Teen Financial Freedom. Chase Guelette

[00:00:00] Bob Wheeler: Welcome to another episode of money you should ask where everyone has something they can teach you. I’m your host, Bob Wheeler. In this episode, we are going to explore why we do what we do when it comes to money as a CPA for the past 30 years. Wait, let me say 25, because that makes me sound younger. I have seen it all when it comes to money and emotions.

[00:00:21] And if you think I’m talking about my. I’m not, I’m talking about myself. My relationship with money has been, and sometimes still is an emotional rollercoaster. Maybe that’s something you’re also familiar with. Good news. You and I are not the only ones. Our next guest is going to share their money, beliefs, money blocks, and life challenges as well.

[00:00:43] Buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

[00:01:06] Our next guest is Chase Guelette. A 17 year old podcaster and entrepreneur after starting his first podcast in March of 2021, he interviewed knowledgeable guests on topics, ranging from personal improvement to finance and investing. Chase has worked with industry influencers like Natasha Grano and Michael Graziano along with successful entrepreneurs like Ian Stein.

[00:01:28] After joining the teen financial freedom team in August of 2021, he has continued to podcast and work with entrepreneurs. In addition to his podcasting track record, chase has pursued a successful academic career and work at the family business for most. He has also experimented with multiple different side hustles, including couch flipping and a lawn care business.

[00:01:49] Chase.

[00:01:49] Chase Guelette: Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Bob. So

[00:01:52] Bob Wheeler: I just got to ask you, I know what cow tipping is, but I don’t know what couch flipping is. Is this a thing what’s going on? Couch

[00:02:00] Chase Guelette: flipping. So couch living is a little side hustle that I discovered by accident by a recommendation from a friend who watched a YouTube video at some point to do a thing.

[00:02:10] It’s somewhat. Self-explanatory how shipping is where you go in and you just try to buy a couch at a low price point and then just sell it at a higher one. And obviously it’s a whole lot more complex than that. That’s the most basic way you could possibly explain it. Buy low, sell high.

[00:02:25] Bob Wheeler: Okay. There you go.

[00:02:27] I didn’t know if you were like postering. I don’t know if you’re cleaning it up. Just you’re flipping couches.

[00:02:32] Chase Guelette: Yeah. So essentially what I do is in my local area, I use Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. Ironically, you have to be 18 to use Facebook marketplace. So I’m not sure going back to that, is it legal or not?

[00:02:46] Um, I use my mom’s Facebook marketplace to find couches and I use Craigslist to find couches in like a 20, sometimes even 30 mile radius of my house that are selling for low price points that just from initial pictures look good. And then what I’ll do is I will. Contact the seller, ask them if I can come by, look at the couch, et cetera.

[00:03:08] And I’ll travel to wherever said couches. Sometimes I get lucky and I’ll have them within like 10 miles and it’s like a nine minute drive. But sometimes there’s far as 30 miles and I’m driving like 30, 45 minutes depending on traffic to go get these things. But I usually take my dad’s truck and we’ll either pull a trailer behind it, or I just take the truck itself.

[00:03:26] I drive out to get this couch and I bring cash with me. Like if a couch is selling at 300, I’ll bring like $200 in cash with me because it sounds bad because it sounds like I’m going out here to scam. But in my experience, and we did this with my car too. Like the car that I drive to this day, we showed up with what I believe about my car.

[00:03:49] I think it was selling for eight grand and we showed up with seven in cash. And just bought the car on spot at a thousand dollars discount because we had cash on the spot and we were buying upfront. So I go with cash to these locations and I’ll talk to homeowners and essentially just do everything in my power to bond with them.

[00:04:07] Like I’ll show up to look their couch and we’ll end up staying at people’s houses for 20, 30 minutes. And just talking to. Because I’m also, I’m a sociable person. I’ll be honest. I, I bond with people pretty easily and I’ll offer a hundred, 250 less than what they’re like price point for the couches. But it’s like, I’m here with cash in hand, you know, like some of these people have been trying to sell a couch for a month and a half or two months and they just want it gone at this point.

