LIVE SHOW REPLAY - Are You Ready to Break Free from Financial Shackles?
Are you tired of feeling chained by your finances? In this episode of Ask Ralph, Ralph and Craig dive deep into the habits, mindsets, and spiritual principles that keep so many of us stuck in a cycle of financial stress. From debt and impulse spending to budgeting misconceptions and misplaced identity, they break down what’s really holding people back—and how to start walking in freedom. This episode will help you take that critical first step toward living free from financial shackles.
Check out the full podcast episode here
You’ll hear practical strategies like tracking expenses, rethinking budgets as tools for empowerment, and setting intentional goals—alongside biblical encouragement rooted in stewardship, contentment, and grace. Whether you’re overwhelmed by credit card debt or just trying to gain control over your spending, this conversation offers real hope, real solutions, and a reminder that financial freedom isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress, one step at a time.
Chapters:
- 00:00 - Breaking Free from Financial Chains
- 01:53 - Breaking Free from Financial Shackles
- 09:30 - Understanding Budgeting: The Little Things Matter
- 14:30 - Overcoming Mental Roadblocks in Budgeting
- 22:50 - Understanding Budgeting and Intentional Spending
- 27:17 - Identifying Triggers for Impulse Buying
- 31:40 - The Envelope System: A Return to Traditional Budgeting
- 36:50 - The Impact of Instant Gratification on Decision Making
- 44:06 - The Importance of Stewardship
- 47:34 - The Journey to Financial Awareness
- 55:40 - Starting Your Journey to Financial Freedom
Takeaways:
- Feeling trapped by finances is common, but there are ways to break free.
- Budgeting is like a blueprint for your financial freedom, guiding your spending choices.
- Impulse spending can derail your financial goals, so awareness of triggers is crucial.
- Tracking expenses helps you understand where your money goes, leading to better choices.
- Living paycheck to paycheck can feel normal, but it doesn't have to be your reality.
- Taking small steps each day towards financial health can lead to big changes over time.
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00:00 - None
00:00 - Breaking Free from Financial Chains
01:53 - Breaking Free from Financial Shackles
09:30 - Understanding Budgeting: The Little Things Matter
14:30 - Overcoming Mental Roadblocks in Budgeting
22:50 - Understanding Budgeting and Intentional Spending
27:17 - Identifying Triggers for Impulse Buying
31:40 - The Envelope System: A Return to Traditional Budgeting
36:50 - The Impact of Instant Gratification on Decision Making
44:06 - The Importance of Stewardship
47:34 - The Journey to Financial Awareness
55:40 - Starting Your Journey to Financial Freedom
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Are you tired of feeling chained by your finances?
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Does worry and debt feel like heavy shackles holding you
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back from the abundant life?
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God intends.
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Well, today on the show, my special guest, Craig and I are going all in.
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We're gonna be talking about breaking reclaiming control and unlocking true
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financial freedom through faith-based perspectives and principles.
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Are you ready to break the chains?
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If you are, then let's get started.
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Welcome back everyone.
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I'm your host, Ralph, and I'm thrilled to have my friend and guest
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host Craig joining me again today.
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Craig, welcome.
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Thank you very much for having me back.
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Oh, you're very welcome.
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We just ask, you know, a really difficult question.
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Are you ready to break free from Financial Shackles and Craig,
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that phrase financial shackles?
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What comes to your mind when you think about that?
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Well, you know, shackles restrict freedom.
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And, and that's really what those kinds of financial challenges can
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do, is they restrict your freedom.
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And, and that's a huge thing I, I've never had handcuffs on and I don't
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ever want to, but I can't imagine not being able to move your arms.
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What kind of panic, you know?
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And so finances can do the same thing.
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Yeah, and that's exactly what we're gonna be focusing on today.
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You know, we're gonna be talking about some key strategies such as budgeting,
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controlling impulse spending, but more importantly, we're gonna discuss
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how these are tools for Christians seeking that financial freedom to
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actually remove those shackles.
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So what we call budgeting is a secret weapon.
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And I talk about on the show all the time, we talked about
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kicking impulsive spending.
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And today we're gonna dig a little deeper into the why and the how.
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Because a lot of.
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Times, Craig.
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I think it's really about the why and the how that makes this so fundamentally
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important and how these things can help you break free of those change, especially
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if you feel stuck paycheck to paycheck.
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So this is live and if you're watching the show right now,
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we want you to participate.
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You can use the chat, you can share your thoughts, you can ask questions.
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Let's make this a community discussion.
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So Craig, let's jump into it.
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So thinking about financial freedom, what's the absolute
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first step someone needs to take?
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In my opinion, I started with this topic earlier this week, and I believe that
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budgeting is really the secret weapon.
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Craig, why do you think that is such strong language?
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Is that really that powerful to have that budget?
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It is.
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I mean, how, how do you know how to fix things if you don't
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know where your money's going?
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So, so even if you don't, and I don't wanna hear your opinion on this, Ralph,
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even if you don't get to the budget part, I. I'm gonna take this much money
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and put it towards this and that this much money and put it towards that.
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If all you did was just record where your money went, you'd be a lot better off.
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And, and you have to do that really before you can, can do a
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competent budget, don't you think?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And I make the analogy that a budget is sort of like a blueprint
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for your financial house.
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You know, you're not gonna build a house if you don't have a basic understanding
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of what that's going to look like.
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And it, and it really is that simple, but.
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When I look at people that I talk to every day, Craig, you know it, it
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sounds simple, but how many people are building without having that plan?
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And honestly, if you're listening right now or if you're watching,
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do you have a financial blueprint?
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So let's start breaking down the core ideas in that, because really
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the whole point of this, and this is what we talk about, freedom.
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Is making money last.
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And it all comes down to intentionality.
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And that really is what we talk about when we talk about budgeting.
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You know, so many times people feel like budgeting is a restriction.
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Craig, do you feel that way too?
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Like budgeting is sort of a restrictive type of word?
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Well,
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it is, but in a good way.
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Um, you are trying to restrict your, kind of, restrict your mental space.
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I don't know.
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I'm not, I'm not saying that very well, but.
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Just because you have a budget doesn't mean you can't blow money,
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but it does kind of put your spending, it's either inside this
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budget or it's outside this budget.
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And so in that way, I, I don't think it really constrains you because
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you get to decide what goes in the budget and out of the budget.
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So it kind of does in the moment.
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But longer term, I don't think it really does constrain you.
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No, actually, and I think what you're really can into Craig is
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intentionality and, and as like, you can be intentional and choose to
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spend wherever you wanna spend it.
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I mean, it's not for you or for me to say to somebody, Hey, you need
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to spend your money on this now.
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But, but the difference is being intentional about it.
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And Craig, you brought up the first thing I wanted to talk about today.
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And that is that crucial first step.
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And that's tracking.
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Because like you said, if you don't know where your income and income is
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going, where your expenses is going, you're never gonna figure it out.
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And Craig, why do you think that's such an overlooked, uh, a thing?
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And why do you think it's so eyeopening when people do it?
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Because I think people are actually uncomfortable.
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And, and what does it reveal?
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Have you ever done this and what was your experience?
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Yeah, I have.
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Um, not recently, but I think people are afraid of what it's gonna show.
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It's, it's kinda the same thing.
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You and I have talked about this several times.
