How is Money Different without Children with Bri Conn - 166

[00:00:00] Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, where your money makes dollars and cents. Let's get talking! Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money Talk with Skyler Fleming. Today we're going to be talking about how to handle your money if you don't have kids. Once I start to think about it in more detail, and I'm sure you'll all agree, there are a lot of different ways you can handle money, and people who don't have kids are able to handle their money a bit differently. This means they need to be thinking about the different ways or the different opportunities that they have available.

[00:00:28] Today's Money Buddy is an expert in just that area, and I think we're going to learn some interesting ways that people who don't have kids, either by choice or if they're not able to, that they can use their money. I hope this helps give you some insight into how people who do and don't have kids can handle money differently, and how you can go about planning with your money. We're going to talk about some ways that you can talk to those about money who may not have kids, and how those with kids can bring up money talks to those who don't have kids.

[00:00:53] I'm really excited to learn some common ways these conversations can differ, and I think it's going to be eye-opening for every single one of you listening. We're also going to talk about a term called file, financial independence, live early. Consider it a dimmer switch for work where those without children are able to turn up the living side of the equation and turn down the work side of the equation. But one of the main points that I'm excited to ask our Money Buddy today is all about legacy and leaving behind your wealth. So commonly, the simple plan is to leave your inheritance to your children. What if someone doesn't have children?

[00:01:22] Today's conversation is going to be great whether you have kids or not. And if you do or don't have kids and you're looking to start doing some planning and budgeting, consider working with me over at My Budget Coach. The link is in the show notes, and you can always schedule a free money talk with me. If you have any questions at any point, my email and link to schedule a money talk are in the show notes. But let's get to today's Money Buddy. Today's Money Buddy is Bree Kahn. Bree Kahn is the Chief Experience Officer of Child Free Wealth, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping the child-free and permanently childless people.

[00:01:50] She is also a child-free wealth specialist and the co-host of the Child Free Wealth podcast. Child Free Wealth has been featured on Fortune, Forbes, Market Watch, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Insider, CNBC, and many other publications. And I'm excited for this conversation today because we're bringing an expert into this area to help us all learn about how money differs when you do. Wealth is a part of our business and we're looking for a lot of opportunities in the future. But the Money Talking Points for this week are, What opportunities does not having kids allow people with their money? Two, how can you have healthy Money Talks with everyone in your life?

[00:02:18] And three, how could FILE work for you? With those Money Talking Points in mind, let's get talking. Welcome to today's interview on Money Talk with Skyler Fleming. Joining me today I have Bree Kahn, and we're here today to talk about some of the differences of what people have to think about when it comes to financial planning without children.

[00:02:44] Because it is a completely different space. My wife and I don't have children right now. We refer to ourselves as dink wads, dual income, no kids with a dog. And it can be a completely different situation to think through because we don't have some of the same expenses. I'm really excited for today's interview with Bree to talk about some of the things that people need to think about when it comes to child free wealth or planning for money without children. Bree, thanks for coming on. Could you introduce yourself for everyone?

[00:03:09] Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Like Skyler's side, my name is Bree Kahn and I am the Chief Experience Officer at Child Free Wealth, a life and financial planning firm for people who don't have kids and aren't planning on having kids. Fantastic. One of the things as I was doing some research for this episode is your information identifies two different categories, both child free and childless. Can you maybe explain that just before we get into today's conversation, what that is?

[00:03:34] Yeah, absolutely. So we often refer to child free, meaning that you don't have kids, you're not planning on having kids. And that was often by choice. And then there's childless, which is you wanted to have kids, but for whatever reason, either couldn't have them or didn't have them. There are some people who initially start out saying, hey, I'm childless, and then eventually call themselves child free. There's not necessarily a hard line in the sand.

[00:03:58] It is whatever term fits you best. But when we're talking about them, that's what we're saying. How you got there doesn't really matter. It's just once you aren't going to have kids, then your financial planning changes. Perfect. Yeah. Just quick definition for everyone so they know as we're using these terms. But pretty much what we're talking about today is people who don't have kids. And that's a completely different financial situation to be in. How can talking about money with people who don't have children look different than people who do or most money talks?

[00:04:28] Yeah. So our very first question that we often ask people is, do you care about how much money you pass on when you die? So many of our people say, no, I don't. And so when they don't care about how much money they pass on when they die, they have a different financial plan. They're not working that traditional plan where you grow a bunch of wealth and then you retire and pass on your wealth when you die. So we're not building that giant nest egg generational wealth.