[00:04:32] Yup. And so I can. Couches that are in pretty good condition for really low price points that I take home. And then I clean them, whatever needs cleaning, if their leather couches even better. But I have a steam cleaner that I’ll take out and I’ll play that with that, wipe it down, do whatever I can to make it look nicer.

[00:04:50] And then I’ll just take as professional pictures as possible and relisted on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist, or I relist it based on. Okay. At 150, $200 higher than the price point I initially bought it at. And then we run with it from there because I can usually resell couches for 150 to $200 higher than I initially bought them for I once.

[00:05:12] Oh wow. I even sold one, $400 higher once. So. It’s a pretty time efficient and profitable side hustle, but I just kind of enjoy doing

[00:05:20] Bob Wheeler: that’s pretty cool. Make sure you have a truck. I think that’s

[00:05:22] Chase Guelette: important. Honestly. I, if you have a tiny little car, like the car I normally drive, you are not going to be able to flip couches very well.

[00:05:30] I’m not going to

[00:05:31] Bob Wheeler: happen. Maybe folding chairs. All right, well chase, let me ask you, this is college on the table. And does that include student loans?

[00:05:38] Chase Guelette: College is definitely on the table. I think college quite frankly, should be on the table for everyone, even if it’s simply a fallback plan because 99.8% of people by the time they’re 18 are not in the personal position of the financial position to not go to college.

[00:05:55] Right. This is something I’ve actually thought about a lot, because I know this guy he’s 19. He’s absolutely crushing it. Didn’t go to college and he’s making multiple thousands of dollars per month and just blowing everything out of the water. I know a guy I talked to him frequently. And so this question is one that I firstly thought about a lot, because it’s a real question for me.

[00:06:13] And I mean, it could change the next year, but college now is definitely on the table because as I said, 99.8% of people, they don’t have the skills. They don’t have the personal drive or the self developed. Or the financial situation to be able to not go to college, if you’re capable of going to college, you should be because it’s like the standard.

[00:06:34] Like if you go to college, you’re pretty much going to, as long as you play your cards, right. And go into a major, that is, what’s the word I’m looking for applicable to an actual field. Like if you’re getting a hit. In, I don’t know the history of Rome. You’re probably not going to get shot. You’re going to struggle to get well employed, but I currently plan to go to college with a major in computer science and a minor in business science.

[00:07:00] So. Between those two majors, I’m going to have a very applicable skillset that allows me to get a job in pretty much any industry, or if I want just go off and start my own business in a programming field, because tech is what excites me. I love tech and I love programming. So I’m going in trying to get skills that can easily be applied to any profession anywhere I can get employed as a computer technician, pretty much anywhere if I come out of college with a coding degree.

[00:07:27] I never intend to like work a job job. I want to own my own business. And I’m taking steps towards that now as a young person, but it’s always there as a fallback and I’ll always have those skills if I need them. And

[00:07:39] Bob Wheeler: do your parents pressure you to go to college? Do your parents talk to you about money?

[00:07:44] A lot of young people aren’t that interested in talking about investing or entrepreneurialship and all that stuff, what’s it like at home in terms of that?

[00:07:53] Chase Guelette: So college, my parents were pretty much told me you’re going. And I think that’s the situation for a lot of kids. Like I almost think in the modern day, it’s not so much, mom.

[00:08:03] I want to go to college. Like that’s not this conversation that most people are having. Like if you’re having a conversation like that, you’re probably going to be like my other friend, my 19 year old friend guy who was like, mom, I don’t want to go to college. And that’s the difficult conversation you’re having if you’re a young, successful entrepreneur.

[00:08:20] So my parents were pretty much said. And since I don’t at this time, have any objections to that. I’ve not exactly fought them on it, but in terms of financial talk in my own home, it’s somewhat ironic to me because I find that I actually have more interest in most financial markets than my parents do.

[00:08:38] Now don’t get me wrong. My parents are completely financially capable. They know what they’re doing. They are fantastic with budgeting. They’ve done an amazing job of building their assets over time. And even recently bought a Airbnb rental house that we stay in part of the year. Like it’s a vacation house for us and it’s an Airbnb rental the rest of the time.

