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Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free. Today, I'm going to tell you three things that Sam and I did to take back control of our money. It's going to work for you, too. The first thing you need is a why. Okay? You need a reason why. I would call it a purpose to proceed. Like, why in the heck, Jade, am I going to go along with the stuff that you and Dave are teaching? Why would I do that? I know my why. Can I tell you my why? Oh, Lord have mercy. It was 2008 when Sam and I discovered our debt. And I don't know if you guys remember 2008. A little time I like to call the Great Recession. Oh, my goodness gracious. If you remember, let me paint you the picture. All hell was breaking loose. Gas prices out of control. Real estate bubble bursting. 401ks. People were literally selling off their 401ks at the bottom, just losing thousands, hundreds of thousands by the day. It was a hurricane. And Sam and I were right in the middle, just getting waylaid, just getting pummeled by the storm. Now, let me just explain this for a second. Cause I'm a Florida girl. I don't know if you notice. I'm a Florida girl, okay? And in Florida, we have hurricanes, okay? I'm not talking about the football team. We have storms. And with a hurricane, a lot of people get it twisted. They're like, oh, the worst part of the hurricane, you don't want to be in the eye of the storm. Like, no, no, no, no. With the hurricane, you know, you got the big storm swirling around, then you got the eye in the center. The worst part of the storm is this area. If you can see right in here, this inner area just before you get to the eye, it's the most severe weather. Sometimes there's tornadoes that drop down in that area. Terrible. That's where Sam and I were the worst. $460,000 of debt. Now, don't get it twisted. Some of you watching online tonight, maybe even in this room, you're in a situation where you're like, hey, where I'm at, Jade, it's sunny, it's 70, it's calm. That's what the eye of the storm feels like. Everything looks good. The birds are chirping, sky is blue. But you and I both know if you're in the eye of the storm, if the wind blows just a little bit to the left or to the right, you lose a job, wife gets a diagnosis. Somebody steps off the curb, breaks their Leg. Next thing you know, they're on disability. All it takes is one thing, the wind to blow just a little bit and you go from sunny and 70 to being waylaid, pummeled. You know what I'm talking about? I'm going to be honest with you. When it comes to a storm, a financial storm, an economic storm, the place is not to be, is not on the edge like Sam and I were. The place to be is not in the middle, in the eye of the storm. The place that you want to be above the storm, you gotta get above the storm. I'll tell you the first time I ever heard that concept. This is story time right now. The first time I ever heard the concept of flying above the storm in 2008, back, you know, when it was just Dave Ramsey on the show. It was called the Dave Ramsey Show. I was listening to the radio and Dave was on and he was talking about. Somebody had called and he ended up talking about real estate in the midst of a great recession. And he said, you know what? For me, I'm not really feeling the effects of the recession because I positioned myself above the storm. Right now, real estate is cheap. So I'm buying it up and I'm listening to my radio. Like, what? What is this, man? He is sitting in his air conditioned studio with his ut Vols tumbler to talking about buying up real estate. Y' all know what I'm talking about. Cause it's cheap. I was mad, yes. Here I am getting knocked out and he's saying it's easy to buy up real estate. I got mad. And do you want to know what happened? Shortly after that, the old brain clicked on and I got smart. I said, wait a second now. If he's above the storm, it's cause he worked to get there. It didn't just happen. It wasn't luck. He worked to get there. And I very quickly went from being angry to what I'm gonna call probably the most righteous jealousy anyone could ever have. I was like, I hear what this man is saying and I want it. I want it and I can get it. But I'm gonna have to work hard and do something I've never done before to get it to fly above the storm. I made a decision that day with my husband Sam, who's back there somewhere. He's in here somewhere. I said, I never wanna be in this situation again. I don't know if you guys have noticed this stuff, but these economic hardships, these downturns, it's all like cyclical, right? I'M thinking back, like, all right, you got like the 2000s, when it was like all the dot com stuff and Y2K, right? You had that. Then it was like 9, 11. And then we came to the Great Recession and then we had Covid. Have you noticed it's really bad for a while and then it gets good and then we forget and it gets really bad again. And then we forget and it gets good. Right. It's cyclical. And I said, man, I don't know what it's gonna be, but something's gonna happen again. And I never wanna be getting waylaid by the storm. I wanna get above the storm. And sure enough, yeah, a while later, Covid happened, and we were able to fly above the storm just like Dave Ramsey. And so you have a choice today. There's really only three options. Time's gonna pass anyway, right? Right. It's gonna pass. Cause when we started getting out of debt, it was 2008. We did our debt free scream in 2018, 2017. The time is gonna pass and you have