Have you ever looked back at your tax return or when you're doing your taxes and you're like, I've made all this money last year. Why am I in so much debt? Why have I not made any progress on my financial goals? Why can't I save any money? Or maybe you've looked at your pay stub and you're like, Where did it all go?

Today we are going to discuss the cost of waiting because as you know, there is of course a financial cost to putting off your financial goals. So not paying off debt, not saving the financial cost is obvious, but what a lot of people don't think about and nobody really discusses is the mental cost of waiting. So we are going to discuss that in today's budget strategy session with Brianna.

And before we dive into that, I really wanna dive into this idea of the cost of waiting. Because if you keep putting off taking action on your financial goals and just wishing for it to happen some day, that day is never going to come. You are going to stay in this cycle of year after year wondering where the heck all your money went,

why you can't seem to save for the things that you really want to do, why you can't seem to paying cash for that vacation or you're not able to buy that house that you want with for your family. And you know that mental cost of stress. Now, Brianna has been a Money Success Club member for several months now, and in that time I believe she joined me in February.

She does mention it in the interview, I believe it was February and the recording was in October. So in that time, in eight months, she has paid off over $8,000 in debt because she finally quit waiting and it just, and finally got to work on her financial goals. And she's been able to maintain that momentum. Now as we discuss in her strategy session,

she recently was in a car wreck and she didn't know if the car was totaled or if it was fixable, if she needed to pause and say for a new car cuz she didn't wanna lose that momentum of paying off her debt. Now she did gimme an update, which I'll give you at the end of this episode. The following day she took my advice,

she took action and she followed up to see if her car was fixable or not. And I'll give you that update at the end. You wanna listen for that. But what I really want you to focus on in this episode is the different place she is not only financially had this happened a year prior if she had just kept on pushing it off and just,

you know, procrastinating, you know, thinking about it and oh, I'll start in January, I'll do it next year. If she hadn't had taken action the different place she would be in now with this car wreck financially. But mentally she is in such a better place mentally with not being totally freaked out, not being completely stressed on how she was gonna pay for it all because it was her fault and she has a deductible.

And so if you're not prepared financially, oh man, that just adds to the mental burden as well, right? And so she, we really discussed in this episode how it would be so different for her mentally had this wreck happened a year before when she wasn't paying off debt and she wasn't in control of her finances. And so I want you to really take that from this episode.

So if you are ready to start taking action this week, we are ho I am hosting a free masterclass on the five mistakes you're making with your money and how to fix them. It is Thursday at 8:00 PM but you do have to register. So go to budgets made easy.com/class. Now if you're watching this afterwards, you know there will be a short limited time replay.

But if you're, you know, listening to it in the future, I am sorry it's not available right at this time, but I will be doing it again in the future. I am sure. But I really want you to focus on the cost of waiting and how much progress Brianna has made in just a short amount of time because mentally she was ready to do it and she just finally,

it just finally clicked for her as she says. And she just really was able to take control of her finances and get on track. And I will let you know that you know, her and her husband don't make a ton of money, but they're hustling like they are working two, I think two jobs and three jobs and they are do making this progress so that they can have a family and you know,

they are just really focused on their end goal. And if they just kept pushing it off and pushing it off and not taking control of their finances, who wreck could have really put them in an even worse position, put off, you know, fertility treatments or whatever they have to do to start their family further and further into the future. And so I want you to think about what the it is costing you to not take action,

not just financially, because obviously we know that you're paying more in interest, you're paying for longer periods of time, but not focusing on paying off your debt is really costing you mentally because you're stressing, you're laying awake at night stressing about how to pay for it all, all you are stressing about all the things like what if this happens and what am I gonna do about this?

And all the things that we can what if and think about in the future for our kids, all of that stress, it comes from not knowing and not being focused on what you need to do to get rid of that stress. And that is where she was not even a year ago. And she has taken action and now yes, this wreck is a major inconvenience for her,

but it's not letting, it's not making her spiral out of control financially or mentally. And how freaking awesome is that? So I hope you come join us in the masterclass. Again, it's budgets made easy.com/class. Now here is Brianna's episode, Welcome to the Money Mindset podcast. Well, you'll find a judgment free zone to help you free yourself from overthinking in the fear of doing things the wrong way.

It's time to shed yourself of the mom, guilt, procrastination, imper, perfectionism so you can start doing the things that you really want to do with your money instead of just working to pay bills. I'm Ashley Patrick, ex detective turned debt-free CEO of my very own business and stay-at-home mom of three. Not too long ago, my dreams of staying at home with my kids seemed impossible.

I thought I'd have to stay miserable in a high stress and demanding job just so I could retire someday. After gaining the confidence in my own ability to manage my family's finances in a simple step-by-step plan to make it happen, I was able to pay off $45,000 in just 17 months, which then allowed me to finally quit my job, stay at home with my kids and build a debt free business.

Now my mission is to help moms like you conquer debt and free themselves from the mental load of handling their family's finances. If you're ready to shed the guilt and shame surrounding your past money mistakes and tackle your debt, this is the place for you. Let's get started. Hi Brianna, thank you so much for coming on another budget strategy session with us today.

Before we dive in, can you just introduce yourself and what you're comfortable sharing about your financial journey? I'm Mariana. I've been in your money success club since March and I was just a fly on the wall watching everybody else, paying the minimums on everything. Still had no idea what I was doing. I followed a bunch of other financial, you know,

advisors and stuff and I didn't connect with them and I connected more with you. So I started paying off, I wanna say in July of this year I started paying off more, got my budget together, realized how much I was spending on out to eat and that was eye opening. So I started paying extra on everything and I took your debt payoff course in February.

So since February till about September, the end of September I've paid off like eight grand. Yeah, That's so exciting. That's So awesome. And it was like, it didn't seem like it was that much until I like ran the numbers again and I was like, oh my Atlanta, I can do this. Yes. Because we feel like, and you're not the first person to tell me this and I felt this too,

it's like as you're going you don't feel like you've made that much progress. And so that's why I love those trackers and that helped me as well because it's like, you know when you have a bad day or a bad week, you get discouraged, you feel like you're not making any progress, but then when you go back and actually do the math you're like,

oh I have made a lot of progress, like way more than I thought. So I love that you shared that and you've been sharing it, so thank you. That's just, it helps inspire other people to do it as well. And so I'm just so incredibly proud of you and I know you're making a lot of progress. So what do you feel like you might need some help with today?

Because you are making so much progress. What can we help you with? What can we create some action steps for? I think like right now, since I was in an accident last week, so now I feel like I'm stuck. I feel like I have to save my money now and not pay anything off for possibly a down payment for a new vehicle,

which that could have been paying off my other vehicle. Yeah. Cause I pretty much, oh that is what we have. So now I just feel like I, I feel like I can't keep going because I had, don't know my situation Gotcha. With my current vehicle. Yes. And So, so I'm just kind of like stuck. Yeah, I totally understand that.

And since it is recent, I'm assuming, well you tell me, have you found out from the insurance company like how much money you're going to get for your car? Is it totaled? I don't know yet. They're still okay so repeat At it. Yeah. So you're still like in limbo right now? Yeah. Yeah. That's frustrating especially when you've been making so much progress and you wanna keep that momentum going,

right? Yep. Now have you looked up maybe like the blue book value of your car to see maybe if they do total it, how much it might be worth and how much do you like versus how much you owe on it? Would, did it be kind of like a break even or would you maybe get a little extra or what do you think?

Or have you even done that yet? I actually just looked cuz my coworker told me to look at it today, we would actually be getting just about 3000 less than what we owe on it still. Oh okay. Cause we owe, we owe around 20,000 and the blue book value is about 17,000. Okay. Now what about your injuries? Of course I'm not a lawyer but I do know that insurance companies do pay for certain injuries but not,

maybe not a lot because I mean I don't think you were like severely injured but you do have some injuries or bruising at least. So do you have, have you talked to anybody about that and possible compensation for that? Yes. I talked to my car insurance the next day cause I took the following day off of work and they said they asked if I was injured if I was going to get looked at.