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Kinda like when you're trying to drop some weight, you start writing down
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everything you eat and it's like, oh my, you know, I have got to make
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some changes, but you've gotta take that first step and if you don't do
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that, you're just dead in the water.
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But, but I think it is uncomfortable, you know, people don't really
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wanna know some of this stuff.
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No, I think you're absolutely right, but I think you're also right that it's
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the intentionality of that, that you have to do that because if you don't
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picture this, you're in a boat, you're and, and you're going out on the pond.
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I know you've got a pond.
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You posted a picture on Facebook about your pond.
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And I told a funny story when I saw yours about how one day I bought this
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boat, we've got, we got like a one acre pond here on the farm, and I
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got in this boat and it was a little.
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Little paddle boat and here I am, fat man in a little boat, right?
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And I'm thinking, oh, this thing's great.
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Well, all of a sudden I get about halfway across.
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We had a little island in the middle and I got about halfway across Craig
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and I looked down and there's water coming in the boat and I'm thinking,
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where is this water coming from?
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Now?
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In my particular case, it was 'cause I was so heavy.
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The back of the boat was pitched down at the bottom.
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But it works the same way with a budget.
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If you don't know where the leaks are, if you don't know where the money's going.
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That's gonna put shackles on you because you can't make better decisions.
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And that's why it ultimately leads to, to freedom.
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And Craig, when you've done that before, when you've looked at your
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spending, what was that one category that always sort of surprised you?
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I know you mentioned last week eating out was, was one that was kind of
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surprising to you, but what other things kind of surprised you when you did that?
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That and just these unnecessary nickel and dime expenses.
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This is something that shocks me every month.
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I scan through our credit card bills and we'll get some pretty good sized credit
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card bill, and the vast majority of the charges are less than a hundred dollars.
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You know, it's $10 here and $20 there, and $40 another place.
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But no one of those is gonna really put you underwater, but 40 or 50 of 'em will.
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And so you, you start those little things, you know, you think going out to
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lunch, I know you don't go out to lunch.
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Uh, I don't either anymore, but I used to, I used to go out every day.
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Sure.
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Well, you know, even back when it was 10 bucks a day, that's a lot of money.
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And it's, it's just really hard to, um, to recognize that unless you start.
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Trying to track it because it, it, it's this under the radar spending,
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you know, the big things are easy, and I don't mean easy to pay.
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Sorry, I should say that differently.
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The big things are easy to track, but they're really hard to.
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Let me, I'm not saying this very well.
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I've been up since two this morning, so Oh boy.
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You've
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had a No, but I, I, what you're trying to say is the big things are
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easy to see and they're easy to see.
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Oh, there it is.
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They're easy to identify.
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I think what you're getting at Craig is they're not easy to change,
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whereas the little things are so easy to miss because they're $10 here.
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The, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I think that's where you were going.
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That's exactly where I was going.
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And thank you for bailing me out.
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That's no problem.
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Problem my friend.
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But, but those little things are where a lot of the control is.
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I think this is a, a key point.
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You know, you gotta pay your rent, you gotta pay your utilities.
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You may have a car payment, you know, all, there are certain
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things that you just flat have to pay or you're in deep trouble.
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So you kind of can, I mean you can a little bit, but the real control.
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Isn't all that discretionary spending, which often is in little drips and drabs.
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Oh, absolutely.
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Right.
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You know, I, I agree with that.
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My son was over this weekend and he was telling me, he said to me, dad, he
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says, what do you think I should do?
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Should I, should I focus on paying off my credit card or should I
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focus on building my emergency fund?
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And I said, really?
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You gotta do both.
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And I think that's where tracking your, your, your, your income and expenses
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is so important because if you're going to eventually get to that point
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where you create that budget or that.
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Intentional spending plan.
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You gotta really know what's going on from the beginning.
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And like you said, I think you've gotta start by listing your income sources.
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It's really pretty simple.
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A budget is not rocket scientists.
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I think a lot of people hear that and they go, oh boy, what is Ralph talking about?
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What is Craig talking about this budget?
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Don't overthink it.
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It's really start off with your income and then, like Craig
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said, list those fixed costs.
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Those are the things you have to pay.
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If you want to have a, a roof over your head, you're either gonna pay
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a mortgage or you're gonna pay rent.
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That's kind of a given.
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You know, you need to have electric, you need to have water, sewer,
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whatever that looks like for you.
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And then you get into those variable costs.
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But a very simple budget.
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Is not that complicated.
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Just a matter of laying out like, and one of the best things you can
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do is, like you said, Craig, you start off with the end in mind.
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You start tracking those expenses and then you could start to see, okay, well
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here's what my rent is every month.
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Probably most people know that, but I don't think a lot of people get into
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the detail knowing, well, hey, I just spent $300 eating out last month.
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Or I just spent $174 on subscriptions.
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And then once you do that, then you can be more intentional.
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You can allocate those funds to different places.
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And one of the things that I said to my son is, I think you gotta
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allocate some of it to savings.
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I about blew him away when I said to him, I think you should be putting 20%
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of your monthly income into savings.
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He's like, dad, how do I do that?
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But I said to him, I said.
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That's part of it.
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And I think giving is part of it too.
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And I think I, and Craig, I wanted to ask you a question.
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You know, I, and I, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to pry, but like, I think
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giving has to be deliberate as, as part of this as well, because one of the
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things I talked about on the show this past week is that in my view, giving
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is actually a tool that leads you to being more successful in your finances.
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What is your thought on that, Craig?
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Yeah, that, that's an interesting question.
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By the way.
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I felt a little attacked with that subscription crack.
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Pay.
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Um, are those mostly AI subscriptions or they just subscriptions in general?
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Mostly ai.
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Well, I got, I have,
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I have a problem.
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I know, I know.
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Yeah.
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But you also have a, you also have a podcast that's all about ai Craig, so
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that's not an unreasonable expense.
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That's right.
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I
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don't, I don't really drink, I don't play golf, so It's okay.
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Well, you know, the, the giving is an interesting thing, and, and I know you
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are not of this mindset, but I, I really caution against this whole abundance.
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Giving whatever that, you know, the you, you give, so you'll get more back.
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From God.
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Oh yeah.
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You're talking about like the Prosperity Preachers.
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They drive me.
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That's it.
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That's it.
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Crazy Craig.
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I speak about that on the show all the time.
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There are these knuckleheads, and I'll use the word knuckle.
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I'm not afraid to say it.
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I might get some hate message.
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That's fine with me.
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Maybe I'll go viral because of it.
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This is, God is not asking you.
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He God does not promise you, Hey, if you send me a thousand dollars, I'm
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gonna, you know, multiply that 10 times.
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That is complete nonsense.
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So I'm glad you mentioned that, Craig, but don't let me interrupt your thought there.
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So,
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so you give.
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Because it's a signal of what's important to you.
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And, and that's it.
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You know, you give because giving is important and that
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that's enough of a return.
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Um, and I know there, you know, the, the 10% and exactly what talents means
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in the Bible and that sort of thing is all a little bit muddled and confusing.
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But if you don't have giving in your budget, then it isn't really a priority.
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You know, if you're not giving and you're spending money on other
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things that are discretionary, you're making a choice not to give.
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And if, and if that's your choice, that's fine, right?
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But recognize it's a choice.
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Absolutely.
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And that's one of the things that I hear people say all the time.
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They're like, uh, Ralph, you know, how am I supposed to give
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when my finances are so tight?
