Pennywise Coaching Testimonial | Mehta

So tell me about how budgeting has gone so far for you. You guys are pretty new with, um, with Pennywise and kind of tell me just, you know, a few minutes of what's gone on and what you're seeing already in probably less than 2 months, right? That we've been working together.

Yeah, we just started this and we got, so basically we started it and we were super excited about it and we realized that, you know, we had kind of more than we thought and we were able to move it around and kind of see a clear picture. And then we had a disaster happen, and we had water leaking through our ceiling, and that is always really stressful. And we had two appliances break as a result, and so we had to replace both of those and then do all these repairs. And I think that would have just been such a stressful event, but we found that the budget and being able to put all these numbers in and see how it's all going to work and, you know, move things around made it way less stressful. And we kind of recovered quickly from that where we realized, okay, let's just get it done. We'll take care of it. We can do it. And let's move on. Like, let's not sit here and just like, you know, stress about it so much. So that really helped, right?

Totally.

Yeah.

So when we first got started and I just said, okay, lay out your numbers, tell me what's going on. I remember you saying something, Kabir, about just the whole act of looking at it made you guys think differently about how you were spending or where your money was going.

Absolutely. And there's another piece of it where I, I think you mentioned this in one of our first meetings, where, uh, when you're budgeting and kind of creating small plates, it, it also inspires you to negotiate more for the services that you get. Like, for example, drywall and appliances. I mean, we shopped around like crazy.

Really?

Yeah, I call it—

yeah, before budgeting, we probably would have just been like, whatever, just get, just get whatever you see. Um, it's not that expensive compared to how, you know, the total. And so when you're always comparing against like the total amount that you make, that's dangerous because you're always paying too much.

Yeah, things—

yeah, because you're not just whipping out a credit card and thinking, I'll figure it out later or next year, it'll sort itself out.

Right. Yeah.

You're thinking, okay, I put this much in my emergency fund. Let's see if we can take care of this for that amount or under, and then we know we're a little bit safer. So yeah, there was definitely—

and I think you said, Sierra, like the first session we got to really looking at your numbers, you canceled a whole bunch of subscriptions and things.

Yeah, not even really trying to. It was just that looking at it so closely and trying to create a budget, I realized there was like 4 things that I didn't really need or that we weren't using anymore, or a subscription that was about to renew. And I'm like, oh, I don't want that. So by looking at it, I canceled those and I saved us $500 a month in like the first week. Yeah, monthly. I mean, that's like over time, that is quite a bit of money.

So that was a year or 10 years worth of savings. Yeah, they start adding up, right? So yeah, I remember, you know, when we, when we did our initial discovery call, and I get this a lot, people think, how am I gonna pay for something like this when we already are broke and we're strapped and we're month to month and it doesn't seem to matter what we make, we can always spend more than we make. And I think you guys have already seen that by being more intentional, you're finding money that's going to bless you for You know, decades or generations.

Yeah. And I, we, we're also a lot more like when we opened a bottle of wine the other day, we're like, this is a really good wine. You know, we're just, but you enjoy your things more, I think, you know? Yeah.

It's just, and I think I realized how like valuable this is. So it's, yes, it's expensive. We're, and you are, you're strapped for cash, you're feeling like Okay, we haven't made like the best decisions. We need to get back on track and like, so let's spend more money to do so. It's like counterintuitive almost. But I also realize that I'm hoping that this is something that Eris will never have to pay someone to learn how to do because I didn't, you know, get this from my parents, even though I saw them kind of embodying this or whatever. I don't really feel like they, you know, I'm gonna teach this to her. Like she's gonna know this, like Yeah. And we'll be able to like give her— like reading, writing, budgeting.

We'll be able to like give her a cube with her own card, debit card. Yeah.

And I hope when she goes out on her own that this is like totally second nature because she's watched her parents do it, you know, her whole— Yeah. You—

she's only 3, right? Or— Yeah. So you will talk differently about money going forward to your child instead of having it be this sort of mysterious thing that, I don't know, my parents just always made it work. You know, but if you start educating your kids now, you know, even at 3, you feel like, oh, they're too young to care or to know, but they really do have the opportunity to, to learn about money makes the world go round. And, you know, how does that work? So you mentioned Cube, Kabir. So you've just started— we're just in those baby stages of getting Cube Money off the ground. And I'll just keep it like 2 more minutes. But tell me a little bit about what your experience with that has been so far, because I remember our last session, you guys just were getting all fired up just even looking at some of those.

Cube. Yeah, Cube. Um, I like that, um, well, first of all, it's a— it seems like a really great tool to collaborate, um, to have like a checking account that's collaborative and also has a built-in framework of what we've agreed on already, like what our budgets are. There's no mistaking it. It's not like, you know, halfway through the month we're going, well, we said we were gonna spend less on Amazon, and then it's like, but we said we were gonna do this or that. It's just a rigid, almost kind of like a rigid framework. We both have access to the actual money in there, and we can see what's available, what's not available, and the system itself will approve or deny, you know, what the payments really are. Yesterday we were talking also about, like Sierra was wanting to go out and—

Dip into that pocket money that I had allocated myself.

