Being That Girl: Financial Edition

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. And we're 2 best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between.

Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of the In Between Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Astrid, and the other half, Alexis.

And today we're going to be talking about money. Make money, money, make money, money, money. Or if you're a longtime listener of the pod, you know I've got to talk about dinero. She take my dinero.

She says it every time. We love it. Um, I am so excited for this. I feel like the new year energy, everyone is reevaluating all of their goals, all of their habits. And honestly, finance and money can be something that feels daunting and overwhelming. And it's a very emotional experience as well, because a lot of what we spend money on has to do with how we're feeling inside. And so our goals today is to really share a few of the things that have helped us A few of the things that maybe we haven't been the best at before and being very honest about those and just sharing what works, what doesn't. And hopefully that helps you as you kickstart your year, your goals, and see that it is possible to look at your money and feel peace and not be overwhelmed and be able to manage it on a monthly basis.

Yeah, agreed. We're going to be taking this from 2 different lenses. We'll talk about the personal side of money, how we manage our money personally, habits we're building, tips We have, um, goals we have on the personal side. And then we'll also be talking about business finances. So the ways that we look and manage our money on the business side. Astrid's a full-time photographer, brand consultant, um, and I have a side hustle as a coach. And so I think it's helpful to hear how people manage their money. I always lean in a little bit when I hear women especially talk about money. So I'm really excited about this conversation today.

Yes, me too, me too. But before we get started, um, do you want to do a little bit of updates of how your week has been?

Yes, I would love to. So let me, let me step back. I definitely feel like solid energy into January. Like, December was such an odd month in terms of just feelings and mood and, I don't know, end-of-year burnout in a lot of ways. And I think to Taking a trip over New Year's really allowed me to come back feeling really refreshed. So I am carrying that in on day 12 of the new year and I feel really good or whenever day this comes out next week. But yeah, that's been feeling really just approachable and fun and just feeling lighter about life in general and work. Matthew and I are doing Whole30 as well, which is a It's a 30-day nutrition challenge where you're focusing on eating whole foods. And I feel like I need to say, no, not the grocery store, like literally whole foods. Um, and so, um, we did it a couple of years ago and we learned a lot about just the ways that we were using food as a tool that was healthy and what wasn't healthy for us.

Mm-hmm.

And we really liked the process. We're on day 10 of it as we're recording this. And the first couple days were really rough. I'm not gonna lie because you know you're not eating processed foods. You're not eating anything with added sugar. You aren't drinking alcohol. Like you, it feels a little bit like a detox, and you really start to feel your cravings a lot. But now that I'm almost into week two, like I feel really fresh and like clear and mentally clear. So that's been awesome, and just focusing this month. on being home, organizing things, because I have a really busy, fun year ahead and I just want to savor January. That's how I'm feeling right now. What about you?

Oh my gosh. Yes, I will echo that. I do not have any shoots this month all the way up to the last weekend of the month. And it's been really great to have slow Saturdays with no weddings, to really enjoy my house, to deep dive into organizing things. So last weekend I organized my makeup drawer.

Ooh.

And because I travel so much, I was living off of my makeup bag, my travel bag, and just never unpacked it literally all year long. I can't remember the last time I unpacked my makeup bag last year. And so I think a big part of that was my drawer itself needed to be cleaned out so that it felt easy when I came back from trips to put stuff back in its place and repack. And no joke, I threw out about half of that drawer. Like, it was just things that were old, things that just didn't need to be there that I didn't like anymore. And so that felt really, really good. It feels really good in the mornings to get ready and have everything in its spot. And it's a faster process to get ready because I'm not digging through the bag to find all the things. I can just find it right away. So yeah, and then this coming weekend is my last area of organization for my clothes and all that stuff. And so I'm doing my accessories.

Ooh.

Or I lied, second to last. The last one will be my shoes. And so it just feels really good. I'm kind of working my way through my house of organization throughout the month because I realize how much of my stress throughout the year also comes from when things are disorganized. I just feel all out of sorts. So if I can set myself up for success now, put that work in now and then my job is to maintain, then that would be great. And so, yeah, so it's been a really, really fun wellness-oriented week of doing often cleanups. I'll do a cleanup during lunchtime and a cleanup in the evening to just maintain the spaces in my home. And then this is going to be really nerdy, but my—

Tell us.

My toothbrush, my electric toothbrush went out. So I had to buy a new one. So I went deep in TikTok trying to find what was the best electric toothbrush.

What'd you find?

Oral-B Sonicare, the iO. It's like a smart one. It comes with an app and it has blown my mind because whenever you use it, it tracks where you're cleaning and it'll tell you you need to add pressure or you need to remove pressure or you didn't actually clean thoroughly. So you can see when you actually finish cleaning. Until you get a full 100%. And so this might be gross, but like the first time I used it, I only got a 62% score. And then the next time— yeah, and then the next time I've been getting 100s since. And I'm like, you're telling me that I haven't been properly brushing my teeth this entire time?

Also, I bet as an A student, you loved that. You love getting—

Oh yes, I feel like I can conquer anything in the day when I get my 100% score from Oral-B.