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Well, and I'm gonna challenge everybody.
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Here's a Christian based show.
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Uh, maybe that's the problem, is that your f your finances are so
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tight because you're not giving.
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And I've had many people say to me, Craig, and it's happened in my own life.
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And again, I, this is one of those philosophical, religious discussion
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that people could disagree with.
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And like I said, I'm not all about the prosperity side of this, but
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I have had many clients say to me, Ralph, you know, you challenged me.
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And they always say, you challenged me a taxi.
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You always ask me what my charitable giving was.
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And you, you always kind of, I'm always wondering, what should I tell Ralph?
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You know, did I really do it this year?
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I said, no, that's your choice.
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You know, the Bible talks about being a cheerful giver.
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If you're gonna be reluctant in doing it, then don't do it.
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And a lot of pastors might be listening to us right now and say, oh,
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Ralph is preaching against tithing.
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That's not what I said.
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I. Right, but the Bible is very clear about being a cheerful giver.
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Well, I think that that's all about your mindset, and if you have a
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mindset that giving is part of that, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of
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time parked here, but if you have that mindset, my position is that.
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It is a mind shift change for everything, and we'll talk about
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that a little bit later, but I think that's so very important.
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But let's get to the next thing I wanna talk about, Craig, and that
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is the biggest mental roadblocks that people face when budgeting.
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You know, I hear all the time, it's too complicated.
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I don't even have enough money to start budgeting and, and it just
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feels restricting to me, Craig.
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In your experience, what have you found to be the the biggest
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mental roadblocks to people?
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Actually, first of all, doing the budget, but then actually
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doing something about the budget.
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It's great to write it, but if you're not implementing, if you're
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not measuring it, what's the point?
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Well, I think there are several things, a couple of which
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we've talked about already, the overcomplicating, I mean, people.
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Think about maybe budgets they've budgeting, activities they've been
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involved with at work or you know, whatever, where you've got all
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these different departments in it.
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No, that's not what you're doing.
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And so they're way over complicated.
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As I said earlier, I think it's scary for people.
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There's a, there's a piece of us that just doesn't wanna know some of that.
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The other thing is that it's discipline, you know, a lot of, a lot of what
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keeps us from doing well in our lives.
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Is a lack of discipline.
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And I don't mean you have to be, you know, like a marine sergeant or anything
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like that, but you have to not pick up that candy bar and the checkout line.
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You have to not, you know, stop for a latte every day or maybe
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eat breakfast before you go into work or whatever it might be.
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But, but that takes a little bit of discipline.
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And if we haven't been disciplined.
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It can be pretty tough to start to be disciplined, whether you're talking
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about financially, health wise, whatever it is, it's hard, you know, if you
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first start working out, if you first start trying to, you know, get better
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sleep, spend your money more wisely, whatever it is, it's hard to get started.
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But once you get started, there's kind of a dopamine feedback
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loop where you, you know what?
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I didn't go out to lunch every day this week.
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And that feels kind of good.
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And I've got an extra $40 now because of that.
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And I see my little savings account grow, or I see my credit card
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debt going down just a little bit.
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And that really does have this feedback loop where it's, that's a good thing.
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I wanna do more of that.
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But you gotta get started.
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If you don't get started, you can't get there.
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It's absolutely true.
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I was in a, I do a Monday mastermind group with some other Christian
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men who are podcasters, and we had this long discussion yesterday.
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One of the men in our group has a, uh, a natural, uh, uh, health type
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of show that he's working through.
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And we had this long discussion about, you know, do people actually know?
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What they're supposed to do or do people not know?
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And, and I'm gonna kind of equate that to what we're talking about here.
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I think at, at some level, most people get, Hey, if I'm bringing in this much
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money, I can only spend this much money.
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I. Th that's not complicated.
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You, you don't have to be a, a, you know, a rocket science.
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I use that term a couple times, but you don't have to be a PhD in, in
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business to understand that what comes in, you can't spend more than
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that unless you go in the debt.
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Right.
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And, and we had this big philosophical discussion yesterday of, you know,
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do we, do we talk to people about.
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The why or do we talk to them about the, the action step, the pain point,
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and, and that's what I wanna land here for a minute, because one of
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the ways that I think we can reframe this, and I think it's so important
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to reframe it because I think the word budgeting, it just, it sounds
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like restricted because like you said.
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People are accustomed, oh, it's time to do the budget.
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That means somebody's losing money or somebody's gonna have to spend less.
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But if you, because it, then it looks like chains, right?
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Like we're putting chains on that.
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We're putting, we're putting this, you know, chains around that, right?
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But when you look at at, at as a tool.
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And when you look at it as a tool for freedom, I think
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that's the way you have to infr.
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You have to look at that because like you said, once you start to
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live in this reality of a budget, we're not gonna spend a lot more
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time talking about budgets today.
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But once you start living in that reality of the budget,
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ultimately you have freedom.
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I. Because then all of a sudden you're not trying to figure out, you know,
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the old adage, Rob, Peter, to pay Paul well, because you've got margin.
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And that's the thing, like I don't think sometimes people see that
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light at the end of the tunnel.
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They see it as this huge restriction.
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And my son's this way.
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He, he kind of said this to me, he's like, dad, oh yeah, you always
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talking about, uh, you know, you want me to put on get on a budget?
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I said, yeah.
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He said, you wanna restrict me?
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I said, no, actually the opposite.
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I want you to have freedom.
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I want you to be able to say, I choose.
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To spend money on going out to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat, or I choose to
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buy the latest tech gadget, or as Craig liked to, does I choose to buy
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every single AI app that's available.
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I'm just picking on you, Craig, but you understand what I'm saying is like,
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because ultimately that's freedom, and then you're directing those dollars.
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You're basically saying to the dollar, here's your job.
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Go do it.
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That's ultimately control, but the opposite of that, we think we're
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in control by not having a budget.
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We're actually outta control with not having a budget.
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That's right.
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Well, and you, you've talked about this a number of times, intentionality.
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even if you don't wanna sit down and come up with a strict budget, if you
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just get more intentional about your spending, you're gonna be better off.
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So if budgeting is, I wanna know what you think about this, if, if
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budgeting is too much, okay, don't call it a budget, just, just write
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down where you want your money to go.
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Because write down where, where you want your money to go.
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And then think of that, think of that document before
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you go out and spend money.
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I mean, we, you know, so many.
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Ralph, I'm gonna go on a little bit of a tangent here.
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No, go ahead.
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You're welcome to So, so many people live their lives on autopilot.
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They just drift around.
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Get blown around with the wind.
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Even autopilot is too strong.
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Mm-hmm.
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They're out there on a boat in a big lake, not my pond getting blown
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around by the wind and the tide.
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And that is no way to live a good life.
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And, and if, if you can break that cycle, even if it's just with your
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spending, you're gonna find you have a much more fulfilled life.
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That's more rewarding.
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Because now you're in control of it.
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You have the freedom to make those choices instead of just, oh, where,
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where's the wind gonna blow out of today?
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And okay, I'm gonna go in that direction.
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And that, that's just no way to live.
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And, and if you don't at least have some intentionality about how you
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spend, then you're getting blown around.
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By whatever the prevailing wind is.
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And that's not a good way to live.
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Absolutely.
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And you know, it's funny, I think a great analogy is, I don't remember when,
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when you were a kid, like, I don't know about you, but when I was a kid it was,
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we got our Christmas wishlist, right?