Access her bowl money.

And I was like, we don't have the cubes funded, so like should I do the credit? Do we have that? And he was like, look at the budget.

Yeah, I'm like, you know what, I don't wanna answer this question anymore. Like this should just be the spreadsheet tells, the spreadsheet tells. The answer to that. And so one of the biggest things that I'm going to get out of this is not to be like the, you know, approver of funds anymore. I don't want to be that, you know, I'm already that.

It creates a little bit of business and, you know, it just—

yeah, it improves our relationship too. It's not like, you know, I'm always having to be like, well, what did you, you know, and how we actively—

we went in there and we made decisions like, okay, so Our dishwasher broke, our microwave broke, we had water dripping through, it was like chaos. But so we had to move some funds around, do some financing, do the things we had to do. And then in order to make those work, we said, okay, like where should we bring, where should we move money from? And we sat there together and we're like, let's take it from here, this little bit here and here. Can we move, can we, you know, take $100 off the grocery, budget and move it here. So like, we both— we made that as like a conscious decision, um, instead of just, you know, assuming we like know where it's going to come from, basically. So we got to kind of choose like, where do we want to cut back, or do we even need to? Yeah, you know, instead of doing an ATM draw, let's move that into this payment or something like that. So that was really great.

It's always a hiccup when life throws us curveballs like that, but they become less and less stressful when— and you're just getting started. We barely even had, you know, money set aside yet, right? And we're like, Really already. But I super appreciated the fact that you reached out and texted me and said, can you talk? We have this crisis. What can we do?

Camille was like, don't bother her. And I was like, no, when I signed up, she said anytime. And this is a time I need to call you.

I mean it. I truly do. And some days are fuller than others, but I will always find time. Get to you.

And I immediately sent that text and I was like, this is what's going on. This is what we're going to have to do. If you've got time in the next day, I would like to talk to you before we start making these decisions, maybe about like how we should go about it or what's the smartest.

I would always rather talk to somebody before they made the decision and be another brain in the mix because I might not know any answers either, but I've got resources and I've got connections and it's like, let me, let me know what's going on. So I always tell people, tell me what's going on in your life, not just with your money. Me, right? Because there might be stuff that I know that you don't know, or people I know.

And so, car thing.

The car thing. And so, yeah, I think I, I mean that 100% when I say put me on speed dial, because I will be available to you most of the time. Now I'm getting ready to leave on vacation, and maybe I'm not going to, you know, be communicating this next week. But, you know, beyond that, I would rather talk you off the ledge before you go do something Because too often our instinct is like, oh my God, the car needs brakes, I better go buy a new car or something. Yeah, well, let's see what we can do. And, and I think that's huge. So anyway, I just wanted to jump on. You were saying some amazing stuff, and I appreciate you letting me record it. And, um, I can't wait to see where the next, you know, months and years go for you. So thank you.

Yeah, you know, just as like, you know, just to kind of Because you were asking about the cubes and how it's, how it, you know, I'm not totally foreign to budgeting, but it's different when you have a system with built-in controls. Especially when you're dealing with two people, you know, and we're trying to make this more of a partnership. Most of my life it's just been like my checking account, my budget, like, you know, I haven't had to really worry about 2, you know, 2 people, 3 people, you know, more people, except, except in a different scenario, which is in business, which makes total sense. But the finances that are run that way were very different than the finances that were run in my house. And now they're starting to look similar, you know, where there's a planning process, there's agreement going on, you know, we're talking about it and just, it just feels really right. And Mm-hmm.

You were saying that. Yeah, because you're like, I've tried to do a budget before the house. I go, yeah, but this one's like really— he's like, yeah, this one's better. He's like, but actually this is, um, how I do my business. Yeah, yeah, my business, like doing our home finances.

Well, that also, but, um, too many moving parts, you know. It— the— I'm really surprised that more banks are not doing these like labeled buckets. You know, cubes basically. I'm really surprised that more are not doing that. Back in the day, like 10 years ago or something, I opened a Simple Bank, Simple account, and they started to do something like this. They called them labels where you would put money into labels, and I thought that was really cool. And I started doing some of that, but then the bank went away. I think they got bought by somebody and then they were kaput. But yeah, I'm surprised that this isn't catching on more. You know, the banks must be like discouraging this because because they want people to use credit cards.

I think what I've learned after talking with the guys at CubeMoney is that it's a very complicated process, and they've had to develop a lot to be, you know, to be able to do this. And it's a proprietary thing right now, I think. And so, yeah, I really, I really am hopeful that CubeMoney really takes off and that people get the value of it. Because it, you know, at one point you said it was a rigid structure, but it's really not. It's very fluid. You can move it. You just have to decide. Right. To her about, okay, if I from groceries to put it into dining, is— are we on agreement? Instead of, oh, I just did that, you know.

