Kris Krohn today on Limitless TV. We are doing a fun project, I have reached out
to one of our other YouTube channel fans who talks a lot about budgeting and
savings because you know what? This is something that we need to get you more
information on and she's going to be sharing from her channel some of her
best information and knowledge on what is the purpose of budgeting, how do you
do it to your best ability and we got all of that coming your way right now.
Alright, Kristen, so excited to get to know you better and I'm excited for the
opportunity that we have to collaborate on today's video because a lot of the
people on my channel specifically are looking for information about budgeting,
they're looking for information about savings and obviously with your channel,
this is something that you really specialize in, so Kristen Marie,
that is the name of your YouTube channel. Can you just start off by giving a
little bit of a summary about what do people find, by the way, when they go to
your channel, why do people subscribe? - When they first go to my
channel, they see that I am a millennial and I'm a performer so I deal a lot with
inconsistent income so I think what draws them in is seeing somebody that
doesn't make the same amount of money every single month but yet can still
invest for the future, I just bought my very first home by myself, so I think
what draws them in is the initial inconsistent income and what keeps them
is, how does she make that grow? How does she make that work for her?
I love that.
You know, so with Limitless TV, we're often educating people on real
estate investing and growing their wealth and perhaps one of the most
important foundational principles does begin with this conversation of
budgeting and saving. How do you specifically educate and help people,
first of all, do something most people don't want to do which is budget and
then how do you help them grow themselves once they are budgeting?
I first try to get them to, like you said, sit down and make the budget, I do a lot
of simple, like three-step budgets, because without that number, without
knowing how much they need each month to survive, there's no way you can invest
for the future if you don't take care of yourself today. So what I like to do is,
I'll bring them in, we'll do the three step process of getting your
numbers down, to know where you are and then from there, you can see how much you
can grow in the future.
I love that. Now I hope that this doesn't come
across rude in any way because I have no idea what your answers are gonna be but
I just want to poke the bear a little bit. - Okay, I'm ready. - You know, when we're
budgeting and trying, the whole purpose the budgeting is to really kind
of get a handle on our finances which is so important and there's a lot of people
out there that really kind of think that that is the end goal at the same time
when in fact, there's no way to budget well enough to create
retirement without adding the component of investing, we've got to find a way to
grow our finances and we know that we can't save ourselves to retirement,
there's just not enough excess money for the average person, I believe, in a 40
year working life, to really save enough to lead to what I would call a good safe
and secure retirement, so I feel like investing is an important part. Where
does investing fit into your budgeting model?
Because I work with so
many people with different types of income, once the budget is done and we
know how much money they have to work with, I try to get them to invest before
they spend any money. For example, if somebody makes a thousand dollars and
they need eight hundred to live, I will tell them to take 10% of what is left
over and invest that money, kind of in a way you're taxing yourself, you are
taxing your future self and putting that money aside for later before you go out
and spend any of your extra income.
It's like it's built into our DNA that if
there's extra money that we have to spend it, we have to find a way to
increase our lifestyle and yet the whole purpose of budgeting is to create this
excess for a different purpose. What are some of your most successful ways to
actually encourage people to invest the rest as opposed to just increasing
their lifestyle?
The way I like to do it is, if no matter how much money you
make, if you make ten thousand this year but a hundred thousand next year, I try
to tell everybody to invest at least ten percent and that is not what goes into
your savings, saving should always be about twenty, I say, ten percent
always no matter how much money you're bringing in, so if you do get a big raise
and your lifestyle is about to change, you should always have a consistent
percentage of what you are putting into your investments, that way as your wealth
grows, so do your investments, they grow together.
Absolutely love that. So let me
ask you this then, if someone is doing a successful job, budgeting and putting
money in savings and setting money aside for investing, what do you think people
should be investing in?
Personally, I like real estate, obviously, because I just
bought a home. I also like IRA's just because I like that idea and
in the event that are working, a nine-to-five job that does offer a 401k
match, try to take that extra money and put as much as you can into that match
because essentially that is your company giving you extra money for the future so
I would say real estate, IRA and 401k match.
Well, I love what you're doing here
with people, I think it's amazing and beautiful Kristen, that you got a channel
that is teaching people these amazing principles of budgeting and saving
because heaven knows our world needs it and often before people are really ready
to take some of the advice that I have for them, they've got a gain control over
their finances especially when there's not enough money left at the end of the
month, it's how do I create that gap, how do I create that margin. Last question
that I want to ask you is, obviously, there's a lot of people that are wasting
money because they're not budgeting. Is there a certain amount of money that you
think you can try to help people save from cutting down on unnecessary
spending or spending money where it's not really giving them much gain or
by trading out for some less expensive insurance or services, etc., or some
like, is there generally like an amount that you're
able to successfully help people save that is just being lost and wasted from
lack of knowledge and budgeting?
Yes, I like to separate everybody's spending into
categories, like your rent and things that are always going to stay consistent
and then your living expenses and then you're going out and your lifestyle
expenses. I try to start with 5%. In a month, can a client or a viewer cut down
their spending by 5%. A lot of my videos will have, you know, easy ways to have
dinner at home, easy ways you could have your friends over instead of going out
to see the movies or a sporting event. So if you can find ways to still live your
life and feel as though you're not depriving yourself, you are more likely
to save and you'll be more likely to stay on your budget. It's when someone
feels deprived that they're going to go off their budget, throw it out the window
and say, I only live once and this is what I want to do.
So you really want to
find the balance where people can live the life that they want but doing it
with a budget in mind and I just want to comment on this for our viewers, saving
5% may not sound like a lot, it's a ton. If someone, for example, is living check
to check or let's even say that a person is getting
ahead 10% a year, meaning there's 10% they're not saving, well going from 10%
to 15%, that's a 50% increase, that extra 5% is a meaningful amount especially
if it's directed the correct way, if it's invested the correctly, it certainly has
the ability to start the snowball effect of something small turning into
something great with time. So I think what you're doing with people is really
awesome and super valuable, Kristen. I mean, you know, there's so many different
financial philosophies out there and I think that there are pipey differences
and your philosophy, my philosophy, but this big principal picture of what
you're doing to help people starting to save money that is available to them,
budgeting it appropriately, that's providing a real service for people so
I'm certainly going to encourage everyone on my channel to hop over to
your channel, Kristen Marie, and subscribe so that they can get some more
knowledge and education on how can I start saving that extra 5%?
Exactly. Thank you so much.
You're welcome. Kristen, I want to thank you so much for
being on the channel today. Huge value, great information and you know what?
If you're watching this and thinking, "Wow, I need more knowledge and information from
Kristen, then I want you to click on the link, go to her channel and subscribe
there because she's got a lot more value to offer you, that's the whole reason why
we decided to collaborate and get together so I hope it helps those you
that need that help getting her specific information.