Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 0:00

You get the first credit card and it's like, oh $500 and you max it out and you're like, Okay, then they like give you a new one. And you start that credit card and then you go to me season, they're like, you know, you can save 20% and I'm like you for real girl. Let me get that and let me add the shoes. And then before you know it, I had 10 credit cards.

Michael Lacy 0:21

You're listening to the winning to wealth Podcast, where you'll hear real stories from real people who are on the path to building real wealth. These stories will show you how to earn more money and pay off debt, start investing, and make better money choices so you can build wealth for your future. Now, here's your host, Michael Lacy, what's up? What's up? What's up teammates, and welcome to the winning to wealth podcast. I'm Michael Lacy and this is episode number 44. Now this week, we're talking about debt and more specifically, the options that not having debt can create for you.

Excited to be joined by Ashley from top cash with ash. Ashley was a young single mom who found herself over $84,000 in student loan and consumer debt and paid it all off. Like I said, I'm super stoked to introduce you to Ashley. But before we jump into the episode, I want to let you know that support for this episode comes from our friends [email protected]. And that is an awesome and best of all free service that helps people optimize their debt elimination strategy, just plug in your numbers and undead died, it will pop out seven different and easy to follow payment plan options for you to review. From there, you can choose the plan that works best for you and get right to work crushing the debt. The best part is you can switch up your strategy at any time. Now I toyed around with this service for way longer than I should have the other day and I gotta say I wish it was around when we were paying off our debt. But since it's a free service, I definitely

suggest that you check them out by heading to winning to wealth.com slash on debt that is winning to wealth.com slash debt. you envy bt. But hey, let's jump right into this incredible debt free story featuring Ashley from top cash with ash. Hi, Ashley, I am so excited to talk to you today. Welcome to the podcast. It has been just an awesome experience following you on Instagram and kind of watching your debt free journey unfold. So definitely glad to have you here today and share more of your story. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Awesome way, you know, something that I've seen you talk about is the power of budgeting and the effect that that had on your finance and I want to know, were you always good at budgeting or was that something that you had to get better and progress at?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 2:47

Yes and no. Okay, so I have a spreadsheet that dates back to like 2010 Okay, I am that nerd. I have, you know, an Excel spreadsheet and

Every month I wrote down all my income, my expenses or what I thought were going to be my expenses. But what I came to find out is that I'm actually really good at counting. And so the budgeting really didn't hit home for me until I started listening to a lot of people in the debt free community to talk about this at zero based budgeting. And so it just clicked for me. So yeah, I was really, really good at counting. And I still really am good at counting. But the budgeting aspect is really just assigning every dollar and given an a mission. That's when it just like up the game for me. So what were you doing beforehand? I mean, I want to kind of get a little specific there. So like, what changes Did you like actually have to make? Well, you know, in the beginning, I had, you know, my income listed out, I knew what bills I had to pay. I knew kind of like okay, I know what my gas is going to be I kind of guessed what amount of money I was going to spend on food and then at the end of the week or whatever pay period as

Have some cash kind of quote unquote, leftover. Well, that leftover money always got spent on some items or something. And I don't know where it went. And I'd look and be like, I know I made this amount of money that month, but where did it go? And it's because I didn't give it an assignment. And so it just kind of got spit on whatever and wherever. And so the difference between that and now is that every dollar that comes into Ashley's household gets an assignment plus plus or minus a few dollars here.

Michael Lacy 4:31

So I you know, I'm glad you said that so outside of just the assigning every dollar a name, I mean, were there any other reasons where you kind of felt like maybe I you know, you struggle with it where you could have been better on that system.