[00:08:56] Yeah. So don’t get me wrong. They are financially savvy. They know what they’re doing. And definitely some of my financial stability, my mindset of being frugal of always budgeting comes from them. But in terms of actual interest in financial markets, I’d say that that interest more comes internally because my parents aren’t super active in investing.

[00:09:17] They have a 401k that they put their money into, but beyond that, they don’t do a whole lot of investing. They don’t invest in crypto and the real estate asset just came recently in the last year or so. So that interest has been mostly internally motivated and my interest in real estate, crypto stocks, et cetera, whatever asset class you want.

[00:09:37] Has mostly come from me and that conversation, isn’t really one that’s happening in the house. Like my brother and sister, don’t talk about those things at all. It’s not a huge interest for them. It’s mainly me going out and doing my own research.

[00:09:48] Bob Wheeler: Cool. And you get to talk to a lot of cool people that are doing these kinds of things.

[00:09:52] So you get little tips and tools that other people might not. What would you say is one of the benefits of working in a family business? Like what are some of the things that you’ve learned that maybe somebody else doesn’t get that. I

[00:10:05] Chase Guelette: would say that most people probably can’t drive a tractor, um, or plow a field or a forklift or run a giant factory level donut machine.

[00:10:16] So are those actual technical skills that I can do? And then there’s things like I’ve been working since I was like 13, right? Like working with. I was working four and five hour shifts at 13, then 14. I was up to like six hour shifts. And then at 15 it was like eight hour shifts all week. You know, like my summers for the last three years have been 30 to 40 hour work weeks, you know, which don’t get me wrong.

[00:10:43] There’s times where I’m really not feeling it, but it has imputed this work ethic in me because since 15. I have been in this family business and during rush season, our rush season is in the fall. So I’ll be going to school starting school. And our rush season starts at the same time the school starts.

[00:11:00] So I’ll be going to school and then working 40 sometimes in extreme cases, like 50 hour work weeks at the family business, right. While going to school. And so it’s embedded in me this work ethic. To me a normal 40 hour work week. Isn’t that intense? You know what I mean? In terms of the workload? Yeah, because in the past I’ve worked 40 hours on top of going to school for another 40 hours.

[00:11:25] Like I’m 17 and I’ve done 80 hour over creeks and more before multiple times. So it’s this sense of work ethic and like, Man. I had to work two hours after school. Dang. Like it’s not that big of a deal for me. Yeah. So working for long periods of time, working hard, having to be smart about the way that I’m doing things.

[00:11:47] Isn’t something that’s unfamiliar to me. And I’ve been in situations at the orchard because I have worked there for a long time where I’ve actually had to manage that. And make decisions on the spot about things that are happening, like, you know, angry customers dealing with donut shortages. I have to be reactive and think on my feet with situations that are happening and I’m trusted to do that.

[00:12:08] I’ve been doing this for a while. I’m an experienced member of the orchard and they trust me to make the right decision. So I think being put in that kind of a situation as a young person is a bit unique for me, at least has kind of molded me in a way where I’m able to think better on my feet. I’m able to manage people.

[00:12:25] To where, like when I’m in school, managing people as part of say a school project, isn’t that big of a deal for me because I’m used to managing 10 cashiers at once dealing with angry customers and shortages and stuff. That is one of the biggest skills that I think I’ve been taught the ability to take charge in a strenuous situation, and also that ability to just work for long periods of time uninterrupted focus in on what’s important while also seeing the whole scene.

[00:12:52] Yeah,

[00:12:52] Bob Wheeler: absolutely. All right. But I do have to ask you this because you drive a tractor, I’ve driven a tractor when nobody was looking, I sometimes put it into third gear going over a hill when I shouldn’t have. So did you ever take advantage and drag race, your tractor when maybe in one of those modes? You just, you couldn’t help it.

[00:13:10] I mean, it’s attractor, there are a lot of fun.

[00:13:12] Chase Guelette: So I don’t know that I’ve ever drag race against another person on a tractor. Like, don’t get me wrong. I could definitely see that happening. I don’t think I’ve ever actually drag race anyone, but I’ve usually when I’m driving a tractor. We have tractors that actually like car people through the fields and stuff.