three options. You could be the same. Let me tell you, being the same is not an option. I don't have time to talk about it, but look up the parable of the tenants. Staying the same is not an option. Couple years passes, you never paid off the debt. You're still leasing a car, still living paycheck to paycheck, still arguing with your spouse about the same old arguments. That's for the birds. That's ridiculousness. You have opportunity in front of you. Staying the same is not an option. I feel like I'm talking to my kids right now. No, sir. You know, you could be worse off. Worse off. You never paid off the debt. And before you know it, you know, you didn't see it coming, but you got laid off. And now you're having to borrow on credit cards to make ends meet, and you're having a hard time keeping up with the mortgage, and you miss a few payments, and then you miss a few more, and suddenly your house is at risk. You're thinking about filing bankruptcy. Oh, my goodness, it's worse. Or. Or maybe today, tonight, something clicks upstairs like it did with me. And you go, you know what? I'm gonna do this thing. And you make a choice. And the day after that, you make another choice. And the day after that, you make the next right choice and they start compounding on each other. And the time passes, and before you know it, it's two years later, five years later, 10 years later, you don't even Recognize who you used to be because you're free. You don't have payments. You hadn't had payments in a minute. You'. That's what I'm talking about. Let that be your decision tonight. Staying the same isn't an option. We gotta get above the storm. All right, I spent a lot of time on that, but that's the reason why. All right, that was number one. Number two is you need a budget that actually works. All right, a budget. And I say, a budget that actually works. Cause I see what some of you guys are doing, you're calling into the show. I'm like, that's your budget? Is it working? You need a budget that actually works. Let me tell you what I mean. For those of you watching online, maybe it's your first time hearing it, Hey, a budget is simply a plan for your money. It's deciding every single month. This is how I'm gonna spend every single dime. And I do a new one every single month. Cause every single month is different. Now, I won't hold you on this, but a really good budget that actually works needs to be three things. It needs to be detailed, realistic, and flexible. Let me explain that real quick. Detailed simply means I'm not guessing. All right, folks call on the Ramsey show all the time. I say, well, how much do you make? Well, duh, duh, duh duh, my guy. You gotta know how much you make. Okay, so I'm gonna log into the HR portal, I'm gonna pull up the statement, I'm gonna find out exactly how much I make. Then I'm gonna be detailed about writing the expenses out. Everything I could possibly think to spend money on, from groceries to grandma's birthday, I'm putting it in the budget. Detailed. Somebody say detailed? Woo. Yes. Flexible. No, no, no. Let me go to realistic next. Realistic. Oh, yeah. Yes, realistic. Okay, I'm gonna call some of you guys out. It's 20, 26. It's expensive out there. Groceries have gone up, gas has gone up, and some folks are still putting on their budget. Family of four saying they're going to spend $400 on groceries. Listen, you can't be a family of four trying to squeeze into a single and ready to mingle budget. It's not going to work. You got to put real numbers in the budget so that you'll actually stick to it. You're not always going over in the red. Realistic matters. Final thing, it's got to be flexible. Flexibility is simply a matter of awareness. You can't change your budget. You can't adapt your budget to what's happened in the month. If you're not looking at your budget, you gotta log in and look at the thing. It's in your pocket. Every dollar's in your pocket. Look at it. It'll help you see. Hey, I said I was gonna spend $800 on groceries. I'm at 900 and it's only the 15th. I better slow down. Right? That's how you're flexible. Then you can say, you know what? I'm about to go over. Let me pull from this other less important category, like, I don't know, movies, entertainment. Let me pull from that. Move it over here and make it work out. Don't just go in the red. Continuously detailed, realistic, flexible. And like I said, we do a new one every month for those of you listening for the first time, because every month is different now. I don't want to hear it because I can already hear the naysayers data budget. That sounds like a lot of work in 2026. The budgets are digital, all right? I don't want to hear it because back in the day with Sam Warshaw and I, it was on paper, okay? It was a paper budget. There was no other thing to write on except that little bitty ledger in the back of the checkbook. You guys don't understand how old I actually am. I can see you. I'm 42. Ah. The ledger in the back, it had the little triangle that you had to put all the numbers in. Don't miss a decimal point, all right? Don't accidentally add a zero. That's an argument right there, okay? It's digital. I don't want to hear any excuses. Get your budget on point, all right? You have the why? You have the budget number three. You guys already know what this one is. You need a proven plan, all right? You need a proven plan that works. Obviously, I'm going to tell you about the seven baby steps. Millions upon millions of people have used this plan, and I have