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And our parents would say, Hey, what do you want for Christmas?
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Well, that was very positive experience, wasn't it, Craig?
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'cause I remember as a kid, like we'd get the Sears catalog out and
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it would always have the latest toys.
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And I'm dating myself now because people are listening
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like, what is a Sears catalog?
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But, but we would get that out because all the newest toys were in there and the gap.
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Budgets and all the cool stuff, and we'd make this list and that would
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be that, that Christmas wishlist.
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Well, if you start to frame your budget the same way it does, the
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same thing does, because then you're putting out, here's my wishes, here's
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the thing I want to see happen.
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A and ultimately, unlike that Christmas wishlist where you
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didn't have any control, like, here you go, here's grandparents,
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here's what we'd like to have.
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Or parents, here's what I'd like to have.
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Your, your budget whish.
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You have complete control over.
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Right,
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because you can make those
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decisions.
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It was a little trivia.
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I think they called the Sears catalog, the Wish book, the one that came out.
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I'm pretty sure
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that's what it was called.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So yeah, I spent a lot of time with that as a kid and, and got
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virtually nothing of what I put on my list because it was so expensive.
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Well, we always dream big, right?
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I mean, that was the thing.
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You dream big and you could do the same thing with a budget.
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Well, that's, I was gonna bring that up because you may have
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some big things that you want.
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If you put that in your budget, okay, I'm gonna put, put away this much
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money towards that vacation, or that new truck or that, you know, boat that
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doesn't leak, or whatever it is, you know, you can start working towards
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it and I'll go back to that little dopamine hit, you know, making progress.
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Feels good.
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Being out of control.
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I mean, there's good empirical evidence to tell us that that feels bad.
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That's really bad for our wellbeing.
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Well, that's absolutely true.
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Well, let's change this subject a little, but let's move away from,
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so we've already documented, I think that the blueprint equals a budget.
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Well, now I'm gonna throw something outta left field.
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Well, impulse spending.
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That's the wrecking ball.
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And, and Craig, why is it so common, even with good intentions, that people just
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spend it, you know, with that impulse?
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What, what do you think is the trigger there?
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Well, the decks are stacked against us there, so I, I can think of at least
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three industries that are directed at pushing us towards impulse buying.
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So there's marketing, there's advertising, which is not exactly the same thing.
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And then product merchandising, you know, there's a reason that the candy bars
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are right there in the checkout line.
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You know that there's a reason they're there.
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Because, uh, you know, I'm spending, I mean, these days I'm spending
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$250 on groceries for the day.
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If, if you're lucky.
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We went to the grocery store this weekend and my wife says, Ralph, you
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don't realize how much stuff costs.
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No, I, yeah, every, it is a shock every time I do the shopping, but okay,
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you're spending a couple hundred bucks.
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Yeah, I'm a little bit hungry.
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Let me get that, you know, three Musketeers bar or whatever.
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That's only two and a half bucks.
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I'm not even gonna notice it.
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And, and it's right there.
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If you had to turn around and go back to the candy bar aisle.
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Like, I'll live without it, but, but the deck, the deck is really stacked against
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us when it comes to impulse buying.
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So we have to be strong.
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Yeah.
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And the truth is, Craig, it keeps people trapped in that paycheck
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to paycheck cycle because it, they don't, don't get any margin.
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It undermines your freedom and it steals your peace.
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You know, I was listening to your show this morning.
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You live well in flourish show, and you talked all about mental health
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and all this kind of stuff, and you mentioned how people don't live in peace.
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Well, if you're constantly being bombarded with this impulse spending,
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you're not gonna find any peace.
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And you know, it's funny, I was out this weekend, we went out, it's the
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first kind of breath I've had since tax season's actually over today.
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But I kind of give myself a little margin here at the end.
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So we actually went shopping on, I think it was Saturday, and I
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hadn't really gotten out much.
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I sort of, I was caught of locked down here in the, in the, uh, in the, in
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the atilla, the hun uh, tax chair.
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For the last three months, but I got out the shop and it occurred
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to me, I'm walking through the store and it is impulse like sense.
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You know it, it's sensitivity overload.
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And, and the whole goal is for you to walk out that door penniless.
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And here's the thing, and this is gonna, the bank people are listening.
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They're bringing this, oh boy, Ralph has lost his mine.
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But your credit cards make it so easy.
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And what does the credit card do?
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It leaves you in a perpetual state of complete disaster because you
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get these impulses thrown at you.
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Look, I got on this morning, popped up my email and I had to have 10 emails
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of people trying to sell me shirts and slacks and electronic gadgets and
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ai, and I'm just being funny and, uh, subscriptions to different things.
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But, but Craig, we're constantly bombarded with that.
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And guess what that's doing?
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It's undermining our freedom, it's undermining our peace, and it's,
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it's a wrecking ball to our finances.
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So we gotta talk about some solutions, but go ahead.
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You had a thought there.
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Well, lemme say
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one, one of the things that keeps me from doing impulse buying and, and
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I'm, I'm gonna cuss just a little bit.
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It, it pisses me off when somebody tries to manipulate me.
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Oh, I hear that.
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I, I don't like being manipulated.
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And when you think about it through that perspective, is all of that stuff.
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Is intended to manipulate you.
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And, and it kind of gets my backup.
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It's like, Nope, I'm not gonna do this.
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Now I won't say I'm a hundred percent or even 90% on that, but I think that
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little bit of a, a mindset shift can be valuable if it's just like, wait a second,
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somebody's trying to push me into this.
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And, and I wanna mention one other thing before, uh, we move on.
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I wanna go back to the candy bar 'cause it's right around lunchtime here.
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How many times have you grabbed one of those candy bars, wolfed it down, walking
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out to your vehicle, and then thought, oh man, I'm really so glad I made the
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decision to buy and eat that candy bar.
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I mean, you know, maybe you need some, you know, your blood sugar's a
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little down or something like that, so maybe, but it's pretty rare.
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Usually it's the exact opposite.
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It's like, oh man, I shouldn't have had that candy bar and.
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There we are.
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Most all impulse buys are like that.
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You, you rarely go, oh, I'm so glad that I bought that.
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It, it's pretty rare.
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Craig, that is the perfect transition to what I wanted to talk about next, and that
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is identifying triggers, because I think that's, that's where we have to go next,
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and we have to recognize why and when we spend impulsively, I think there's stress,
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there's boredom, there's social media, and I think, like you said, I mean, we were
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walking out the checkout aisle and there's those candy bars and, and you know,
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what, what triggers do you see, Craig?
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What, you know, what and, and how does awareness help those things?
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Well,
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I, I think boredom, you hit on boredom is a big one.
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Um, you know, there's, there's this saying retail therapy, you know, let's
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go shopping and go buy stuff 'cause that's gonna make me feel better.
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And it does for about that long.
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And then you feel not so good when you get that 27% credit card bill in the mail.
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And I, and I think that's really a tough question.
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So what are those triggers?
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Because it's gonna vary for everybody.
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It is gonna vary for everybody, but I, I think being a little
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bit more mindful can be helpful.
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So just every time you're ready to buy something, just just make it a
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point to stop for 10 or 15 seconds and say, do I really wanna buy this?
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And, and over time you'll build a habit of that.
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You know, it might take a week, it might take a month, but over time you'll
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build a habit of doing that because your triggers are different than my triggers.