[00:13:27] I’m usually not doing that. So you don’t

[00:13:29] Bob Wheeler: just get to have the tractor with just the little, like I had free range.

[00:13:33] Chase Guelette: Yeah. So I’m usually do a work. Like we have this giant lawn mower that we attached to the back of a tractor think like a medium sized car, like two cars wide does huge mower that can mow entire apple rows at once because we’re primarily an apple farm.

[00:13:48] We have like 250 acres of apples. Normally that thing’s attached to the tractor. There’s maybe been a time or two where I want a little bit faster than I maybe should pulling a giant mower. Yeah, well, you have to, and we don’t talk about that one time that I bumped that tree and it fell over, it happens.

[00:14:07] Things happen on the farm. Okay. Sometimes you don’t know how those trees fell over. It’s just ended up like that.

[00:14:13] Bob Wheeler: Exactly. I worked on a farm and I loved it. Yeah, I did do a few things when nobody was looking. So it’s an experience.

[00:14:19] Chase Guelette: It’s definitely, it’s an experience that I think not a lot of people get and like in the moment it might suck.

[00:14:24] Like if you’re bailing hay, it sucks in the moment, but you look back on it. It’s a fond memory, you know?

[00:14:29] Bob Wheeler: Cool. All right. So we’re going to jump into assumptions about gen Z years. Sure. I did a little bit of research on gen Z because obviously I’m not a gen Z, so here’s a couple of things. And I want to see if this resonates with you.

[00:14:43] So according to online sources that can’t be named because I don’t remember banking habits. This generation has seen struggle of millennials and has adopted a more fiscally conservative approach. They want to avoid debt and appreciate accounts or services that aid in that endeavor debit cards. Top of their priority lists followed by mobile banking.

[00:15:05] Does any of that resonate?

[00:15:08] Chase Guelette: For me personally, I know that I am very conservative with money. Like I have a budget tracking sheet because I’ve seen my own spending habits get out of control and I went, you know, and so I have a budget that I personally adhere to. I know that most of the friends that I have.

[00:15:24] Are very financially conservative. Like they don’t spend a whole lot of money. Obviously this varies person to person. There are always going to be people who are not financially responsible at all and blow through money and have no money to spend. But for me, the majority of people that I’m around are financially conservative more than like just outgoing and stuff.

[00:15:44] They spend a lot of their time, accumulating money to the best of their ability and not a lot of times spending it. And it’s usually on like more essential purchases, like car repairs or stuff like that, that people in my generation are going to be spending money on. It definitely resonates with me the idea of trying to be more conservative with your money.

[00:16:02] And mobile banking, like you said, being able to always access your funds and having a debit card. Yeah. Okay.

[00:16:07] Bob Wheeler: This one definitely sounds like you, they have a strong appetite for financial education and are open to savings accounts at a younger age than prior generations. So do you focus on saving at all?

[00:16:19] Chase Guelette: I definitely focus on saving, obviously my income fluctuates throughout the year because I first off worked for myself. A lot of it. And the money that I make working for myself has increased over time. And then obviously working at the family farm to seasonal business. But I do have saving goals every month, depending on what I can guess my income is going to be.

[00:16:37] I usually have a pretty good idea, but I have saving goals every month for how much money I want to save. And I also have investing goals. I have goals for how much money that I want to put into various asset classes. When I think about saving, I’m usually saving up to invest for things. So a big goal of mine is I want to buy a real estate investment like a house.

[00:16:58] Of course, it’s a house

[00:16:58] Bob Wheeler: it’s real estate. Well, it could be a duplex. It could be a farm, but

[00:17:02] Chase Guelette: I get you. Yeah. You get the idea when I graduated high school, because I want to go to, when I go to college, I want to actually purchase a house near the car. So that I don’t have to have tons of expenses blown on staying in a student dorm or even paying for rent.

