And welcome to the money mindset podcast, where you will find the inspiration and motivation. You need to manage your money better than you can stress less as living the life you want. It's Ashley with budgets made easy and the money mindset podcast today. My guest is Colleen of fueling, who is a married mother of three. She doesn't have any debt except for her house,

which she is a working on paying off in the next 10 years. So we talk about her journey with her finances through her life, with paying off her husband's student loan debt, as well as switching careers because of COVID and how that all worked out and, you know, the best piece of financial advice she has ever received. And we really deep dive into her background with how her parents taught her about money,

what she's teaching her children about money and how that has really affected her finances for her life. And since she is a realtor, we did talk about real estate a little bit and you know, credit scores and how that kind of plays around with things when you're looking for a house. But we mainly talk about her financial journey, which I know you will find inspiring and motivational.

Now, before we dive into Coleen story, don't forget that you can get started with the free budgeting workshop. So learn how to create a budget that you can actually stick to cassette is the key, right? You have to create a realistic plan for your money that you can actually follow through with, right? Otherwise it's just another thing that you're going to fail at.

And then it makes you feel worse and worse, right? And so I really want you to learn how to make a real listic plan for your situation. And that starts with going through the budgeting workshops. So go to budgets, made easy.com/workshop to sign up for that. So it's totally free and I will walk you through step-by-step on creating a realistic budget that you can actually stick to now here's Colleen's interview.

Hi, Colleen. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. Oh my gosh, Ashley, thanks so much for having me. I am really looking forward to this conversation because it's been in the making for weeks now and we finally got our schedules matching and together where we can talk about your financial journey and really touch on switching careers,

you know, in 2020, because of COVID. So, you know, I really think that your story is going to inspire others and really you don't motivate them to change because you are debt-free and you've taken a job new career path. And you're also thinking about becoming a financial coach and all kinds of things that you are working on to better yourself and just further your financial journey.

So as we talk about before we dive into like the details of your story, can you just kind of give us a little bit of background about yourself and, you know, kind of how you started on this journey of managing your finances better, you know, paying off debt, that type of stuff. Sure. Thank you. So I am married for almost 17 years.

It'll be, and we have three kids. I was actually always debt free, quickly out of, I shouldn't say always right out of college. I had my, my college debt and, but I paid it off super fast. Cause I don't like owing people money. And I didn't like, I don't know that that was a thing either way and you know,

I would, but I knew I need to build credit, so I would buy a vehicle and then pay it off quick and buy a boat and pay it off. And when I met my husband, he came with debt and I was like, what the heck? Like, what are we going to do about this? And so we actually went through the Dave Ramsey,

financial peace university class at that time. And I think so we had all three kids at that time. So it was probably 10 years ago. I would say we did that. And we got through it really fast with paying off the debt part because I was like, we have to do this like now or never. And I worked extra hours. I was an x-ray tech at the time and just was like gung ho.

And my husband was like, what is going on? Yeah. What is this? So I'm curious. Was he okay, so it sounds like you had different mindsets going into the marriage about finances. How did you get him on board with paying off debt? Because it sounds like, like you just never liked debt and obviously he must've been at least relatively comfortable with it,

whether he liked it or not. I don't know. But you know, how did you kind of get on board with it? Well, I, you know, I think it's just that I was so determined to do it. It was kinda like I was gonna do it with them or whatever. So I don't really, I'm glad he came with me to the meetings.

I was like, gosh, you know, and at the time my mom was actually, it worked out perfectly. It was during the winter. We lived in Wisconsin at the time. My mom was taking classes for her master's degree. So she would actually come stay with us on the weekend. And that's when we did it, she would stay home with the kids and we would go to the class and it was like date night,

which you know, but I think that when I showed him what we could do, you know, all the extra things that we could do with that money that was going into it, it was just student loans. It wasn't anything other than that, but that's Like Since then has been like such a passion of mine to be like, get away from school debt.

Cause that just is its own beast. Absolutely. Absolutely. So well, that's great. So how did you did, like, did your parents influence this mindset about around debt or was it just something that you just came up with on your own? I think they always instilled in me to spend your money wisely, you know, save and pay cash for things.

Not that they didn't do things, but you know, I, they were always pretty mindful with their money. So I guess I just picked up on that. Like I remember them having a coffee mug with cash in it, in the cabinet and it was like, that was whatever that was for, but I'm guessing like groceries and you know, just your everyday stuff.

