Superstar Guest Karen Ford, author of Money Matters , You Can Do It, and Money Nuggets. Part Two.
In this unscripted, live interview, host Adrienne Barker, MAS, talks with personal‑finance author and coach Karen Ford about how different generations approach budgeting, the historical roots of credit, and why many people never learned to budget. Karen explains that older generations (those who grew up during the Great Depression) tend to be better at saving because they experienced scarcity, while younger generations are more accustomed to debt due to the proliferation of credit cards. They discuss the emotional and practical challenges faced by widows or spouses who suddenly inherit financial responsibility after a partner who handled all the money passes away, emphasizing communication, shared budgeting, and the value of a financial coach. Karen outlines practical budgeting steps—identifying fixed expenses, making minor monthly tweaks, and keeping the process under 15 minutes after a few repetitions. She also promotes her three books—Money Matters, You Can Do It, and Money Nuggets—which cover budgeting, debt elimination, wealth‑building, real‑estate investing, and mindset, and mentions her YouTube channel (KBF Money Managing) and social media presence. The conversation drifts into personal anecdotes about family, love languages, and the importance of allowing others to give gifts, illustrating how money attitudes intersect with relationships. The interview ends with mutual appreciation and plans to share the video.
Chapters
Exactly true.
We're back on, back on. Sorry guys, we're back on.
And I'm all crooked. I'm gonna put myself in the lower box.
Okay.
Oh no, I'm in the wrong box. No, no, you're the main star. All right, all right. So now, thank you for answering my questions for me.
I am—
I— okay, so a burning question, another one. What is Karen?
Oh no, where, where'd you go? Where'd you go?
Karen, I can hear you.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
Where's Karen? Hello?
Oh, there we are.
Wow.
Okay.
And we got Karen. Happy Monday, everyone.
Oh, beautiful. So, Karen, yes ma'am.
So, big question. None of these questions, by the way, Karen and I had no rehearsal, no script, um, whatsoever. What is the— what generation budgets the best?
You know, that is a loaded question, and I'm just going to say this right now. I have coached individuals from the age of 18 all the way up to 78 years of age, and every one of them had a common theme. They never learned how to budget, and that is so sad to me. But I would have to say, personally, I'd have to say older generation of people, 58 and up, only because I know I was taught in school how to budget, but they've taken it out of the school system. So I'd have to say the, the older population, to be honest with you. The people that went through the Depression or were kids during the Depression, they knew what it was like to do without. I can remember my grandma telling me that she was one of 14 of 14 kids. Whoo, Lord, I can't imagine. One of 14 kids. And she said her mom would put the food on the table and, you know, they had— they filled them up with fillers, you know, potatoes, rolls, biscuits, because it was cheap to make. Or, you know, potatoes are dirt cheap, and rolls and biscuits and that kind of thing. And if there was a biscuit or a roll left, she said, I can remember my brother spitting on that last roll of biscuit because he wanted it. So, I mean, that sounds horrible, but they knew what it was like to do without. They knew what it was like to scrimp and to save, to save up for things that they wanted to purchase. They knew what it was like. They didn't know what debt was. I mean, it wasn't until later on that we had credit cards. I think the first credit card came on the scene in the 19— 1946 or 1948. And the very first credit card that came on the scene was the Diners Club, because the guy went to a restaurant, realized he forgot his wallet, and he thought, wow, wouldn't that be a great idea to have some kind of piece of plastic that you could go in and just charge it? And that's when the first credit card came on the scene. I don't know if you know about this, but JCPenney, while James Cash Penny, and they called him Cash because he never allowed credit in his stores while he was alive. Can you believe it? James Cash Penny. They, they called him Cash because he never went into debt. He never used cards. He never allowed credit cards in his stores while he was alive. Now, he would have a real eye-opening experience today, but that was We've made it so easy. We have made it so easy to have a generation of debt. We have been duped into thinking that debt is normal and that is the only way that you can buy things. And actually, that is not true. That's not the only way you can buy things. You can buy things actually with cash.