That is hilarious. I didn't know that I need to look into that specifically for Matthew. Bro brushes his teeth like 3 or 4 times a day.

Oh, he would love this. And I love the app. You can have different settings there too, like for sensitive, for whitening, for whatever. Like, it's just, it's just great. So anyway, that is the new thing that I am into this week that I'm loving.

Thank you for keeping us updated. And plus one to Organizing the home in stages and not feeling like— because I think when it comes to deep cleaning or organizing, it can feel very overwhelming because it's the whole house, or even sometimes your whole room, like your drawers and your closet and your bathroom, and all of that can just feel very overwhelming. So I have been trying to take one project every weekend as well, and it's, it's like helped me feel accomplished, but also not feel like dead tired after. I don't want my weekends to feel exhausting. Um, so I'm taking it one little project at a time.

Yes, yes, we love it. By the end of January, we're gonna feel so good.

I know.

All good energy.

I'm so excited.

We have to do that often. I feel like our, our lifestyles change quite a bit. So yeah. Um, well, it's time for our In Between. So if you're new around here or stumbling around this episode online, we always do an In Between segment in our podcast where we share What season of life we find ourselves in between. So you want to go ahead and kick us off?

I will kick us off. Okay. Let me see. Okay. So last week on the pod, I talked about how I wanted to launch things and get things out without them, without like strategy or knowing exactly how every little puzzle piece is going to fit together. And I really want this year to be focused on like fun and serving people and just kind of focusing on the next right step. And so I'm in between that mindset of like letting go of that brain of like everything has to be so planned out and strategic and just kind of letting things flow in my business. So this past week I launched a deep reset. It's a 2-week challenge to help women reset their routines and their habits. And I Past me too. I just want to like note this past me would have been like, oh, it's too late. I want to start it on Monday and I'm not going to get it out until Wednesday. It's too late. I just shouldn't do it. Or I need like a 10-day promotion window to make this like the best thing ever. Nope. Haven't sent one email to my email list. Just put it on social and we're up to 130 people that have signed up for it, which is insane.

That is amazing.

It's insane to me. Where last year I had all the strategies, I had this whole promo plan for it, and, um, half, less than half of like, like take the 130 and divide it into like, that's how many people signed up last year. And so double the amount and like more freedom, more fun, more excitement, just like letting it flow. So I'm in between the mindset of like, okay, now That I've had. I have these amazing 130 women that have signed up. Oh my gosh! Like now, what? Like how do I make this? And I'm like, no, no. We're just gonna focus on the workbook next. We're just gonna focus on getting the workbook together, getting it in their hands, and like having a good time. And like just one little moment at a time. So yeah, that's been an interesting experience that I have put myself into immediately, and I'm glad that. I've had this mindset shift away from pressure and towards more freedom. And now I'm putting it into practice in my business. And that feels really, really good to see me step all the way through that.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I am so proud of you.

Thanks.

So freaking proud of you because mindset is generally the hardest thing to work on and also the biggest factor to anything that we do in our life. And the fact that you've had that massive unlocking and And you can see all the way that you can serve people and that people are excited for it. And like the 10-day promotional campaign, honestly, you are the promotional campaign in a sense. Like you're posting every single day. You're consistently sharing your habits, what you recommend, your tools. Like you're always promoting. You're always, it's not like you just created a new Instagram account and then now you're promoting and trying to like get And that's the beautiful part is that you're sharing it from a genuine place where you're consistently doing the things and now you get to share with others how to do the thing. And I'm stoked. I'm joining. I'm doing the Deep Reset. It's going to be such a good time.

I actually shared it with my team too at work and some of the women joined at work too. And I'm using Circle to host the free community. And so they obviously work at Circle. So they're like, oh, we want to actually see this in real life as a member too.

Girl, I got chills at that. You're empowering people and also impacting your team. How cool.

Yeah. Very wholesome.

Okay.

What are you in between?

Okay. So much has happened this week. I am in between testing a new— what would you call that? A new calendar system, a new way of organizing myself in my business and in my life. And that has felt actually really, really good. And I'm also allowing myself to— I'm shifting my mindset from, this is the plan, we must follow it to a T, to, this is an experiment. What will I learn about myself each week? And so basically what I did is I started to create themes. Well, first I was able to recognize the areas in last year that brought anxiety, that felt chaotic, that didn't work for my time. And then I filtered that through to this year where I was like, okay, having meetings throughout the week made me feel very sporadic. Like, let's try our best to get these all down to one day. And then the tasks that are needed from my side of things to run the business and not be in the business were falling to the back because I had to get work done. So we're moving that to Mondays before the work gets done. So just being able to create that focus where For my personality, I work really well with a calendar where I'm like, okay, this is what I'm supposed to be doing next. But if it's not there already, then I'll decide like that day of, and then I'll always prioritize like being an employee essentially, like answering the emails and editing and doing all that stuff when there needs to be a balance of both. So yeah, so I created themes in my calendar that feels really solid. And then I created a lot of automations for the things that are important in my business. So like when I'm creating content, when those days are happening, checking my finances, which we'll talk about today. Once a month, I have that already scheduled for every Friday and really respecting the time of that while also being flexible of if I want to go do something that day, cool. Well, this time needs to just be dragged around somewhere in the next week. And so I'm experimenting. I'm in between. Letting go of that perfectionism side and more of an experiment side. And right now what I'm realizing after one whole week of doing that is that A, it was very helpful, and B, I don't want every single moment of my day planned out because it makes me feel like I'm falling behind if something very urgent happens. So I actually need to only plan 70% of my day and leave that margin. And so that's what I'm shifting for next week. So yeah, so I'm just experimenting with a lot of productivity tools and seeing what works best for me in this season.