[00:04:53] What that means is if you're not working for this big end goal, you can utilize more of your money now throughout your life. Whether that be taking a break from work, cutting back or taking jobs that just pay the bills. You don't have to keep growing your assets. That's always a starting point. There's a term we're going to talk about in a little bit called file that I'm interested to learn more. And it's kind of getting at what you were saying there of living early, but we'll talk about it here in just a moment.

[00:05:19] I want to continue to talk about some of the different ways that people have to consider money when they don't have children. And what are some common conversations that people should probably avoid if you're talking about money with child free people? Yeah. So there's a lot of financial bingos that will happen. Oh, you don't have kids. You have money to do that or you don't have kids. So you have the time to do this or that. That's not necessarily true.

[00:05:46] There's often this assumption we see with people that if they don't have children, then they can be the one to care for their parents and they have the money to care for them. That's not true. That it's so circumstantial. And many times they aren't working to build up a bunch of wealth, assuming that they can take care of somebody else isn't super kind.

[00:06:09] So that's one thing that we try and avoid. And we always encourage our clients to have those conversations with their parents too about their plan is for having somebody take care of them. Yeah. Among the wealth of other conversations that can be tricky, like if someone is childless, there can be other conversations outside of money. But like you said, there is a handful of things that people just assume that because you don't have a child, they assume you might be wealthier and maybe you still struggle with credit card debt just like them.

[00:06:34] But because you don't have children, they think, oh, you must be able to afford all these trips. Will you pay for this for us? Or will you take care of the parents for us? Like things like that. So how does that person, let's say they are child free and they get approached by that conversation, a sibling or all the siblings assume that they're going to be the one paying for the long term care and things like that. How do you react in a good way that's going to be beneficial to those kinds of conversations?

[00:06:59] One thing we'll always say is whether you're single or in a couple, you need to sit down and think about what your boundaries are for caring for parents. Maybe you're willing to offer them, you know, physical support or mental, emotional support or maybe financial support. But there needs to be some sort of boundary around that before we go and have that conversation with parents. And ideally, you want to do it before they are put in a situation in which they have to step in and help because there's a crisis. You're not making the same decisions in good, solid times as you're making in a crisis.

[00:07:29] And so that's that's where we start with it. Conversation and communication is so incredibly important. And there's kind ways to have conversations and it's OK to say, no, I'm not going to pay for that. No, I'm not going to do that because ultimately you don't have to. Yeah, it's your money. You really get to do what you want. I think the assumption might be there because there is potential for someone who's child free to have maybe a little more wealth that wasn't spent on children.

[00:07:58] And I am assuming there might actually be a place there that you could help out. And I think that's why it's so important to set those boundaries beforehand before the conversation becomes really difficult. If you're married and don't have children, you might say, yeah, we're in a good financial situation. This conversation is probably going to be coming soon. Maybe we should actually help out. There could be conversations like that that happened beforehand. And I think that's where you're saying the conversation is so important to have. That's fantastic. I love the idea of money talks. That's why we're here on this podcast talking about money.

[00:08:28] Make sure you're talking about those boundaries beforehand. But how does financial planning look different? I know one of the things you started out with was what do you want to leave behind? Do you want to leave anything behind? I know that's probably one area that's extremely different when it comes to not having kids because it seems like a natural pass down when people have children. But what are some other ways that financial planning looks different for those without kids? Yeah, estate planning is a big thing. You have to make sure you have some sort of estate plan in place and people often say, well, it only matters if I die. That's not true.

[00:08:58] Estate planning also encompasses powers of attorney, both medical and financial, meaning who's going to make the decisions for you in the event that you are still alive but cannot make those decisions. Having a living will or an advance directive, they're called different things based on the state usually. But making sure that's in order so that whoever you assign as your power of attorney knows what decisions you want and can give you some guidance.

[00:09:22] If you don't have those things in place, then whatever state you're in, you can step in and make those decisions for you. And I don't trust any state to make decisions for me when that person doesn't know me. Yeah, and if you don't have children, because that can often tend to be the person that is in charge of those sort of things. If you don't have children, you got to find someone you trust because you definitely probably don't, like you said, you don't want the state making those decisions. So that's a pitch to get your estate planning in order, regardless of your situation with children.

