Dealing with Subscriptions and Gift Cards with Frank Buck- 162

[00:00:00] Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, where we go beyond the dollars and cents. Let's get talking. Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money Talk with Skyler Fleming. Today we're talking about gift cards, subscriptions, and organization. All very relevant things when it comes to our personal finances. We all throughout the year will be faced with subscriptions, a random gift card, and certainly we have to stay organized. What do you think about gift cards? Well, I want to plug my feelings in right here that I think cash is a better gift than gift cards. I think that's just a plain fact.

[00:00:30] And I think cash is a better gift because it can be spent wherever the person wants and it doesn't expire. My wife and I love to use the money that we get as a gift to save for bigger gifts that we wouldn't really purchase ourselves. Like our heated blanket we got a few years ago. We use money from several people's birthday gifts or Christmas gifts to purchase that. And it doesn't matter how you use the money, of course. Just make sure it's allocated for a gift and then use it on a gift. But if you do get a gift card, you've got to figure out how to stay organized. And that's where I think today's episode is going to come in and be super helpful.

[00:01:00] Subscriptions and gift cards are both things that we can easily lose or lose track of or forget about. Especially when things get busy because companies keep trying to take money out of our account automatically and then your gift card gets misplaced. And that's lost money. Today we're going to figure out how much is lost to subscriptions and gift cards. But we're also going to learn how we can stay organized and on top of our gift cards and subscriptions so we don't lose them. Today's money buddy is Dr. Frank Buck. Most people are overwhelmed by the amount of paper and digital information in their life.

[00:01:29] Frank Buck makes organization easy so you can increase productivity, decrease stress, and enjoy life. Global gurus ranked Frank number one in the world in the time management category for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. He is the author of the book Get Organized, Time Management for School Leaders and Get Organized Digitally, The Educator's Guide to Time Management. That's today's money buddy. The money talking points for today's episode are, have you ever lost money to a subscription or a gift card?

[00:01:57] Two, what steps can you take to get organized with your finances? And three, what did you learn about organization that you can share with a friend? With the money talking points in mind, let's get talking. Hello everybody and welcome to today's interview on Money Talk with Skylar Fleming.

[00:02:22] Joining me today I have Frank Buck and we're talking about organization, subscriptions, gift cards, all those sort of things that can tend to just suck a little bit of money out of your life. Frank, would you go ahead and introduce yourself for everyone? Skylar, thanks so much for having me. My name is Frank Buck. I'm a lifelong Alabamian. My first career was in public education where I was a junior high band director and then became a principal central office administrator.

[00:02:47] And my second career after retirement from public education is in the organization time management space. I write and speak to help people develop simple systems that make a huge difference in their life. My tagline is organization made easy and I take that very seriously. I hope that after this segment, our audience members understand that.

[00:03:13] I love your idea of keeping it simple because I think that's where so many people tend to get frustrated, stuck or confused. They're using every software tool out there trying to make them all work together perfectly and then you get stuck and you don't do anything. What's the value that you see in simplicity? What is easy gets done. I mean, let's just face it. We are people that like what's easy. One statistic I saw was how much popcorn people were consuming.

[00:03:40] And then in a fairly short period of time, that amount doubled. It's like, what? What happened? It was like you looked at the time frame and it's like microwave popcorn. You know, if I can throw it in the microwave and two minutes later I got popcorn. I'm all about popcorn. If I've got to work hard, forget it. I'll do something else. If the system is easy, people stick with it. Well, and you think about things in our finances that are easy like tap to pay.

[00:04:08] Like that's so easy people do it and then they're loading up their credit cards with debt because it's easy. That's the downside of easy. Yeah, the big companies know how to make it easy so that you use a lot of it to spend a whole lot of money. So let's dive into talking about some gift cards and subscriptions and things like that. And maybe what's your take on the age old debate? Are gift cards a good gift? The criticism is that, well, there's not much thought that goes into the gift. You just buy a gift card. It's like we're just giving each other money.

