair washed by somebody else one time every month. And it is like the gift to me to have somebody else wash my hair every once in a while. And isn't that sh. Tty that, like, even now, just reading my own budget, that it really is just my business. I still feel the need to justify. Like, I just need to treat myself some dimes and have my hair washed.

[Courtney Harrell]

What does that make your expenses altogether your regular expenses?

[Kelly]

Around $4,800 a month. But then you get to debt.

[Courtney Harrell]

How much debt do you have?

[Kelly]

A lot. If you are including my student loans, we have $202,728 in debt.

[Courtney Harrell]

Where did you go to school?

[Kelly]

I went to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

[Courtney Harrell]

Why did you go to school?

[Kelly]

I thought I was supposed to because I was told that, you know, this is the next step. And I think this is part of, like, the dream or the lie that was sold to my generation was like, if you don't go to college, you're gonna end up working at McDonald's, you know, and, like, you're gonna be a deadbeat, and you're gonna have to live with your parents, and you're probably gonna use marijuana even, and, like, you're gonna be a bad person, essentially, if you don't go to college.

[Courtney Harrell]

Kelly's degree cost about 40 grand a year. And after undergrad, Kelly went on to grad school at the same university. She has a master's in mental health counseling. But as Kelly sees it now, the math doesn't make much sense. I want to ask you something about that, and I mean, no judgment with this. How did you think you were going to pay off that amount of tuition? Or were you at the time, like, I know I can't pay this off. Like, how did you think about it then?

[Kelly]

Oh, no, it's a good question. I didn't. I did not think about it. I had no clue what I was doing. It wasn't like, I wonder how I'm going to pay this off when the, you know, average annual salary for a therapist is 40 to 60 thousand dollars a year. I was not thinking about that. I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't really have anyone around me who was explaining what I was doing. Like, your prefrontal cortex is not developed when you are making those decisions. Ultimately, I don't regret anything because I am who I am and I'm happy, but I'm financially trapped.

[Courtney Harrell]

So that's Kelly, and this week, instead of just tracking it in her spreadsheet, she's going to tell us about every dollar she spends and every feeling that comes with it. How are you feeling about tracking your finances for a week?

[Kelly]

I'm feeling nervous because maybe I will just realize through tracking every expense that I'm actually just a dum dum. And I'm very irresponsible and this is all my fault. But I'm feeling curious. I'm just curious to see what comes of it.

[Courtney Harrell]

Yeah, me too. I will check in with you on the other side of your week. Okay.

[Narrator]

For full episodes, follow what We Spend in Odyssey original podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts.