I'm 49 And Living Below The Poverty Line

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Well, I'm having difficulty staying away from new debt and I'm on baby step number two and I'm having difficulty with budgeting. Okay. Those would go together. That makes sense. Yeah. Is it any, any type of like business that are all consumer debt in your household that you're trying to stay away from? Consumer. Okay. Any specific type that you find yourself in a lot? Um, credit cards and medical. Medical and credit cards. What's going on with the medical? Oh, my, uh, well just having difficulty with the copays and doctors and dentists and things like that. Okay. More just routine type medical things or is there an ongoing sickness or concern? Routine. Routine. Okay. Okay. How old are you? 49. 49. How many kids you got? Zero. Okay. Are you single? I'm married. Okay. And what's your household income? I would guess 40, $45,000 a year. What do y'all do for a living? My wife is in clerical and I work as a, in a grocery store as a courtesy clerk. Um, it doesn't sound like you guys are peaking out on your careers. Correct. I'm not. My wife is okay. With hers, you mean? Yes. Okay. But $45,000 in Southern California. For two people working 40 hours, that's not, you're not working for you. Yeah. I'm not working 40 hours a week. That's right. I'm, I'm a part timer. Yeah. Why? Um, just the way that the company does it. No. Why are you working, not working 40 hours doing something? I'm looking for a 40 hour a week job and it's hard right now for me. Have you ever had one, a different type of career? Um, I've done other things with cashiering and with driving. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Is there something that's, um, that you are facing or that you're trying to work your way through that we're not understanding here that's keeping a 49 year old man from getting a job and holding it down? Hey, what's up guys. It's Jade. 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And so, so here's the thing, there's a connecting line here between these things. Let me kind of walk through it. So the emotional healing produces a version of Philip that allows him to work more and earn more, which allows him to have more money to budget. And so the actual cause of some of the things you called about goes all the way back to you completing your healing journey. Does that, is that logical to you? Yes. Yeah. And so in other words, the stronger version of Philip, we have, that's got the scars of the past healed enough to function at full capacity. And then that version of Philip works 60 hours, two jobs, three jobs. And that version of Philip brings home a lot more money than $45,000 in Los Angeles. Yeah. And that, and that, then that changes the whole budget transaction. It does. But I also have Dr. John Delaney in my head, Philip, where he is, he leans into, you have to have action as well. I'm all about you healing from, you know, what it is, but there's, but there's been a pattern. It sounds like most of your adult life where you've, haven't gone beyond what you're doing now. And I think I would, it's a both ends. Yes, you have to action in the healing and the action of getting up at 6.00 AM, going to a job, getting dressed, getting out the door, being somewhere with an accountability of being on time, working hard and exhausting yourself till 5.00 PM, 6.00 PM for dinner. And you leave and go home. There's a, there's a confidence in a rhythm that will double your income. That is good for you. Philip paired with being able to, you know, unpack what you need to unpack and, and, and understand yourself and not have high levels of anxiety, all of that. But I, I, I think it's a both ends. And so if I were you, I think it's, I think it's part of your healing journey to go and be productive. Cause I think that's going to give you some confidence. And when you get paychecks in that are double what it is now, and you can sustain a fan and sustain you and your wife, and you're not behind and you're not so stressed and bogged down and feeling like, Oh my gosh, I don't know how we're going to make the next paycheck. Some of that confidence of, Hey, look, we're literally bringing in tangible money, double what we were. And that not that money brings you confidence, but you know what I'm saying? Like it, it will, it will give you a sense of pride and dignity. And I think it's really good for you. Swagger to your wall versus sleeping. I mean, versus being home till 11, working a half day or do you know what I mean? Like, I think there's a level of that busyness and productivity. That's going to be really good for you, Philip. And you have to stay current on your bills. There's a point that, yeah, there's not, there's not going to be much of a choice or you guys are going to get behind and live off credit cards for the rest of your life. And that's going to cause more stress and anxiety. So what I would do that will help push you into that is to go back all the way to the beginning of the call and answer your actual question was, okay, I'm struggling with budgeting and I'm struggling with debt, staying away from debt. And so the way you fix both of those things is the same way we're talking about this other issue with great intentionality and action. So the intentionality is I'm going to ask you to pretend that someone is paying you $100,000 a year to manage this couple's budget in Los Angeles. And this couple's budget has a husband named Philip. And if you were paid to do that, you could do it. And you could sit down, I talked to you, you're an intelligent guy. You can sit down and do a budget and we'll hook you up with every dollar, the budgeting app, and you and your wife sit down and you say, all right, we're going to tell every dollar before it gets here, what to do. And then we're going to stick to that. That's intentionality. Then when you're doing that and, and you know, there's a problem, then you've got to say, well, the reason we're doing all of this is to get out of debt and stay out of debt. So we're not going to use debt to fix our problems anymore or our impulses or our whatever. But the reason debt is popping up is you don't have a good solid detailed plan, because if you got a good solid detailed plan, it's going to point out that you need more income and you're going to go get the income. Well, and I would assume your rent in Los Angeles has got to be most of your paycheck. I mean, if you're bringing home four, four grand a month, not even, I mean, yeah, I mean, two grand a month. I mean, I don't know. I just, I think that there's, um, when you start to look at the math and see, you guys would probably be, I mean, you're probably already cutting back, but I would cut up the credit cards, not make it an option. And that will force the math to show you that the income really is the major problem here. Exactly. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.