And so that was, I was like, well, that's the envelope system. And I used to do that before I realized it was a thing like with Dave Ramsey. So that was, I was always very diligent with splitting my money. I would get a paycheck and I would put some money into a savings account that I would never touch. That was like my emergency fund.

And then some, you know, to save up for something and be able to spend that and then my regular checking account. So that was just how I always ran it being single. Awesome. And so when you were paying off your husband's student loans, did you do anything drastic or did you just, you know, send extra money to it? Did you sell anything like kinda how did you do it so fast?

Yeah, so we didn't have to sell the kids thankfully. So you sell all your cars and, you know, bike to work. And We didn't, we, we, we changed a lot of our ways. Like it was more the realization of where, you know, being aware of where the money was going. So we had money in savings and,

and I, I believe that really helped us to do this super fast. Cause it was like, oh, we can really just get rid of this and have a, more of a plan now and then work on the house. Cause that was my thing. We still have our house set and that's a journey in itself, but you know, we still live,

but we live so much better now because we can do all the things that we want to do without thinking, oh my gosh, when is that bill coming? Exactly. And so even just having the plan in place can be so mentally freeing, right? Like, did you experience that? Like, even though, even if you haven't even made progress yet,

it's like the, just facing the numbers, which can be a major hurdle. I know, cause we want to avoid it. We want to stay in our comfort zone, but gosh, once you just make the plane, you're like, oh I can do it. And this is how I do it. And it just frees you up mentally, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I was like telling everybody, I was like, oh my gosh. It was like, you know, one of those annoying people, but I, you know, people would ask and other people were like, whatever, like just kinda weird. But, but I think that's what has like over time helped me to want to help other people in the same way too.

Exactly. Yeah. That's kind of what happened with me too. They were like, you're crazy. Like what if you died tomorrow? But then once I paid it off, they're like, oh, well how do you do it? And so that's what started my journey as a financial coach. Do they think you're crazy while you're doing it, but when you're done,

they're like, how can I do that too? And so that's why I love sharing other people's stories to kind of help motivate people to get there too, because it's like, you just mentally have to get over that hurdle, like to, to mentally be ready to do it when you see other people do it as well. So once you paid off the debt and I know you,

you, I can't remember if you mentioned it here or earlier in our conversation, but you said that it was several years ago. So now you have switched careers. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I feel like now since COVID like, there's just so much job change and the great resignation and you know, people are really valuing their freedom of time now and they've got their priorities have changed with prayer tracing their personal time more than work time and that type of thing.

So can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure. So part of it, you know, because we are budget friendly and mindful of all that, it has allowed me to not work at certain times during my career. And part of that was when we moved here to Nevada, we didn't know anybody. And so having little kids, I was,

my job became making friends and things like that. And then I did work again for a few years, but in the meantime I had also started building a network marketing business. And that just kind of taught me more about myself and putting value on things differently. So right before COVID happened, I was struggling in my job. I couldn't make things work very well either there or at home.

One of my kids was missing a lot of school because of medical reasons. And so we decided again that it would be a good time for me to come back home again. And, and I wasn't loving my job. I was, I was loving who I worked with, but not who was above me. And there were just some things, whatever.

So it was like easy to walk away. And then lo and behold, like three weeks later COVID happens. And for the first time in my medical career, I didn't want to go save lives. And that was like a huge realization for me. Cause I would always drop everything if there was, if they needed me for whatever at the hospital, I would go and I needed to be home with my kids and I needed to run our house.

My husband was really busy with his job suddenly and he wasn't home. He didn't, he wasn't one that got to come home and work from home. So being there was really important, but it, it, it made me realize I didn't want to go back. And it was now time to do what I had been thinking of doing for so many years.

And so that was like, what quickly got me into, I clear, like I just made a phone call one day to the real estate school. And I was like, what's the deal? How do I do this? And they're like, well, they cost this much and we're in week four starting Monday, but you can catch up quick. Like it's not a big deal,

blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. And I was like, here's my card number and let's do this. Wow. That was fast. And you're already behind. You're like, oh, okay. Right, right. Well, and so like it's a 10 week course. And I ended up taking and passing the test in less time than math because I just,

I was like, I've got to do this. The kids are all home. I'm home. Like we're all on zoom. Oh my gosh. It was crazy. Yes, it was. Yes. But that's awesome that it just, it seemed like it worked out and it's so funny how things just fall into place when it's the next right move. And you're not trying to force it.