[00:09:51] If someone doesn't want to have children, there may be before the age where they have to decide or maybe they're not married yet and they don't want to have children. How do they start to set themselves up for success with money when it comes to not having children? What are maybe some easy things they can get going today? Yeah, so if you're like, hey, I'm set. I know I'm not going to have kids. We always say if you're on the fence, come back to us when you made a decision to not have children. If you've made the decision to have children in the future, then there's other planners out there who are better suited for you.

[00:10:21] But if you're still on the fence, we're not going to be the right people for you. But once you've made that decision and said, no, I'm definitely not having children, then you need to start thinking through what do you want out of your life? Because so often we have that standard life script that is you grow up, you go to school, you get married, you have kids, you buy a house, you build that generational wealth, and then you pass it on when you die. Like I said earlier, we're not doing that anymore. So you have full control of your life.

[00:10:47] And that can be kind of scary and also kind of freeing. But there becomes this sense of analysis paralysis because you have so many choices and there's complete overwhelm there. So really sitting down and trying to figure that out piece by piece. And usually you need to have some sort of sounding board to really help you through that as well. Yeah. What do you think the value is in writing this stuff down? You mentioned you get analysis paralysis when it comes to all the different options and decisions.

[00:11:16] What's the value in starting to write things down or creating a written plan? Yeah, getting it out there and just written down can help reduce some of that mental load because you're not going around carrying it all in your head. Write it down, see how that feels, then you can check back in on it. Maybe that's not what you want. Many times we'll build a financial plan for clients, start working through it and they go, actually, I want to also do this. Plans change and they add new things. That's okay.

[00:11:40] It really is just, can you get it down on paper and start executing on some of those things versus keeping in your head and not actually planning and making those jumps. Yeah. And writing it down, even if it's going to change, I'm doing the coursework to become a CFP right now. And one thing that I've been learning is it's all wrong. Like the assumptions are going to be wrong. Your numbers are going to be wrong and that's okay. Like we make, we make this plan. That's a pathway to get us to where we want to.

[00:12:07] And then as things come up, which they always will, you make adjustments. So that's why I think it's important to set some sort of cadence to check in on that sort of stuff and realize things will change so that you can document them instead of going like five to 10 years. And you realize, oh shoot, we should have updated our estate documents, write it down and prepared for it to change. So that's fantastic. I like this idea of file. You've mentioned it a little bit earlier. You're kind of teasing out the idea of what file is. So let's talk about it a little bit more now. Let's start off with what is file?

[00:12:35] I'm sure people have heard of fire, but what is the LE? Yeah. So the LE is really live early financial independence, live early. Many times with fire, it's you work really hard for a few years, you hustle, and then you retire. We're not seeing that actually happen with our clients. We're seeing our clients who, yes, they have done really well, but they also want to live their life too. They don't want to just wait until a retirement age. And many times we ask them, what are you going to retire to? And they're like, I still want to do something, not just sit on the beach all day.

[00:13:04] Some people say that, but it's not very common. You get bored after a little while. Like even a beach can get boring if that's all you're doing. Exactly. So it's figuring out, hey, you know, if we're not going to work on building this giant nest egg, can we make choices now that allow you to live? Maybe it's taking and switching careers or going through some sort of coursework and changing up your job. Maybe that's cutting back on your job. Instead of working five days a week, you're working four days or part time.

[00:13:33] Maybe it's taking little mini retirements where you take a break for six months to a year or two and then go back. Just those different things along the way where you can take a break and have different choices. So you're not continuing to work super, super hard your entire life, miss out on things until you hit that retirement age and that fire number. I love that. That has elements of Coastify in it as well.

[00:13:57] The main term that my wife and I like to use is Coastify, but I like the idea of file as well, because you can say we're at a point with Coastify where we know it'll hit our retirement number when we do get to that age. But also if maybe you don't want to retire in the same way because you're child free, you have so many more options that are unlocked for you, whether it's financial or just opportunities to travel because you haven't bought a big home that you have to pay off. What kind of opportunities does being child free unlock for people with their money? They will buy a house in a specific school district.