And just the notifications to everyone where, you know, this much money got spent on groceries. And it's, it's just so transparent that way. It's very communicative. It's not like this, um, Infinity Card, you know, that's just like whatever comes to mind, bing bing bing bing bing bing, you know, like it's Las Vegas.

I also like There's one difference between like we did Rocket Money, which is kind of a budgeting type app where kind of like AI does it kind of for you more, so you're less involved. Um, but how they often show it, and I know there's other— I don't know, there's just something the way Qube shows you how much money you have left. You have $500 left, you have $150 left, you have $50, you have $5 left. And versus saying, oh, 5% of your budget is groceries and you've got this much left. It's like in some kind of percentage and it's all like on a pie chart. And I'm like, no, I want to see how many dollars I have left, like it's an account, like how much do I have left in my account. And then Rocket Money is also not actually connected to, you know, money. It's showing you what you're spending out of your whole checking account, but things get lost, they get moved around. But if you're just using your grocery cube, not one of those transactions is gonna not get into that category because you're using it every time. So it's tracking it better.

I like it to driving, looking through the front window instead of the rearview mirror.

Yeah, yeah.

Those things are what you did. It's like, no, I want to know what I'm going to do and where I'm going. Yeah. And the real-time accountability where, you know, like you said, it pops up like the minute you're still standing at the kiosk and the thing goes ping, you know, you spent that and Yeah, so I'm really excited for— and there's much more to come with that. You haven't even really skimmed the surface of what all Cube's going to be able to do for you.

So, and this whole process has kind of really illuminated for me that, you know, a couple times in the past I've tried to put a spreadsheet together and have Sierra sit down with me, and, and I think it was a very intimidating process for her. And I'm now I'm realizing this at the time I was like, Why don't we just look at this? It's super easy. Numbers, they don't lie. It's going to— but what I realized is that like for Sierra to look at a spreadsheet and be like, this is how we're going to manage finances, I think in the past you were like, holy shit, this is, this is a lot. I don't know how to do this. This is really complicated. And just like freak out and run away.

Yeah.

And, and she kind of, you know, vulnerably admitted the other day that when we started this and you had a very similar looking spreadsheet, she was like, she had the impulse to like run away from it as well. But having stuck through it and now translating that into a system that is actually usable and not just like, how, how does my behavior have to be guided by this complicated looking spreadsheet? You know? And I, I have to fill in the gaps there. No, it's, it's the system has implemented that and it's gonna save me from myself a little bit.

I think it speeds up a little bit slower than than you do. You were like, oh cool, I already got it, you know, like in a day, the first day. He's like, yeah, I got this. And I was like, okay. So he started doing more on it, but I didn't want that to become now he's doing the whole budget because I don't know how to use it. So I'm just like, oh yeah, just go ahead and do it. So I was like, no, I'm gonna keep learning this. And I just pick it up slower, which has been great because he was able to jump in right away and kind of start doing things, but I'm still learning it. And then pretty soon I'll be comfortable and I'll know it like the back of my hand, but I like there's a little bit of a curve there that I have to like—

You know what you said earlier was perfect. And I don't even— you probably didn't even pick up on it, but you said, no, let me do it. Let me put in there. And that's where we're getting to where I like to start with the person who feels confident with it. And then it's the thing because you both need to be comfortable with it. And it, you know, some people aren't as either they're not on computer, you're, you're momming a lot of the day. You're not on spreadsheets. It makes sense that it's not as intuitive to you.

You're not good.

Yeah, yeah, it's— and it's not so much about spreadsheets, it's about the number that went in it. Yeah, what you're gonna do with that, right?

Yeah, if you're not used to these things, you're not only learning how to budget, but you're also learning how Excel works. Yeah, like simultaneously. And I'm like, okay, this is like too much information. Yeah, but it was great because we got to get off the ground running quick because he picked it up and we were able to just start it. And then while I'm learning the, you know, program and process and how to do it, so it was— it's been great. I think we've been a good team to figure it all out.

Well, I'm loving working with you, so thank you for letting me, um, share your experience with some others.

No, thank you, because this was— this was like— every other aspect of our relationship is like really good, but this was a big— like, this was causing a lot of tension.

Yeah, we noticed it's already been like a really positive shift, like a lot less stress in our relationship even too. We're like, oh, We're like, and it was so—

we didn't need a couples counselor, we just needed a financial coach, financial therapy.

And also it was such a good time to start it with like the new year.

You can use that one too. Wait, hold on, let me take another, you know, we didn't need a couples therapist, we just needed a financial coach.

That's right. Yeah, that's going to be my soundbite. And I think most people that I've worked with understand that my background in social work has a lot to do with how I communicate with people and how I handle money. It's not I don't think it's about finance, it's about behavior. And it doesn't seem like you felt like I was telling you how to spend your money and telling you, oh, you screwed up and blah, blah, blah. So that's a lot of fear I think people come to the table with going, what's she going to do? What's she going to be like? And I'm like, it's your money. It's not my money, but you'll grow over time and you'll be different a year from now than you are today. But it's a process, not an event.