Surviving Job Insecurity with the Debt Free Guys
Surviving Job Insecurity with the Debt Free Guys
Today is the first Friday in April, and, in case you didn’t know, April is Financial Literacy Month, or, our favorite month of the year at The Gym. If you are listening to this podcast, you’ve made financial literacy an important part of your life. If you are looking for more resources, especially this month, we have a number of free events going on at The Financial Gym — we have one for every weekday. Check out the schedule at financialgym.com, and, again, everything is free.
The Gym also has its own podcast call Financially Naked, where you can hear more from our clients and our trainers, and you can find that anywhere you listen to podcasts. I hope you will check out our events and share them with your friends, so they can embrace financial literacy as well.
Onto today’s show! Managing couples’ finances is a challenge, especially if you are in similar industries or have similar job types. Joining me today are my good friends David and John, otherwise known as the Debt Free Guys, and the the hosts of Queer Money Podcast, to discuss how they’ve managed their household finances as a couple, and also weathered a global pandemic that affected their joint business, and stayed financially healthy throughout it all.
What are we drinking?
John - Coffee
David - Green Tea
Shannon - Black Cherry Schweppes
Podcast Notes
John and David met at a gay bar, but they didn’t start dating until three years after that. They were both in credit card debt and they were both in financial services helping others with their money.
After five years together, David started working at John’s company. There were over 2,000 employees on the campus in three buildings. They ended up being in cubicles right near each other.
David started working in financial services in 1996 and John started in 2000 and they got together in 2004. From 1996 until 2004, they both experienced times in the industry where there was job insecurity because of market crashes and layoffs.
They never talked about working in the same industry until they were looking to buy a condo in late 2006. The real estate agent kept pushing them to buy something that was seven to nine times their annual income. They purchased something that was one and a half times their annual income, and it gave them a low mortgage that allowed them to put money into their retirement accounts.
They had a conversation about income and job insecurity and what they should do about it. Up to then, they had $51,000 in credit card debt and were spending mindlessly. They decided they wanted something simple and affordable, so they could save for retirement and give back to their community.
Both of them kept their jobs during the last recession. After they paid off their debt, they were intentional about what they were doing with their money. It wasn’t difficult for them to scale back.
When looking to buy a home with another person, what can you get with one person’s income? The realtor or salesperson is assuming you are perfect with your finances and that you have a budget. Bigger houses have bigger expenses.
When John was a W-2 employee, he had a lot of anxiety and slept a lot on the weekends. They had started Debt Free Guys on the side and, because they had an affordable mortgage and three-month emergency fund, John decided to quit his job to work on the website full time.
There is a lot of peer pressure in the LGBTQ community to be dramatic and fabulous. It’s easy to spend money to get people to like us, like buying drinks for everyone.
Make it a goal to create a sustainable lifestyle that can be maintained through different jobs or, for freelancers, a loss of income.
John and David both eventually left the W-2 world to operate Debt Free Guys. They started the business to spend more time together. John left his job first to see if he could grow the business to support him. Two years later, David quit his job to join him.
The original date they set for David to quit his job had to be pushed out, because of the cost of health care. They built up some business and personal reserves, which helped him take the leap. Their business started earning more when David joined and it peaked in 2019.
They have their own products and content, their podcast, public speaking, and brand representation. The areas they made the most money disappeared in 2020. They decided to refocus the business on their own products and content.
Prior to COVID, they sold their condo and traveled abroad and lived in Spain for three months. When they came back, the place they were moving into wasn’t ready, so they stayed with their support system on the east coast for a few months.
They would have been able to make the condo payment in 2020, had they still owned it, but they would have needed to scale way back. Because they built up reserves, they have been able to use those to not feel like they are destitute.
You are either winning or learning. What can you do to fix the things in your life that make you feel like you are not winning? You can get instant gratification from a financial health journey, like a no-spend day or week. There are so many ways to get financially healthy.
Talking about money and planning together creates a sense of intimacy in couples.
There is a risk in putting so much faith in a single income stream, like a W-2 income. Take advantage of the gig economy and increase your streams of income.
Join the Debt Free Guys’ investment class as soon as possible. There is no other part of the economy that is designed for success like the stock market, because there are too many wealthy people who need that to continue. The sooner you join the better.
Random Three Questions
What was your highlight of 2020?
What are you bingeing?
If this was your last night on earth, what would you eat?
Connect with the Debt Free Guys
Social Media: @debtfreeguys
Podcast: Queer Money Podcast
Website: debtfreeguys.com
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or if you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, I encourage you to email me to Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group, and let me know what you want to hear.
This past year, we witnessed a number of people lose jobs and many households lost one, possibly two, sources of income. If your household finances rely on the two of you to maintain them, now is a great time to assess any potential weaknesses and make sure you have a robust emergency fund, should an emergency like a job loss or lower business revenues happen.
Financial literacy is a language that impacts all of us, and yet most of us never learned about it at home, in school, or on the job. The Financial Gym’s core mission is to promote financial literacy for all. If you or someone you know is interested not only in getting financially healthy, but getting financially literate along the way, head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.