I said I already got looked at. They're like, okay, well we'll follow up with that because we will pay your medical bills too. Right. So that was just a big relief off of me. Okay. Something else that I have that I know of, at least in my state and it could be different in yours. From my own experience,

what I have seen is the kind of the standard, of course you, you know, you may need to talk to a lawyer. This is just general speaking of what I have seen myself is that if you do have like medical bills, they typically, you can get up to like the same amount for pain and suffering. So let's say your doctor bills are 600,

then you would get, they would pay the 600 to the doctor bill and give you 600. So each state could be different. That's just what we've seen here. So it's something to just keep in mind cuz a lot of people don't realize that and they may just take whatever the insurance company will give them. So it is possible that you know, since you do have,

you know, some minor injuries and then you say you weren't like real, you know, severely injured but you know minor injuries, some bruising and stuff that, and if you did get checked out by the doctor, it's possible that you could ask for a little more and maybe kind of close that gap a little bit. But that's still frustrating when you're wanting to pay it off.

Now was it, will you have to pay your deductible or is it whoever you Had? If it's, if my vehicle is fixable, I'll have to pay my deductible, which we already have that money set aside. Awesome. So it's just a matter of is it totaled or is it fixable? Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. So that's kinda where we're at right now.

Okay. Well these things do take time And are you, are they covering a rental car or do you have, do you have a rent or even need one or you good on that? My policy doesn't cover rental cars. Okay. So I didn't know that until she said, Oh no you don't have one. I'm like, ok cool. Luckily we still have one other vehicle,

but me and my husband, between the two of us we have three jobs. So luckily his full-time job is across the street so he can walk and I can drive to work but it's, I have to leave work so he can go to a second job. Oh yeah, yeah. Which is by my job. Yeah. So you really are kind of in this season,

hopefully temporary season. You know, we talk about seasons a lot. Exactly. But my general recommendation would be to wait and see. I know that's, it's just like, oh I don't, you know, you want to keep making progress but it's still new. You don't, these things could take a lot of time unfortunately. But since you weren't majorly it,

like when there's a lot of injuries, it takes longer because you have to settle all of that stuff. So I'm hoping that yours will go a little bit faster. Did they give you any kind of an idea on a timeline of when you might be able to figure out the car, like what you're gonna, you're gonna do with it? No. Ok.

Nope. It was towed last Wednesday and I went to the body shop here in Indiana last Thursday. And so I have State Farm for insurance. So I looked at the app and it says date of loss with my accident date. So I'm just kind of planning on looking for another vehicle because that's what I'm assuming is it's totaled. Okay. Personally, I would probably call the body shop and just ask them,

you know. Okay. Maybe unofficially like what they're, if they have any idea if they, if it's like for sure totaled like, or if you know if it's fixable because if you owe about 20,000 on it, that's a lot of damage that it would have to have in order to total it. And so they, depending on the, I mean if it,

like how badly was it damaged? Like how bad was the wreck? I took out a crosswalk sign, like I took the whole thing out. So it was pretty bad. My passenger tire bent all the way in. Okay. From the one picture I got, it looks like I bent the frame. So, and this was my first accident too.

Oh man. Okay. Yeah, if the frames bent, a lot of times it will be totaled but if it's not, it could still be fixed. It just depends on if they wanna fix it because based on, you know, what you, what the val value of the car versus fixing it. Right. So yeah, I mean I, I hate to say it cuz I know you don't wanna lose momentum but yeah,

I would just keep saving and then if you don't need that money then you can knock out some debt really fast. Right. Because it is still so new, it's only been a week so it's kinda like are just in limbo. I know that's right. Not what you wanna hear but Yeah, it pretty much is. It's like I just wanna know it's like can you fix it,

can you not fix it so I can go out and buy another car? Yes. Or but like our body around, Yeah our body shops around here are three, four months out so it's like can I wait three or four months you know, for this or can we just total it out and I can buy a new one? Oh yeah. Or So that's what like Rental cars like have you checked to see how much that would cost for a month or for longer term?

