Welcome to the show today, today we're going to be talking about how to achieve freedom in
a budget. Kelly Anne Smith is the owner and founder of freedom in a budget a company that dedicates to
educating people on how to grow their income spend and save she also has a YouTube channel recently
uh a Youtube channel called Freedom in a Budget and she has a recent project that she just started
Kelly's blog she won best finance blog of south Florida that was two years ago in 2019 actually
almost three years ago is that correct Kelly? Yeah so let's welcome Miss Kelly to the show
how are you doing? I'm great thank you for having me, good good so you stated uh that you live in
South Florida what really got you into the world of really educating people and personal finance?
Yeah it really just started with me documenting my journey and I wanted to pay off my debt I
wanted to be debt-free and also start managing my money improperly I was living paycheck to paycheck
had my car repossessed previously power turned off student loans in default and was not good with
money so I wanted to start getting on the right track and I thought what better way than put my
life on the internet and start a Youtube channel so I did it for accountability and it just grew
over the years of you know this personal finance brand and helping others do the same thing.
So when you say that free what was your steps on achieving such a goal to becoming debt-free? Yeah
biggest thing was getting on a budget and tracking my expenses that is like a built-in accountability
partner of really figuring out where you're spending where you can cut where you can grow
your income side muscles was another big thing I was doing crazy amounts of side hustles and
um finding any way to make money on the side and that was that was a big thing and
then just cutting back my expenses so that any extra money I could put towards my debt.
So you um you talk about um really just analyzing your budget and your
expenditures uh moving forward so how do one control their money in a way that they're
in a budget in which they can also save as well. I'm really big on budgets aren't constricting
and so many people think that they're super constricting and that's why I named my channel
freedom in a budget because budgets really give you freedom and I'm the type of person where
growing up if I or even in my early 20's if I had 20 extra dollars that mean $20 to spend and
anything in my bank account that meant free money to spend not save or invest or do anything, and so
when I started getting on a budget and really analyzing and taking a step back
okay what does this mean then I was able to put money into the budget
for certain items and that gave me freedom. So for instance before I would feel guilty when I ate out
anytime I would eat out I would feel guilty I should be spending this on my student loans or
this or that. Then I said okay let's do a budget I can afford $100 a month on eating out
then that $100 was mine to use and I didn't feel guilty when i did it and it gave me
that freedom and then above that $100 that was that was in the red we weren't supposed
to go above the hundred but that kept me on track. So that way any extra money I could put that
towards my goal. Oh, wow so that that's pretty cool because I try to stick to my budget but I like to
eat out because I like to eat, and so that all that's the only thing that always get me is the
out that I'd be eating now not like spitting on like shoes or anything like this always the eating
out that gets me the most. And so I'm really trying my best to kind of like minimize my eating out um
only so I can save more money, so for those that been in that position what do you say
to them on how to kind of like get rid of that little niche that they always have like going
out with their friends or going out with loved ones eating out on the weekends or just I mean
when things were regular regular and you can go on the weekends and go to a bar or whatever have you
how did you how did you kind of curve that kind of appetite in your budget? Yeah, great question
I really looked for alternatives and you know I'm a big type of person that loves to connect
with friends and get together and catch up and instead of you know going for the typical lunch
with a friend. I would say hey can we go to the park instead like can we just go and walk around
the park and then we get some fresh air we get some exercise and we still get to catch up
so kind of finding those alternatives of the traditional let's grab lunch or let's grab
dinner or if we did want to have dinner with a group of friends we would say hey why did you guys
come over we'll do a potluck style or we'll have a taco bar everyone bring some toppings and that
way each person or couple is only spending 5 or 10 dollars versus like 40 50 100 dollar
if you were to go out to a big meal and it really was able just to have that connection and then you
kind of get to know each other better and get to hang out more than at a busy loud restaurant.