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 4:45

I think that for me, it's easy. It was easy for me to have something to go to every single time so me having the spreadsheet I could always go back and say okay, what did I budget or when is my due date? What date is that going to be against? So I already created a routine for myself as bills came in, I put them in my monthly budget or my spreadsheet. You know, 10 years ago, when I started budgeting, I didn't really have that mobile app, so to speak. So I was printing it out. And I had it in front of me all the time. So I think that was just a really good habit. Most of my if not all of my adult life, I've been a mother. So I was a parent fairly early. And as a matter of fact, as soon as I started making like a real paycheck is when I became a mom. And so I think that sense of urgency and responsibility was necessary. And so I had to grow up quick and a lot of ways and me having a budget was what really got me through a lot of hard times. So,

Michael Lacy 5:42

okay, well, let's jump into the debt because you were on a budget you were you were doing a monthly budget, but somehow you still found yourself in debt. And so can you talk about just how much debt you ended up with kind of at the peak of everything.

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 5:55

Oh, if you want to talk about the peak of it, that would have been Recently, like a couple years ago, and I was, I mean, oh my gosh, if you include the mortgages, we're talking about $450,000 worth of debt. And that is a lot of money on the weight of my shoulders. And what I think happened over the course of the 10 years of me making income is that it's kind of out of sight out of mind, right? You get the first credit card and it's like, oh, $500 and you max it out and you're like, Okay, then they like give you a new one. And you start that credit card and then you go to Macy's and they're like, you know, you can save 20% and I'm like, you for real girl. Let me get that and let me add the shoes. And then before you know it, I had 10 credit cards racked up across You know, it was the Macy's, the Victoria's Secret you know, all the department stores and then I got real fun with it. I when I purchased my first home, I financed some upgrades. So I did wood flooring on credit, and I did on the mattress on credit, if it can be put on credit, I put it on credit. And I was kind of taught. And I don't think directly taught I think I just kind of had just picked up on this somewhere that if the more credit you use, the better you got at credit, which Yes and No, they don't tell you the whole story. I mean, you're supposed to pay it off. That's the whole point of building the credit, you have to build it, pay it off and to show that you're actually financially responsible with the money that they're letting you borrow. And I missed that part. I missed that part. And I just wrapped it up there were a few that got into the into the realm of like five or $6,000 and those instead of me focusing on paying them off, I just get another one with the same credit limit. Right and so because they let me they're like, Oh, she got one let me give her another one. They're not on they're not on our side there at

Michael Lacy 7:48

all. Oh, I had to learn that lesson to like and and I kind of went through the same thing where I you know, I got my first big boy job as I like to call it. And so then I got a car because I'm like can't pull up to the job and this whole thing. And then I'm like, I can't pull up in these old clothes. So like, I gotta, you know, get a new wardrobe. I gotta have Ralph Lauren, everything every day, you know, everything's got to be here and there. And so I found myself deep in debt. But at that time, like, all of that felt normal to me, like nothing felt like I didn't feel financially pressed or anything like that. So was that kind of the same thing for you? Like, did you feel comfortable? Or did you feel like you were struggling as you racked up the debt?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 8:29

I felt like I was living the American dream, right. So I felt like it was normal. You know, as my income grew. So did my lifestyle. Now I am. I'm not a high roller by any means. I really am not into luxury, although I'd like to think I am. So I really wasn't living way beyond my means, but I definitely was creeping right up on it. So the more money I made, the more money I spent. And it's funny, you know, I think over the course of the years I used to look back and be like, how did I make it on that? Much and today I feel like I'm troubled by this something's not right. I mean, the cost of living really go up that much. You know, like, I'm trying to make excuses for why I'm like, living paycheck to paycheck. And yet it gets it gets out of hand really quickly.