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I mean, my triggers are, I like, I like cool stuff, you know, just, uh, I
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don't have as many microphones as some people, but I do have more microphones
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than I have places to use microphones.
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And so, you know, it's some little thing like that.
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And so you have to recognize where maybe you go a little bit too far here.
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Here's one way to do it.
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Look around at all the stuff you haven't used in the last month.
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That could be a good pointer to.
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Maybe that's a something is triggering that sort of a purchase.
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Does that make any sense?
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Absolutely.
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And I talked about on the show this past week, what I call the power pause,
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and I think you have to implement that.
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And when you're walking through the store or when you're online
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shopping, I. And it's not a need.
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It's, it's definitely not a need.
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You know, you're not, like you said, if your blood sugar's low, you need to
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eat something that's, that's a need.
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But if it's a one, I say, Hey, call it the Ralph Power Pause.
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Call it whatever you want, but automatically say, Nope.
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This is the time to pause.
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If it's a non-essential, if it's a want put on the power pause.
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And then the other thing I'm gonna challenge people as Christians to
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do is pray about it and say, God, you know, Hey, why am, and think
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about that awareness like, God, why am I, why am I so directed to this?
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Because I'm like you, Craig.
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I love the new technology stuff.
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And I think in a lot of ways it's an escape for me because I've got
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all this stress and I'm not trying, listen, I've been a blessed guy.
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I'm not complaining about the stress around me.
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But this time of year, tax season, like.
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You know, I'm inundated.
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Like every hour I'm seeing a new person, which again, I'm not complaining about.
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It pays my bills and it pays 'em very well, but it's an escape, right?
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And it's that, oh, let me go look and see what the newest things on Sweetwater are.
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Let's go see what Amazon has.
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The cool tech guides to drawer.
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Oh, Apple's releasing something new or, or there's some new, you
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know, app, you know that like that.
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But, but I think a lot of times it's an escape.
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And I think we have to really say to ourselves, okay, Ralph,
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first of all, let's be aware.
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Why are we feeling this way?
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You know, what is it that's triggering this?
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Are we, are we disappointed?
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Are we sad?
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Are we feeling, you know, you, you brought it up.
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I talked about it on the show this past week.
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That whole idea of retail therapy.
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Well, God, here's the problem, and this is gonna sound kind of bold, but
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it's like the alcoholic that goes to the bar looking for a solution to his
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drinking problem or her drinking problem.
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It's the same thing with impulse buying and retail therapy.
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If you are already having financial problems, adding more debt to your
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situation isn't gonna help you.
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It's that short term benefit, but it's not gonna help you in the longer,
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and it actually makes things worse.
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It does.
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And you, you need more and more and more.
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So you know, you're gonna need to spend more to get that
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little boost to your mood.
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But it's, um, I, I don't want us to make it sound like it's
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really easy to break these habits.
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But, but people can break these habits.
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Absolutely.
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I'm sure you have lots of examples of people you've worked with that, you know,
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used to do these things that were not so good for their financial health, and now
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they've been able to break those habits and they're much in a much better place.
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Yeah, and I think it's important that we talk about some things that you
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can do, and that's what I wanna talk, take a few minutes and talk about.
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You know, a lot of people, my grandparents used to do this
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thing called the Envelope System.
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And I remember when I started doing my show again, I
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didn't really think about it.
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And then I, I was doing some research for a show and they started talking
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about these envelopes and I'm thinking.
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Man, I remember this from somewhere and it was my mom's parents and
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my grandfather on that side.
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He was an Italian guy.
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He was, he was one generation here from Italy and he was
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what they call a tin banger.
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He was a sheet metal, uh, uh, person that worked and that kind of stuff.
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And just kind of a everyday like worker bee, blue collar guy.
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And my grandmother sort of the same thing, but they had these
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envelopes and I was a kid.
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I never understood what she was talking about.
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They'd sit, 'cause we'd go down and visit with them for the summer.
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They lived at the beach, not here, not far from us.
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Once they both retired.
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And I remember we were down there for like a two week stint one time, and I
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guess it was the beginning of the month.
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So my grandmother had all these envelopes set out on the table.
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And I remember as a little kid, I was like eight or nine years old, I'm
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like, cool, are we going to the arcade?
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'cause she had money and she was putting it on top of this envelope
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and her and my grandfather standing there looking real intent and, and
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I'm thinking, what is going on?
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And I didn't even make the connection till just recently.
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And then I finally realized what they were doing and that was the envelope system.
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And you know what?
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I think in a lot of ways we can go back to that.
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You know, we've got all kinds of cool technology.
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We got my, my grandmother used to call 'em Newfangled apps.
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And those things are great and if you can use those, fantastic.
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But I think in a lot of ways maybe you, maybe you don't
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carry your credit card with you.
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Maybe you only carry cash and you only carry that cash that is dis,
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you know what we call disposable.
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You know, if you've got, you know, let's just say at the beginning of the week,
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you have that intentional thought that, okay, I'm going to give myself $20 this
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week for my discretionary spending, and you put that $20 bill in your pocket.
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First of all, I think you're gonna be more careful how you spend it.
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Because that $20, I remember as a kid, like you didn't wanna
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break that 20, you wanted to have that 20 at the end of the week.
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Now for me it was because we'd go to the skating rink on Saturday morning
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and I could get pizza and, and Pepsi and candy and all that kind of stuff.
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But I think if you, if you start to spend that cash or use that cash
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envelope system, Craig, so what do you think about these old school methods?
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Do you think they're still relevant and do you think they're still effective today?
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I, I think they are still relevant.
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I mean, there's gotta be some digital, um, equivalent to the envelope system.
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But, but the envelope system was brilliant for a number of ways.
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So, first of all, putting the number on the outside of the envelope about
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how much you need to have in there.
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You have done a budget, that's literally a budget, but then if you
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start taking your cash and putting it in the most important envelope first.
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Fill that envelope up before you go to the next most important envelope.
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You're not only budgeting, you're pulling some of that money out of circulation.
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And so once it goes into that rent envelope, you, you can't
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spend it on anything else, right?
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I mean, you, you, I suppose you could, but under the system, that's it.
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Now you've got your rent covered.
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And so one of the things it does that I don't think people appreciated
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is that it makes you prioritize.
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Because if, if you did it the way that I know of it being done, it
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really was this, the most important thing is rent, groceries are next.
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You know, utilities are next, car payments next, whatever it is, and you start
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filling up the most important one first.
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You have to understand what your priorities are before
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you can really do the system.
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So I, I think it, I don't know how you do it in, in a world where we don't
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use a lot of cash, but I think there's something there just in, in the whole.
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Process of the envelope system.
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I had a lot of friends back in the day that you, that used it, so it's effective.
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Yeah.
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I remember my grandfather, seeing grandfather, we were talking about, he
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loved to go to the racetrack and he would have his, his envelope for the racetrack.
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And my grandmother, she would fund it for him and he was like, oh,
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let me see what's in the envelope.
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And you're right.
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I mean once the envelope was empty, guess what?
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There's no more racetrack time and, and there.
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I know there are some apps now that kind of go back.
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I don't know.
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I don't have those right in front of me, but there are some ways to do that, Craig.
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But I think what you're really getting at is that intentionality, again,
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you're in intentionally filling that envelope, the most important ones.
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And I remember at times, looking back at it now, like the entertainment envelope
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never got any money in it that week.