[00:04:38] But the upside is you're getting something that you can really use. You know, if the person knows you at all and knows, you know, what restaurants you like or they know what stores you shop at, they give you a gift card for those things. You're buying things you really like. The colors you like, the sizes are all correct. And you don't wind up with one of those things that you just go, oh, my gosh, what am I ever going to do? Yeah. I like them. I really do. Yeah. And I agree.

[00:05:08] And I'm even a bigger proponent of cash. I think that's a solid gift, too. Gift cards often get misplaced. People forget to use them. You get so busy that maybe you left it at the person who gave it to you's house for Christmas, something like that. How much do people usually lose through gift cards? I saw something from 2012 that said approximately $2 billion a year is just not spent at all. The statistic may be a little misleading.

[00:05:37] For example, I've seen things like the average person has $244 in unused gift cards. I have more than that in unused gift cards, but it's not a bad thing. Mine are going to be used. I'm planning it out judiciously. I wish I had a really good figure on how many just are not used at all. I know it's a lot for the very reasons that you say. We forget about them. They get stuck in a drawer wherever. Never.

[00:06:07] And we unearth them five years from now or never. Yeah, it's hard to stay on top of them. They've expired because you just... Yeah, some of them do have expirations. Of course, the store loves it because they get their money on the front end. They get their money whether the gift card's ever used or not. It's kind of a good deal for them, honestly. Can they be beneficial to purchase? Sometimes there's a deal on a discounted gift card where maybe you're using $80 to pay for $100. Are there places where they're good or should we avoid them so that we don't have to worry about that stress?

[00:06:37] All the time. I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a tank of gas. Periodically, my local store runs a thing where for every $50 of groceries you buy, you can buy a $50 gift card to one of the gas stations for $40. Well, I'll do that all day long. We're buying groceries anyway.

[00:07:02] So if I can give you, you know, if I can get $50 from spending $40, hey, sign me up. So I've got, you know, I've got gift cards to gas stations into the future. You know, a lot of places, especially around Christmas time, they'll say, you'll buy a $50 gift card and we'll give you a $10 bonus card that can be used during the month of January.

[00:07:27] So here again, if it's a place that I'm going to be eating at anyway, let me buy the $50 gift card and keep it for myself. And then it's like, here's a free $10. And I was going to be eating there anyway during January. It's easy money. I think the key there, like you said, make sure it's somewhere you're actually already going to use. Don't try to game the system because that's how they end up with your money that you never actually use for something there. So that's a great point. I hope everyone listening is seeing some of the ways they can be beneficial.

[00:07:57] We don't need to avoid them all together, but we need to make sure we're staying on top of them. Before we get into how to actually stay on top of your gift cards, let's talk about another area that can throw people off and that's subscriptions. Do people lose a lot of money through subscriptions? Is that another area you see organization, a challenge? It's a huge challenge for people. It's so easy to sign up for things and then forget what you signed up for. It's like this, oh, this is free for the next three months.

[00:08:25] And then it goes to a certain amount until you unsubscribe. Most people just never unsubscribe. It's kind of like Newton's law of motion that says an object in motion tends to stay in motion. When we subscribe, we tend to stay subscribed. People have no idea all the things they're subscribed to. Which is crazy to me. I'm in the personal finance space, so I stay on top of this sort of stuff. And I'm sure you do as well.

[00:08:54] It's fascinating to think that, like we said, that convenience and simplicity, it's simple to just leave it subscribed, leave it signed up for. And then people, like you said, they never bother unsubscribing. Do you know or how much have you seen that people normally leave out there on the table with subscriptions? In 2024, Americans spent an average of $42.38 a month just on streaming services, for example.

[00:09:21] So that's like over $500 a year and about $86 total a month on various subscriptions. So that's a pretty good chunk of change that's just going out every month. Kind of like a hole in the bottom of the boat. No one hole sinks the boat. They're all fairly small. But it adds up over time. If you really think about it and canceled those, they're probably $100 a month. That's a good amount of groceries and things like that that could really help them out.

