There came a day when Jessi Fearon just couldn’t make ends meet. What she did next helped her family pay off all their consumer debt and reimagine their financial future, all while still on the same paycheck. Jessi joins Julie Lyles Carr for an episode that can bring you information and inspiration to make your financial future brighter.
Listen to “Overcoming Financial Debt with Jessi Fearon” on Spreaker.
Interview Links:
Find Jessi Online | Facebook | Instagram| Twitter
Book: Getting Good With Money
Transcription:
Julie Lyles Carr: You’re listening to the AllMomDoes podcast where you’ll find encouragement, information and inspiration for the life you’re living, the kids you’re raising, the romance you’re loving, and the faith you’re growing. I’m your host, Julie Lyles Carr. Let’s jump into this week’s episode.
Today on the AllMomDoes podcast, I’m your host, Julie Lyles Carr. My guest today is a mom. She’s a writer. She is also someone who made a drastic life change a few years ago because she and her husband found themselves drowning in debt. Yeah, the big D E B T. And we, they were trying to find a way out. She arrived at some things that are going to help you today. Help you get some of your financial goals back on track. I am so excited to welcome Jessi Fearon to the podcast today. Jessi, thanks for being with me.
Jessi Fearon: Well, thank you for having me.
Julie Lyles Carr: Now, what part of the country are you in? And I know that your kiddos are just around the corner and you turn them loose with some paint. So we’ll see, we’ll see how this goes. Long-term for you, but where are you in the world? Tell me about the husband, the kids.
Jessi Fearon: Well, we are located just north of Atlanta. So we were in the Metro Atlanta area here in Georgia, born and raised, go dogs.
Julie Lyles Carr: By the time we’re recording this, Georgia has had a very big moment on the national football scene so that they have you recovered yet. I mean, there’s all the excitement.
Jessi Fearon: Yeah. It’s I mean, I’m, I’m running only a few hours of sleep because we just thought like everybody keeps celebrating the whole neighborhood. We just all were so excited about it. So. But, yeah, it’s very exciting for for Georgia and even for the Braves for, you know, last year, so very exciting.
But yeah, me and my husband and our three kids, we live here in Metro Atlanta. And we I’m a stay at home mom. We managed to pay off all our consumer debt as well as our mortgage on my husband’s salary of the, just over $47,000 a year. But we did that in a total time span of about six years. And we had to do that through a lot of hard work, sacrifice, discipline. Prior to us deciding to become debt free, I don’t think my husband and I ever once had a truly fruitful conversation around money. I mean, we fought about many, a lot, but not an actual conversation like two adults should have. We didn’t have that, that happening before. We decided to become debt free. So this is a journey has just really strengthened our marriage.
It’s strengthened our family. And I have often said that one of the best gifts we ever gave our children was becoming debt-free because our money is no longer tied to all these many different things. And so we can actually afford to live on less while still not actually having a less of a lifestyle.
Julie Lyles Carr: Right. So take me back because there are so many people who are going to be listening to this that the moment they graduated from college, they had a bunch of debt. They, you know, I mean, with student loan debt where it is today, when you look at some of the statistics surrounding that, and yet we continue to tell people, oh, you’ve got to go to college, you’ve got to go to college, but then we are providing them with degrees in which their level of student loan debt… they’re never, it’s just so unlikely they’re gonna be able to really get that paid off in any kind of timely fashion based on the professions they go into. We also have a lot of the complexity around yes, a materialistic society, but, you know, I was reflecting the other day when my husband and I got married, we tried to keep expenses really low and some of the things that we didn’t have at that time, when we first got married, we didn’t have things like needing wifi. We didn’t have cell phones. So when I look at even just what it takes to engage in modern life today, and the things that you’re expected to have, and particularly now in work from home environments, being in communication with your kids schools, all that kind of stuff, there are added expenses today that I know technically, we could call luxuries, but they are part of the landscape. So, so take me back to when you realized you guys were drowning, because I know a lot of people are going to resonate with that moment when you realize, how like, we’re at the end here, like it is, the numbers are not matching.