[00:17:16] I want to be the guy who like has four of his buddies hanging with him, and then they pay rent, pay the rent, they pay the rent and I have, I get the house. But that’s like a big goal of mine. And so when I think of saving money, like all of my liquid cash, I more think of that is that’s going to be my down payment for my down payment, my costs for repairs, et cetera, for this house in the future, all this other stuff I have or I’m dollar cost averaging into the stock market.

[00:17:40] And. Cryptocurrencies like that’s to me, that’s investing now, whereas my savings are more saving for an investment in the future. So I definitely have a focus on saving because I have an idea of what those savings are going to go to.

[00:17:53] Bob Wheeler: Okay. Awesome. Well, just a quick aside, cause you mentioned cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin.

[00:17:58] Do you have a favorite crypto that you think is like the new runners?

[00:18:03] Chase Guelette: I personally am Etherium maxi. So the second largest crypto by market cap is called Ethereum. It’s really interesting because looking at the market, you have Bitcoin, and that’s the one that everyone knows about. And then there’s a theorem which has half as valuable, which means it’s still worth like several hundred billion dollars.

[00:18:20] And I am personally very bullish on Ethereum because it is almost the polar opposite of. Bitcoin has this network built around it where the entirety of the network is built to support the currency. So you have Bitcoin and everything that’s built around. It is meant to support the value of that currency.

[00:18:38] And that’s all it really has is it’s just Bitcoin and there’s no actual utility to it. It’s just, Bitcoin is there to be Bitcoin. It’s called digital gold because it’s like that gold has no real utility besides being gold. Whereas Ethereum, it’s more, the token that you’re investing in the currency itself is built to support a wider net.

[00:18:57] Where you have actual applications that are being built that use Ethiopia. Ethereum is able to exchange for lots of other cryptocurrencies there’s utility behind the currency. I don’t want to go too deep into it. Cause it would take hours. It could take hours, but yeah, but the currency is built to support the network instead of the network being built to support currency.

[00:19:15] And so it’s almost a complete flip of what you see in Bitcoin and that’s why I’m so bullish on it. That’s awesome.

[00:19:20] Bob Wheeler: And I would say to people listening out there, you have to do a little bit of research. You do, don’t just go buy Bitcoin because your friend said, my grandmother got rich off of Bitcoin. You got to actually understand what you’re talking about and these different platforms and there’s mining.

[00:19:35] And there’s all kinds of different things that go on with the crypto.

[00:19:38] Chase Guelette: So I’ve done hours and hours and hours of research on the crypto industry. A lot of times I’ll hear people put Bitcoin and crypto as the same thing, right. And they could not be more wrong. So definitely if you’re interested in crypto, go do your own research.

[00:19:52] Look up some videos on YouTube. They do a fantastic job

[00:19:55] explaining

[00:19:55] Bob Wheeler: and there’s lots of currencies out there. All right. Here’s another assumption about the gen Z. Gen Z likes the idea of working for themselves, but are risk averse, practical and pragmatic they’re entrepreneurial-ism is actually more of a survival mechanism than an idealistic reach for status or riches.

[00:20:15] Would you say

[00:20:16] Chase Guelette: that’s true. I would say so. Or do you want the status enriches? Okay. Obviously status should riches are always in the equation, like sure. Why not? Right. I wrote something a while back that basically started with, I want to be rich, who doesn’t want to be rich. It’d be cool to own a yacht.

[00:20:31] Come on, man. But the idea that it’s a survival technique is like that hits home because I think one of the biggest things that I’ve seen is how fragile job markets are and how easily people can be fired or to be unemployed. Like even me with friends who are entrepreneurial, they always talk about how their main goal is building out skillsets so that they’re easily employable so that if they do get fired, they can always go and work for themselves.

[00:20:58] If they need to, they can flip cars if they really need to, they can get hired at a company. And I feel the same way. That’s why. Remember I said right at the beginning, like for college, it’s a back for me, it’s building out skills that allow me to be employable if need be. And I want to be an entrepreneur because it gives me freedom and it means that I don’t have to rely on other people for that money.