[00:09:51] Absolutely. And I know so often you said those promo periods are what gets people. And another form of that promotion is annual subscriptions where it's like $120 if you pay $10 a month or we'll do $100 for a year. Things like that. Are more often than not, are those actually saving people money or are they just sort of a trap to get you to give them a good amount of change really all at once? Well, again, it depends. If it's something that you really like, if you were going to be subscribing for a year or more anyway,

[00:10:20] it saves you the time of not having to do that payment every month, track it every month. And it does save you money. That annual subscription is more than 12 of the monthly subscriptions. But if it's something that you're not going to use, and if after three months you would not have taken the initiative to resubscribe, then obviously you're losing money. Yeah. And that's one thing that I like to tell people is just turn off that auto-subscribe.

[00:10:49] Because you can always go resubscribe to it. Yeah. But I think the easy thing to do is when you first set up the subscription, go find the place to cancel it and turn off the auto-pay right away while you're still in the portal. And you're kind of in that mode of engaging with the company because so often people are going to find it's going to cancel and they're not even going to notice it. So that's kind of my tip for people is just set yourself up for success by not letting it continue to come through continually.

[00:11:15] If you do not auto-renew, when that subscription is coming to an end, they're going to contact you. It's so much easier to keep a customer than it is to gain a new customer. So they're going to do everything they can to get you to resubscribe, including maybe offer you a little bit of monetary incentive. Hey, if you'll re-up, we'll give you this discount for the next year.

[00:11:40] My wife and I, from time to time, we'll sign up for one streaming service because maybe that TV series wasn't available at the library or something like that. And we'll sign up for it for two months. And at the end of those two months, they're always quick to offer some sort of a, we'll give you three months for this monthly price, which is cheaper than the normal monthly price. It's always there. So if you do want to continue, maybe try your hand at canceling it and see what they'll give you. That is one of the secrets. Companies, they want to maximize profits.

[00:12:07] So they're not going to just throw money at you. But if they feel like they're about to lose a customer, then those discounts just start coming in. Magically appearing. Yeah. Magically appearing. Wow. How did I get this deal in my inbox? Where was this two months ago? It's because you're about to leave them that they want to make sure to keep you. Absolutely. Let's move into organization now. So we've kind of helped everyone outline the potential problem with gift cards, though they can be good.

[00:12:33] Subscriptions can be good for the services you actually use and there can be savings there. But so often these things are damaging to our finances. How does organization benefit us just as a whole in personal finance? Well, when you have a good system and you let the system handle it, you earn a very important right. You earn the right to forget about it. I'm not thinking about these gift cards all the time. I'm not thinking about when things auto-renew.

[00:13:03] If you ask me when does any particular subscription come up again, I have no idea. But my system is going to tell me and it's going to tell me at exactly the right time. So have a system, throw it in the system, trust the system, and life just gets so much easier. How does someone start this with gift cards? They just got that pile of them. How do they, what's the one, two, threes? How do they get going? Here we go. We got these gift cards. And Skylar, of course, we're recording this right after Christmas.

[00:13:33] It's January 2nd. So we've all got lots of gift cards and they're laying on the desk somewhere. They're in an envelope. So here's what you do. One file folder, about three pieces of cardstock, a handful of paperclips, and your gift cards. So label the file folder, gift cards, take the cardstock, put about four paperclips down the left side, down the right side.

[00:13:58] So now I can paperclip like eight cards to the front of the piece of cardstock, flip it over, do another eight on the back. So with three pieces of cardstock, I can get 48 cards there where I can see them all at one time and put them in some kind of logical order. Maybe put the restaurant cards together in alphabetical order and the clothing stores together and the gas stations together. Put those in that folder. And then we've also got those gift cards that are electronic.

[00:14:27] Put that in the folder as well. And then for those that expire, put those with an expiration in the front of the folder in order by expiration date. So now we've got it all in one folder. Now people might say, well, Frank, that's really great, but I'll forget to check the folder. Now the folder gets lost. So here's what I do. For over 40 years, I've used an old business tool called the tickler file.