I haven't. Yeah. Cause I mean still if it's dang three, four months. Yeah. Do you know anybody that has an extra car that you could borrow? No. Nope. Nope. Ugh man. Well you know, if you want to, you could definitely start looking on like Facebook marketplace for Yeah. Even Just four, $5,000 cars, which may not be ideal in what you want right now,

But You know, it might even be something that, the problem with getting a cheaper car is if you need to get a loan for it, you can't a lot of times if it's over like five years or a hundred thousand miles, so it does get a little bit trickier the older the car is. But you know, if you start looking, you at least have an idea or if You Right.

Kind of check out the interest rates, see you know, if you have a credit union what their interest rates are cuz credit unions give you, sometimes they'll be a little bit more flexible if you're able to, if you have a credit union account or eligible for one and their interest rates are usually a little bit cheaper and they're a little bit more flexible than like your major banks.

So Yeah, both of our loans for both cars right now are through two different credit unions and the highest interest rate for one of them is 3%. Oh yeah, that's like, yeah that's slow. So unfortunately the interest rates have went up and the more miles the car has, the higher the interest rate, which I did not know until recently. Did not know that.

I didn't realize the mileages have played into the interest rate but apparently it does. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah, I just learned that recently. So that's kind of what I would do if I were you, I would wait now if you have something like if you want to just to maintain your momentum and kind of still feel like you're making progress,

even if you send just like $20 or $50 to your debt and then put the rest in savings for now just to like feel like you're still doing something, you know, like and you're not totally in limbo but yeah, this sounds like it's gonna be at least a couple, possibly a couple month ordeal it sounds like if they total it'd be a lot easier but it'd Be a lot faster.

Yeah And it might have, if you know you had to get a rental car or you know, just some, some cheap car that, so you can drive around for a couple months while the other one's fixed. It's like, well it'd probably be a wash. So Oh that's a tough situation. I would keep on the insurance agent cuz I know they can kind of start putting you off and not,

you know, responding back quickly. I know people that have experienced that as well and then call the body shop cuz maybe they will unofficially tell you and if they won't tell you on the phone, maybe just go over there and check out your car and say hey I, and I was like, is it, do you think it's fixable or do you think it's totaled?

Like, you know, say you have to get something out of it or something and just kinda ask if they have an opinion and okay, well how long do you think that'll take? Like cuz it's your car, they can talk to you. I mean it's like, you know what I mean? So I would kinda maybe do that tomorrow and you could get a maybe a little bit clearer idea of what you're looking at,

if they're gonna be, if they think that they can fix it or if it will be totaled and then if it's fixable then then we gotta come up with a game plan for possible Long, you know, three month what you're gonna do with the second car or with needing another car if you need to do, I mean Ubers can be expensive and I don't even know if they,

if they, if you have that where you live, if your husband could get an Uber one way like to a second job so you don't have to leave work or if your job's okay with you leaving to take him to work. You know, kind of figure out your options there. If it's gonna be, you know, three, four months to get your car back and you might need to think about that and put your debt pay off on hold.

I know that's not what we wanna do. I know, I Know things come up but you know, at least you are managing your finances in such a way that you have less debt than you did six months ago. Yes. And you're able to handle this better financially and mentally. Both. I mean that both is important compared to like if this happened a year ago,

you know, how would you be handling it? Would you be like totally freaked out, not know what to do, you know, you're able to, because you've been doing the work, you're able to handle this so much better even though it's a huge inconvenience and it could end up costing you some money. You know, maybe a couple thousand dollars.