[00:21:18] I don’t have to always be worried about getting fired. So the idea that gen Z, like it’s a survival technique. I feel like it’s really accurate. Because for years now, the world has been shifting more and more towards like fragile job economies, where people, they stay at jobs for shorter and shorter periods of time.

[00:21:35] And there’s always more competitors that can pay you more. They can do whatever and markets are able to collapse. I mean, we even saw many collapses. I’m sure people have noticed, but across like the last month and a half, the fed has stopped the body printer and it caused a lot of financial markets just bought them, which when you see something like that happening, it reminds you like, dang, they, you know, when there’s money flowing, it’s good.

[00:21:58] But when money stops flowing, it can be dangerous. And so that idea that it’s like a survival technique. Yeah. I definitely feel that

[00:22:06] Bob Wheeler: they can turn the tap off at any time. Yes, they can. So, let me ask you this. This is one other assumption I want to see if this feels true for. That there’s this desire for working for companies that maybe have more of an impact out in the world, or that are socially conscious, that more aware of?

[00:22:27] Oh, I can’t even find it here, but more about like gender and equality. All those kinds of things are more in the conversation than maybe an older generations where people were just like, I’m just trying to get ahead. And I don’t care if I beat somebody else, but then there’s more self-awareness and an attempt to.

[00:22:43] Be socially just and things like that. Does that play a role for

[00:22:47] Chase Guelette: you? For me personally, definitely. Because the way I see it and I’ve used this analogy with my friends a lot, is that my generation in particular, we’ve been born into this world where social media and always being present in the world and always have in the world being present in your life has just been a constant.

[00:23:04] So as we’ve watched the world get more progressive, that’s just been. You know what I mean? Right. So for me, it’s always been a thing that like, oh, if you’re super racist, you could cancel. Like, that’s just the reality of my life and gender equality. It’s always been a reality of my life. That’s just how everything is.

[00:23:22] Like, you see it online. If people are really harsh and staunch about genders, you have a lot of people that don’t like them. You know what I mean? And so while there’s a lot of obviously all super political topics, But all of this has been very present in my life. And I would say that a lot of gen Z is more progressive than previous generations because that’s just something that’s always been in our life.

[00:23:43] This idea of being super progressive or being more forward thinking it’s just constant here in the head. And so as the country, as a whole or the world is maybe more the country as a whole, it becomes a bit more progressive. Our generation is just there. And we’re just at the forefront of that because it’s always been a part of our.

[00:24:00] So when that comes back to working, when I think about it, I’m like, would I want to work for a company that’s more racist or something like that? Like even just thinking about it, I’m like, Ooh, I don’t know about that one. You know, like, it’s definitely true that we want to work for more socially conscious companies, because I think a lot of people in my generation want to see a more equal future, at least in terms of what everyone is capable of.

[00:24:24] And that goes for being socially good and like being more conscious of the climate or in the effect that you’re having on the actual world, because that’s been another thing that my generation has seen a lot in our life is like global concerns over the state of mother nature have been huge for my entire generation.

[00:24:41] And so thinking about that and always being conscious of that has been a reality of our entire lives. So being in a company that’s more conscious of that is very forefront for

[00:24:51] Bob Wheeler: us. Well, chase. We are at the fast five fast five, which is brought to you by cube money. A cash envelope system made easy, real financial time awareness without the hassle of tracking expenses and carrying cash.

[00:25:04] All right, so chase, we got five. They’re going to be fast. There’s just five. All right. Let’s see what happens. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned about money. So.

[00:25:12] Chase Guelette: Oh, gosh, if you don’t keep track of your spending habits, it’s all downhill from there,

[00:25:16] Bob Wheeler: but that is definitely true. What does financial success mean to you?

[00:25:20] Chase Guelette: Financial success to me is being able to do whatever I want with my time. Time does not equal money. I want to be able to do whatever I want whenever I want.

[00:25:29] Bob Wheeler: Awesome. Will Rogers said too many people spend money. They earned to buy things. They don’t want to impress people. They don’t like, can you think of a time where you’ve ever done?