[00:14:53] I have one drawer, a hanging file drawer that has 31 folders just labeled one, two, three, four, up to 31. Each one represents a day of the month behind those 12 more folders, January, February, March. So just tickler file. So for people that are unfamiliar with that tool, Google tickler file. I take that folder full of gift cards and make it part of that tickler file system. I put it in the folder for the upcoming Saturday.

[00:15:22] On Saturday, I pull the folder for that day and there's my file of gift cards. That's my trigger for my wife and I to take a quick look at the folder and make a decision about what cards we may want to use for the upcoming week. Pull those out of the folder, then refile the folder for the next Saturday and we're done. We invest probably one minute per month making those little decisions.

[00:15:49] The gift cards will last us for months. Of them are gift cards for a massage. Yeah, we're busy right now. We'll look at that again. A couple of months we'll schedule something like that. And so we never forget them that way. We never lose them. And we have that little once a week trigger with that tickler file. Now, for people that don't have a tickler file, use a digital tickler file, a digital task manager. I use Remember the Milk. There's a sauna.

[00:16:19] There's to do. There are a lot of good ones out there. And just make it a repeating task. That's what I was going to suggest. Check gift card list. Give it a date of Saturday. Make it a weekly repeating task. On Saturday, you see the task on your list. You pull the folder. You look at it and check it off. You're done for the week. You could write down in the notes of that recurring reminder each of the gift card's values. You could almost mentally check on it, too.

[00:16:47] That might cause you to maybe just check them off and forget about them without actually checking them. I do like the idea of, hey, let's go find the physical folder. Because then you can use it in your week planning, too, where you're maybe trying to get ahead of meal planning and things like that. And you say, oh, we got this nice gift card from our grandparents. Let's use it this week. And you can plan when to use them, which is very helpful. So a couple different systems crossing over is what I'm hearing. Absolutely. For people, pick the one that works best for you. Some people are more paper first. Some people are more digital first.

[00:17:16] Either way will work. If you have a system, you can stick with it. Once you find it and get it going. I am definitely a digital kind of person. I went through all of college without using a single notebook. When I started it, I had like one just spiral bound, like 70 pages or something like that. And I remember telling my friends, my goal is to finish college without finishing this notebook. I managed to do it because it was the period where things were transitioning to more digital. It was kind of a little bit of a challenge to myself. So I love the paper method.

[00:17:43] And I'm sure there's great digital tools to help people stay on top of that as well. But now people are in the background. They're saying, but what about the subscriptions? How do we stay on top of those? Oh, here we go. Speaking of digital, I use Evernote. And I think we all need a good digital note-taking tool. For me, it's Evernote. For those of you that have an iPhone, Apple Notes is outstanding. For people that are in a heavy Microsoft environment, you've got OneNote.

[00:18:12] You've got Notion. There are a lot of them out there. From the Evernote standpoint, I have a notebook called Subscription Services. In that notebook, one note for each subscription. So DirecTV, there's a note. Sirius Satellite Radio, that's a note. Any magazine, there's a note. A note for each one with all the information. What's the phone number to cancel? What are the terms? How much am I paying?

[00:18:42] Any communication. The phone rings and it's somebody offering you something. Well, I'll put that date stamped in the note in reverse chronological order so that the oldest communication is at the bottom of the note and the most recent thing is toward the top. It might be, say, DirecTV calling and saying, hey, we've got this special that's running for the next three months. You can get the following channels for free.

[00:19:09] And then it will go to this amount of dollars. I'm just recording it right there in that note. Along with the name of the person I talked to. So if there's any problem, later on I can say, well, on such and such a date, I talked to Sally and here is what Sally said she was going to be offering me. You take those kind of notes, people are not going to argue with you. As soon as you say it, they're agreeing. So that whole little conversation is there right together.

[00:19:39] And then I'm going to immediately go to my digital task list a few days before that subscription would run out. And now I'm going to be billed $15 a month for the next year or however many months. I'll just put a task to cancel that subscription. Every note in Evernote has its own link. And of course, Apple Notes is going to have the same thing. Include the link in that task. A few days before the offer runs out, I'm looking at my task list.