When was that for you guys?
Jessi Fearon: For us, that was, we had just found out that I was pregnant with our second child. So we actually began in 2012 pregnant and ended it pregnant. Wasn’t planned, but God’s plans are always better than our own. And so I was trying to figure out, you know, what was expenses going to look like with two kids that were going to be in diapers and, you know, one that was going to need formula and, you know, just all of the expenses that come with that.
And I started to realize like, things were already tight to begin with. And I knew they were tight. I may not have wanted to admit that, but I knew they were tight. And I realized like, they were going to get significantly tighter. Like we were going to actually start to really feel that strain and it scared me and it worried me and I started to realize I was like, well, we’re, we’re going broke. And in fact, the week before this moment I actually had our debit card and our credit card declined at the grocery store. And so I had to rely on the grace of a very kind stranger who bought my groceries. But it was one of those moments where I’m like, I’m the one that with the accounting degree. I should be able to manage the money and what am I doing wrong?
How will I know this money can work? I know I knew that my husband’s salary could work. I just didn’t know how I can make it happen. And so for me, I had to go to my husband and tell him all of this. And so then we had to sort of play out the scenario. Do I go back into the corporate world? Go back to work. I was originally the breadwinner when we were first married. And then when we had our first child, I became a stay-at-home mom. So obviously I was no longer the breadwinner, so I could go back to being the breadwinner. But then that would mean that we would be paying an astronomical expense for two children under the age of two in daycare.
And my husband at the time worked a job where his schedule was never the same. A lot of times it was graveyard shift or third shift. And so the burden of getting these kids to daycare, then me to work, and they picking them up from daycare and bringing them home and doing the dinners and the baths and the prayers and the, those storybooks, and all of the things was going to land squarely on me, and we both did not want that. We didn’t want that for our family life. That was not the desire that we have. So it brought about this real conversation of, okay, well, what changes do we need to make? And, you know, we tallied up all of the minimum payments that we had been paying every single, that we were paying every single month on all of our debts.
And we realized that we could give ourselves a substantial raise if we just paid off the consumer debts. And so that’s where the whole thing started was this goal of like, okay, we’re going to free ourselves. We’re going to get rid of the credit cards. We completely cut them up that night. We cut them up. We were going to try our best to live without them. And we were just going to keep on trying until we had made the room in the budget to make it work. And eventually we did, but it took a lot of, a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice.
Julie Lyles Carr: And tell me about the emotions surrounding that, because we live in a culture today that yes, is materialistic. We know that. But I do think with the minimalist movement, that’s come in and people trying to tone down and being more thoughtful about what they’re purchasing and trying to purchase things for longevity, there’s, that’s a really great way to kind of turn a corner and think through some things. However, what is interesting to me is the slow creep that consumer debt brings because it’s sort of invisible in a way, as long as you’re hitting those minimum payments, you think you’re doing okay.
What was it for you that you began to identify was the problem? I know for some people in my life, they realize, oh, wow, it’s eating out. For some people it’s, they are really devoted to a certain brand, you know, they’re, they’re willing to pay up for a certain brand, but then they realize that maybe that’s not going to start working.
What was it for you that you began to identify as one of the patterns that had gotten you to this place, where you had the kind of consumer debt that you did?
Jessi Fearon: Mindless spending, you know, I kind of wish it was almost more glamorous than that, but it was just really mindless spending, not paying attention to what we were spending our money on in, in just in general, because for us and for most people, our credit card limits were higher than the amount we had sitting in our checking accounts. And so it almost in this weird way feels like free money. Well, it’s like, okay, well we, you know, we need a new TV, the toddler drew on the old one so we’ll just go buy a new one. Or, you know, we were very quick to justify a purchases that really should have taken a lot more thought and just intentionality. Well, we were very quick to just buy them. Oh, because we have the credit card, the credit card we’ll make it happen, but there was no, there was no thought behind that. So it’s like, well, how are we going to actually pay for this? If we don’t have the money right now to pay for this, what’s the plan of actually paying for this in the future?