Wow. I mean, you say that funny, but I'm thinking to myself, Karen, I don't even know if I've ever really seen a documentary. You would be great. Documentary, like the history of credit and money. And I know that, like, for, like, my parents, a lot of my parents' friends, they couldn't throw away an apple. As a matter of fact, I used to facilitate the survivors from the Holocaust. Yes. And so, you know, at the end of it, there would be the high school kids team with a Holocaust survivor to talk about what hate looks like and, you know, tell their story. But after lunch, a lot of the high schoolers were surprised that they couldn't throw an apple away or a bag of chips or anything because— and they would share that, you know, the food, that someone throw away food. So I think teaching that, I think that'd be a really great documentary and all the tips and facts about money. Another question. So my mom was really the one that was great with money. And my dad, I don't know how he was with money, but after my mom passed, it seemed like he was not very good with money. As a matter of fact, towards the end of his life, he didn't really have a lot of money. He was consistently— my dad was, I remember, 89 years old and every morning waking up and calling the bank to see what his bank account was and where he had money and then paying Peter to rob Paul and trying to make everyone happy. And trying to pay his, you know, his wife had fallen and he needed around-the-clock care. He didn't have any long-term disability to add on to after my mom fell. And it was hard to watch my dad, who had money. There's money in the estate, but he didn't want to use it. He was really careful. He wanted to make sure he had money to live with, but that he had money also to pass on to his children. And so Stupid dryer. Hold on, I'm gonna take— hold on for one second. Candid, candid conversation.
Yes, it is. This is what's called real life, right? We are live. That's so true.
So what, what does that look like when you have a spouse that, like the spouse that was the great budgeter actually passes and then the, the other spouse is left to really zero understanding of balancing, of budgeting.
Well, that you just brought up a great point there. I've coached some ladies that have no clue even how to write a check because the husband never, I mean, he's the one who handled all the money. So it can be very scary for the individual. Opposites attract. So when you get into a relationship, if you're the spender, most of the time your mate is going to be a saver. And if you're a saver, that can be a little frustrating because you have probably attracted yourself to a spender. Now, there's nothing wrong with that though. There are— any given time, I'm more of a saver than I am a spender. However, I do enjoy spending, but my husband is more of a spender than a saver, so we balance it out. And that's the important thing, is that you communicate with your mate. Don't play the blame game. And that's why you don't want to have one of you in charge of the budget and the other person say, I'll be okay with whatever you decide, because no, you will not be okay with whatever they decide. If you know If you're a spender, then you need to be, you don't want your mate to save every red cent and you not ever get to spend any of the hard-worked money. You're gonna cause resentment and bitterness within yourself because they're not allowing you to spend. And on the other foot, on the other hand, if you're a saver and your mate is always spending, you need to have that communication 'cause you're going to want to save some money. That's why it's very important that you sit down and say, listen, this is how much money we have coming in this month. I think that we should save this amount of money. And your mate might say, you know what, I'm okay with us saving, but I would like for us to spend a little maybe on that new desk that we have our eye on, or whatever it is you're looking at. But both of you have to make some you know, changes or adjustments. Adjust is easier to do than change, right? We don't like that word change. But if we can make some little adjustments, that way the saver feels good about saving some money, the spender feels good about spending some money. But have that communication because you can't have the spender say, well, I'm going to spend this, and they're spending $700 this month on golfing. And saying, you know, the, the mate is saying, you know, there might be a little problem because you've only allowed, allotted $50 for groceries this month with our family of 5. So, you know, so you have to make some adjustments. There's a little bit of give and take in that. So it's important that you have that conversation. Now, for the people that have an eye-opening experience, and maybe you're mate has passed away and you've never been in charge of the money, you may want to get in contact with a financial coach who can help you along the way. Because one of the tools that a financial coach will— a good financial coach will do is they'll teach you about money. They'll teach you about budgeting, how to budget, and they'll make it simple for you. A budget should not take hours and hours to do. Listen, you know what your rent or your mortgage is. You know what your car payment is. You know how much gas, your utilities basically are, and your food. There's only going to be minor tweaks month to month. Maybe you have to pay car insurance this particular month or other things. We're coming upon the holidays. You know, Christmas is a time that ladies are baking more, spending on Christmas gifts, different things like that. All in all, the budget pretty much stays the same each month with minor tweaks depending on what's coming due. So they're going to teach you how to budget. A budget, honestly, after you do it 3 times, 3 months consecutively, should only take about 10 or 15 minutes. It doesn't take that long to do a budget. It really does not. And so once you have that in place, then you're able to be empowered to manage your money in a greater way.
And you need the accountability, and I think a coach would give you that accountability. And, you know, tell us about your books before I let you go. Do you have any in front of you?
I don't have any in front of me, and I'm hooked to the computer because so I can't show you the image. But Money Matters is the first first, uh, the first one, Money Matters. And that book is titled that for two reasons. Number one, money does matter. It really does. You have to have money to live. The second reason I called it Money Matters is because that book encapsulates everything about money. It talks about budgeting. It talks about how to demolish debt. If you have debt and you want to get out of debt, how do you do it? What are the steps to to take to do it quickly and efficiently. And then also building wealth. Where do you invest? How do you invest? I talk about Roth IRAs, 401(k)s, the stock market. I'm an avid real estate investor, so I have a little bit in there on that. And then also the mindset. I have a chapter on the importance of having the right thoughts because thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, and habits become character. And so it's important that we have the right thoughts on money. Another book I have is You Can Do It, and that encapsulates everything imaginable on real estate investing. And then I have a mini book called Money Nuggets, and it gets you to thinking about money and what are some ways and areas that you need to adjust regarding that. So they're all on Amazon, they're all on my website.
