Welcome back to Sex and Money w/ Jess, let's dive into today's topic: quick fixes. I often find myself having conversations with people facing financial challenges or laying the foundation for their future. Quick fixes like selling possessions or making impulsive decisions may seem tempting, but there's more to consider.

Before jumping into a quick fix, take a moment to analyze all angles. Consider scenarios like selling your car to buy a bike for commuting. While it sounds eco-friendly and healthy, factors like weather, terrain, and unexpected situations need attention.

Financially, selling items or making quick changes can bring in income, but have you thought about what you'll do with that money? Are you pausing to decide if it goes into savings, investments, or paying off debts?

The issue arises when people revert to old spending habits after a quick financial boost. The key is to align the newfound income with your financial goals. Enjoying money is essential, but when you have specific financial objectives, a quick fix might not be the best approach.

When considering a quick fix, pause and discuss it with someone you trust. Seek a second opinion and talk through the pros and cons. Write down the numerical value of the quick fix and create a financial scenario, looking ahead to months or even years. The goal is to make a decision aligned with your financial future.

Don't rush into quick fixes without assessing the impact. Sleep on it, and physically act out scenarios. Ask yourself if it feels right and if it aligns with your goals. Quick fixes aren't always bad, but taking the time to pause and assess leads to more informed decisions.

I've learned from experience that impulsive decisions without a financial foundation can lead to regrets. Whether it takes days or hours, create a routine of understanding your finances. It'll benefit you more in the long run.

If you're in the midst of contemplating a quick fix and need an opinion, feel free to shoot me an email. I'm here to help.

Connect with Jess

Website: www.lovealwaysjess.com/getstarted

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Hey, I hope that your day is going swell.

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Today, while I am currently recording this

podcast, I am packing to head to Texas.

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I'm very excited.

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In 2023, I took a yoga teacher training.

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And I was paired up with

three wonderful ladies.

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One of them decided to open

a yoga studio in Hico, Texas.

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So this coming weekend

is her grand opening.

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They're cutting the ribbon.

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Having some, um, parties,

all that fun stuff.

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So I'm currently getting packed to

do that while I'm recording this.

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And I'm so excited.

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So if you're ever driving

through Hico, Texas, be sure

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to check out the rooted soul.

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Yoga.

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And Kristi is a fabulous human being.

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She will treat you with so much love.

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Her heart is the biggest

heart I have ever met.

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So, check it out if you're ever in Chico.

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Today I want to talk about quick fixes.

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Why we may do them.

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Why we shouldn't do them.

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Um, and what we can do instead.

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I often have conversations.

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With people who are in financial

hardships or are in the beginning

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process of figuring out how to create a

foundation that they can build off of.

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And one of the biggest things

that comes up is people

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I'll just start selling my stuff,

or my car is my biggest expense,

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so I'm going to sell it and then

use that money to do X, Y, and Z,

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or I'm going to sell my car, get a

bike, and start commuting to work.

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Whatever your quick fix might be.

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Sometimes.

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These might be great ideas.

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Um, I'm not saying a quick fix isn't

necessarily bad, but what happens is,

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you do a quick fix, and you get this

lump sum of money, or if you start to

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sell stuff on eBay, wherever you can

sell stuff, Facebook market, there's

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a lot of different places out there.

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You start to get money coming in.

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But you haven't sat down and figured

out what you're going to do, A, with the

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money that you have coming in, or B, what

you're going to do with the alternative.

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Take into consideration the idea

of sell your car, buy a bike, and

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start commuting to work on a bike.

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Theoretically, that's a great idea.

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You get money from the sale of

your car, you start exercising

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more, you are eco friendly.

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So there's a lot of benefits to that

approach, but then sometimes the

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alternatives aren't thought of where,

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what kind of a state do you live in, do

you live in a state that has all four

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seasons, or are you someplace like Florida

or California, where 95 percent of the

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year, it's warm, it's pretty mild weather.

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And you can go and commute

via a bike without any issues.

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Other things that some people don't

take into consideration are the terrain

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that they're going to be biking on

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or.

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If they had to go in early or

stay late at work and then they

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had a bike home at night in the

dark, what does that bring up?

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Do you need to get a bus pass?

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Do you need to tag along with a friend

to give you a ride home on those moments?

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So there's things that,

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before you do a quick fix, you

should look at all angles of things.

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Now, if we look at it from a

financial perspective, selling

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your car or selling things on eBay

or whatever market you choose,

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it does bring in a stream of

income and that income feels good.

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But are you pausing to figure out

what you're going to do with that

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money before you even approach it?

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Are you going to put

that money into savings?

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Are you going to automatically put

that money into Fidelity or Vanguard

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or one of the investment websites?

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Are you going to use that

money to pay off a credit card?

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And then, once you decide what

you're going to do with that money,

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the next step is actively doing that.

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And sometimes what happens Is people

get that stream of income and then

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they go back to their old spending

habits and they go, Oh my gosh, I just

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sold like five jackets or I sold my

bookcase and I was able to get 500.

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I know I said I was going

to pay off a credit card.

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I know I said I was going

to put this into savings.

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But my friend Rachel just invited me

on a cruise or just invited me to this

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concert or whatever the scenario is.

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And then they end up spending the

money in that place instead of towards

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what their actual financial goal was.

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I'm always somebody who tells people

to enjoy their money because I do

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think that you should enjoy your money.

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I don't think that we should all

sit here and grind and hustle.

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And that not enjoy things in our lives,

but . We'll talk about that another day.

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My but is when we have financial goals.