[00:14:26] Well, we're not thinking about that when looking at places to live. We're just going, hey, is this a place we enjoy? Oftentimes our people do not buy homes because they change where they live so often. They need the flexibility and pick up and move. Buying a home doesn't necessarily allow you that because you have all the other things that go along with buying a home, selling a home, and you can't just pick up and go wherever you want. That's one of the big things is just you have those life capabilities to change things up quite easily.

[00:14:55] Yeah. When you only have a one year lease, that's really the only thing holding you down to that area. You can do whatever you want. You can keep your lifestyle minimal. You can move every single year, which I don't recommend. That sounds terrible to have to move every year, but it's something you could do if you're living a lifestyle that allowed it. But how do people who don't have children, they hear this file thing, they're like, oh, that'd be awesome. Let's begin to live our life early. We don't have to wait till 65 or 70. How do people begin to move towards file? Like what are some thought process they can go to?

[00:15:23] So you really want to think about, okay, what are some things that you want to do as you live early? What does that look like? And start thinking through those because we always start with life first and then finances. Otherwise, if you're just looking at the numbers, you can really miss out on life. So figure out what do you want to do? What does that look like for you? And what does that live early really mean to you? So start there. Then I highly encourage you to meet with a planner and I would love to meet with you.

[00:15:52] But if you go to somebody else, you need to ask them how your plan is different because you're child free. If they say it's not, that's not the correct answer. It is totally different. If they say you change your mind, well, you should probably go to somebody else. Cause that's not very considerate. And if they say, you know, I don't know, that's not a bad answer. Honestly, they're at least acknowledging it. And if they get it and understand it, great. You want to meet with somebody who can really help you work on those goals when it comes to the financial aspects.

[00:16:21] If you're going to be cutting back on work and covering your expenses, that's different than if you're going to be completely cutting out of work for a period of time and needing to pull money from different places. Once you get to that certain point, you really need to figure out who exactly or what exactly are we going to pull money from? What's that going to look like? And how long can we do this? That part is so individual that you need to meet with a professional for that. Like you said, there's professionals like you guys that serve this audience. There's all sorts of different people that serve different audiences.

[00:16:49] So make sure to find someone who actually works with you and will work with you well. One thought that I had as I was putting together this episode, there could be maybe a sense of guilt that people who are child free might have more money. Like you said, they have more flexibility or they could have more options available. How do they combat or work through potential feelings of guilt for living that life or living earlier? Should they feel guilty? How do they think through that one? There's no reason to feel guilty for it. Everybody makes different life choices.

[00:17:17] And as long as you're okay with the life choices that you've made, then you don't need to be guilty. Just be kind, considerate and respectful to every human being on this planet, period. Aside from that, there's no reason to feel guilty. We do have clients who will come to us who've been saving for a really long time and have really built up this giant amount of money and we encourage them to spend more. Well, many times it does come with a feeling of guilt when we're encouraging them to spend more.

[00:17:43] So what we'll often do is say whatever money you spend on fun this year, let's also match that in your giving as well. Let's say you're spending $50,000 a year on fun. Let's give $50,000 a year. And that can sometimes help people feel better because they're so used to being like, I don't want to spend it on myself. Now they're helping others and they're seeing the impact that their money is making on others. And that can really be a big difference and be super helpful. I've seen so many case studies of people nearing retirement.

[00:18:11] They're having that meeting with a financial planner and the financial planner says, you can spend $150,000 a year on yourself and be fine. And they say, I wouldn't know what to do with that money. So I think for those who are child free realize that feeling of guilt is on both sides of the decision, whether you have children or not, even people that have children, when they can spend a lot of money on themselves, it's still a struggle. So I think that's a struggle all the way around. When you're someone who's wired to save money for retirement, you've built that giant nest egg. It can be hard to spend it down no matter who you are.

[00:18:42] One of the things I want to talk about here that we've mentioned a couple of times is that legacy. Those look different when you don't have children. That seems like the easy way to pass down money is your children, the kids you've raised, or you want to help them get a home or things like that. How do people without children think about legacy a little bit different? Legacy is really not going to be any sort of genetic legacy for people without kids. But instead, we have people who want to leave money and start building things now, start building out scholarships.

[00:19:10] Maybe it's really just they want to be involved and help mentor people. There's people we met with who they all they want to do was have the best garden in their neighborhood and impact the people around them. It's so individual what that looks like, but it really is how can you have an impact on others? And how do you want to have an impact on others? Whether that be through money or the things you enjoy doing and helping others with.