Michael Lacy 9:17

So I mean, because you say that right? You say everything just kind of feels normal, like you're living the American dream. So what happened that made you realize that something needed to change if everything felt normal?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 9:28

Hmm, that's a great question. You know, it's, it's my why really, and that's my son. So he was approaching or is approaching the age where he needed to, you know, we started talking about college, and I look over and I'm like, speaking of college, I got this big hose to move that I'm still paying off. He's got to enter college in about six years. It's been about six years since I got out of college and I still have 60 something thousand dollars that I get to give them back. How is that going to work? Work Ashley, and I definitely didn't want him to have be set up the way that I set myself up, which is, you know, just not having the finances. I was the first one in my family to go to college. I did get a lot of scholarships. But after those ran out, I went back into school for grad school and all of that was funded by Sallie Mae with her sleek self, and she got a hold of me and she didn't let go and so $68,000 later here I am, you know, graduated, got my good job, but that did was right in my backpack the whole entire time. And I was like, I can't have this for my son. Oh my gosh, I need to get rid of this as quickly as possible because I want him to be a step ahead of where I was. So that really is what changed the game for me and made me focus in on my finances and getting together.

Unknown Speaker 10:50

So what happens after you have that realization?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 10:54

Oh, man, the counting every dollar had to happen. I need To know what was coming in, and where it was going every step of the way. So if I made a doubt if I made money, and I did my budget and there was like money leftover, I had the assignment of stacking up my debts, we the debt free community calls it the debt snowball. So I listed them out and I just made it a visual. I had my debt free chart in front of me at all times, and I just attacked it one by one. And that was the mission. So every, every month, I had a mission, I had a goal. I talked about it a lot. I was pretty obsessive about it. And I really had to do that in order to stay the course. So having those visuals really got me there, having a mission just kept me going through it because it's hard, long road. So I needed that all of the things.

Michael Lacy 11:45

So okay, so then when we talked about, you know, you transition your budget from what you were doing to the zero based budget. So what kind of changes did you make have to make to your budget and the way that you were spending money to actually make progress,

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 11:58

you know, thought that I was really good at money until I really started like doing the Zero Based budget. What I found is that if you don't assign the money, it just kind of gets away from you. And you start making it reasons to spend the money. So instead of finding ways to save money, I was spending it on items. I was looking for reasons to do, like these ridiculous trips to you know, target. We're just walking around without a shopping list in the grocery store, and things like that. So what I did was, you know, organize everything. If I'm going to go to the grocery store, I'm only going to purchase food for what I'm going to eat that week, or that or those two weeks, I began shopping in bulk for things. I cut out the lunches, and the miscellaneous dinners and lunches I spent so much money on food. It was ridiculous. And I love to cook so what I did when and then I also started targeting my insurances and really starting to understand what my premiums were, what policies that I really need in place, and I just tackled every part. my finances I just went in, and I just like tried to be the most efficient. And in every way I was spending money. I went to my utilities and figured out okay, how can I you know, reorganize the pay structure here so that it makes the most sense. The biggest bang for my buck? What can I share from the budget? Do I really need to start saving for Christmas right now? No, let me wait on that. Whose birthdays Can I skip? You know, like the I just really started going down the line and just cut in cutting all the fat, so to speak out of the budget. And I did it incrementally what I think is important in the financial journeys that people tend to try to do a lot of things all at one time. And I'm here to tell you that it does not work because you're going to fail at something. So what I did was you know, just like the debt free snowball listing out your your smallest debts to your largest debts. I listed out all of like the financial goals that I had, and I homed in on one and then once I do conquered that I went to the next thing, you know, when you try to do too many things at once, you pretty much going to fail across the board. So but I found that when I focused on that one thing, and I like nailed in on it, I was able to execute that and go to the next, fix that a little bit more. And so my budget kind of morphs through this whole financial journey to becoming the most efficient budget it can be, it takes a while, it's not a one month scrub. So I mean, it takes a while. And then life hits you too. And so you got to be in that budget on a regular basis. And just be flexible with it and give yourself some grace along the way. But it's a work in progress.