That's kind of that's really true so how do one go about um avoiding deb,t so I mean it's always
a catch out there to get a new credit card lower interest rate so on and
so forth so how do we want to avoid um accumulating so much debt? It sounds so
simple and it sounds like just like too easy but honestly just making that
conscious decision of I'm not going to accrue any more debt, I'm going to stop using my credit cards
I'm going to stop you know buying these things or if I need a new car I'm going to save up cash and
i'm going to put 200 a month towards a new car and then when the time is ready then I have the money
um but just making that decision it you know when you're when you're in debt it seems like it's just
unfeasible like I like how can you tell me just to stop occurring debt like that's just
not easy but once you become debt free it's so amazing that you just have that decision and
it's it's there and then also when you become debt free it's amazing how much faster you're
able to build wealth. Like when we were paying off our student loans I would put 500 extra dollars
towards my student loans and my net worth would go up like 400 whatever dollars because of interest.
Now I put 500 into the market and it's crazy how much faster it can grow and your net worth just
like grows so much faster and so when you're debt free and you're able to build wealth other ways,
then you can just cash flow things you can since we became debt-free we cash flowed our wedding we
cash flowed a dream car uh my Jeep Cherokee we cash flowed a cruise to Alaska, like we've been
able to do all these amazing things because we've just had those principles and made that decision.
That's really awesome and you did talk about some side hustles that you had so what are the other
ways that you can grow your income for someone um you know that has a full-time job and as you
was talking about you had a job but you also got these side hustles to kind of help you know
build up this um started to build up this wealth what are some other ways someone um can go about
you know building up wealth updates. Yeah I'm I'm super passionate about helping people grow their
income and you know that's kind of evolved on my YouTube channel of saving money and paying off
debt and now it's kind of a lot of growing your income different ways to build wealth that way, and
I'm huge on online side muscles especially with the day and age that we're in right now there's so
many ways to build income online and you know that could go from creating a YouTube channel or blog
or freelance writing if you're a good writer or any freelance task if you want to be an editor or
graphic designer or even things like helping people with resumes like there's so many odds
and end jobs that you can do online and I've actually created a program that helps people do
that and helps people go through the process of I have this you know idea of wanting to start a side
hustle if okay let's find clarity and confidence in it and then we go through the different mindset
of dealing with imposter syndrome. Then we deal with creating systems and the legal aspect and
different revenue streams and all of the different components of starting an online business that's
something that I become really passionate about and now help people do that as well.
Well that's cool so like for instance so lowering bills is one of the hardest things
for a lot of us to do uh what are some of the best methods on lowering our bills so we can
you know maintain the budget that we set for ourselves. Yeah, big thing is really just doing
an audit of you know your spending go through your bank statements if you're not on a budget
get on a budget and then really just look at it and be like all right am I even using this service.
I recently had a coaching call with someone and we went through his budget line by line
and everything and he was like oh I haven't even looked at that in months and I was like got to go
we're cutting it and there's so many things that you're just
auto drafts from your account that you don't even realize so really sit down do an audit, and then
call up your companies call up your cable company you know negotiate with them that's something that
you should be doing every six months and you can really save a lot of money that way. That's that's
actually cool there's a lot of different apps out there that have these recommendations man and all
these other stuff. So what are some of the ones that you recommend or they have to use in the past.
I honestly I'm not the biggest fan of the like I personally never used those
those apps i've always just been you know a excel budget type of person
um and that's you know it really is eye-opening and I love being able to like
manually track my expenses versus the auto ones that just connect your brain account those are
convenient but there's something about when you have to put in there that you went to the gas
station and got snacks two days later you went to the gas station got snacks two days later you
got since the gas station got snacks like oh yeah that that sense of accountability and like oh crap
okay I see where I can cut. That's cool so you did talk about some side hustles and some
other things that you did do what are some style hustles that someone can do during the pandemic.