[00:20:09] There's a task to cancel. There's the link. Click. I'm right over at that Evernote note with all the information. And it is so ridiculously easy. That's the first thing I do, that there's a note representing every subscription that I have, current and past. Because, you know, sometimes maybe I subscribe to something three years ago. And then they come back and say, hey, we want to win you back.

[00:20:39] Well, I've still got all the good information. There's one other thing I do. And I think our listeners can relate to this with all of the money going out of your bank account for these various subscriptions. It's being auto-drafted so that we don't have to write all those checks, which is good. We don't have to spend all that time and put stamps on envelopes. It's happening automatically. Well, that's a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing.

[00:21:06] And it's sort of like we feel like we've lost control between the subscription services and credit card bills that are being auto-drafted. So on Google Calendar, I have – and, you know, if people are familiar with Google Calendar, you know how you can add additional calendars. I've got one called Money Calendar. And I assign the color green to it, the color of money. I can turn that money calendar on and off.

[00:21:34] For every subscription, it's going to have a note in Evernote. I also put it on the calendar for when it's going to renew. So if it's something that comes out of my bank every month, make it a repeating appointment on that day and make it repeat every month with a link to that Evernote note in the description.

[00:22:00] If it's something that comes up annually, make it a yearly repeating task. And then I have that calendar turned off about once a week. I just flip it on so that suddenly everything that's going to be auto-drafted from my bank, it shows up on the day that it's going to happen. It makes it so easy and nothing ever falls through the cracks.

[00:22:26] We never wind up paying for something that we, you know, that we didn't want, didn't need just because we forgot to go and cancel. And the one thing I'm hearing here is this doesn't sound overly complicated. Is this a super complicated process? No, very easy. Because again, and Skylar, I've been teaching organization time management now for about 25 years.

[00:22:48] So I think I have a good handle on where the average person is in terms of how complex something can be before their eyes start to just glaze over. And they go, no, that sounds like too much trouble. I'll just try and remember it all. And that's the hardest thing of all, trying to remember it all. And I say to people all the time, the things that you do, it's not that those things are hard. What's overwhelming is keeping up with all of the things.

[00:23:18] So if we can throw them in the system, let the system... Forget about them. Absolutely. Yeah. I like to tell people that I don't forget things because I don't try to remember them. I've already, I forget. I don't even worry about remembering it because you're preaching to the choir here with me. Put it in your system and forget about it. I love the sort of second brain kind of ideas. This has been great. I've learned a lot here. So I'm hoping everyone listening, especially with the Google Calendar one, you can put a one week reminder on it.

[00:23:48] And it can be your reminder system to send you an email that, oh, hey, that's coming out in a week. I don't have enough money for it. Let me go cancel it. So there's so many things that once you just start using them, make your life so much easier. And I think it's super helpful. Thank you for bringing these ideas to the forefront of helping people get organized with their finances. But this has been fantastic. Yeah. I love talking about this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's great stuff. Someone is thinking right now, wow, that was some good stuff. Maybe they have another area they're trying to get organized in.

[00:24:18] How can people find you online or reach out to you? Come over to my website, frankbuck.org. So first thing when you get to the website, hop on the email list because you're going to get two really good gifts from me. You won't believe how good these are. And then once a week, you'll hear from me about new content I've got. I have a YouTube channel, podcast, that sort of thing. You'll never miss a thing. While you're there, it's a treasure trove of blog posts.

[00:24:48] For example, the money calendar we talked about. I've got a video devoted to that. Whatever you're interested in, if it pertains to organization or time management, chances are I've written something about it, recorded a video about it. It's all really nuts and bolts stuff. That's awesome. But my final question here, I always ask someone something similar. What's something that you maybe wish you could go back and implement to help you get organized when you were around, say, 20 years old?