Michael Lacy 14:37

You know, something I want to explore a little more, as you said that, as you were going through your budget, you noticed you started kind of targeting your insurance. So can you talk a little bit about that process, like what were you seeing and what did you do to kind of make some changes in that area?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 14:54

Yes. So first and foremost, I made sure I didn't get into any car accidents so that my car insurance was a decent rate. But then I, you know, I was with a company for quite some time. And notice that my policy kept going up. And I'm like, but I thought I'm a good driver, like what's happening here. And, you know, I think that we tend to want to be committed to a company.

Michael Lacy 15:18

But again, they're not on your side. So I started shopping and found some great deals. Across the board, I went to an insurance broker that did a kind of a search for me. And then I bundled some insurances that helped a great bit. So those are just a few of the things and I ended up saving hundreds of dollars over the over, you know, over 12 month policy period on a lot of things. So I took that refund check, so to speak, and put it right towards debt. love it, I love it. That's I love doing that. I sit down every single year, and I audit my insurance. And it's I'm telling you, it makes a huge difference those hundreds of dollars that come back into your pocket every year. So let me ask this question as you're making all these changes. Right, you're, you're cutting back on the food spinning, you're cutting back on the insurance and all these other areas. Was there one particular area that was really hard for you to scale back on?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 16:12

Yes, and he's over in the next room.

That would be my son, you know, kids, trying to teach an adult is hard enough about finances, right? But teaching a kid that is even tougher, because for one, they don't understand the concept of money because they don't necessarily have to work for it. They don't understand what $1 of time equates to in $1 bill form. So you know, getting him into chores and having them understand the value of money. First of earning money, because kids don't have any problem learning how to spend it. It's the earning part. And so bringing him along on the journey was the is the hardest thing. Getting your family and your friends and your children on board. Is is pretty challenging. What I was able to do with my financial journey is I wasn't so rough with people about it, you know, I just, I didn't like I'm not with the kancil culture. I'm more of like, hey, look what I can do, you should do it too. Let me show you how you know. So I grabbed a hold of a lot of family members, and every person has a unique situation. And I shared with them, I said, Look, this is how I'm doing it. This is what makes sense for me by looking at, you know, a few tweaks here and here. Did you know you can save $200 by switching to budgeting? And so I really made it a thing and our family, we made it a competition here and there. And to this day, I get screenshots of family members credit reports that are going up because of just financial tweaks along the way. So yeah, I'd say the hardest thing is getting the family and your kids on board, but you just make them a part of the process. That's all I

Michael Lacy 17:59

have to ask you. That's something that I struggle with, right is, we are in such a good financial position. And I try to live my life kind of as an example of what to do. Like I don't try to push what I do onto people or anything like that. But it is tough. You know, like when you go on vacations and you're like, Oh, I wish so and so could be here, but they won't get their stuff together. So can you talk about just how you go, how you kind of initiated those conversations and how gratifying it's been to see that progress

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 18:34

obtaining about it. I'll tell you a little story on that one, actually. So me and my friends, we tend to go on a lot of trips, or we did it before my debt free journey. That was one of the the expenses that I kind of blew a lot of money on. And so when I decided to do this debt free journey, I paused all that. I was like, I kind of gave him a heads up about what I'm doing. I explained why. You know what's funny is I don't think that they really grabs the amount of money I was in debt, because speaking about finances is taboo, right? Nobody wants to talk about it. It's kind of like behind the curtain, but I just kind of was really super transparent with everybody about it. But one of the things I told him I started doing was using cash a lot. And they were like, why don't you use cash for everything. And I've always used cash for things and it just was like, it made it real for me. Like if I'm giving you this money, and I don't get anything back that just feels more real than swiping a card. And so I said, I said, Look, if we're going to go on a girls trip, I want to be able to cash flow it so let's figure out how to get there under a certain amount of money. And they like rally behind it. They're like, Oh, yeah, we don't forget this path. And then we go and bring our cash. And it was so awesome. Because we did take the trip. It was cash flow. It was a girl strip and no one spent over a couple hundred dollars and in a couple of my girlfriends had cash on them, and I was so excited for them. So yeah, I think, you know, just sharing those tips with them made made it fun. make it challenging for them. And then they kind of a lot of them took it upon themselves to keep going with the same financial journey themselves, which was really awesome. That's the most rewarding part of it. All.