I don't know, maybe nothing. I mean I hope nothing but maybe it'll be kind of like a wash. We'll see. But you know, just think about the progress you have made and if this would've happened a year ago, how much of a different situation it would be even though it's yeah, so frustrating. Super frustrating. That's what I was telling my husband cause since we only owe so much on our one car,

like I only owe $400 and it's paid off and I'm like a year ago we would've been, I'm like we're in a better financial situation now that we could afford, you know, a $400 payment. Not that I want one that high. Right. But we can't afford it. Right. You know, it's not like I'm scrounging for pennies here and there and you know,

I just paid off one of my credit cards which was like 700. So that's, I'm like, I'm in a better situation than I am than I was a year ago. Yes. And so, you know, if you can just go ahead and decide to knock out that car payment, you know, whatever that car payment is, you can roll it into a new one even though that's not really like what you want to do,

but at least you have that flexibility I guess is the word I'm, you know, you, you're a little bit more flexible like you said and oh how frustrating. I'm sorry, I know we're recording this while it's still so fresh so it's like harder to give you some options with it because like you don't know a lot yet and Exactly. Exactly. So yeah,

I'd probably wait another week. Well to like make any major decisions like if you need to save, you know, okay Shop, Try and see what they will tell you. Which they should. I mean it's your car so they should like not tell you anything but see if they've looked at it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. They haven't even looked at it.

So kind of get their opinion and then you might be able to make a better decision in the next couple days or get a clearer idea of what you might be looking for or looking at financially and then kinda go from there and then keep on the insurance agent just to, that way they don't keep putting you off. And do you have Uber or Lyft where you work or where you live?

We do from my apartment to my job it's like $25 one way. Well I'm thinking your husband to his second job cause that's kind of like more of the issue, right? Yeah. Cause he can walk to his main job and then you can take the car but Right, Right. If he's having to go to the second job, if it's worth or if you need to do that,

you know, you kind of factor that in as well. Like if it's $25 a day, you know, how many days is he working a week and you know, how much is he even making at that second job if it's worth it right now if you only have one car, you know, try and decide like is it worth it or just keep taking it day by day and having to like run around with different cars and things.

Yeah, that's what we discussed too. We're like do I, Cause he can take our local bus and it's only like $2. Oh nice. So, so we were like, do you wanna do that or, Cause my grand, my grandfathers retired so he likes to drive, you know, do things he Wants to so he can help. Like I'm sure that would make him Yeah.

Help. Yeah. You know he needs something to do. Yeah and like make him feel like he has a purpose right now so that, that might be your best option then. Or the bus. Cuz that's really pretty cheap. Yeah, I, that's better than you worrying about having to leave work getting in trouble with work or anything like that. I don't know if they're flexible or what,

but if it's only $2 for the bus or if your grandpa be willing to do it, then that's, that's what I would broadly do. I I'd hit up the grandpa. Up your grandpa. Yeah, it makes sense too cause like yeah cause we pick up my cousin from high school, which is over by where we live so I mean it kind of makes sense cuz he'll pick him up,

take him home, pick up my husband and then my grandfather lives like four minutes from my husband's second job so. Oh there You go. Yeah, you're gonna be alright there we right. Ok so then we just gotta figure out the main car situation. Sounds like you know, you do have options. Yep. For you do have options if it does take three or four months.

Okay. So hopefully that won't cost you a ton of extra money then. At least if they fix it. And so really you just gotta figure out if they're totalling it or they're gonna fix it. But I would, I would take one of those options or you know if he, if your grandpa can't pick him up one day he could ride the bus like $2 that like that's not that,

that's better than an Uber. That's definitely better than an Uber. Yeah because I was like, yeah cuz the Ubers are like 20, $25. It's like no matter, and you know, sometimes there's none available depending on, you know, where you live or at least where I live, they're not always available. So you go somewhere, you take one somewhere,

you know you have some drinks and then you can't get home with the Uber. Like there's, there's none available. Sorry. But we do have regular taxis too so it's like, you know sometimes those are cheaper. I've done that before. We went to a concert in Asheville and we took an Uber there but then leaving or we went somewhere after the concert and there weren't any Ubers or they were like really,

really expensive, like 50 bucks. I'm like we're paying 50 bucks. We just called a regular taxi. It was like 20 bucks I think. So nice. We forget that there's like regular taxis too but you have the bus option and you have grandpa so I think you're good on that. We just gotta figure out the what to do if they're gonna total it or not and you're just in limbo so you know,

I would just wait at least another week and then after a week if you don't know anything you could send some to debt if it makes you feel better and then but On saving. But I'm not gonna fault you if you wanna send a little bit of money to debt so you feel like you're still making some progress. So I can, I can see where you wanna keep kind of keep the momentum going.