Well, let me know what you learn because I feel like you are the productivity queen. You always call me the habits queen, and I feel like you're the productivity queen. It's cool to see you also shift your mindset around this as an And sometimes when we set new systems or new, um, kind of like structures to the way that we run our businesses, there can be a lot of pressure of like, this has to work. And the fact that you're so open to learning as you go and that process of like, this is an experiment, what can I learn about myself in the business in this versus this is the new way and it has to work. Like, that's such a mindset shift. So I'm, I'm super proud of you for that. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I think that just comes from my own personal habits where we learn to not judge ourselves, but what does the information tell me? Okay, maybe my morning routine is off or this is off. So we can bring that into business too and be like, what works for me? Because what works for me might not work for you. And we all want to feel that sense of freedom. And so it's really asking ourselves, how do I want to feel in my business and what's going to support that? So yeah, so I'll come back and report at the end of the month how it went. I am very excited for it. Please do.

I cannot wait to hear. Okay, so with that, let's shift into the finance habits, goals, tips for life and business in 2024. I do want to caveat before we dig into this that Ashton and I are not financial advisors and we cannot be held liable for any advice we give you. So make sure that you advise your financial advisor before doing anything. That we might suggest. So there's my little legal spin on today's episode.

Our personal experience. Yes, do it at your own risk. All the liability disclaimers you can possibly think of.

Do not sue us, please.

Primarily, don't sue us.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so I thought it might be helpful to start the conversation on the personal side of just personal finance. I also want to give you like a 30 to 45 second snapshot of who you're hearing speak today. Me is not who I used to be. And so while you might like be like, oh my gosh, they have their habits and their goals and like they've got things figured out. Girl, girl, girl, let me tell you, 22, 27-year-old me, and I'm still figuring things out as well. But I, I would constantly overdraft on my, my debit account, my checking account. I would constantly like put things on my credit card and be in credit card debt without paying it off, you know, all at one time every month, like missing payments, overspending, just not keeping my eye on— I saw the money coming in and I wanted to spend it all. And I never like necessarily had my own money to spend, and so it just felt very exciting. And so I did that, and that was the majority of my 20s. And then there was just kind of this pivotal moment towards my late 20s where I really needed to lean into maturity and like wisdom, financial like wisdom. And I have made a lot of changes since then, and I still am not perfect, but I just want to let you know that. I've been there. I've been at the grocery store and my card's declined. I have been out shopping and my card's declined where I had to call my bank. Like, that is very much used to be my reality. So that's where I'm coming from today. Do you want to give your, like, financial background just to kind of, like, set the tone for the convo?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think from my perspective, You've been more mature than me.

Well, I feel like there's just been so many different seasons. I'm trying to think how to recap. I would say I grew up in a time where my dad passed away when I was younger. And so money was just very tight for me growing up. And so ever since that and into college, I was very financially independent, which sounds great, but not. needed to work to be able to pay for my food and pay for everything. And I would run out of money often. And so I would have to be very strategic about what's the best use of my money. And so I had to penny pinch a lot throughout college and all of that. Then after college, of course, having a full-time job in marketing and then doing photo, That was a lot better, but I felt like that anxiety of like money's gonna run out any moment was always there. So I was a little bit more risk-averse to spend that money. But interestingly enough, like I use my— since I had a full-time job, I use the money from my photo business to like live out my dreams of like spending without having to think about it. Like I always as a kid wondered what would it be like to just order whatever I want at the restaurant and not have to look at the price, or what, go shopping and not have to look at the price. And so I did that. And then it became a habit. And it was really hard to break over time. Because in my mind, it's like, oh, it's girl math, it's free money. Like I have my full-time income in this account. This is just free extra money that I can—

I wouldn't have it, you know, if I didn't, if I didn't make it, then I made it.

So now it's mine. Exactly. And so I think from there on, I started without knowingly developing a habit of not looking at prices, just being like, this is what I need. Not really keeping a full budget of my business, just being like, this is extra money. As long as there's money there, it's all good. And then when I went full-time in my business, those habits really came to a stop because there wasn't an extra account. Like it was just my main account and the business's account. There's not a third one now.

Right.

And so in the past few years, I've always still had like my savings and I like my cash flow, but I haven't been where I've wanted to be as far as like that extra margin of money that comes in, thinking more long-term and being like, okay, do I want to invest this? Do I want to save for something really cool in the future? And I felt a bit of regret at times whenever I've had to look at my finances and look at how much discretionary income I spent on clothes, Or on things I didn't need, or things I literally still have tags on them in my closet. And if I were to add all those purchases up, I could have bought one really cool thing or done a really cool trip. And then coming to that realization of between this or that, what would I take, is really where my motivation is at right now. Of like, I don't want to impulse spend because I would rather have more quality things. So right, that's a little bit on me and where I'm at.