Yeah so um becoming a virtual assistant and helping you know influencers is a really big
one and even like managing social media creating simple graphics from people's instagram like it
doesn't have to be complex, like if you're already running your own social media chances are you can
help someone with their social media as well um another big one is proofreading, proofreading blogs
proofreading content for people um writing blog posts you can make really big money on that like
on Fiverr, Upwork um creating your own any type of listing on those sites as well freelancing YouTube
is a great great one I make very good money on YouTube affiliate marketing. There's so many
different ways that you can make money online now. That's cool so there is always a talk about having
uh an emergency budget um how do one set up an emergency budget when they have all these other
budgets that they have like the regular budget just to maintain themselves and they have you know
um they have money set aside for savings and so how do one set up an emergency budget and how much
should they save you know a month for that emergency budget? Yeah I'm really big on you
know having at least one more month's worth of expenses as an emergency fund um start there
and then grow up to 6 months to a year just to have because you know 2020 taught us that
you know who knows what's going to happen to your job who knows what's going to happen
and the economy and you know whatever happens and we had a $20,000 pay cut between my
husband and I.This past year but thankfully due to our you know our side hustles my you know my
business on the side like we didn't have to touch our emergency fund anything like that
and then i also really recommend you having a I call it a bare bones budget
so you have your typical monthly budget but then also having a separate budget where say you lost
your job say you know something major happens that you can go to this budget and live off
of it and it's just your bare bones expenses and no extra fluffy eating out you know very minimal
groceries and just just what it takes to survive type of thing. And have that ready because if you
don't have it ready and say God forbid you get the call today to that you lost your job
and now you're without an income you're not going to be thinking rationally you're going to be running on
adrenaline and your emotions are going to be high so you want to be able to have that budget created
when you're thinking level headed so that when that time comes you can just be like okay,
it sucks but let's put this into place and start acting on it
that is so true that that is really true man and it's hard to do but it is something that
is needed especially um since 2020 definitely taught us that you just never know. Never know.
Never know um what are the tips to improve your money mindset so what are some of the tips that
kind of prove the amount of your just on how you save and how you budget how did you get yourself
mentally there, yeah a huge one that people just don't give enough credit to is the scarcity
mindset and how much it hurts you and you know I grew up living off of you know not not a good
area we qualified for free lunches in my school we always lived paycheck to paycheck growing up and
for the longest time that was just normal for me and I never thought that I would be able to build
wealth I never thought I would be able to get out of that cycle and having that thought process
really hindered me and it kept me there and then as soon as I was like no enough is enough I'm
my own person like my husband and I we can we can change this and we can do something for ourselves
and just having that mentality of the sky's the limit, yeah it's going to take a lot of work yeah
it's going to suck yeah there's going to be late nights and times when I don't want to do
it but, I have bigger dreams and I have bigger goals for my family and when I do those it's
amazing what can happen and I I don't ever have to live paycheck to paycheck again.
I don't know that's right that motivates me not being able to live paycheck to paycheck, so tell
us how how did you grow your YouTube channel so it started out you know educating individuals like
yourself um on how you got motivated on to save and your personal finances and how did it grow
from there. Yeah it started out just me documenting my journey and I knew nothing about you know I was
filming on my iPhone on the front-facing screen until I hit 20,000 subscribers um so don't use
you know camera gear or anything like that as an excuse, because if I can do it you can do it um but
I just slowly you know I stayed consistent over the past 5 years since I started my channel
in April 2016 I have not missed a single week of uploading in the entire time I've never missed a
week, um if I went on vacation or even my wedding and you know gone for two weeks I pre-filmed and
had it scheduled consistently consistency is huge on YouTube um create that schedule create that
whatever you're going to do whether it be one video a week two videos three videos whatever it is
decide what it is decide you know and then stay consistent with it um joining other
like-minded people is huge find a mastermind there's not a mess around create a mastermind.
Just where you can talk shop because chances are people in your real life don't understand
YouTube they don't understand what you're doing so find other people other creators that are about
the same size as you maybe you know five to ten thousand subscribers up or down from you but that
are pretty much on the same path as you and just have that time where you can vent have that time
where you can talk strategy or best practices or SEO or analytics, um and then learn those things as
well you know take the time to learn the analytics it's confusing at first SEO is confusing at first
but once you learn it and become a master of it it can just grow your channel so much from there.
That is so true that is so true so it's been a pleasure speaking with you tell us how can we
find you on YouTube and Instagram. Yeah uh YouTube is freedom in a budget, Kelly Anne Smith. And then
Instagram is at freedom in a budget. Thank you Miss Kelly Anne for joining us today. Thank You.