[00:25:40] Chase Guelette: Actually, no, because that is something I’ve thought about before. And it’s something that I actively avoid. So I don’t think so, but I could be wrong about

[00:25:46] Bob Wheeler: that. Okay. All right. But the intention is there not to do that, the intentions there. So that’s awesome. If you had to describe your relationship with money using an emoji, what would you choose?

[00:25:58] Chase Guelette: You know, the one that has money eyes and the tongue sticking out and it’s like, I like money on the tongue. Yeah. That’s how I feel about money all the time.

[00:26:05] Bob Wheeler: Nice. That’s a good emoji. I like that. Do your parents make you contribute financially to the household?

[00:26:12] Chase Guelette: Actually, no. I just had to get my own gas, which is really nice.

[00:26:15] Although I do end up buying a lot of food sometimes, you know, when I go on

[00:26:18] Bob Wheeler: shopping. Okay. So you’re getting a free ride. This is what I’m hearing. You’re getting a free ride and

[00:26:21] Chase Guelette: a free ride and a real grateful for it. Trust me. Okay. All

[00:26:25] Bob Wheeler: right. Just checking, just checking. So we’re at the Eminem moment where at our sweet spot money and motivate.

[00:26:32] What is something that you can tell our listeners as a financial practical tip or a piece of wealth wisdom, something that you do that you found to be really helpful that other people could.

[00:26:42] Chase Guelette: Honestly, it all comes back to really keeping good track of my spending habits. Cause like, as in that I learned really quickly, there was this period where I was working a lot with the family orchard.

[00:26:50] I was working for myself and I was part-time employee at this other company and I was working all the time, but I was also making a lot of money and be kind of, I was making a lot of money. I went, well, I may, I can spend a lot of money, bro. I’m making X amount per month. I’m pretty much a God. And so my spending got really out of hand and I spent way too much money in the span of.

[00:27:11] And ended up blowing like a third of what I had earned, which was a lot like, that was a lot for how much I earned that month. And I went and it went to my head. And so keeping track of my spending habits is like the biggest thing for me. And I have this nightly routine, like when I’m getting ready to go to bed, there’s a couple things that I have to do before I got to.

[00:27:30] I got to put all my calories into a spreadsheet, got to put all my sleep hours into a spreadsheet. And I have to track all of my daily purchases in the spreadsheet. And by putting that in every single night, it’s one of those last things that kind of comes into my brain. So like if I look at my spreadsheet and I see that I’ve gone out, if I’ve eaten out like four days in a row, I start to be like, whoa.

[00:27:49] And I see that, that those four, $10 meals, 40 bucks in the last four days, I’m like, whoa, well, you got to slow this down. And I’ve gotten a whole lot veteran not doing that, but it’s a really good, like, almost check yourself before you wreck yourself system because I’m able to visually see every time that I spent.

[00:28:07] And having a goal budget for each month, I’m like, okay, no more than $200 this month. That’s the thing. And I got to think about that in advance, because if I have a big purchase, like December, it’s like $500 for this month because it’s Christmas shopping time and I gotta be ready. But like, if I know that I have a big purchase coming up, that means that I need to dial it back, going out to get food, like.

[00:28:30] Me and my sister, we can’t get ice cream every other day. You know, we gotta be careful this month. Cause we only have $200 to spend. So one tracking my money and two having a goal budget for every single month is one of the most effective ways. I found a cur my money, my money spending habits, which means that I simultaneously have more money to invest.

[00:28:48] Save, do whatever with like that’s the biggest thing for me is budgeting. Yeah. Maybe if you’re crazy rich, you don’t have to worry about budgeting because you can’t spend your money fast. But I’m not crazy rich. So that’s my number one. That’s my number one tip. And I feel like most people aren’t crazy rich.

[00:29:02] So budgeting is always a good idea.

[00:29:03] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. You know, I love that. And chase, what I love about this whole conversation is there’s such a intentionality and a self-awareness and being very conscious of the. And you didn’t name it by name, but the fact that you and your sister go without ice cream, delayed gratification, not having to have everything in the moment is so important.