Cause we still have to pay for it. This is not free money. And so for us, that’s kind of where I think the trouble really became, or where it actually began, was that it was almost in a way we were unintentionally, cause we weren’t doing it on purpose, but we were treating our credit card, you know, the car loan all of that just free money. Like, oh, it’s just money we have. We can just use it however we want, you know as almost like it was a piggy bank and it wasn’t.
Julie Lyles Carr: Talk to me about the phenomenon that can happen, particularly when couples are trying to get their finances straightened out, which is the place of blame because they’re the things that you might never spend money on, that your spouse is willing to spend money on. And they’re the things that you think are really important to spend money on that your spouse doesn’t see it the same way. And I remember early in our marriage, when our first child was really little and my husband sat down and worked out a budget for us, and my husband’s a financial advisor, so this was a great thing, right?
But what was hilarious Jessi, in that budget, was he wasn’t the one who was the one typically going to the grocery store who had the little tabulation in the head going on of actually what the diapers cost and what this cost and what that cost. And so from a very, he was trying to be very, very practical and the budget that he put together, very, very reasonable.
But it was hilarious because it wasn’t based on some of my Walmart reality to just keep the house going. But I’ve also seen too where couples have really struggled because they have such different approaches to money. They sort of blame each other for the hole that they get into. How did you and your husband navigate that? Because I think those can be really treacherous waters.
Jessi Fearon: Absolutely. And and I will say that me and my husband both are from divorced families. So for us growing up, the language, we heard two former adults that were married, talking to each other was screaming and yelling. My parents got divorced when I was seven. My husband was 12. So we were pretty young when our parents got divorced. So that’s sort of how we grew up was hearing that. So for us, it was a lot of like trying to figure out just, one, how to actually talk to each other, just whether it was about many of your other things, but also it was for us individually, very clear on what it is that we value about money and how money makes us individually feel like for me, I’m a saver. I like having money in the bank account. But but my sort of problem is that I don’t ever want to spend that money, even when it’s needed and necessary. I’m like, oh, let’s not touch that. No, no, no, no.
We can’t touch that. You know? Cause it makes me feel safe and secure. Whereas my husband, he is a spender. That doesn’t mean he wants to spend all of the money that there is, but for him it gives him a sense of accomplishment to be able to buy something that is needed or something that is a want. And so for both of us, it’s like we had to come to terms with that individually on like, okay, this is how money makes me feel.
This is what I like. This is what makes me feel comfortable. And then to bring that into the conversation about how we were going to spend our money. You know, for my husband, he kind of, he needs to always have a project we’ve learned. And so I’ve learned, you know, what the best thing to do for him is to set up a sinking fund to let him put, we just put some money aside there and then that way it’s free for him to spend however he wants on his projects.
And that keeps him feeling that accomplishment feeling. It gives us a goal to work to. Tampers his like, desire, to just go spend money. And as for me, for both me and my husband, like he is always like, okay, when we are saving this money for a specific purpose, you have to let me spend it. And that is how we ended up coming up with our sinking funds as a way for me to be like, okay, yes, this is what the purpose of this money is.
You have permission to just spend it. And the same with me, I have my own little sinking fund that that’s my little account I give myself permission to go, go buy the new dress that I want or whatever it may be that I need, or just simply want. And so for couples, it really is all about just getting clear on you individually as a person. Like, how does money make you feel? What do you desire with money? You know, does it make you feel good to spend money? Does it make you feel good to have money in savings? Does money make you feel insecured? Are you scared about money? Does money make you feel happy? And none of these emotions or any of this is bad, or shame. And don’t answer the question in the way you think you’re supposed to like answer it honestly to yourself, because that will help you get very clear on your perspective of whatever current money issues you have going on with your spouse, it’ll get help you get clear on your perspective, so you can articulate that in a conversation that isn’t emotionally heated with your spouse.