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Because they had to pay a tax bill or the, the electric bill was more
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than they thought it was gonna be.
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And I think now we live in, my wife uses the term in this all the time.
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She's, you know, this, this instant gratification generation.
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And I think that's part of the problem too, is none of us, and I'll
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speak for myself, you know, if we want, like I'm in a place and I put,
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you're probably in the same place.
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If you really want something, you'll probably just go get it.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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And the problem with doing that is we have the capacity to do that.
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You know, it wasn't 30 years ago, it wasn't 20 years ago,
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it may be even 10 years ago.
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Amazon didn't exist.
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Like the other day I'm sitting in my office, it was actually, it was yesterday,
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and we ran, we used, uh, three ring binders, the people's tax returns, and
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if they still want a physical copy of it.
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And my secretary, she said, Ralph, we're outta binders.
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And I'm like, okay, um, let me get on Amazon and Craig,
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I had those in two hours.
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Yeah, well before I remember he went, okay, we gotta plan a, a
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trip to the, to the office store.
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And you know, you're gonna plan all that out ahead of time.
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But now this instant gratification position we are in.
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When we won something, we push a couple buttons and ding-dong, here it is.
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You know?
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And, and I think the problem with that is it doesn't give us those easier
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ways to, because it used to be, you know, I remember as a kid, like I'd
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come home from school and, and somebody at school would have the coolest
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new shoes or something like that.
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And, and we come home and, and I remember my mom was a single mom raising me,
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and, and it would be around dinner time.
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I'm like, mom, we gotta go to the store tonight.
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And she's like, well, what's going on?
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I said, oh, my friend Louis, he's got those shoes.
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And they got 'em at the sporting goods store up on, I lived on
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Kirkwood Highway and I was, we gotta go to Kirkwood Highway, mom.
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We gotta get those shoes.
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And you know, I was like, well, well Ralph, you know, I'm tired.
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Had a long day, but, but now, dude, like all I gotta do is open
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up my iPhone and click shoes.
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Done.
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They're there in an hour.
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Yeah.
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And that's the problem is we don't have that ability as much as we did.
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We didn't have to get to physically get in the car.
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Now my mom's always saying is, I'll get those for you next, the Tues
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the second Tuesday and next week.
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And I'm thinking, boy, she got me again.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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Well, but everything you just said is true, but it's not an excuse.
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I mean, I, I can, I can envision people saying, uh, you know, it's just so easy.
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Yeah.
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But you're still making a choice.
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In fact, multiple choices.
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You know, you make a choice to put that thing in the shopping cart, you make
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the choice to actually buy that thing.
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So you're at least making two choices right there.
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You made a choice to even search, you know, spend your time
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looking at that kind of thing.
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Now you know your binders.
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You need your binders, right?
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You gotta buy those.
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But you know, that new pair of shoes, a new watch, you know, whatever it is, there
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are a lot of choices that go into that chain before it shows up at your door.
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And, and you get to decide each and every time, do I do this?
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So if you don't, like, I, I used to have a real watch problem.
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I love watches.
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Well, if I don't wanna spend money on watches, don't shop for watches.
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Don't read the watch forums.
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Don't look at watch ads on YouTube.
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Just don't do that.
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And you never get into that chain.
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But let's say I, I slip a little bit and somebody's talking about
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this new cool watch that's out.
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Well, I still get to decide, do I go look and see how much that
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cost or do I put it in my shopping cart or do I actually order it?
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We get to make a choice at every one of those stages, and I think that this is
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a recurring theme is we are adults with agency, and if you choose not to exercise
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that agency, that's really on you.
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That's not on anybody who's trying to manipulate you.
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You know, you have the ability to resist that temptation.
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You just need to do it.
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I know that sounds a little harsh, but I I think that's absolutely true.
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Don't give up your agency.
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No, and I'm gonna frame it a little differently 'cause I
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agree with you a hundred percent.
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I think you gotta keep the big picture front and center.
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And that big picture is this constantly, you know, weighing these scales
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of is it debt or is it savings?
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And it really comes down to that because we have to get into the point,
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because you're absolutely right.
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You ultimately have the choice.
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And we have to get into that place of saying no, you know?
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And, and the thing is, Craig, you alluded to this earlier.
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It's those small little daily choices.
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It's the little nickel and dime things that lead to these
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bigger and bigger things.
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And that's really, that's what we're talking about here.
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It's not, like you said, it's not the big thing.
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Well, I'm gonna go buy a car today.
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Most people don't have the capacity to go write a check for a car.
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Now, some people do, that's great, but most people don't.
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Right.
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But it's that $5, uh, we're gonna pick on lattes again, or it's, you
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know, it's whatever that candy bar is.
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Day in and day out, like you mentioned last week on the show,
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I thought it was brilliant.
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You talked about, it's funny 'cause I was washing the car and I was
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re-listening to our show and I heard Craig going and said, yeah, it's that.
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And it made me Jones for a donut.
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Man.
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I haven't had a donut forever, but, but it's a decision, right?
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It's that decision.
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Do I get that coffee and donut every morning on the way to work?
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And you said $10, I dunno where you're shopping, dude, but
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it's probably about 15 now.
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But anyway, add that up over 30 days.
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That's three or $400.
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And then people say to me, well, Ralph, I can't save money.
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I can't build an emergency fund.
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I'm like, you know, as you're smoking a cigarette, I'm not
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picking on people to smoke.
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But, but as you're doing that, or as you're, as you're going to, you know,
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the, the, the Starbucks cups or whatever that is, but the problem is it's so hard.
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You know, because those things are so small and they just add up.
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And they add up.
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But I think if we look at things in the big picture and say, here's what
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that's gonna look like, that decision, the counterpoint to that decision
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is then I don't have any savings.
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I don't have any emergency fund, I don't have any margin.
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I go into debt.
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I lose my freedom.
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And, and as you can tell, I'm at the age where I'm really thinking a lot about how
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much freedom I'm gonna have at retirement.
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And so, you know, it's nice to be in a spot where, I mean, I could,
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I could quit work, you know, I'd be tight, but I could do it.
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I mean, I'm not gonna be stuck in a job and I'm not gonna be
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stuck in a particular location.
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And, you know, I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.
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But if I'd have stayed on the path I was in in my twenties and
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early thirties, I'd be going, oh my God, how am I gonna retire?
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And I've got friends in that situation where they're either having to
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keep working or they're, you know, gonna live a very meager lifestyle.
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And that's no way to be.
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You know, we're making choices
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and that's the tragedy of the situation.
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I just read this morning.
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68% of the US population is living paycheck to paycheck.
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Yeah.
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Well, guess what?
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If you're living paycheck to paycheck with a paycheck.
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How do you think you're gonna make out when you don't have one?
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And I'm not trying to bring everybody down, but this is the time to change that.
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And I don't care whether you're 40, 50, 60, you can make a change
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today, because listen, if you're struggling right now, hear me on this.
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If you're struggling right now living paycheck to paycheck, and
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you still have a paycheck coming in.
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Like Craig just said, what's that gonna look like when you don't
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have that paycheck coming in?
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Right?
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You ultimately are in control of your own freedom by making the
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decisions at age 20, at age 25.
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It's like when I have young people come in, they say to me, oh, Ralph,
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you're a little crazy like this.
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I'm like, no, start that 401k when you're on your first job.
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Yeah.
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That's why I said to my son, he started doing barbering and I
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said, son, do they have a 401k?