[00:19:38] Yeah, no, I love to hear that because it means figure out how you want to leave an impact, whether it's in the community or like you said, maybe there's a college both you and your spouse went to. So you want to set up a scholarship in your guys's field or something like that. Or you want to help out some other area that's been a struggle in your life. But now you have finances to make it not a struggle in other people's lives. So I love that because there's there still is so many ways to impact your community or leave a legacy without just passing money on to your kids.

[00:20:05] There's still so many options that either side of the coin has. How do people look at passing on their wealth without children? Is it simple? I mean, you don't want to let the state decide. So I assume there's documentation to let that sort of stuff happen. What are some nuts and bolts a little bit of how do people think about what do you do when you're passing on your wealth? Yeah. So they're really trying to figure out how can they use it now and what do they actually need? How can they avoid having too much?

[00:20:31] Because too much is such a big problem at times for people and figuring out. I know it sounds weird. Somebody can be like too much. I have too much money. Yeah, it's definitely an issue. So how can we do that now? Are there charities we can give to now? Are there people that we can give to now? Many times we'll see gifting to nieces or nephews when helping cover things. That's one big thing we see. Or, hey, can we spend more? I talked earlier about spending on funds, spending on charity every year.

[00:21:01] So we incorporate a lot of those a lot sooner because if somebody says they want to give to charity at the end, well, let's give to charity throughout your life. That way you can see the impact on it. And you've also got some tax benefits too that you can utilize when it comes to giving to charity throughout your life as well. We're really just saying at the end, whatever's left over, great. We're not aiming to leave millions of dollars behind though. We're figuring out what can we use and utilize throughout your life and then bring that amount down.

[00:21:31] Long-term care is such a big, big cost and that needs to be considered. Many times people will say the 4% rule or the 25 times your expenses. Okay, great. But that doesn't account for the fact that long-term care is incredibly expensive. It's going to be more than that number. This year alone, it's $115,000 a year on average for people in the United States. And that's growing by 5% every year. Women use 3.7 years typically and men 2.2.

[00:22:01] So if your expenses are $50,000, but you're forgetting about the fact that long-term care is going to be... You're suddenly spending three to four years of expenses at once. So we're really not going and, you know, that's one of the things with people who have really been in the fire community that's forgotten about. And so we're kind of bringing up, hey, like, well, yes, you've done this plan, but there's also going to be a lot more money spent on long-term care in the end. Usually it gets spent down quite quickly, but you can utilize that money sooner to enjoy your life.

[00:22:30] How have you seen your clients enjoy spending their money more now? I love what you said right there about use it now versus just waiting until you're dead and you can't see the fruits of your money going towards charities or your community or things like that. How have you seen clients enjoy using the money now? Many of our clients love to travel different places. Whenever people go on trips, we always ask them to send us pictures and it's fun to see the different places they've gone. So that's probably like the biggest one.

[00:22:58] Otherwise, there's also just, hey, maybe that means you hire people to help with different things and kind of live a more quote unquote luxurious life. Do you not like to meal prep? Can we hire somebody to do that for you? Do you not like to clean? Can we hire somebody to do that for you? What are different ways that you can utilize your money just to make everyday life easier too? So that's a pretty simple one. That's fantastic. Figure out the ways you can use your money to make your life a little bit easier or more enjoyable.

[00:23:28] Plus there's potential to give someone a job, maybe build a park in your in your neighborhood or contribute some sort of good donation towards helping that sort of stuff. Like maybe you want to see your park, get a new swing set or something. You work with the city to see how much does that actually cost? And maybe you need to be wealthier than I think. I don't know how much a park swing set costs, but there's, there's potential for things like that. When you have this money to use, you don't want it to just vanish when you die because you want to use it and have fun with it now.

[00:23:54] So I think that's a really good perspective change to go through, but Bree, this has been a fantastic episode. We've talked really a lot about all sorts of different things when it comes to planning your money without children, because frankly, like you said, it's a lot of things. It's a different thing. It's not the same. And no one should tell you it's the same because there's just a wealth of different options and flexibility that you have. Two final questions as we come up here to the end. The first one will be, how can people connect with you or learn more? But then the second one to give you a second to think about it is what's one thing you wish you would have known sooner when it comes to money.

