[00:00:06] Viktoriia Miracle: Hello. Hello and welcome back to happy time happy money podcast and today we'll have Brianna and Brianna is an advocate for teaching man, woman and children the importance of money management. Her passion is to inspire others to take control over their finances has led her to connect with people all over the world.

[00:00:29] She is a wife, mother of two, and has been in banking for seven years. Wow. That is so awesome Briana. Hi, welcome. I'm so happy to have you here with us today.

[00:00:40] Briana Whitaker: I am so happy to be here. Thank you so much for reaching out. I'm excited.

[00:00:46] Viktoriia Miracle: So go for it. Share your story. Show, tell everything about yourself so we can get to know you.

[00:00:52] Briana Whitaker: Okay. So again, I've been in banking for about six, I think, going on seven years now, I am a wife. I'm a mom. I started my debt free journey actually last year in April 2020, because of COVID. My husband and I, we were literally just sitting down on the couch, watching TV, and we came across some videos from Dave Ramsey and we were watching some of his videos and then it just really hit me, like, you know what we need to make the change.

[00:01:17] So my husband looked at me like I was crazy, cause I just blurted out. I want to become debt free and he's looking like, okay, so it was just out of the ordinary. So from there, you know, I started doing research, reading books, listening to a lot of podcasts regarding finances and just start at my debt free journey.

[00:01:37] We paid over like almost, I think over $30,000 and just so we're still trucking along and as I progress more in my debt free journey, me and my husband, I branched out and started helping others get, you know, do the same thing, because it's very important to take control over your finances.

[00:01:57] And I don't think a lot of people really understand that. It starts with a budget. You know, you, you're not supposed to just live paycheck to paycheck. You should all of your money shouldn't just be going to debt and bills and everything like that. So just that money management is what I'm trying to preach to like you said, the men, the women, definitely the children, our kids are, they have a front row seat on with everything that we go through. So we keep them in the loop.

[00:02:26] Viktoriia Miracle: I love it. I love that. So you said money management. Can you elaborate on that? What is it?

[00:02:32] Briana Whitaker: Yeah, so money management is knowing how much you're bringing in and also what is going out.

[00:02:37] You will be surprised at how many people. Do not know what's coming out of their checking account. All they're doing is swipe, swipe, swipe. They may know how much their check is and then after that money is gone. And then next thing you know, after a couple of days of getting paid, they're like, okay, where did my money go?

[00:02:54] A lot of people don't even check their transactions. They don't, they just, and then, then you run into, you know, of course some banks charge, you know, overdraft fees, then you're dealing with that or not knowing when your bills are coming out when the due date is, you know, that's what I mean by managing your money, you should have control over your money where you should be able to know where your money went.

[00:03:16] Okay. So $300 came out. Oh, okay. That was the car payment. I know that versus all my. Again, where did all my money go? A lot of people don't know where their money goes. So that's what I mean by money managing your money, because you need to know where your stuff is called.

[00:03:34] Viktoriia Miracle: And I love your laugh like you like, you need to know where's this stuff is going okay.

[00:03:39] So how do you start? Like how people can start on it? Like what the first steps?

[00:03:44] Briana Whitaker: The first steps is taking accountability and opening up your app, your computer logging into your online banking or digital banking. Everybody has a different word for it and just going, opening up your app, look at your transactions.

[00:04:00] I tell, I always like to tell people, pull the statement from last month. Finding out or even just look at it on a computer, grab a notebook. I always have a handy dandy notebook. Like I like to write everything out and just go through each transaction and see where all your money is going. A lot of people will see that their money is going on, you know, going to pu I am guilty of that.

[00:04:21] I spend a lot of money on food. I'm trying to cut that out.

[00:04:25] Viktoriia Miracle: You know how, you know how I figured this one out. So I started to. Meal blend coming to me every day and I do it two a day because I love cooking. And I know like people that love food, they love cooking, they love food. So I only, I have two meals coming every day in the evening, warm and nice prepared, freshly prepared.

[00:04:46] And then one time a day I cook and on Sunday I go to farmer's market. So I get like all the fruits and stuff. So I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything because I'm still in season. I spent, I save time and it's very, it's, it's a really great on budget and it's organic and it's healthy. I highly recommend everybody who is spending too much food on too much money on food, too much food and money.

[00:05:11] Go and find a meal plan that is local and can deliver food to you and it's awesome. Trust me. They're like, they're always bigger than our kitchen. So they're minimize the expenses. It's, it's pretty much the same thing. It's probably cheaper than you will buy and cook because the time you spend on thinking on buying on going and parking, maybe in a supermarket and all the stuff.

[00:05:35] So I did for two years. Seriously. Oh, when I started to have entrepreneur, I'm like, I need to do this. I get to do it and I never will go back to normal going to supermarket every week and doing things on that.

[00:05:50] Briana Whitaker: You got to tell me where you do that, because I actually love that idea, especially the time part.