Julie Lyles Carr: Right. Jessi, identify for listeners what a sinking fund is, because that’s a term that some people may not be familiar with. So, so what is a sinking fund?
Jessi Fearon: So for us, a lot of our sinking funds are separate bank accounts. We use online banks like CIT bank, ally, or capital one. They’re just separate sinking, or separate savings accounts, excuse me, that are high yield. And we’ll use those for reoccurring expenses. Like our Christmas fund. It’s a sinking fund that we have as a separate savings account that we just put money to all year long.
We have an auto fund that goes for basic card maintenance. We have a vacation fund. That’s where we save it for our various vacation. And then for short-term things when, like, well guys it’s two years ago now, cause it was back in 2020, my husband wanted to put sod in our front yard. And so we knew that it was a short-term thing, so we just set up an envelope and we just started putting cash in that envelope until we had the money saved, prepared for that. So a sinking fund is really just an account that you’re putting money aside in anticipation of spending it for a specific purpose. Whereas like your emergency, or like your regular savings account,
it’s just meant to be there for the event of an emergency. It’s not necessarily sitting there ready to pay for Christmas, come December 25th. You know, it’s just sitting there as your little safety net. So if you fall off the tight rope, it catches you.
Julie Lyles Carr: Right. Right. So I appreciate you making that delineation for people. Really when I think about it, my parents were big, big savers. They did a fantastic job. My grandmother was as well. But, you know, I don’t think that really budgeting in a practical way and in a realistic way is often taught today. I can remember Mike and I living so close to the line for quite a while. He was revving up his business. I was doing several different things and we would get this advice sometimes that just almost sounded ridiculous, as it was just, okay, sure. Right. We’re going to do X, Y, and Z. And we had things come up to that, you know, we talked about college loans, which is one thing that people have to get their heads around a lot of times, but I’ve talked about this before.
One of our children has significant hearing loss and when discovered her hearing loss and then went to get her into hearing aid technology and FM systems and all of that, made these shocking discovery that insurance companies don’t pay for hearing aids. And there was nothing in a lot of the classes we had taken and workshops, there, believe me, there was nothing that was like, I mean, there was a rainy day fund for if the roof leaks, but there wasn’t something like that. And sometimes I think those are the things that there are people who are really trying to do a good job. They’re trying to be practical with their finances, but they have something hit like that.
So in this whole idea, of creating a system and a budget that will work for you, for your family, for you and your spouse, based on the things that are important to you emotionally about money, walk us through the ways that helped you guys make the decisions that you made and the practical ways that people can begin looking at their money, because I just don’t think it’s a plug and play for everybody. I think there are so many unique things that can come up. So give us some principles that can really help.
Jessi Fearon: My biggest thing is deciding for your family, your specific family, what priority expenses there are. So obviously, you know, your rent or your mortgage and your basic utilities and your insurance. Those are priorities for pretty much everybody, but outside of that, what is specific to your family that is important. So for some people it’s being able to pay for private school tuition for their children. That’s a priority for them. For others, it’s buying organic groceries. And for others, it’s extracurricular activities for their kids. Whatever your priority expenses that your family has decided are most important, make sure that those are accounted for in your budget.
And then look at all of your other expenses and start asking yourself real questions. Can we eliminate this expense? Can we reduce this expense? How can tailor our budget so these priority expenses are cared for, and that they are taking care of? You know, for my family, we’re very much so in a season of where were priority, go are our priorities going on vacation with our family, because we, for so long, didn’t go on vacations.
And so my husband, I had declared this year as a year of our priority in our budget saving for vacations. And you know, that’s not the same for every single year and your priorities every single year will not be the same either, but that’s why having these conversations is so important because then that way you can decide, okay, yeah, vacations is important, but all these other little, you know, going out to eat and all of this and this that’s not important right now because we want to save to take our kids, you know, to, to Disneyworld or whatever it is. And, you know, again, no shame, cause sometimes people feel like, well, I shouldn’t say that this is a priority. But if it is a priority for your family, own up to it and put it down there and make it a priority and to get rid of the things that are not a priority.