I mean, this is, this is Confessions of a shopaholic. Like, I feel like that's where you and I really bond in our spending is I have really worked on my shopping habit. And also when I'm on trips, money doesn't exist. I'm like, this is a terrible habit. Okay.

So, um, we need to recap the story of us in Miami and then we asked for a package that arrived at our hotel with our orders for our outfits that we wanted to wear that weekend after we had already shopped. For this trip prior to getting there. Criminal.

Criminal.

Criminal. We need to resurface this. We need to maybe create a video on it and say, this is no longer us, but it's freaking hilarious.

Wait, girl, I have that video. I took a video of, of that whole experience. Like, and, and I, while that's fun and funny, I feel like that is also something that we normalized even in our friendship. And like, as we've also changed and shifted, You know, saving for investment properties and like saving for big trips to Europe. Like just the priorities change. Um, okay. So I feel like we've set the tone because I just wanted to level the playing field here.

We are not perfect. Okay. We're learning.

We are learning. So when it comes to habits and just goals on the personal side, I wanted to share a few things that I have top of mind this year. And some habits that will support those goals. So if you are new around here, I need a new car. She's coming up on 11 years old. Her name is Cecilia. She's a sexy little Toyota RAV4, cherry red. But it's time for me to get a new vehicle. And being on these Texas roads, I need some extra safety features to a vehicle, I will say, as well. So, Um, a big goal for Matthew and I this year is to purchase me a new car. And we want to put between $15K to $20K down in cash for that vehicle. Um, we've both come to the agreement that we do not want to pay for the vehicle in cash, like fully, like full out. We're okay taking a car note, but we do have that savings goal of like $20K down to lower our car payment. And so what we're doing then as a habit to work towards that goal is setting aside $1,000 a month from both of our joint checking account, our joint, yeah, our joint family account to put towards that vehicle. I am also personally from my own personal money saving for that vehicle as well. So between the family account and my money, like we'll get there quicker, which is my goal. I am totally fine putting like my, you know, some of my own money down on it as well. Because I want the car quicker. Whereas if we were to do that now, it might take longer to purchase it. So that's a habit I'm building is setting up those automatic transfers. Like, okay, we don't even see the money necessarily. It's going in the separate account. As you know, you know what I like about automatic transfers is you can set them to happen on days after you're paid. And so you can be really specific on when you know money's coming in and where you want to transfer that out. But that has been like a huge game changer for me to build my savings account, um, as well as some other things as well. So that's like my first tip slash goal for this year.

I love that so much. And I also really, uh, love how it is that you and Matthew manage like the household account and then your personal account. So for anyone that's listening that is in a partnership and maybe they're struggling with like, okay, should we just have one account, separate ones, or like I spend more on beauty and like all these different things. Can you speak a little bit more to how you guys split those accounts and manage that?

Yeah. So I learned this tip from one of my girlfriends, Haley. Whenever Matthew and I were getting married, she talked about how her and husband managed— her and her husband managed their finances. And when Matthew and I tried it, literally as soon as we got married, we loved it. So we split our finances, our checks, Um, every— our paychecks, 70% of them go into the family account and 30% go into our personal accounts. And so that personal money, that's like trips and travel with friends, clothes, spa appointments, getting my hair done, you know, gifts for friends like that comes out of my personal account. And same for Matthew. He spends his personal money how he wants. That was really important for me because I wanted that level of independence and I don't want to have to defend my purchases. I it's like up to me, whereas when it comes to the family account, that's a family decision, and we have like worked so well together on making those decisions as a team versus you know there's going to be things that you want that maybe your partner doesn't understand, doesn't prioritize.

There's just like oh do we really need that?

But it's really important to you, and it's like I feel like this solves for that in a way, and it really works for us. So highly recommend like. At least exploring it.

Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing. I think it's such a cool tool and I've heard of that multiple times throughout like financial podcasts as well, how it can be very great to have that sense of individuality. On my end, I feel like whenever it comes to personal finances, really auditing yourself and being able to see the numbers. So maybe you have New Year energy right now and you're like, okay, I'm going to create my budget for January. Or for February, and I'm just going to start with a clean slate. Cool. That's awesome. And I would challenge that and say it's actually more important for you to go back to December and track that money and see how much you spend in each category than it is for you to create perhaps an unrealistic budget that you won't even stick to. So for me, for example, um, my top categories that I keep spending a lot on and I'm working really hard to bring down is one, groceries and household things, and 2, eating out. And wildly enough, eating out sometimes matches my grocery budget bill. And so that is something that I'm heavily working on, but that I wouldn't have gotten there if I wasn't tracking and being like, oh my gosh. Or for me to be aware, okay, in December we have a lot of friends and people from out of town. There's a lot things to do that we go eat out more. So now I know for next December, I need to budget a lot more money for eating out than I expect on every other month. And so I think when you can look at your finances, you can really see where also the small purchases add up. For me, the coffee trips in, I think it was October or November when I was editing like crazy, it was crazy fall season. I would use it as a coping thing where like I would edit all the way till noon and—

Get yourself a little treat.