Michael Lacy 20:10

Right. Okay, so let's come back to your debt free journey a little bit. So I know that you recently became debt free. So how long did it take you to pay off all of your debt?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 20:21

Okay, so I paid off $84,347 and 52 cents in 17 months. And, you know, it's actually more than that, because as you're paying debt, the interest is still accruing. So I just want to go on record and say it's probably like $100,000 or something like that, you know, put some respect on my debt. Okay. But, you know, about 43,000 of that was my actual like, month to month pay off. And then the other bit of it was, I sold my investment property to just close the deal. That was a really hard decision for me, actually. So yeah, within 17 months I made it happen

Michael Lacy 21:03

off and what I mean what is that moment like for you? Because I've had people on the show, and it's been about a split so far with about half people saying it's anticlimactic. It was just another moment another day. And then other people being like, Oh my god, I can't believe is the best day of my life. So what was it for you?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 21:21

I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not gonna lie to you like I was. I'm. So it happened a few months ago. And I'm still kind of trying to. It feels weird. Okay, I'm not overly excited because I really hadn't felt it just yet. Let me remind you I was in over 80 some thousand dollars worth of consumer debt and that has always been a way of life for me since I became an adult. So like, this is a new feeling having money in my account, and then you know, not having a bill to apply it to. So when I click the button, In which I did record that moment. It's funny, I actually shared these payoff videos every month when I was doing the debt free journey. Every month I do it I GTV of me, you know, clicking the button and you see me putting my mouth that I'm paying off for the month, and then I cry a little bit. It's, it's glorious. But when I did this last button, click because it was for a big amount, the proceeds of the sale of my investment property, I've pretty much applied all of it to close out this debt. That was really, really hard. It was probably one of the hardest things that I've had to do. And I know that sounds weird, because really, I was clicking a button. But it was like I felt a huge weight off of my shoulders, but extreme anxiety. For one we are in a pandemic, right. So I struggled with, do I hold on to this and kind of ride the waves of all of the volatility that's going on? Or do I just get rid of Do this and just trust God is going to carry me through the next steps because he got me this far in the midst of this whole pandemic. And so I ultimately made the decision to press the button. And I cried, but I had a smile on my face. And that's how it felt. And you know, I'm, I'm still feeling that I still.

Michael Lacy 23:20

So can you talk a little bit about what goes into that decision? Because you're not the only one that's in that place. I mean, we're all living through this pandemic right now. And there are people who are like, I just want to hoard cash, because I don't know what's next. And then there are some people who are like, Hey, I'm just going to continue pressing on towards my goals. So how did you personally come to make the decision that was best for you?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 23:44

I'll tell you one thing I did. It's a counter debt free community culture. And I've actually paused my debt free journey. And I said, let me pump the brakes. And let me see if I can build an emergency fund. And if I do that, Then I'll press the button. So I knew I was going to sell the home I knew was going to have some proceeds from it, I was already thinking about it in my head, I didn't realize it would happen too quickly. But I paused the debt free journey after I got a good bit of it behind me, I saved up three months worth of cash on hand. And that gave me a little bit that gave me more confidence. So and that's important for people, they have to know what their limits are. You know, if something if you don't, if you're not 100% behind that decision when it comes to your finances, don't do it, you know, make make it make yourself feel comfortable with because you'll have to live with that decision. You're gonna have to live with that button click. And so for me, I needed a little bit of extra security, because I'm a single parent I'm already conservative as it is when it comes to finances. So I created a plan B, and then I did I do my plan A

Michael Lacy 24:58

okay. Do you hit the button? Right? I know we're kind of in the middle of a pandemic, the options are limited. But did you do anything to celebrate?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 25:10

I wanted this is so this is a salty question for me. Okay.