I saw them on your website. That's great. Wow. Wow. You have a lot of really great sayings. And do you have, um, do you have your quotes in a, like, a little square with your photo, like a little graphic?
I don't have that in a little square, but that's a great idea. But a lot of my quotes are actually in that Money Nuggets book. But a lot of the other Money Nuggets, and then the other quotes will be in the other books as well. So, wow.
And then, okay, and then what about— do you have a podcast? You'd be an excellent podcaster or show.
I don't have a podcast, but I do have a YouTube channel, and the YouTube channel is KBF Money Managing. And of course, my Facebook page, which is KBF Money Managing, and Instagram, KBF Money Managing, on all three.
So wait, the D is your middle name?
B. B. K as in Karen, B as in Beth, F as in Ford. KBF Money Moonie G.
Yeah, my middle name is Beth too. Adrienne Beth Barker.
That's all. I don't know what Adrian means, but the word Beth means house.
Oh my gosh, and I am, um, your age. I'm 58. A little older.
We have a lot more in common than what we thought.
You know what's funny is when you think back on like when I was younger, I I— everyone was drawing those big houses. I always had a little house with a little picket fence. And my mom would be like, don't you want a big house? I'd be like, I just want— you know, I always have this feeling like you could only be in one room at one time. So the bigger the home, the more of a mess. And so how many rooms can I sit in? And, you know, I don't know. It's weird. Like, I don't have that, like, I have to have everything or have to have the most and the best. And so even where we live, I love, you know, living in Daytona Beach, and we're in a, a beautiful luxury apartment-like area, but we don't have, you know, we're not like big. But I like that. Yes, I like having my kitchen clean, and I, I'm not— it's not, not overextended. But I have learned how to live, um, within our small budget, and I'm, I'm happy to do that. Even when I was earning six figures, I still Um, I don't know, money is an interesting thing to me. I, I really, uh, and it's hard to, to— it's just the whole thing. So I really— I'm gonna get your books, I'm gonna read it myself. I love this part 1 and a part 2, which is great.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome, my pleasure. I really enjoyed it.
Oh, thank you so much. I'm going to share this too. My children need it. I think other parents need it. I think that we all have to work together. And you know what's funny? My, my daughter's dating a lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely young boy. I really like him. And his grandmother was so sweet, and she said to me, oh, you know, I was taking them to the beach, it was my pleasure. And when I spend the money, it's what I want to do, and I don't want anyone to pay me back. But it was so sweet that she would say that to me. Let me know how much it was or is. And, and so often I used to tell my children, I would give them money, I said, don't let someone treat you and you know, and I would get mad at them if I found out that they did. And then that's not a good thing either because that wasn't nice of me. And right, you know, people want to treat each other too. And so it was so sweet that she offered, but that was a pleasure that I wanted to have to experience. And I remember one more thing. I remember sharing my mom, like she would say, someone would say, oh, Gloria, here is a phone for you. And my mom would say, no, I don't want it, you shouldn't have it. So I had to teach my own mother how to accept gifts and to understand that, that when you say no to a gift, you're actually hurting and maybe considering insulting the person. That is in itself a lesson, right? Do you want to share? What do you think about that?
I think that's great, you know, and I— what you just said, I think is so important. You said it wasn't fair to you to not allow her to do that because maybe their love tank also is to give. So we're able to allow others, you know, to give to us. The important thing is, you know, don't allow yourself to be used, that kind of thing. I mean, you want to allow them to give and then you give, etc. But the important thing is recognizing what someone else's love language is as well. And I also think that maybe some of the people that you're giving to, maybe their love language is gifts. Maybe they enjoy giving gifts or receiving gifts. So that's just something to think about. What is it, you know, what is it that we're allowing or preventing in somebody else's life to allow their love tank to be filled as well?
Wow, Karen, thank you so much. You, you blew me away today. Thank you.
This was— you're welcome. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much. Oh, I think that they may have missed. So I'm in Daytona Beach, and where are you again?
I'm in Fairmont, West Virginia.
Oh, how beautiful. That is a beautiful place, and your peanuts are delicious.
I just have to say, lots of mountains, lots of mountains. Oh, so beautiful.
I love Virginia. Well, have a great rest of the day. Thank you so much. I'll let you know when this goes on YouTube. And this was— you know what's funny? I love the word nuggets. And so Money Nuggets, what a great name. You gave us a ton of gold today.
Thank you so much. My pleasure.
Uh, have a great rest of the day. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was wonderful.