[00:05:55] It's like, wow and that's it. I'm glad that you mentioned the time and convenience because that's another thing, you know, when we, that's another reason why I preach, you know, become debt-free because I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to pay off debt. I want to, I want to retire early. I don't want to retire in my sixties.

[00:06:11] I really would like to retire closer to 50 maybe even 40 for me. So I'm happy that you brought that up and you definitely need to tell me where you get your food from.

[00:06:21] Viktoriia Miracle: Yeah, catered fit. Not sure if they're a Canada, but they're in America. So if you're in America, if you, I believe they're in almost like every other states it's called catered fit, fit like cater, catered fit, super awesome company at $11 per meal.

[00:06:36] And it's organic and it's fresh and it's protein carbohydrate, like there tells you water is there and this is my biggest secret. I just love it not, it is a secret. I already put every, all my friends on it.

[00:06:51] Briana Whitaker: Now you might be had

[00:06:52] Viktoriia Miracle: something that I promote online. Yeah. It's in my kitchen kind of got it. Got it.

[00:07:00] All right. And so you said the first step, the second step, what, what will be the next step?

[00:07:05] Briana Whitaker: The next step will be a bunch of your viewing your transactions. Then you want to, I tell people you want to write down all of your bills, write down everything from, if you, if you're renting, if you have a mortgage, your car payment, car insurance, daycare, alimony, child support, cable, water, electric, everything.

[00:07:23] And another thing is a lot of people don't what they, don't what they forget to budget how much are you spending on gas when you're going to work? Do you pay for parking, toiletries as women are feminine products? How much are we spending diapers? That is another thing that people forget to budget in, you know, of course, groceries and everything like that.

[00:07:45] But I try to like also focus on what a lot of people miss, which is another reason why people. They don't know where their money is going. So then once you do that, you want to take, I tell people take an average, like for example, my husband and I, we have a certain amount that comes from our check goes into what's called one of our sinking funds accounts.

[00:08:05] We use that for our cars, pays for guests, insurance, car washes, breaks, anything related to our car. And registration anything. That's what we use for that. And also gas is probably the biggest thing. That's the most that comes out of the account. So I take an average of how much we would spend to fill up both of our tanks.

[00:08:26] And then I deduct that from our paychecks and then it goes into that account. So that's what I tried to get people to. Do. You want to subtract your income from your expenses and see what you have left? If you, if you're seeing that you're running into the negative, then it's time to cut some things out, streaming services. That's not a need. It's a one. Then you have to have those tough conversations, like, okay, what am I willing to cut out? Is it nails? Is it going out to eat? Is it, you know, and anything that isn't a need that doesn't cover the, what, the natural, not natural order, but you know, your, your shelter, your food, clothing in and transportation, anything outside of that is a one.

[00:09:07] So what are you willing to cut back on? That's going to help you get control over your finances. So if you find that your in the negative, even after all doing that, then you might be to get another, you know, ask for an increase at your job, beef up that resume, get a part-time job also while you know, cutting out all the unnecessary stuff.

[00:09:30] And then you just have to work on being consistent, start small, work your way up.

[00:09:35] Viktoriia Miracle: Love that consistency is the key. Awesome. Thank you so much for those awesome steps. And the last question that I always ask in this podcast, please fill in the blank for me. If you really knew me, you will know that I am blank.

[00:09:54] Briana Whitaker: If you really knew me, you would know that I am determined.

[00:10:01] I am so determined to reach my goals, like, Let me tell you how determined I am. I had a conversation with my husband and last year, and when we were renting in our apartment and we wanted to, I wanted to pay off debt, more aggressively. And so I asked, you know, I talked to my husband and mom moving in with our in-laws, which is his parents who my in-laws and just for a year, just to see how much we can accomplish financially.

[00:10:27] And that might've been the best decision that I've ever made. We moved in with our in-laws. We paid off so much debt in that period of time. We literally just moved back into our own place, last week. So just sacrificing that just to show how dedicated and determined I am to accomplish these goals and having that support system of my husband and my friends and my family has just been amazing.

[00:10:50] So my word would be dedicated.

[00:10:54] Viktoriia Miracle: So thank you so much. I know you have some free gifts for us today, so share with us. What it is?

[00:11:00] Briana Whitaker: Yeah. So I have links to my podcasts and I also is my social media page. My husband and I would have a podcast called 'yeah, that's me' pod. So we talk about relationships, finances, things that we go through on a daily basis.

[00:11:13] And what I also see what a lot of other people go through, that's around me. I try to use their stories to really elaborate and talk about Things that's going on in our community, around the world, everything like that. So that's my.

[00:11:25] Viktoriia Miracle: Awesome, thank you so much, where everything is go to the web page and you will find that everything in the show notes and in the web page, thank you so much and I wish you to have an amazing day and I see you tomorrow.

[00:11:40] Briana Whitaker: Yes. Thank you so much again. I really appreciate it.