[00:25:15] Gosh, I wish I had discovered spreadsheets even earlier than I did. I graduated college in 19. You were still using paper back then. You weren't like me with just digital. Everybody was paper back then. I discovered spreadsheets around 1987, 88. Totally changed my life. I wish I had gotten into them even sooner than I did. There you go. Everyone, if you're looking for a tool to help you get started in your 20s, check out spreadsheets.

[00:25:45] They're kind of like the foundation for all of the internet software that you see nowadays. There's so much that's built on the backbone of a good database. If you can begin to build a system around some sort of a spreadsheet, they can prove really helpful. This has been fantastic. Frank, thank you so much for joining us. Tyler, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much to Frank for coming on today's episode.

[00:26:13] And keep your eyes peeled because it's very likely that I'll be going on Frank's podcast here shortly. And I'd love for you to go check that out and give it a listen. But thank you for Frank for coming on today's episode and for that great interview. The first money talking point is, have you ever lost money to a subscription or a gift card? Because a December 2022 study says that as much as $21 billion is tied up in unused and lost gift cards. That is so much money. And that was years ago. How much more is tied up now?

[00:26:40] And this is money that people have already given to companies and they're getting no value back in return. That's crazy. Thankfully, I have never lost money with a gift card. I tend to use them right away so that I want to figure out a way to use them very quickly. Because I don't want to lose that money. My wife and I will usually use something similar to what we were taught in today's episode. And schedule out a time to use them. We'll make sure to put reminders in our phone so that we remember to use the gift cards when that time comes around. Because we really do not want to forget about them. Because that is money that the company already has.

[00:27:10] So make sure you're getting value in redemption for the gift cards. But I have, however, almost lost money to a subscription that was set to auto renew. My subscription to Xbox was set to auto renew and I did not realize this. It renewed for like $22 or something like that, right? I was shocked. How could me, a podcast host, a personal finance podcast host who says, Here's what you should do with your money, right? I was duped by auto renewal. But I was able to get a refund. That's why I say almost. And this is one of the main things people don't realize.

[00:27:39] A lot of these companies will refund you the subscription if you ask them quickly enough. Especially if you haven't really used a subscription at all. And they really just don't want to deal with the headache and the bad press of trying to put up a fight for the subscription amount. So they'll give you your money back. It's always better press and better, honestly, word of mouth referrals if they give you your money back. Because you're going to say, Oh yeah, that's a good company. I forgot about the subscription and they gave me the money back. And it's going to help people feel better about using them in the future.

[00:28:04] So if you notice a subscription coming out, try to get that at least last month's one back and just say, Hey, I forgot it was going to renew. I don't need it anymore right now. Can I get the most recent one back? And odds are they'll probably give it back to you. So that's something to try out. That way you can at least get some money back for that auto renewal that's been going on forever and ever. But the second money talking point here that I want to talk about is what steps can you take to get organized with your finances? Well, a quick reminder here, set up your system today and keep it simple.

[00:28:33] Start with something like a basic calendar. It's such a great basic starting point for anyone to get going with their personal finances because it starts with some sort of tracking and visual element. It's going to help you visualize your expenses and then start putting things like your paychecks in and you're going to begin to see how your month can be planned around the money that you're going to get. It's going to begin to give you a good basic visual representation of money coming in and out of your life. So go ahead and get started with the calendar. I think it's a great simple way to kind of get your foot in the door of tracking and visualization with your personal finances.

[00:29:03] And another thing, don't forget about the power of a spreadsheet. You heard Frank mention it right there at the end that one of the things he wishes he would have done was implement a spreadsheet sooner into his life, which is honestly awesome. I love spreadsheets. That's fantastic. Do you use a spreadsheet to keep track of your finances? Because if you don't quick plug right here for my budget coach, I partner with them actually, and I'm a brand new money coach on their platform. And they have a 35 day trial that you can go ahead and get started. And when you get signed up, you can select me as your coach and then we can work together.