And when it comes to like the nuts and bolts of actually creating a budget, I’m a huge, huge fan of, especially if you’ve never created a budget before, or it’s just sort of like this weird thing that you don’t understand, is it to write down your current checking account balance, get out your calendar, look to when your next payday is going to be, look at all the bills are going to be due in that timeframe between now and your next payday, look, if you have to go to the grocery store, you know, if you’ve got to fill up your car all of the potential expenses that are coming up between now and that next payday, and then just start subtracting them out from that current checking account balance.
And then whatever that total is at the bottom, that’s what you’re going to have leftover. And if it’s a negative number, then that allows you to have time to have questions with yourself and to ask yourself like, Hey, okay, What are these expenses can I remove? Do I really need to get my hair done this week?
Can I move that to another week? You know, can, is there a way that maybe we can go without going grocery shopping this week? Maybe we can just eat out of the pantry and what we have in the freezer instead of going to the grocery store. And so by doing that, it allows you to really see your money and to pay attention to what’s actually happening.
And then what you do is that, that next payday, you add them that paycheck to that, to that previous balance that was leftover, and then you just start doing the whole cycle over again. And this will keep you and your money together. You will actually be paying attention to your money and seeing the nuts and bolts of how it is that you spend money.
And again, you’ll be able to make those decisions. Am I spending money that’s aligned with the priorities that I have set for my family?
Julie Lyles Carr: Right. You touched on something that I think is often sort of an invisible expense for people because it’s such a necessity, but the grocery store thing. It really is fascinating what does sit in our pantries, sit in our freezers that we forget about. And I am chief among sinners because I’m feeding a large number of people. And it is kind of shocking sometimes when I will be like, oh, I got to get to the store and get more. And when you have an event like a weather event, or you have a night that you can’t get back out and all of a sudden you realize, gosh, I mean, if we had to, you know, we’ve got several things that could make meals and that’s okay. It’s okay to eat something for dinner that you’re not craving.
Jessi Fearon: That you’re not really excited about. Food is food.
Julie Lyles Carr: And we forget that. We have such an availability, and with things like door dash, so immediately available, those are some of the things that I think can creep in on budgets in ways that you don’t even realize it’s happening. I tell you another one, Jessi, that I find creeping up from time to time is I love all kinds of different documentaries and different kinds of shows that are produced in Europe and things like that.
And before you know it, on things like your Amazon prime, you can be adding all kinds of little memberships or, you know, maybe on your apple, just for an app that you have, that there’s an in-app purchase and it’ll be $7 here and $10 there and $5 there. And it’s, it’s small enough that sometimes it doesn’t even really quite make a blip, but when you look at the sum total of that, to your point, when you really take a look at what’s in your checking account, what you have upcoming, and you have to really think through some of those things, It’s amazing how some of those little invisible costs can add up and come into play in a big way when it comes to planning, when it comes to trying to figure out what’s happened at the end of the month, when the paycheck is completely gone.
Now, you mentioned that you and your husband made the decision. You took a look at what childcare was going to cost. We know even today has gotten even more crazy expensive because there aren’t as many people available to work in those fields, and all of these things that we’re seeing as a result of the pandemic, and I think it is interesting, I think there are a lot of women who are still grappling with feeling like they must be out there earning income outside of the home. Wanting the childcare or the husband is going to be the one. Maybe he’s going to stay home, but this whole world around childcare costs, I’ve been fascinated by the number of people I know who didn’t do the math first. And here’s what I mean by that. They felt like they had to go and get that job, but then they realized at the end of the month, they were only clearing a couple hundred bucks. I mean, and it, it seems like it’s easy to look from the outside and go, well, how could you not figure that out, but how do we get in those lanes sometimes
when we don’t hit the pause and go, what is this actually going to cost us? And again, if someone’s wanting to be working in a corporate setting, you know, I mean, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be doing that. I mean, I’m, I myself have been a working mom for a long time, but to really factor in what it’s costing you to work in those situations, how do we go about making some of those evaluations?