Right. Like it just happens. So right now, what are your thoughts and feelings with the real estate market? It's being really crazy right now, but I feel like it might be starting to come, you know, kind of stall out. Maybe. I don't know. I'm not sure about where you live. If you're starting to see it yet,

I feel like it's coming like, or right there. So, you know, we were kind of talking about credit scores earlier and I've talked to, and with previous guests on the podcast as well about everybody's different opinion on credit scores now being a realtor, what are your feelings on credit scores for somebody wanting to rent or buy a house right now? Well,

I think that's a great question and I, that's a good conversation for each individual person, the market, depending on where you are in the country, we've never always been the same, even like through all this crazy time, hoses everywhere have been appreciating everywhere, but at, at different rates and that's something that continues to change. And now we're seeing even if in our immediate area,

it might be a price point that is changing more than another price point. So, you know, having that connection with an agent is really important because we're seeing like we see almost twice as many homes as a year ago on the market now in our market. So the houses, you know, we're seeing a lot more houses on the market and the time to get them into escrow is a little bit longer,

but it's not changing a whole lot. And we do see some drastic price reductions, some places aren't. So it's like kind of all over the board when you're not knowing what you're looking for. When talking about renting versus owning, that is individual and you, so you either need to have a good credit score, like over 700 and we can work even under that.

We can work with you on that or zero. And if you don't have a credit score at all, then you can do manual underwriting and find ways to do that. It's tricky to find people to do that, but it's not, it's not impossible. But if you have a credit score, you just want to be paying your bills on time. That's what they're looking for.

If you can't make your rent or your ma not making your car payments, then you're not going to make a mortgage payment either. So that's, what's showing up in a credit score that isn't very high. If they're skipping payments once in a while, but now like in our market, oh my gosh, I'm seeing rent. It's easily over $2,000 for your family.

And so if your mortgage could be very similar, then let's talk and figure this out. Because even if it's not able to happen in the next couple of months, we can, by talking and working together, we can make it happen a lot quicker for you than if you just keep wondering and looking at all those ads and all those articles that are just saying all these things like turn the TV off,

Danny often talk to a professional. And that is such a huge thing. I just, I want to just be able to share so much that way with people who just, they don't know where to start. Yes. Yeah. And it's just, it's having a simple conversation and clarifying a few things. That's where it starts. Yeah, exactly. Now with the zero credit score,

because I have looked before just, you know, Google searching and some people say you, you can get to zero. Some people say that it doesn't actually go to zero. It goes to like 300. What do you have any insight into that? Have you seen anybody with a zero, like no credit score at all? Zero nothing. So I have not actually seen the zero credit score with any of my clients yet.

So anybody who is willing to get pre-approved or if, because if you don't have a cash, you know, so if you have a zero credit score and you have cash, well, it doesn't matter if you have cash. It doesn't matter what your credit score is. Anyway, you know, if you're going to go buy a $500,000 home and you have a $500,000,

we're not going to run, you know, it doesn't matter what your score is, but I have people who have never had a credit card and they, but they also don't have money. And so with that, there are suggestions to have a secure credit card. So you're going to the credit union, giving them, you know, $900 and they're giving you a card to use.

And once that, I believe so, I believe once you pay that down and you're, and you're paying it off regularly, I believe it's over a year at that point, then you get that money back because you've shown to them that you can make the payments and you're building your credit score that way. And then you should be fine. It should be good to go.

Awesome. Now, do you do 'em in, do you help people find rentals as well? That no, I don't. I tend to, you know, not specifically, it's not, that's not what a real estate agent or realtor does in the state of Nevada. I give resources so I can give sometimes, will show up on our MLS, the multiple listing system.

But generally speaking, I have a list of websites that people frequent. And I just did that with two people, in fact, and like we have some property managers in, within our brokerage. So they post what they have and I'll just forward that email on to them as well. And just like, Hey, we've got a few within our brokerage that are available.

So that's how I can help people. Gotcha. Yeah. I was just curious about the credit score thing with renting. So, so with, since you are debt-free and you have been for some time, correct. What are your current financial goals and how are you staying focused on them? Oh my gosh. I just want to pay off our house.

That is my goal. We had to refinance it in 2020. Like everybody else, if you didn't, you missed the boat. Yeah. I missed the boat. We kept debating about whether or not we wanted to and we decided not to. So, But you know what? And I was going to say, as soon as I said that it still wasn't for everybody,

because if you have like a certain number of years left or you're making these extra payments, because there is a cost that's involved with refinancing. So like, if you're going to be moving in the next couple of years, then it doesn't matter like that. Then you shouldn't. So there are definitely still people who didn't need to and shouldn't have, so you're good.