[00:29:32] It'll be a fantastic partnership and I'm excited for this new platform to work on with people. The link for my budget coach and my page is in the show notes. But tracking with a spreadsheet is an essential foundation to get going on a better path to your finances. And if you don't track yet, then you can't expect to know what's going to happen or how to make adjustments. And you won't really be able to see what you need to do to better align your money with your values. So just using a simple spreadsheet is such a great way to get started with your finances. Another way to get organized is automation.

[00:30:01] Direct deposit is so simple and easy. If you don't have direct deposit and you're still taking checks to your credit union every single week, you got to get started with direct deposit. It's such a basic automation that's going to help you get organized by getting your money in the right place. And also another thing, this is something I need to challenge myself on. Automate your bill payments. I am still putting in a credit card payment into my bill pay every single month because I like to pay them on the first. That's my own problem. And maybe I need to take a step in this automation direction. And if you're not as well, let's try it out together.

[00:30:30] Let me know how it goes. I think I'm going to make the step and I think I'm going to stop scheduling it myself. But that one's going to be a hard one for me. Another great way to get organized is checklists. Use the reminders app in your phone or whatever version of it is on your phone. Use your phone's voice assistant to say, remind me in three days, cancel this subscription trial. It's honestly my favorite way to use the voice assistant on my phone is setting reminders because it allows me to forget about things and then I don't have to worry about it.

[00:31:00] Mine recently, two bank accounts. And you're saying, why would I want to bother with two bank accounts? Well, it can be a good way to separate your savings and spending. That way you can stay organized with it. You know, one account is for saving and you know, the other is completely for spending. This can honestly add just a little bit of organizational friction to your life, which you're hearing me say now and you're like friction. Who wants friction? Well, friction can actually be a good thing. And I did an episode. It was a little while ago, but there's an episode.

[00:31:27] If you go and search in your podcast directory, it's all about friction in your finances. So go find that and check it out because it's a good one because friction can actually be a beneficial thing for your money. But let's move here to the third money talking point. This is one that I'm going to need your help with. The third money talking point is what did you learn about organization that you can share with a friend? Well, I learned how organization gives you the right to forget about things. And this is something I love to say. I love to tell people how I don't forget things. And then you hear me say that and like, oh, of course you do. Of course you forget things. Everyone forgets things.

[00:31:57] But no, I don't forget things because I don't try to remember them. And it's honestly my motto for my organizational systems and life and things like that. I don't try to remember things and that helps me not forget them. It makes it so easy. Like Frank said, you don't have to worry about remembering things when your system is simple and working in the background. So what do you think? What is something you learned today about organization that you can share with a friend? Share it with me. Send me an email and hit reply to my newsletter that goes out each Thursday.

[00:32:25] You can sign up for my newsletter in the show notes or at moneytalkwithskylarfleming.com. But that's a great way to get in touch with me. Just hit reply and shoot me back a message. Let me know what you think. What did you think you learned about organization today?

[00:33:04] Let's wrap up this episode next.

[00:33:35] so stressful to implement, but not if you keep it simple. Make sure you keep it simple. That way you can reduce stress with your systems. So make sure you stay mindful of the small details. Keep it simple as those kinds of things will often have the biggest impact on your financial health. And a quick reminder that if you need some help with financial coaching, I am now a partner with my budget coach, a platform that's connecting people's budgets to their financial coach directly. And I'd love for you to head over there and check it out and choose me as your coach.

[00:34:02] The link is in the show notes. If you have any questions, schedule a money talk with me using the link in my show notes, and I'd be happy to figure out how I can help you with a quick free money talk. The best way to stay up to date and connected with all things money talk is to sign up for my email list. Head over to moneytalkwithscatherfleming.com and submit your name right there on the homepage. You can also use my contact page on the website to send me any questions or a crazy money story you might have. Remember, the best way to learn from today's episode is to go out and have a money talk about today's topic. Thank you for listening to this week's

[00:34:30] episode of money talk. I'm your host Skylar Fleming. Have a great week. Thank you for listening to money talk with Skylar Fleming. This show is provided for informational and entertainment purposes and may not be specific to your unique situation. Please be sure to do additional research before making any financial decisions.