[00:24:23] But first, how can people find you online? Yeah. Easiest way to find us is to just search child free wealth. Our website is childfreewealth.com. We have a podcast, child free wealth, and then we're all across the different socials at child free wealth. So pretty simple. Just type in child free wealth and you will find us. One thing that I wish I knew sooner, I really wish I would have known sooner that finances are different for child free people because I think many times I felt so behind.

[00:24:50] And then I realized I actually don't need that money. So it doesn't really matter anyway. Or you might not need a house. There's so many different options that you might not need once you realize it's different. Mm hmm. Yeah, I think realizing that sooner probably would have reduced quite a lot of stress in my life and unnecessary stress. I think the thing I'm hearing there is that you realized personal finance is personal. And so if everyone can realize that sooner, their situation is unique and we can all do money by ourselves and figure out exactly what we need.

[00:25:20] There's people out there to help whatever demographic you're in with. I'm sure there's people out there that everyone can talk to to figure out some sort of a financial plan and get their money in order. Bri, thank you so much for coming on. This has been a fantastic interview. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much to Bri for coming on today's episode and for that fantastic interview. I know I learned a lot and I hope you did as well. But now let's get into the money talking points for today's episode.

[00:25:50] The first one is what opportunities does not having kids allow people with their money? Well, it allows you a lot of different opportunities. Honestly, you can travel more. You can choose the rent. You don't need to settle down. You're not looking for a home based on school districts, things like that. And if you don't have kids, it's very likely that you don't need to be thinking about money in the same way, especially when it comes to your living situation.

[00:26:18] Renting can be such a great opportunity to save some money and have flexibility in your life that not having kids allows you and affords you. Not having kids also allows people to travel more or have an easier time with trying to travel. My wife and I do like to do a lot of shorter trips that may be more work when there are kids in the future and maybe those won't be worth it. So we'd like to take advantage of those now. So I do think this conversation today is great both for those who have kids, but even for people who don't have kids now and are considering it in the future.

[00:26:46] Because you can begin to paint a picture of some of the ways you can think about your money a little bit differently now while you're planning for the future. And what are some ways you can think of head over and reply to my newsletter? If you aren't signed up the links in the show notes and make sure you sign up for next week's newsletter so we can stay in touch because I'd love to hear from any one of you listening your thoughts on any of these money talking points. The second money talking point is how can you have healthy money talks with everyone in your life?

[00:27:10] And I wanted to bring up this question to Bree because so often, like she said, the assumption can be that the childless or child free people are the ones taking care of the aging parents or the ones who are going to have the abundance of money to take care of the aging parents. And that may not be the case. You need to have the healthy money talks before the issue happens.

[00:27:28] If you're not in a position to help your aging parents, but you're child free and you're not going to be able to help those parents, make sure your siblings or others in your family know about that because the assumptions are where things can get messy. And that's where unhealthy money talks can happen. And if you have the conversation before the issue happens, you write things down, you keep it clear and simple. That's how you can get ahead of those issues and have healthy money talks when it comes to all sorts of different situations.

[00:27:52] It's so much harder to have a healthy money talk when the situation is currently happening and people are already starting to develop ideas in their mind around things and how they're going to work and how they're going to go out. Whether it's around kids or not or around parents or not, no matter what, when things start to happen, it becomes so easy for people to figure out the perfect scenario in their head. And sure, that may be them sacrificing some on their side too, but then they could be frustrated when that specific scenario they played out in their mind doesn't work out how they expected.

[00:28:20] Whether it's small differences or large differences, maybe the person who planned out this situation planned it out so that it works best for them and they don't quite realize that, but that's causing a lot of strife and contention in the family. Have that money talk before the situation happens. And guess what? Everyone's parents are going to get old. Your parents are going to get old. My parents are going to get old. And there's always going to be those kinds of conversations. So you have to begin to understand with your siblings or whoever else might be involved how you're going to take care of those aging family members. That's just a great example of one of the things you have to get ahead of.

[00:28:50] So that's the main thing. With money talks, get ahead of them when you know there's going to be big issues in the future. And this would be a great time to head over to moneytalkwithskylerfleming.com slash resources and download the seven money talking points. These are going to help you get started with some of these conversations. And you can also have some fun conversations about dreaming with your money while you're at it. And here are the seven money talking points if you want to write them down. But of course, you can head over to my website and get the free guide that has a lot of conversation starters and extra ideas that build on the seven money talking points.