So Yes, definitely. Well do you have Any Definitely been a Week. Any other questions? I feel like we didn't really come to conclusion cuz we don't have all the information yet, but do you have any other questions for me before we wrap up? No, not really. Just put money aside for car maintenance, things like this cuz I never thought I would be in an accident and here we are.

Yeah. Especially When, you know, definitely make sure you have car insurance and you understand. Yes. And so this is a good reminder to check your car insurance for rental car. Cuz now that you said that, I don't know if mine covers a rental car. I actually, I don't know, I'm, I'm not sure. So you Know.

Yeah they said if we wanted to, if they said if we wanted to run our car, rent a car out our pocket, my policy still covers like whatever it covers, like they don't pay for the rental car. I would have to, but like the insurance part covers the rental car too. So you would just have to wait to Be re I have no I don't.

Or it's just like out, I have no idea for The car. That's confusing. I don't Know. They're like, this is all so new to me. And I'm like, so I told like this is my first accident, can you please explain this? Like I don't understand. And she was just like, oh you need to do this and that.

And I'm like okay. And then she's like well we have to call claims cuz you have to go through claims for the accident and not us. I'm like okay, Why am I paying you all this money? You get this commission every month out of me That's, I'm like ok. Yeah, exactly. So, so well you're still kind of at a standstill but you've got some things to think about and to look into in the next week or so.

Let us know. Update me, I'm sure you will let me know kind of what's going on with it and kinda, I'm curious to see how it all pans out. But you have some options. You're in a much better position financially and I hope that people really take That from this Episode that you have paid off so much debt and this is a setback and it's a roadblock and it's just like throwing you off.

Right. But imagine what it could be like if you hadn't started this journey and started paying off debt and you know, the situation that you would be in. So I know maybe not everybody can relate to the accident part, but you can relate to that. Like take action, stop waiting, pay off your debt because you never know what life is gonna throw at you and you'll be in Such much position Mentally and financially because I can only imagine how stressed you would be if this happened a year ago.

I know I would be, you know, just the, the mental stress of it all too. Which I know you're stress but you know just the difference, the difference that it makes now that you have paid Yes debt. Yes. Well thanks for Like, cause we got our car last year. Oh you Did? Yeah. So we got our car last year.

Yeah. So looking at it from there when we got it to now and I'm like yeah we're definitely so much better and we need to say for things like this. Yeah I mean it's a good reminder to make sure you have your deductible say it is make sure you're covered the way you wanna be covered with your insurance and your deductible. Something you can afford.

Because some people have a really high deductible thinking they won't ever need it, but you might, you never know. And so it needs to be something you can afford or save for or have the money in savings. So. Well thank you for sharing. Let me know and update when you know something cuz I know we kind of don't know a whole lot Right now.

Yes, I definitely will. You're doing awesome. I'm in, I like, I am so incredibly proud of you in all the progress that you have made this year. Like you're awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. I am so incredibly proud of Brianna. Now the next day after I recorded this, she took my advice,

she checked with the car, the body shop and her car is fixable. So you know what she did? She didn't wanna lose the momentum that she had been working with, with paying off her debt and she paid off her Costco card. Oh my gosh. I'm so freaking proud of her and the progress that she has made. Now you can sign up for your own budget strategy session@budgetsmadeeasy.com

slash strategy if you'd like to come on the podcast and get, you know, some ideas and action steps directly from me as well. So I hope to see you soon. Have a great week.