Jessi Fearon: You know, it really does start with, you know, paying attention to where our money is going, and I think building in those habits is how we start to identify like, okay, and we start questioning things things and that’s, and again, it goes back to really defining what your priorities are, because then you start questioning all of those little expenses. And, you know, and it’s good to look at, okay, well, how much have we paid for childcare this year? You know, sometimes you know, as parents, like, we’ll just fill things out on our tax return forms and not pay attention to some of those actual sum totals of what we have spent on things. And, you know, especially for childcare, it can be really, really expensive for so many people. And if your paycheck, if the amount that’s coming into your home every single month, just barely covers that, then it may be time to have some hard conversations with yourself, with your spouse you know, with your childcare provider or change childcare providers. But I’ve always looked at, you know, I’ve always looked at this way because money is so emotional, but if we can just write down numbers, write down real data and then observed the data from an analytical standpoint and say, okay, how can I make the best decision for my family? Here are the numbers. Here are the facts. Either, you know, I don’t make enough money or we don’t have enough income coming in to cover this childcare, you know, do I still want to be going on working in the corporate world? Does my spouse still want to work in the corporate world? Could one of us stay home with the kids or, you know, is there maybe another job opportunity that we could take? How can we make more money? You know, these are just questions that we can ask ourselves, because it’s all about you defining what’s important to you and to your life, because of course not everybody wants to be a stay-at-home parent and that’s totally fine as well.
You have to ask yourself those real questions on, you know, if the childcare is eating up a significant portion of your income, you have to ask yourself, okay, well, is it maybe this childcare center, is there a different one we could go to? Is there a way to earn more money? And through those conversations, figure out how to make it work and whatever your life goals are and how to make these things work for it.
Julie Lyles Carr: In your work as a financial coach, what do you do when somebody comes to you and they say, Jessi, I feel like we have cut all the fat we possibly can. We are both running like crazy trying to make this thing work. Or for a single mom who is like, you know, this is not a scenario I wanted to be in, and I do have these astronomical childcare costs, but I am really struggling to try to make more income, and this is the thing that I was trained to do. This is the thing I have experienced in, and it’s just not meeting the number. How do you walk people through that realization and what to do next? Because that feels like such a helpless place. To feel like you’re doing all the things you know, to do, and you’re still getting hit with expenses you didn’t anticipate, with costs that are rising and. Yeah. I think a lot about our people who went into education. My in-laws were both elementary school principals for years and years. Incredible people. Exactly the people you would want to be the principals of your kids elementary school. And they came into education at a time where you could support a family and you could live. It’s gotten really hard in that field. And yet I know so many people who love being an education and want to be able to teach. And yet the financial realities of what that means can be really, really tough. So. What do you do in a situation like that? How do you advise people when they come to you? And it’s not that they’ve been flagrant or irresponsible? They, the numbers just aren’t matching up.
Jessi Fearon: Well, first I always say that, you know, there’s no shame. If, if there is help available to you, there is never any shame going and getting that help. The help that you need. Whether that’s from a local churches, food pantry, go reaching out to ministries. You know, that is, you know, going on welfare or, you know, Medicaid there’s there is no shame there. Like, I always have to say that because some people feel like, well, I can’t take that. And sometimes we let our pride get in the way. So, but if that is like, if you were truly in a situation where you need help like that, reach out and get the help that you need.
Overall, the there’s always say there’s like three things to help you actually make your money work for you. That’s either you are reducing your expenses, or you’re increasing income, or you’re doing all three it’s. Those are the three things. And so you have to either look at your budget and truly ask yourself, have I truly cut every single thing we possibly can? And if the answer is yes, then the next thing to do is to find a way to increase income. Whether that is you are doing a job change, you are, you know, picking up a side hustle or you’re selling off things, or you’re paying off debt, because paying off debt will increase your income because you will no longer be paying that minimum payment anymore.
And so those are all things that you can do in order to actually make the money work for your family.