Michael Lacy 25:15

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 25:17

should be on the Jamaican coastline right now with you know, a rum punch, some reggae music, and some good vibes. So for me, that was a that was a dream of mine to just go to Jamaica, and all inclusive. I'm talking about everything. I'm buying all the food that I didn't buy this debt free journey. I wanted to get it there. So and I'm still gonna go I am. But really, I sat and I paused. And I'm still pausing right now, actually, and I'm still restructuring my finances. And what I've come to realize is that I hadn't been given myself enough care. So I think what's next for me is really focused. On all the things that I wanted to do what's been what, you know, finances was holding me back from doing XYZ. And it's now time to do X, Y and Z.

Michael Lacy 26:10

So so with that feeling, I mean, do you feel like now that maybe you should have done a little more self care during your journey? Or are you looking at it going? No, I did what I had to do in that season. And now I have the flexibility to do what I want to do in this season.

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 26:25

Yeah, don't miss not have not I don't miss not doing the self care things that I put on pause or a sacrificed. You know, again, I wasn't really all into the luxury and been in like tons of money on myself to begin with. So it didn't really affect me in that manner more. So. I'm a dreamer. I'm a big picture thinker. So for me now I can like okay, what businesses do I want to set up? You know, how can I help my family out? What legacy do we not tap into? Mama got some land. How can we You know, capitalize off of that, you know, I'll get my nails done every so often. But that's not my that's not my goal. That's not my dream. So yeah, and you know what, for me, I'll be celebrating debt freedom, like for years to come, because I know that the benefits of me paying off this debt is going to last for years to come.

Michael Lacy 27:20

I love that That's powerful. That's such a powerful realization. So, I mean, you kind of touched on some goals are there? I mean, are you open to sharing just what you're looking forward to in the future in terms of financial goals that you're aiming for?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 27:32

Sure, a few of them and this list grows every day. But the first and foremost thing is the whole reason why I started this mission, which was to fund my son's education, whether he chooses to go to college or if he gets a scholarship or not, I just want to make sure homeboy is set. And so that's first and foremost. Wait, let me back up. Actually, what's first and foremost is this IRS tax bill? Because I sold my investment property Have a capital gains tax to pay on this. And so I am saving up to pay Uncle Sam. rightfully so. So I didn't make a good bit of groceries on the home. gonna pay that off. And really focus on saving up for Ashton's college fun. I'm also going to furnish my home the way it should have been. I purchased this home a couple of years ago. And it was almost the same time that I started the debt free journey. So I have about three empty rooms in this beautiful big house. It's a shame. So now I'm going to fill it up with some furniture and those are like some super near term goals. I've actually increased my retirement contributions I planted deep dive into some smart invest into really understanding what's going on in that avenue. I love real estate. My family loves real estate. I had an investment property before I plan to get another one or another few. So the sky's the limit but I'm doing Again, I'm trying not to do like all things at one time, right? I'm trying to be incremental. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.

Michael Lacy 29:07

And then amazing just the number of options that you have when your money's not being tied to creditors, right? You just listed like 567 things. And all of them are possible because you freed up your cash flow. So kudos to you for making all the changes all the necessary sacrifices and choices to get to this point. I love that. So I want to give you this opportunity to help somebody else that is listening to this that's ready to start their journey. So I mean, what would you say to that person who's discovering their debt for the first time that wants to get started? What would be your advice to them?