[00:29:18] But I'm going to list them out here for you real quick if you'd like to start talking about them. The first one is, what will I do in an emergency? Two, how am I making money? Three, how am I spending money? Four, how am I saving money? Five, do I want to pay off all of my debt? Six, what do I want my retirement to look like? And seven, what are my big money goals? Those are some fantastic money talking points to get ahead of some of these conversations. Maybe you have a family member that has a lot of debt. So maybe you're talking about, what are my big money goals?

[00:29:48] And one of those is getting out of debt. And that leads into, do I want to pay off all my debt? Do I need to set a debt payoff plan? There's a lot of different conversations that these money talking points can build. So head over to my website, go to resources at the top and get the seven money talking points. It's going to prove really helpful for you starting to get some healthy money talks going. And a brand new guide on my website is the budget meeting guide. I'm not going to talk about that one in too much length because I had the bonus episode come out last week with it. But you can also get that on my website. And that's going to help you start regular budget meeting conversations.

[00:30:17] Let's go ahead and move on to the final money talking point here. How could FILE work for you? And FILE is financial independence live early. And I got to plug my episode with the Coastify couple because FILE and Coastify have a lot of similarities. Because both involve living your life now. They don't involve waiting for that early retirement or waiting for normal retirement. They both involve turning on that switch to be able to enjoy your life now. There's a few different areas to look at this from when it comes to FILE. Let's look at it from a work perspective. You could work a part-time job.

[00:30:47] You could take an easier role in your company. You may not need the position that's constantly getting promoted and getting more responsibility and getting raises because you don't need the money. You can find a job that fits your work-life balance a whole lot better and easier so you can enjoy your life now more instead of feeling like you're always stuck at work trying to support your family when you're able to turn that FILE dial up or down. You can find jobs that work with your schedule to fit your family life whether you have kids or not.

[00:31:12] If you have kids and you're at Coastify or FILE, you may be able to work a shorter shift that allows you to bike to get the kids and bike to drop them off at school and things like that. Let's talk about it from a money perspective real quick. You don't have to worry about retirement anymore when you hit Coastify. With Coastify or FILE, you can set yourself up so that your retirement is taken care of in the background. How awesome is that? Through the power of compound interest and time, you're able to get there and be invested a whole lot earlier so that compound interest can work for you.

[00:31:42] And systems are going to be a huge deal towards helping you with that. So make sure to check out using things like automation. There's places like M1 Finance where you could just send your money and it's going to auto-invest it for you. That's going to help you get to Coastify or FILE a whole lot quicker. But let's talk about the impact on relationships. Let's look at it from that perspective. It may be possible for you to have an even better relationship with your spouse or family because you're able to make more time for them. Because you don't have to worry so much about work in the FILE or Coastify lifestyle.

[00:32:09] You could reduce the amount of your PTO approvals because you're working a job that's easier to get time off. Or a job that you just work less, which allows you to take the time off because you already have it off. So no matter if you choose the FILE or Coastify life, it's going to have a large impact on your life because it frees up our number one time hog, which is work. It allows you to do so much else besides that, which is so fun. But that does it for today's Money Talking Points. Let's wrap it up. I appreciate Brie for coming on today's episode and helping us all understand the differences when it comes to talking about money and thinking about money without children.

[00:32:39] There's a difference no matter which way you look at it. There may be a chance for those without children to have more opportunities with their money. But there may also be a potentially tricky family conversations that could be hard that you need to have. Either way, the main thing to remember is that personal finance is personal. Your situation is unique and there's someone out there that can help guide you with your money. If you want to schedule a time to chat with me about your money, I can see if I can help you. And if not, it's very likely that I know someone who can. So schedule a money talk with me in the show notes.

[00:33:06] I'd be happy to help answer your questions or connect you with someone who can help your specific unique situation. Thank you for listening to today's episode. 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 moneytalkwithskylerfleming.com and submit your name and email right there on the homepage. You can also use the contact form on my website to send me any questions you might have. If you're looking to get started with budgeting, I've partnered with My Budget Coach, a platform that helps connect your budget directly with your financial coach. I'd love to work with you over there and help you with budgeting.

[00:33:35] The link is in the show notes. Remember, the best way to learn from today's episode is to go and have a money talk about today's topic with a fellow money buddy. Thank you for listening to this week's 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.