I'll have a terrible interest rate anyway. So it was just like, Ugh, we kept debating. Right, right, right. No, you've been, yeah. You're totally fine. So how soon do you think, what is your goal to pay off when it, when do you want to have your house paid off? Oh my gosh. I want to have it paid off in 10 years,

which still feels like a long ways away, but we've, we refinance from a 30 to a 20 year and we were like right there at the 15, but we weren't comfortable with the payment. So we would prefer, and that's something I talk with people too. Cause I know that that's like the 15 years, you know, the big deal. But if it's,

if, if you're in a better place with, you know, being able to add on when you can, I think that's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We kept debating the 15 or not. And I just, I don't know. I just didn't want to have that big of a payment. So it just didn't work out that way for us.

So we weighed all the pros and cons and the numbers and all that too. So we didn't do that either. In our instance, it actually, so going from the 30 to the 20, it kept their payments almost the same. It was something within like a hundred dollars. So that made it, we didn't have to change anything, which I think are really important to.

Yeah, that's great. I also wanted to know what is the best piece of financial advice you have received? I said I have received, I think we'll just be going back to my parents and just really taking the time to save up for things. So it makes you think about, do you really need that thing? Do you really want that thing?

And by the time you have the money for it, you make your choice to make your life. Yeah, that's awesome. So I love that your parents really showed you and taught you all these things growing up and you can see how it's influenced your decisions in your adult life. So what are some things that you are doing to teach your children about finances?

So we, we give them money each week based on what they, they have jobs that are expected. You know, we all have to help run the house, but when there's extra, like right now, we're working in the yard and there's a lot of heavy lifting and stuff like that. So they're being paid for that. But right off the bat,

we're teaching them to split. You know, they've got to give and we make it more, you know, 10% is tithing, whatever, but we make it an easy number. So if you have $5, then we're saying you donate, you know, you give a dollar and then you put $2 into savings and you can go spend $2, however you want to.

Awesome. I love that idea. Now, as we wrap up here, is there anything that you want listeners to know about, you know, paying off debt or managing their finances, any last words of wisdom? So I think, you know, you go with your gut and know that you're doing the right thing. Like just really think hard about that budget and know that there's an end goal and it's going to be hard no matter what,

but really just being open to what is available to you and just making the most of what you have. And I think, you know, like the real estate part of that too, is when you're renting, you're putting your money, you're paying a hundred percent interest as the way I look at it because you have money. That's going out there, test somebody else.

You're paying somebody else's mortgage. If you have the opportunity to purchase a home, then no matter what the interest rate is doing right now, it's not a hundred percent. And in the grand scheme of things, it's still very low, but another thing was housing too and budget. And the time is right when it's right for you. And don't let an agent tell you,

otherwise, don't let the market tell you otherwise don't let your next door neighbor or your parents tell you otherwise, but really work with your agent on what payment you're comfortable with. You know, they're going to pre-approve you for this amount. And from my experience, it's 95% of the time over what anybody is comfortable paying. I could not afford that. So,

but you know, you have that to work with, right? So then you just kind of back off and say, well, I'm paying this much for rent right now. And I'm okay with that. Or I'm not okay with that. And don't forget, you're going to be paying insurance and you're going to be paying for the roof when it leaks and the air conditioning,

which went out for us this week, you know, like all those things, you have to have money to be able to save up for those things too. So work backwards, find what that payment is and then go with that number. And if you're pre-approved for 500, well, maybe it's 5 25 where you're looking, you know, so just keep in mind that there are people out there that can help you that way.

And aren't just in it for the fail because they shouldn't be Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us and your story. Is there a way that people can reach out to you if they have any questions? Yeah, I'm on Facebook. I'm Colleen fueling EDU, L I N G. My email is my first and last name.

C O L L E N F E U L I N g@gmail.com. And if you Google me, you're going to find me Awesome. And I'll put everything in the show notes as well. So if you have any questions you want to follow up, be sure to do that. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it and let us know on Instagram as well.

So I love seeing the episodes that you guys are listening to. So thank you so much for being with us. Colleen, Thank you to Ashley. I appreciate it. Thank you so much to Colleen for taking the time to share her journey with us. I hope you found it inspiring and motivational. And if you did, please screenshot it, share it.

Tag me on Instagram at budgets made easy and, you know, share this episode with anybody that you think may benefit from it and needs that little boost of motivation and all is always. If you love this podcast, please leave us a five star review. If you don't see that option on whatever app you are listening to, please go to apple music on the internet.

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