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Well, yeah, dad, but I, I'm having a hard time paying my bills.
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I said, I don't care.
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Put money into your retirement Now.
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He goes, dad, I'm 23 years old.
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I'm not gonna retire for 40 years.
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And I said, there is gonna come a day.
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And listen, I'm gonna be very, I'm gonna be very transparent here.
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My wife had been saying to me year after year after year, Ralph,
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we need to start saving Ralph.
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We need to start saving.
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And I would go buy that new iPhone and I go buy that new car.
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And I, and it wasn't until I was about 47 years old that I really started
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to focus on saving for retirement.
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And now listen.
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And this is a guide.
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I do this for a living, right?
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This is what I do.
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I understand this.
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And even me.
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It took me that long to get started.
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And Craig, what you say is so important and it, it, it, we have to look at the
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long-term effects of these short-term decisions, which leads me actually
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to the next thing I wanna talk about.
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And that is whole idea of stewardship.
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And I think that this is one of the ways that we can really help recast
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this and refocus this, and I hope will help people combat this, this, this
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constant battle with impulse spending and, and all of that sort of thing.
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And that's, we gotta see ourselves.
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As managers and a lot of people say, wait a minute, Ralph, I work hard
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for what I have and I'm gonna drop a truth bomb that I drop on the show.
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And Craig, I dunno if you've ever heard me say it, but guess what?
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It's not yours.
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Right.
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And, and I think that's ultimately where we have to get to is a place of realizing
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And look, if you don't subscribe to Ralph's position on that, that's fine.
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You don't have to listen to me.
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That's fine.
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I'm saying to you and Craig, you don't have to be a Christian to think like this.
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What I'm saying to you is if you have a philosophy and, and I know you
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study a bunch of different types of religious beliefs and all that kind of
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stuff, but ultimately it's all about that, that center core of managing
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something that you've been given.
Speaker:
And I don't know about you, but when I borrow, here's a great example.
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If I borrow a tool from the neighbor, right?
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Let's say I, I have a, a, a, a branch goes down in my backyard.
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Now I've got a bunch of chainsaws.
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'cause I have a farm.
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You probably have the same thing, but let's just say I didn't.
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Right?
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I'm gonna go borrow the neighbor's chainsaw.
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I'm gonna treat that chainsaw like it's gold, right?
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Because it's not mine.
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Well, if you have that same mindset with your finances and you realize
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that your job is not to own it, it's to steward it, it's to do the right
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things with it, then I think you can find that balance and you can enjoy
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those blessings that God is giving all of us because he is richly blessing us.
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We've said this before on this show.
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If you're listening to this show right now.
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You are blessed.
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You are living in a place of abundance.
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And I don't care whether you live in paycheck to paycheck, if you
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have an internet or you're listening to this show, you are living in
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abundance right at this moment.
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And guess what?
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My opinion is that that was given to you by God and you have
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an obligation to steward that.
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Now, I got a little bit on a tangent, so I apologize about that,
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but I think it's so important,
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Craig, but you're, you're right.
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And even the stoics have a a saying something along the lines of,
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everything we have is on loan from fate.
Speaker:
You know, it's a, it's the same idea.
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Um, I wanna bring up one quick thing though.
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We're, we're making this sound like, it's
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like it's big and hard.
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I know we've said that it isn't multiple times, but a lot of, of the way we're
Speaker:
talking about this makes it sound like you've gotta make all these changes.
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You have to make one change at a time.
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I, I used to play volleyball, recreational volleyball.
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We were pretty good.
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And I can remember in a couple of championship games, we'd get down
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and I would say, look, we, I know we're down eight points or whatever.
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We've just gotta win this next point, one point at a time.
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That's all.
Speaker:
Forget about those other seven, we just wanna win this one.
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And you'd be amazed at how many times we won those matches,
Speaker:
just one point at a time.
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So just try to do one thing tomorrow.
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Make one financial decision that's a little bit better.
Speaker:
It might be starting to track what you're spending your money on.
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It might be starting on a budget in some other way.
Speaker:
It might be passing up on the candy bar, but just one thing at a time,
Speaker:
and I'm gonna lay a little bit more philosophy on you, Aristotle
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said, we are what we repeatedly do.
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And if you start making a little positive financial decision and then another
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one, and then another one, and you do that repeatedly over time, you won't
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just have a habit of financial prudence.
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You will be a person who is financially prudent.
Speaker:
It'll just be part of who you are.
Speaker:
But it's, it's one little tiny thing at a time.
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You are absolutely right Craig.
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And that's why I wanna just end today and we're not quite ready to end, but start
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moving in that direction and these are some real simple things that you can do.
Speaker:
Just start tracking your expenses.
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Just track where you're spending your money and, and like you said,
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I. Little things, just track your expenses so you have some awareness.
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And then once you do that, take a look at it.
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Where does my money go?
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You know, am I being intentional with what I'm going to do and
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does it reflect my priorities?
Speaker:
Because one of the things that you've got to have, and I'm gonna talk about
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that on the show coming up next weekend, you really walked into where I'm going
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with the show on a daily basis, Craig.
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And what I realized over the past couple weeks is that everybody needs just
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one thing they can work on per day.
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And that's really where I'm taking this show.
Speaker:
The show now on, on a daily basis, you can check it
Speaker:
out@asgraph.com, is just one thing.
Speaker:
What is one thing I can do to change the dynamic?
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Because the truth is you can feel so overwhelmed in this
Speaker:
because it's all around.
Speaker:
You've got the credit card bill sitting in front of you.
Speaker:
Maybe you've got the collector's calling, maybe you've got the eviction letters or
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you've got all those things around you.
Speaker:
And that can seem daunting, that can seem overwhelming.
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But what is one thing that I can do today?
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What is one?
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Because the thing is, like you said, Craig, so eloquently.
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You add that one thing and then the next day you add another thing,
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and then you add another thing.
Speaker:
That momentum is huge, and it can really start to build that momentum
Speaker:
in a positive direction to where this doesn't seem so insurmountable.
Speaker:
You know, it's just like when you walk out the door, like, I, I take
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a walk, um, every morning, or I do the elliptical every morning.
Speaker:
Well, guess what?
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It starts with the first step.
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And that's what I wanna encourage people to do today is take that first step.
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Maybe the first step for you is awareness.
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You know, you start to look at, okay, where's my money really going?
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Because I think it'd be eye-opening to you.
Speaker:
And yes, it's gonna be a little uncomfortable.
Speaker:
It's going to make you feel like, oh boy, I didn't realize this.
Speaker:
But there's value in that awareness.
Speaker:
And then once you build that awareness, maybe you take that step to that,
Speaker:
and maybe we don't even use the word budget to that intentionality.
Speaker:
We start to think about where do I wanna be in a week?
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Where do I want to be?
Speaker:
Because it could be as simple as, listen, by Friday, I don't want to be broke.
Speaker:
I mean, how many people get to Thursday night?
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I remember when I was a young guy, I got to Thursday night, man, I
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couldn't wait for that check the Friday morning to hit direct deposit
Speaker:
because I wasn't sure how I was eating.
Speaker:
Right, and, and as I'm saying, like we, we can make this seem overwhelming,
Speaker:
but if we make individual decisions on a daily basis to skip that candy bar
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or to the brown Bagot, and it doesn't have to be complete restriction because
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you didn't hear me or Craig say one time today to don't live your life.