I would get myself a treat. And when I added up for the month, it was like in the hundreds of how much I was spending in coffee while I had coffee at home. And so you don't realize it when you're spending $6, $9 on a latte every time, but it adds up. So I would challenge you to look at it. I feel like that might be one of the hardest parts of this process because it can feel— a little daunting. Sometimes we can tend to shame ourselves, but look at it with grace. Look at it as an experiment. Look at it just as pure data that is telling you where that information is coming from.

Right.

And just look at it with, what can I do better? Not, I should have done X, Y, and Z. And so that's something that has really helped me of like, okay, I can't change it. How can I shift things over? Like, okay, I'm only gonna meal prep 1 meal a week instead of 2. That cuts down my grocery bill. So that's something that, um, has really helped me as well as, um, I just switched my app, my budgeting app, um, over to Rocket Money for my personal finances. Absolutely love it. So Mint was like, went out of business or got bought out or something like that.

Intuit shut it down.

Yeah, they shut it down.

Dumb idea.

But yeah, so I used to have to like, I used to have Mint, which for me was more like tracking my net profit, but like the actual budgeting portion of it to me was kind of messy. And then I would use the EveryDollar app for tracking like my actual monthly expenses, but I would have to manually go in and put them in. And so sometimes I would fall behind if life was crazy. So Rocket Money is like a hybrid of both of those where you can have all your net profit, like all of your net in it. It tracks all of your transactions. It can automate. So it knows, for example, every time I go to, um, or every time there's an Amarin bill, it knows it's gas. So it automatically tracks that. So I got a notification the other day that says you're spending X amount more on, uh, gas than you did last month. Or, uh, last week I got a notification, you only have X amount left on your grocery budget. So you can set your budget, it automatically tracks it. And it sends you reminders, hey, you're nearing the end of this. So that has been very, very cool, very helpful, and mostly it helps me save time. So now I don't feel guilty whenever I can't keep up with like tracking my budget because it's already done. It's a checklist. All I have to do is review and manage, and that feels doable when it's just 10, 15 minutes every week.

Astrid is a Rocket Money influencer. Who else feels influenced to go download Rocket Money? I'm gonna do that.

Let me know how you like it. I, I tell everyone about it.

It's literally— so one of my goals for this year is creating a personal budget for travel specifically. Um, and so Matthew and I— well, Matthew keeps a very meticulous— he's tracked every single dollar that has come in or went out in our family account since last January. So right now he's working on like a big annual annual review of our finances. He's like putting together a presentation and everything. I'm stoked. Um, but because of that, we, we were able to see like, same on the eating out as well. Um, we were really seeing that we were eating out and dining out so much, and it was like, it was, it exceeded our grocery bill almost every month. And so we had to like, okay, cut different things. We wanted to prioritize date night, but now we're doing 2 date nights in. Instead of like four date nights a month going out to eat, so that just like looking at different ways that you can switch some of your behavior and some of your challenge or habits based on what the what the data is telling you. And I think that's a big piece here is when you're auditing and when you're looking at whether it's your personal finances or your business accounts, like it's not just data; it does tell a story, and it can tell you what you need to. Shift and tweak and say, okay, this is what I'm noticing 3 months in a row. What behavior change then am I going to take on to make sure that I hit this goal or don't exceed this budget? And I think that's sometimes where for me personally, I like the break off would happen, like the drop off would happen. I would look and I would be aware, but I wouldn't necessarily take action and my behavior wasn't Mm-hmm. And so I think that's where like awareness is amazing and we have to couple that with action or we're going to end up seeing the same results every single month, month over month when it comes to our budget. So that's something like we're actively working on right now is yes, let's audit, let's look, and then let's also adjust because we're just going to keep being, we're going to keep like back in the same place.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think also shifting it from, okay, you see the data, then now you want to stop a behavior, but then what's the positive reinforcement to create that habit?

Right.

Which is, okay, for example, for my partner and I, he's going to meet me in Europe this summer for a week. So it's like whenever we choose to not go eat out and we're going to make a date at home, okay, we're thinking about Italy. We're thinking about all the things we're going to do then because we're putting our money and saving for that time. So it doesn't feel as much of like, oh, this is boring or like, oh, we don't get to do that. It's like, it's fine. We're so excited for our trip. What's that positive reinforcement? Or we're excited for the car or we're excited for the house that we're saving or we're excited to have less debt and be like more financially free. So you need to find that thing that motivates you that you're like, okay, this is actually what I want. So this will motivate this negative behavior to take a step back.