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 29:46

Oh, wow. So a few things and this is because this is what I did. Don't treat it as a to do kind of list like don't treat it as Okay, I'll get to it. Or don't let it linger because I let it linger for six. For seven or so years, and the balance of my student loans didn't change, okay? So face it on head on like just go after it tackle that thing is serious about it. Because this is your life at stake. This is your family's life that say like, treat it like it's an emergency and go for it. The other thing I'd say is surround yourself with everything that you want and in and how you want to live after this debt free journey. So if that means engaging in social media or platform or listening to podcasts, or reading different kinds of books, or getting around a different group of people, whatever you need to create a buffer of just financial wealth and knowledge, put that all around you at all times, because you're going to need to lean on that as you're riding this financial journey wave. And then one of the other things is Don't you know, you got to get truly transparent and true with yourself. I had to unlearn some bad habits. You know, I thought I was all that I had a spreadsheet 10 years ago. I'm like, I'm good at this budgeting thing. And I was like, You know what, I ain't that great, after all. And so don't be afraid to just shed some old bad habits. It's okay to learn something new and do it differently. And one last thing I love to share with people as you know, people look at their debt free journey and if they do the math, and they see home means it's gonna take me like 22 months or 32 months. But you know what, that 32 months is gonna pass anyway. So where do you want to be when it gets here? You want to be in the same position that you are now? Or do you want to make an effort to become debt free? And when I found out is that this last 17 months went by way faster than I thought it was going to be? And oh my gosh, why did I do it sooner?

Michael Lacy 31:52

So, Love it. Love it. So and you know, the last thing I want to do is because this has been so fun, I've laughed a lot. lot I've enjoyed talking to you and I'm sure people have enjoyed listening to this. So I do want to give you the opportunity to share where people can connect with you if they'd like to follow the rest of your journey as you continue moving forward.

Ashley from TalkCashWithAsh 32:14

Absolutely they can find me at top cash with ash that's on my Instagram that's a Facebook and a future website coming because you know what I found out that people got to like listen to me, so maybe I should talk some more. Um, you know, when I first started this, this Instagram page talk ash with ash, it was really just putting myself out there. So it's so I can hold myself accountable and my followers have really held me accountable. But now I'm starting to hear people asking for how I do it and what can they do and so I'm excited to reach out to even more people is a lot of love to share. So that's where you can find me talk cash with ash.

Michael Lacy 32:53

Awesome and thanks for agreeing to come on the show and share more of your journey. Ashley, it was really a pleasure to talk to you and Learn more about your story. So I'll be sure to link to all the ways to connect with you in the show notes. So you teammates Be sure to go connect with Ashley in all the spots she mentioned. And if you maybe forgot about some of those spots, you can find the show notes for this episode over at winning to work comm slash Episode 44 that is winning to wealth comm slash Episode 44. All right, now it's time for this week's win of the week. And what I loved about this episode was the fact that Ashley had been budgeting for like a decade but still somehow found herself over $80,000 in debt, she found some new information about zero based budgeting then changed how she did things. Now this may have seemed like a small thing that you heard in the beginning of the episode, but I want you to think about all of the things she's been able to accomplish after making just that one simple tweak. It just goes to show that just because you are even the person who taught you about Money has always done things a certain way, doesn't mean it's still the best way. What worked in one season may not work in the next. So this week, the challenge is to look at your finances and decide what one thing you can tweak to get just a little bit better. It could be coming up with a new way to budget, it can be changing how you and your spouse talk about money. It could even be switching from a normal savings account to a high yield savings account. But I want you to find one way to improve your finances because as we saw with Ashley story, one small change can lead to many massive benefits. Now, if you enjoyed this talk with Ashley, definitely go find her and follow her on social media and see everything that she's up to but also be sure to subscribe to the show and leave a five star review. Another thing I want to thank all of you that nominated me for best new personal finance podcast at this year's plutus Awards. Guys, I can't tell you enough, it means a lot to be recognized in that way. So thanks Again from the bottom of my heart to everyone who took the time to nominate the show. But that's all the time I have for this week. So, until we talk again, keep racking up those wins one at a time. Take care. You've wrapped up another episode of the winning to wealth podcast to learn more about how you can start making winning money decisions head over to winning to wealth calm