[00:29:25] And this ability to self-correct their courses off, you’re spending a little bit too much money, but you’re looking at it and you’re like, oh, wait a minute. I’m feeding the ego, not my budget. Let me step back a second. And course correct. So, you know, I think. Older folks out there still will look at the budget and go, yeah, I probably shouldn’t spend let’s do it anyway.

[00:29:47] And that ability to stop yourself and say, Nope, I actually see the bigger picture I’m looking for the long run, the long haul, and actually being able to advocate for your future instead of just compelled to take care of any impulses in the moment. And I love that. And you’re willing to get out there and get educated reading about cryptocurrency.

[00:30:08] You’re looking at the different things and actually educating yourself versus, oh, I’m just going to, let’s throw some money at it. And I hope something sticks, even though I have no idea what I’m doing. So I think that’s really great. I appreciate your fresh approaches and I am a frugal person myself. So I appreciate that.

[00:30:26] There’s all these. Things in place that you’re actually intentionally doing, like every night, looking at the budget, looking at recording your calories, all of that stuff is so important. If we want to have the life we say we want to have. Right. And it sounds like you’re on track for that even going to college, even if you’re not sure you want to do it.

[00:30:44] But we’re going to do it anyway. Make mom and dad happy as sir. Where can people find you online and social media and where can they hear about the teen financial

[00:30:52] Chase Guelette: freedom? Yeah, it’s the group I work with. They’re awesome. I actually host the teen financial freedom podcast. I’m a co-host with a good buddy of mine named Terry.

[00:31:00] So, if you can find us over at the teen financial freedom podcast on Spotify, apple, wherever you get your podcasts, you can find us there. Tons of great content going out there, everything ranging from self-improvement to finance, to investing, et cetera. It’s a lot of me and Terry and our guests who are sometimes kids and sometimes like adults, like we have by.

[00:31:22] I think Bob has been, I think you’ve been on the teen financial freedom podcast before I have been on, so we have a great mix of me and Terry documenting our journeys, talking about the struggles that we face to professionals like Bob talking about their journeys and giving us professional insight to just.

[00:31:38] Coming on and asking us questions. We did Dave Ramsey style, like financial fix for a guy. Once he had like sold the car that he’d been working on at me, like 15 grand and didn’t know what to do with it. So we came in and we helped him with his budget. We helped him invest his money and we did it all live on the podcast.

[00:31:54] And that was a really cool episode. So we have a wide range of stuff that we talk about on the pod. You can find me at chase gullet on Twitter and Instagram. I’m not super active on Instagram or active on Twitter. Cause I spend a lot of time in there just seeing what’s happening in the market because for some reason Twitter’s where all the crypto people go.

[00:32:13] So you can find me there. Let’s see if you go to the teen financial freedom website, which is just teen financial freedom.com. You’d probably be able to contact me through the form there. Just ask for me if you want to talk. If you want to DM me on Twitter, Instagram, reach out through teen financial freedom.

[00:32:31] I’m always happy to talk.

[00:32:33] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. And I highly recommend people that are listening that say, well, I’ve got kids, but I don’t like talking about money, send your kids to the website. There’s a lot of great blogs. There’s just a lot of great conversation. And for me personally, because I’m a money nerd, seeing all these young folks actually getting excited and involved, you know, I did not grow up with these kinds of tools or that environment.

[00:32:55] And so. It’s a great resource. So I really hope people check out teen financial freedom.com. Cause there’s a lot of great stuff there. Chase. Hey, thanks for joining us today. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been enlightening and good luck with finishing out school. Don’t work too many 80 hour weeks while you’re wrapping

[00:33:12] Chase Guelette: up.

[00:33:12] Don’t worry at most two or three more. Alright, thank you, Bob, for having me out to spend it. Awesome.

[00:33:25] Bob Wheeler: We hope you enjoyed this episode. Did you learn something new about your relationship to money today? Maybe you have a friend who has some financial blocks or beliefs that are holding them back. Please share this podcast. So they too can get off the rollercoaster ride a financial. And journey towards financial freedom to learn how to have a healthy relationship with money, visit the money nerve.com.

[00:33:47] That’s nerve not nerd. We’ll be back next week with another perspective on money and the emotions that bind us. .