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Right.
Speaker:
Not one time do we say that.
Speaker:
We just said be intentional about it.
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Be aware of it, because ultimately it's your choice.
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You can make those decisions.
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That's right.
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It's under your control.
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Yeah.
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That's really what it comes down to and, and I wanna encourage everybody because
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listen, this is a journey, and that's the thing I want you to hear today.
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This is a journey.
Speaker:
There is no instant fix.
Speaker:
If you thought you were gonna come and listen to me today, and I say
Speaker:
this on my daily show every day.
Speaker:
If that's what you're looking for, keep turn in the old radio, turn the dial,
Speaker:
because I'm not gonna give you that.
Speaker:
I don't have that instant fix.
Speaker:
I just don't.
Speaker:
But I do have a daily little bit of nugget, a little kernel that
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will help you build that progress.
Speaker:
Because here's the thing, and Craig, and I'm sure the stoics believe
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this, it's not about perfection.
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No.
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Because guess what?
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You're never gonna reach that level of perfection ever.
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Hear me on that.
Speaker:
Like, I, I was very strong about the prosperity thing.
Speaker:
Well, guess what?
Speaker:
You're never gonna reach perfection, but you can reach progress and that
Speaker:
progress is day in and day out.
Speaker:
And the other thing, and, and Craig has said this so many times, have
Speaker:
grace for yourself because guess what?
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You're going to make mistakes,
Speaker:
right?
Speaker:
You know, I went to college for accounting, and guess what?
Speaker:
I make financial mistakes.
Speaker:
And, and you know, it's hard for me to admit because if people listen, I
Speaker:
was like, right now, oh, Ralph, um, you're, you're giving me advice and
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you're the one who makes mistakes.
Speaker:
Yes.
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Guess what?
Speaker:
I make mistakes.
Speaker:
That's how you know how, what advice to give.
Speaker:
Absolutely.
Speaker:
Right?
Speaker:
Because the truth is, if I hadn't made those mistakes, I wouldn't
Speaker:
be able to say to you, here's how to get out of those mistakes.
Speaker:
But it takes having grace for yourself.
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It takes that persistence.
Speaker:
It's that daily decision.
Speaker:
Hey, listen, if you blew yesterday.
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That's fine.
Speaker:
Put your head on the pillow.
Speaker:
Get up the next morning and say, today I'm gonna make this one change.
Speaker:
And the thing I'm gonna throw into that is just say that, you
Speaker:
know, seek God's wisdom for that.
Speaker:
Say to God, listen, I'm failing this God, I don't know how to do this.
Speaker:
And realize that freedom is possible.
Speaker:
That's the thing I want you to hear that today.
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There is freedom there.
Speaker:
Nothing that we talked about today is insurmountable.
Speaker:
You can, you can achieve that freedom and you can find that peace I. It just means
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you're gonna have to work towards it.
Speaker:
It's not gonna fall into your lap.
Speaker:
You've gotta do something to get there.
Speaker:
Craig, I wanna give you a couple minutes to kind of
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encapsulate your thoughts today.
Speaker:
No, I, I think that's exactly right.
Speaker:
Um, if you're feeling stressed and shackled by your financial
Speaker:
situation, the number one thing you can do to start to feel better
Speaker:
is to take some positive action.
Speaker:
Just do something.
Speaker:
Don't even spend a lot of time trying to figure out what should I do first?
Speaker:
Doesn't matter.
Speaker:
Do something, you know, pick one of the techniques from all the episodes
Speaker:
you've got, Ralph or something we've talked about today, and just
Speaker:
do something and I guarantee you you'll feel better about that.
Speaker:
And then do something else.
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And then do something else.
Speaker:
I mean, really don't, don't treat this as, as you know,
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I've gotta go a million miles.
Speaker:
You don't.
Speaker:
You just have to take one step.
Speaker:
I know it's a cliche, but you know, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a
Speaker:
single step and that that is just so true.
Speaker:
So that's it.
Speaker:
Just do something.
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Do something.
Speaker:
That's
Speaker:
how you also, and, and, and celebrate those things.
Speaker:
When you save $5 this week, I mean, all big deal.
Speaker:
$5. No, that's a big deal.
Speaker:
If you've never saved, if you've never gotten to the part of the end of the week
Speaker:
where you have margin and you have $5 in margin, that's, that's an accomplishment.
Speaker:
But don't go out and save by spending $10.
Speaker:
Well, I agree with that statement.
Speaker:
Or go out and celebrate rather by, yeah,
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absolutely.
Speaker:
But you're right that we, we really do feed our little, I know
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I've said dopamine a bunch today.
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That's kind of the, we were Peewee Herman.
Speaker:
We'd have, that is the word of the day.
Speaker:
But you know, that little bit of pleasure that you get from
Speaker:
making a positive step is huge.
Speaker:
It really is a self-reinforcing cycle.
Speaker:
And so just do that.
Speaker:
Just do one thing, one thing.
Speaker:
That's all.
Speaker:
I agree.
Speaker:
And Craig, I just wanna thank you again for joining me this week, man.
Speaker:
It has been a fantastic discussion.
Speaker:
And, and if you're listening, you probably think, man, they
Speaker:
talk about the same things.
Speaker:
Well, we're trying to build that foundation, and once we build
Speaker:
that foundation, then we'll be able to talk about other things.
Speaker:
But I wanna thank everybody for listening.
Speaker:
I want to encourage you to, to, to bring friends to this live show.
Speaker:
We do it every Monday.
Speaker:
We appreciate you being part of the community.
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Tuesday.
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Oh, excuse me.
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Yeah, thank you.
Speaker:
See, it's tax.
Speaker:
I got tax season on the brain, Craig.
Speaker:
I'm telling you, it's like we talk about margin.
Speaker:
Today is my margin day.
Speaker:
It's like, mark put something in a chat that him and I are in and he
Speaker:
said, today is tax liberation day.
Speaker:
I'm like, yeah, you're not kidding.
Speaker:
And it's just funny.
Speaker:
And not to take a, a big sidetrack, but it's funny how just like the
Speaker:
mental, the mental clouds just changed.
Speaker:
But anyway, I just wanna thank everybody for joining us and like I said, this
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week I got some really exciting news.
Speaker:
We're launching a new series.
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Okay.
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And that's gonna be the Daily Show.
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It's gonna be called The Joy of Living Below Your Means.
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And I really think there's gonna be value there because
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it's gonna be a one day thing.
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Here's how can we find joy in living below our means.
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You can find more resources by going to ask ralph.com.
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So God bless you, stay financially savvy, and as Craig and I encourage you, take
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that first step towards financial freedom.
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Do it today.
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We really encourage you 'cause you can do it.
Craig Van Slyke
Professor
Craig Van Slyke is the Mike McCallister Eminent Scholar Chair in Information Systems at Louisiana Tech University. Prior to joining Tech, he was professor and dean of the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University, and before that, professor, associate dean and department chair at Saint Louis University. He has also held faculty positions at the University of Central Florida, and Ohio University. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of South Florida. His current research focuses on behavioral aspects of information technology, cyber security, and privacy. Dr. Van Slyke has published over fifty articles in respected academic journals including Communications of the AIS, Decision Sciences, Communications of the ACM, European Journal of Information Systems, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. The fifth edition of his fourth co-authored textbook, Information Systems in Business: An Experiential Approach, will be published in 2024.