Yeah, agreed. I think that's huge. Another thing I'm looking at as well, aside from those habits around auto transfers and auditing, is creating a wishlist for impulse purchases. I was inspired by Astrid as well as Money with Katie, great follow on Instagram by the way, to start making a wishlist and stop using impulse purchases for a dopamine hit. We don't need every single thing that we stumble upon and say, that's cute, I need that. We actually, if our basic needs are covered, that's a want, it's not a need. And I know that probably sounds harsh, but it's like, we have to retrain our brains here, people. We're getting thrown product every single second we're on our phones. And so we have to build up our own defense system So I was inspired by Astrid to create a wishlist and that was on Monday. It's been 5 days and I already have 8 items on my wishlist that I've seen online that old me would've been really tempted to go buy or like, oh, I'm gonna wait till I get my paycheck and then I'm gonna get it. And now I'm like, I might get this in the next couple of months.

Yeah.

Or I'm gonna send this list to someone for my birthday in April. Like it just shifts. So do you want to share your wishlist?

Yeah, I'm going to rapid fire through my list. I have a lot because this is since I think I did this the last week of December where I wanted to shop a lot. So here we go. The, I think you say Oura or Oura ring, the wellness ring.

Oh yeah, yeah. The Oura ring.

The Oura ring, AirPods Max headphones, heatless curls thing, the Dyson air purifier for my room. Framing art from Paris, which I am doing. Adidas Sambas, the new bathroom lighting, new kitchen lighting, bedroom dresser, bedroom lighting, red light mask for my face. I need to add that to mine. The waffle robe from Pottery Barn. I need to have that. The makeup vanity with LED light for my spare bedroom. I want to get a second ear piercing. Spice organization for my spices in my kitchen. And the Skims t-shirt. So it's all over the place.

I love this list. Also, can I— can let you know that the Skims boyfriend tee is amazing.

Going to the top of the list.

Okay. My wishlist is a black Baggu medium croissant bag. It's like this really cute waffly bag. A compact and chic laptop bag for the coffee shop. Alo Yoga brown leggings and bra set, an Alo Yoga sweat set, a Set Active workout set, a 437 Yoga set. I was like deep in on the sets. I want to get New Balance sneakers. I've wanted New Balance sneakers for over a year now. New makeup brushes. And then I just added the red light mask to my wishlist because you influenced me. So that's what's on my wish list.

But we're not shopping for it. We're just adding it to our list.

Exactly.

That is so good. I can think of a few other things too. This morning I was like, oh, I need a new perfume. So I mean, we just need to add it to our wish list, but not impulse shop. And sometimes it's not even impulse shopping. Is— can you actually afford it? Does it actually fit your budget for this month? Because can the perfume wait? Can the whatever wait? It might be important or like something that you're like needing, but it's not urgent and it's not a basic need. So I absolutely love that. The other thing that I want to mention on the personal finance side of things is something that I started doing last year that was really helpful for both personal and business is having more than one bank account and creating bank accounts as almost like a separate savings for specific things. So on the personal side, for example, I will be opening an account this month for my savings for Europe. So I am spending an extended period of time there. And so what I'm going to do is every month, like you mentioned, do auto transfers. But for me, it helps. Like if I'm auto transferring, instead of it going to my general savings, it's going to a separate account where I am saving for that trip.

Yeah.

And now I know what my budget is for that specific trip. What can I afford? Where can I stay? Where can I eat? Or try to find ways to save money. So that leads me to Chase Sapphire. Like, if you are not using a credit card for points, you are truly leaving money on the table. The amount of hundreds of dollars that you get from your transactions that you're already paying your bills, paying your groceries, and then you can use those points to cover your flights to places, to cover your hotels for places. And I've actually been deep diving into it more where you can just transfer points to a hotel or something and you get even double that. And that's how a lot of people have booked like virtually free vacations to Europe by using their points and saving that.

Mm-hmm.

And so that's something where I'm like, okay, if I can auto transfer every month and have an account for that and try to offset my costs with saving all my points from both business and personal credit card points to cover for the main things, Maybe I'll have enough in that account where I can like splurge a little bit in some experiences while I'm in Europe and be more intentional about it. But rather than like be like, okay, well, there's enough money in my savings, I'll be fine. And then you have kind of that reactive, anxious energy when you're on the trip of like, I think I might be okay, but like, am I spending too much? This just gives you the freedom to be like, yeah, you save for this, go have fun.

Yeah. I love this. We're also going to put a Chase Sapphire signup link in the show notes that if you use Astrid's referral link, don't they get like extra points?

Yes. Yes. We'll put it in the show notes what the specific extra points that you get. But please use the link. Definitely helps a lot, both of us. But I've been sharing that with everyone since I got the card. I think it was in 2018 or 2019 that I got the Chase Sapphire, and it's been a game changer ever since of like, okay, People aren't paying straight up cash for these vacations. We just use the points. And that has, that can be a game changer if you're wanting to travel more this year.

Yeah. Especially like different, um, different promotions as well throughout the year. Like United had a promotion for Travel Tuesday and Matthew and I were able to book, uh, 2 trips, one, a ski trip to Colorado and another like couple's trip to Palm Springs using points. And we also got 40% off booking with those points. So we didn't need— didn't use as many points as we would have if we would have paid full price for it. And so different, like, airlines run different promotions as well. But like, yeah, I agree. I— you influenced me to get this card, you and Riley, um, before the— our Paris trip for my 30th last year.

Mm-hmm.