a feeling the folks in this room, y' all know it by heart. So you're going to help me go through it right now. Baby step one, for those listening for the first time, baby step one, you're going to get $1,000 saved. Somebody say $1,000? Yes. Baby step two, you're going to pay off all your debt using the debt snowball method. Everything but the house. You're gonna do it off, paid off using what debt snowball? Yes. Baby step three, we're saving three to six months of expenses in a Fully funded emergency fund. How much are we saving? Three to six months. A somebody always has to add something at the end. Cut off. Next one. Baby step four, we're investing 15% of our income. I'll hit that one. Baby step five, we're gonna put a little extra for the kids college. Baby step six, we're putting extra. We're being intentional about paying off the mortgage. And finally, baby step seven, what are we gonna do? Build our natives. Yes. Clap that up. It's the plan Sam and I used to pay off $460,000 of debt. It's easy to say, but how many of you know? It's got a lot of nuance in it, doesn't it? It's a lot of nuance. I remember back in the day, I'd be like, okay, what was I supposed to do if I'm upside down? And what happens if I'm saving for the down payment, but I still need to save for the retirement? But it goes for too long. I'm trying to think of all these things, and the only way I could do it was I'd have to find an episode of the Ramsey show where Dave might have been talking about, you don't have to do it that way anymore. Every dollar will walk with you. It's in your pocket. It will literally learn your circumstance and tell you what to do next. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But it's in your pocket. There's no excuse. Now, I know I've thrown a lot at you. It was a lot. We talked about a lot. We covered a lot. A lot of change. But really, what I'm trying to get you to is the point of acceptance. Because I get it. You're sitting there right now. You're like, okay, Jay, what do I need? Do I need a side hustle? Will I not be able to go on vacation? You know, you're already counting the cost. Slow down and remember the why. The goal is to fly above the storm. Don't forget, don't get spooked. The goal is to fly above the storm. You gotta remember the why. And if I can get you to a point of acceptance to know, hey, journey's not gonna be easy, but you can do it. I know you'll win. I know you will. Matter of fact, I think Back to, it's 2026, so technically it was 2024. I ran my first marathon. And you cheer about it now. But can I tell you the honest truth? The honest truth is I talked about running a marathon for a decade. For 10 years. For 10 years. I said, one of these days I'm gonna run a marathon, and one of these days I'm gonna do it. But. But there was always, always an excuse. Oh, I'm too busy. Oh, you know, I've got kids. You know, I got the mom bod. You know, I'm too busy at work, and there's the fee to sign up. There was always an excuse. But it kept calling me. It kept calling. Can I tell you a secret? The conditions will never be conducive to do what's uncomfortable. I'm going to say it again because my guy over here got it. The conditions will never be conducive to do what's uncomfortable. Never. There's never an ideal time. And matter of fact, if there was, it would have been back then when I was skinnier and didn't have two kids and didn't have the mom bodies. Right. It's not always gonna be sunny and 70. Okay. The time for you to start the baby steps. Yeah. The ideal time. It was probably before the divorce. It was probably before you lost your job. It was probably before the big move. But you're here now, today. So that means the time is now. The time is today. You gotta accept it. Hey, there's gonna be rainy days. There's gonna be days when your muscles ache. There's gonna be days when you don't wanna get up and do it. There's gonna be days when it feels completely thankless. There's gonna be days when you have absolutely no energy. Worn. Slap out. All right, you gotta keep going. Don't quit. Don't quit. Matter of fact, Galatians 6, 9 is my favorite scripture ever. It goes like this. I'm gonna paraphrase it, but it says, let us not become weary. And well, doing. Basically don't give up on doing the right things. Because it says, at the proper time, at the right time, we'll reap a harvest of blessings. If you don't give up. That's right, my guy. If you don't give up. Some versions say if you don't faint. Cause you feel like you want to fall out, don't you? You feel like you want to fall out, but you can't. You can't quit. You can't tap out. You gotta accept the challenge. You must make the very intrepid decision to take back your money. Now, I just told you everything you need in order to do this. Let me show you exactly what to do and how we're gonna help you make it happen with every dollar. Remember I was talking to you about the budget? Let me show you. If you haven't seen it, let me show you what it looks like now at the top, just to get acclimated. At the top. That's where the money goes that I told you to find out how much you make. Then you're gonna be detailed about everything on there. That's all the expenses, everything like that. Now, when you make your first budget, it shouldn't take long. Matter of fact, in the time it takes you to watch Is It Cake? On Netflix, you should be done, all right? You should be done with it just like that. And I'm not gonna hold you with that. But that's the way the budget looks. Now, I