Julie Lyles Carr: I think too, that when I look back to the times that we have had the greatest financial stress, it can feel like a lot of things pile on all at once. And I’m not saying, oh, things always come in threes or whatever. But I do think there is something to be said for, for recognizing that there are seasons that can be very tough financially. And then there are seasons when things can open up a little bit. How do we maintain a sense of hope and a sense of knowing that God provides for us? Because sometimes we can keep scrambling so hard that we can lose sight of that. And you’re right, we won’t accept help. We won’t accept resources that are coming in that could be a way of God providing. So where are all the lines and all that? Because it does feel like sometimes Jessi, that, and this is kind of icky, but we sometimes look at somebody who seems to be doing well financially and we call them blessed when somebody who may be struggling financially, who could be blessed in many other ways. We tend to go, Hmm, bless their hearts. You know? So how do we stay in the right posture with watching God provide, but also being responsible and also doing what we can do, but also accepting resources he may have coming our way in this idea that there are financial seasons?
Jessi Fearon: There are there, you know, there are seasons to life just in general, whether it’s about money or something else. And you know, my grandmother, she would just always tell me to just look up. She always told me, like, you know, when you’re going to hard season, look up. Don’t put curtains on the wall in a hard season. Just keep, keep looking up, keep it, keep on looking to God and to keep praying and asking for his, for his provisions. And he will provide. And I actually, we had a huge ice storm that hits here in Metro Atlanta. And I think it was in 2014. And so we couldn’t go anywhere. My husband was working out of town and so I had two small children and hardly any, like, groceries in the house. But as we were saying before, sometimes we do have more than we think. But, and I remember like I was really upset and I just said a prayer. And I remember God just saying like, look around, look around. And so I started looking around and I realized, well, I have some bananas here that are about to go bad. I’ve got flour, I’ve got everything I need to make banana bread for the morning, so my boys will have food in the morning. I’ve got stuff to make dinner for tonight. It’s not going to be the best meal in the entire world, but I have these things. And so I really do think it comes down to remembering to look up, but to hit our knees. To seek God to ask for help when we need help and to be willing, to look around us and be grateful for these things. Because a lot of times we do have little blessings that, you know, we tend to avoid and ignore because we’re walking through such a hard time that it’s very difficult. We kind of become hardened. It’s like, we don’t know what we can’t open ourselves up to being able to see those little blessings that are around us because we’re so focused on that difficult season. And so sometimes it’s just really is all about looking around, looking up and just giving praise or praises.
Julie Lyles Carr: I love that idea of looking up because one thing that I do find that I have been guilty of, I’ve seen others who are going through a challenging financial season do, that I think is so not good for us, is we get on the reality show with the family that has a bejillions of dollars, or we get on the social media accounts of people who are doing the latest haul from whichever designer, whatever, and those are the moments where I think we are not being kind to ourselves, honestly, Jessi. I think those are the times that we are making it harder on ourselves than it has to be. And those moments where we can take a moment and look around and see what’s possible, I think can be incredibly powerful.
So Jessi, tell listeners where they can find you. I know you’ve got a robust community on Instagram and other places. So tell me where listeners can find you and get more information on exactly how you and your husband did this, and the motivation that you had, and the things that you told yourself and the tools that you use. Give me all the details.
Jessi Fearon: Well I wrote a book called Getting Good with Money. It is available everywhere that books are sold and it details my family story as well as practical guidance and help to help you determine how to live your own family’s real life on a budget, and to get your money to work for you. I’ve always said that personal finances is personal. There is no one size fits all approach to it. It’s just a basic set of tools, and you’ve got to go figure out how to use those tools that work best for your life, because what you’re building is not what I’m building. And so I detail all of that in my book at Getting Good with Money and you can find me online at my website at jessifearon.com, and on the line at social media @jessifearon.
Excellent. We’ll have Rebecca and make sure that’s in the show notes. Jessi Fearon, thanks so much for being with me today. I hope that your kids have had a great time with the paint you gave them. I really want to see how this turned out!