And so I've been using it since then and I absolutely love it. So thank you for the rec and go sign up via the link in our, in our show notes.

And maybe go ahead and link also your United one. Yeah, it sounds like you're influencing me to get it, I guess. What's the main perk with the United credit card?

United, it can be a little bit more limited because you're focused on like United, that airline specifically, whereas the Chase Sapphire, you can Trans— you can transfer your points to any airline, but we like having, um, the Amex for points as well as the United for points. Like, we've been able to get upgraded to business class multiple times because of using our United points, and they just go farther for United specifically. So I think it just depends on like, we are United loyal.

Mm-hmm.

So like, we only fly United, so it makes sense for us to have that card. Um, so whereas like for my friendship trips or like trips for work, it's whatever flight is cheapest mostly, and that's not always United. And so I like using the Chase for like my personal travel.

Okay, love it. We love a smart credit card user.

The last thing I'm gonna say on the personal side is if you have goals to travel, to buy something, like whatever that is, and you want to get creative with where that money is coming from outside of your W-2 or outside of your side hustle or your main hustle, wherever your income is coming from. I have really loved like hosting closet sales, selling things online. Closet sales specifically for me, I run them like 2 to 3 times a year. I know Poshmark is another really popular option as well and like Depop, but I have funded like Flights from closet sales. I think my my highest grossing closet sale was just shy of eight hundred dollars. So I'll make anywhere from like four hundred to eight hundred dollars on a closet sale. Hosts a couple times a year. That's a flight. And so like looking for other ways you can also subsidize some of your financial goals for the year through selling things or or like just getting creative with the way you're making money. But with that. Shall we shift over to the business side of things?

Yes, let's do it. I geek out on this stuff so much. As far as the business side, I think a lot of our personal habits can tend to bleed into the business side as well. So that's something to, to keep in mind that as you're working on one, it will likely be easier to then work on the other one because you're in the routine of checking and looking at all of that. And so something that is important that I feel like a lot of business owners and creatives sometimes miss is not tracking what your net profit is after you make the sales, after you make all the things. Like, what are you actually making? Because sometimes we can have high margin or like high-priced products, but whenever there are so many expenses, so many subscriptions, things you're sending out, you're paying consultants, you're paying all these different people, what is actually left and is the stress and all the things that that project brings worth the net profit that you're actually getting? And I feel like that has been something that has helped me cut back on expenses or cut back on certain projects that just didn't make sense, or even where my virtual assistant spends her time. For example, like she will track where she's spending her time and I'll give a very real example. Like there was last week where there was a lot of hours into Pinterest. And that's awesome. Even though we get the views, I haven't gotten any inquiries from Pinterest yet. And we've been giving that a solid shot since last March or April. And so I was like, hey, I still want to continue this. I would love for you to, instead of spend all this time on Pinterest scheduling, I'm okay paying that time for you, but I would rather you spend that time. Let's find a course, let's find a program, let's find a podcast or YouTube where we're learning more how to turn those into actual business than just keep doing what clearly isn't bringing any money in. And so I think like as a business owner, we have to keep a gauge on those net profit things. And so that sounds ideal, and I know we're all very busy. And so I used to use— do that manually on Notion every month and be able to keep track of what like that net profit was going to be. Now I found a Copilot that I am testing out. It's actually for personal finances, but it's worked really, really well for me so far on the business side because it gives me a dashboard and it has a lot of the features that I mentioned from Rocket Money. Like, it'll give you alerts, it'll give you— it'll already rank up like your top category. So I can be like, okay, this is how much I spent on second shooters, or how much I spent on my, like, my payroll, or how much I've spent on client gifts. And it gave me an alert based on the categories I created, like you've overspent on client gifts this week, like that kind of stuff. And so I'm excited for that because I think it's more realistic to stay on top of it when you have a tool that automates that and you can designate an hour to review rather than an hour to run through all your transactions, track, and then you're exhausted to review. So yeah, so those are like the main things as far as like looking at your net profit and like what tool to help support that as well.

Now you're a Copilot influencer because we're all going to want to go sign up for Copilot. That is really cool. I genuinely need to look at that because I track everything manually right now. Um, also in full transparency, like I used to just track what came in and what went out every single month, but I didn't have it categorized into revenue and expenses. And then having a formula in Excel, or I use Google Sheets for net profit. And so now every month, based on like putting in what's going in and what's going out, I'm able to see what that net profit is. So I will say that 2022 was not a great year for my business. I spent more than I made. I invested in programs and coaching. And while that was really great, I, I think I was so focused on like, how can I get better? And I wasn't necessarily focused on like, let's steward and make money and like, let's use the skills we have. And I ended up overinvesting in things that were okay and I don't necessarily regret them, but they weren't wise financial decisions for my business. So this year, because of, of that last year, I really went through and audited all of my expenses and I used Um, an idea from a template I saw online, and I actually built my own revenue and expenses, like, dashboard in Google Sheets. I know my husband would be so proud of me. He's like, who is she? Um, so I have, I have the income categories and expense categories, and I have my expense categories cut into 2 different sections. I have software category and services. Mm-hmm. And I think this is where you can really see like an interesting split where it's like, hey, those recurring softwares I'm paying for, wow, those are really adding up versus, oh, those services that I'm like, I had an accountant on retainer that I didn't really need. Like there were just other things that were adding up. And because I was able to see those split and see, okay, this ratio from services to software, where am I, where are my expenses more and where can I continue to cut? So from 2022 to 2023, I just did my roundup of all my finances for 2023 in my coaching business. I lowered my expenses by $16,000, which is in-fucking-sane to me, honestly. And I doubled my revenue from 2022 to 2023.