told you every dollar was gonna help you with the budget. But it's also going to help you with a personalized plan. Somebody say personalized plan? Personalized plan. That means it's tailored to you. So when you get in there, it's gonna start an onboarding experience and say, get started. It's gonna ask you questions like, hey, what's your priority with money? How often do you get paid? Do you have children? It's gonna ask you all of these questions. And all of that is so it can synthesize it and say, okay, based on what you told us, we're going to give you a couple of recommendations. And if you do the recommendations, you're going to find margin. Margin. That sounds pretty good. Margin is extra money. Now, here's the thing. Average person gets eight recommendations. Eight. And what you need to know is at the end of each of those recommendations, cash money, right? It's finding you money, okay? And if you do them, if you do the recommendations, however many it gives you, the Average person finds $33,015 in the first 30 days. I'm gonna say that more clearly. $3015 in the first 30 days. Somebody thought they heard 30,000 and was like, what? No, not that. Never that margin. Extra room, breathing space. If you never heard that before, and you're like, jay, what do you mean, margin? Think about it like this. You ever got on an elevator, and when you first got on the elevator, it was just you, and you're like, this is nice. Then people keep crowding on more and more people. Before you know it, you're in the elevator like this, and you're like, oh, my God, I can feel the guy's arm hair on me, right? The guy next to me, this guy's ate garlic for, you know, garlic for lunch. Terrible. You can't wait for folks to get off the elevator. Then as you go down, people start to crowd out, start to breathe again, start to move again. Same thing with your budget. When you started out, it wasn't like that, but over time, subscriptions added on the car lease added on the HELOC added on, and before you know it, your budget is crowded out. There's no extra breathing room. It wasn't intended to be like that. All right, now, there's two types of margin that we're looking for. First off, one time margin. Just what it says. You get it one time. That means you did some sort of act like you sold a vehicle or you sold off some stock. It brought you money one time. It was a one and done deal. Everydollar is going to help you find that. It's also going to help you find what we call monthly margin, which is exactly how it sounds. It means if you do an action once, you still see the margin month to month. For instance, if we say, hey, cut down your grocery budget from $800 to $600, what's that make? $200 every single month that you do that action, an extra margin. Is that simple as it sounds, every dollar is going to show you how to do that. Now here's the key. When it shows you the recommendation, you get a choice. Am I going to commit or am I not going to commit? Yep. Or nope. See right there? Commit. Click the commit button. Because there's. Think about it. If the average person gets eight recommendations, if you only say commit to one of them, do you want to know what you're going to get? One eighth of the success. That's not good margin. You gotta do all of it. You gotta do all of it. And I know what you're thinking. Yes, it could be hard to change your tax withholdings because now you don't get the big refund check. And it could be hard to give up the trip to Hawaii or to sell the car. But hey, I told you before, this isn't necessarily fun, but this is what's necessary to fly above the storm, right? We're flying above the storm. That's the goal. So we gotta commit and do this. Hard work, guys. Remember, people are finding $3015 in the first 30 days. And I know you're thinking, hey, that's a little bit more than I make in a whole month. But remember. But it's first time. It's one time margin and monthly margin. Don't forget that. That's how they're getting the number, ma'. Am. Okay? That's how it works. Now, I mentioned to you before, I said, hey, I want you going into the app because that's how we have a flexible budget. Remember I said that earlier that awareness was key. There's another couple reasons I want you in the app. Number one, you gotta track your transactions. Every single day you spend money, it'll show you and in real time, let's go through and track it so we can stay on top of it. That's so, so important. But probably what's the most important thing? The daily lessons. If you get in there, it's going to teach you the why behind the what. It's gonna teach you the why behind the what so you can understand. It's not enough. It's not enough for you to be like, hey, I'm gonna do it because Dave said it or I'm gonna do it because Jade said it or Rachel said it. That's not enough. That will wear off in like two seconds. You have to understand the why it's a personal buy in thing. It's the difference between you being like, yeah, you know, yeah, doc, I know I need to stop eating sugar and you actually understanding and doing the research and understanding what sugar does to your body. Right. Is a big difference. The bridge between you saying, yeah, you're right and you saying, you know what, that's right for me. That's what I'm gonna do. It's personal buy in and you're gonna find that in the lessons so that you're in control. We're not telling you what to do. You're telling yourself what to do. This is what I want to do. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.