That's crazy.

And it's because I was so focused on Not just like, let's make more money, but like, let's make smart money. Let's make smart money decisions for the business. And now I can finally say like, I'm consistently making $5,000 to $6,000 in revenue every month from my side hustle. And that has been a goal of mine for so long. And I would not have gotten there if I had not done that auditing and also like looked at where my money was going out. So it's cool to say. I make 5 to 6 grand in revenue a month.

Yeah.

But what's that profit-wise based on what's going out? And do I have my eye on that? And so that's something that I've, I'm honestly like really proud of myself and I feel like that the growth is there and that's just been a big shift for me. So I hope that's helpful for you, just like hearing from someone who was really struggling business finance-wise. Like just by auditing, looking, canceling things, making changes, not being sucked into programs that you really don't need. Like I was genuinely able to turn the finances of my business around in a year and it just feels so good. So that's my story.

So good. So impressive. And that goes to show like while our sales can continue to go up, if we don't have a handle on our expenses, our net profit can keep going down and we're working way too hard to waste that money. And like, exactly, clients it takes to make the $16K and how much of your time it would take to make that $16K back. So definitely so important to audit. And I feel like that's huge to do often, like, like look at your numbers often, of course, every month, but then a deep audit of like, is this actually bringing in money? Do it at least once a quarter where you're able to reevaluate Um, how that looks. So, um, a few things that I was going to mention too with this portion, and even with the net profit portion, is paying yourself. Like, do you have a net profit after you pay yourself? Because that's also a net profit from a business perspective. Like, you are an employee of your business. And so something that I do that really helps me when managing my finances for the business is I pay myself the exact same amount Every two weeks, and then I just have like bonuses. So if things are going really well, or I need to withdraw or whatever, I withdraw those. But I pay myself the exact same amount. And so something that I did last year that was also helpful is we need to have business savings, especially if you are a full-time entrepreneur. I think that sometimes the the market is unpredictable. There could be another COVID. There could be so many things. And protecting our business is having business savings that can withstand a dip. But if we are reactive and we're just like barely at a margin, we might have to close down our business because we didn't proactively do that. And so something that has helped me is planning for 6 months of your expenses as a business to have in your savings account and don't touch that. And that includes what you would pay yourself, what you would pay your team, and then reevaluating. That is only like That's like the bare minimum, right? Like there's things that you can cut back on if things go south. So you're just doing 6 months of the essential expenses to keep the business running at that point. Um, so that has been helpful for me. And then I have a separate account savings for taxes that I did last year. And actually my accountant and I were paying into taxes quarterly. So I didn't have to end up using that savings amount at the end of the year, but then we were able to roll that into my 401 as an employee, which was awesome. So what if you're still figuring out like, how much am I actually going to pay for taxes? And that gives you anxiety. Having an account of savings for that eased my anxiety of that unpredictability that can happen. So, um, yeah, those are like just more like logistical things that I feel like can help financially, make you more resilient as a business owner and help you, um, yeah, protect your business. I feel like that's something that we don't talk about often. It's not sexy, it's not fun, it's not glamorous, but it's essential.

Yeah, I love that. Great tips, very tactical, especially the pieces around taxes, paying yourself, and like the business savings account too, just to really— because I feel like we focus a lot of that on the personal side. You need to have personal savings, But we don't always talk about that on the, the business side of things. So I love that advice. Um, that was everything on my side from the business perspective. Anything else to add before we wrap this baby up?

No, that's everything that I had to share. If there's any other questions that you guys had for us from just like our own personal experiences, please reach out. I know it can be very overwhelming to dive into it. And last thing would just be like Take it one step at a time. What's like the main priority that can help you get 1% better in your personal finances or your business finances this month? You don't have to tackle it all at once. And just set those like weekly or monthly goals for yourself to ease into it. And at the end of the day, like you deserve to live a life that feels financially free, that you don't feel the pressure of it all and that you're able to manage it well. And that's what these tools can, can really do for you.

Agreed. And if you enjoyed this episode and you feel like, you know, maybe one of your girlfriends or even your partner wants to learn more, talk more, start a conversation around finances, please share this with them. Listen to it together. And thank you so much for being a part of the community. Like, I— the love we're getting on the Instagram, I love it.

Oh my gosh, we missed you guys. It's been so, so fun, and being able to interact with you all on Instagram is truly our favorite. So if you're enjoying it, if you have any questions, you can connect with us on our, uh, pod account, which is @inbetween.pod on Instagram. You can also connect with me @astrajohannaphoto or me @alexisteichmiller.

And with that, we hope you have a lovely week and we'll We'll see you next time.

Bye.