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Whether it's getting out of debt,

purchasing something big, investing,

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setting up our future, etc.

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A quick fix doesn't get us into the

mindset of that goal because it's quick.

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It's like when you're in a supermarket

and you're standing in the checkout line.

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and you see your favorite Snickers bar

and you're just like, I don't need that.

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But then you stand there longer and

you stand there longer and you stand

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there longer and then all of a sudden

you're like, No, I do need that.

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And so you grab it, and then you go

home and you eat it, and you're like,

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shoot, I shouldn't have done that.

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Now I feel sluggish, or

whatever the reason might be.

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You were quickly tempted while you

were standing in the checkout line,

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and then down the road, you weren't

any closer to whatever your goal was.

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So you're quickly tempted to sell things,

to give up a car, or to sell some of your

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clothes, or do any sort of quick fix.

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And then two, three, four months

later, you realize you're not

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actually where you want to be.

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When you get into the mindset of, let me

do this quick fix, I want you to pause.

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A few things you could do is

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talk to a trusted friend or confidant.

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Say, hey, does it make sense

if I were to do X, Y, and Z?

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What are your thoughts?

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If I were to

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get a 0 percent APR credit card, do

a transfer balance, balance transfer,

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I would get these sort of points from

the credit card, airline miles, hotel

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vouchers, whatever, and I would have

0 percent interest for 18 months.

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Does that sound good?

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And your friend or your confidant,

whoever, will give you their opinion.

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They'll tell you yes or no.

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That way you have a out

loud sounding board.

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You don't have to listen to

their decision, their opinion,

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but you're talking it through.

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You're talking it out loud with

somebody and getting feedback.

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Another thing I suggest doing,

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write down the quick fix, write

down the numerical value of what

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it is that you want to do, and

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create a spreadsheet or use a calculator

or write it down to see what impact

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that would have on your finances,

not just today, but two, three,

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four, five, six months down the road.

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I do this sometimes.

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In general, when I'm making financial

decisions, I sit down and I go,

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okay, if I want to pay for this, or

if I want to stop paying for this,

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what am I going to be able to do

with my finances by April, by June?

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And sometimes I go through December,

sometimes I even go two, three years

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out, depending upon what it is, and

I come up with different scenarios.

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I will give myself two or

three different scenarios.

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If I sell my car today.

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For 10, 000, I can pay off

these three credit cards,

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and then I have to buy a bike, so

that's going to be an immediate expense.

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I have to

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ask friends for rides on

nights that I work late.

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I have to buy a bus pass.

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What happens if I change my job?

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Then I have to buy another car,

which might result in a car payment.

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So I lay all of these

different scenarios out.

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Also in that scenario, I would

write down, I don't have car

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insurance, so I'd save money there.

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I don't have gas expense,

I'd save money there.

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I'd lay all of these things out,

and I'd weigh the benefits against

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what could possibly go wrong.

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And I'd ask myself, which

scenario seems better to me?

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The

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other thing I'm going to suggest that

you do, If you sleep on it, and I

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don't just mean for 24 hours, maybe

what you do one day, if you have like

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a bike in your garage and you want

to sell your car, you test out the

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biking to work, or when you're driving

to work, you drive the route that

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you'd have to take while you're biking

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and visually see you.

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What that would require.

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Or if you're wanting to sell

clothes, or Pokemon cards.

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What does that look like?

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Does that require loading things online?

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Check out the websites.

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Go visit the stores

that you'd sell them to.

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Physically act it out

in your current life.

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And then as you're

doing that, sleep on it.

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Ask yourself, did that

feel good in my body?

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Did that make sense to me?

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What the conversations I

had with the salespeople or

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the route that I would take?

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Did it feel like I'd

be protected from cars?

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Were there a lot of inclines?

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where there are a lot of blind

spots, potholes, whatever.

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Think through all of those little things.

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Now, not all quick fixes are going

to require a lot of in depth thought

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processes like those extreme examples

I'm giving, but when we physically

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sit down and we pause, And we

think through the pros, the cons.

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If I give this up, what is

the alternative gonna be?

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What am I going to be left with?

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When we think through all of that, it

gives us more of a realistic point to then

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make the decision as to whether or not

this decision we're doing is right for us.

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It leads us in the direction of our goals.

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It saves me in the short

term and in the long term.

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It's a good investment into

what I see my future being.

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So quick fixes aren't always bad.

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They require us to pause though because

when you make a decision Based off of

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lack of information or lack of

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truth,

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then you may regret it down the road.

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I've been there, but I've learned

to pause, to talk about it with

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other people, to think through all

the different scenarios, and to

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spell out a true financial timeline

so I can see the bigger picture.

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Sometimes that could take days or weeks.

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Other times it takes three hours.

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Sometimes it takes three hours.

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I remember back in 2018,

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my yoga instructor was like, I'm hosting

my first ever retreat in Costa Rica.

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And I thought, okay, signups are open.

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I have a few days.

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No, less than 24 hours later,

there were like three spots left.

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I had to make a quick decision.

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I didn't know how I was

going to pay for it,

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threw down my credit card and said, okay.

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And then I got to work to figuring

out how I was going to pay for it.

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Sometimes quick decisions are needed.

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But at that time, I also had a

foundation of what my money looked like.

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I wasn't going in blind.

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I may not have known true costs

yet because I didn't know how

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much my flight was going to cost.

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But I also knew what my income for

the next six months were going to be.

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I knew what my expenses were going to be.

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And I had a rough idea

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of how long it was going

to take me to pay that off.

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That's why choosing to do a quick

fix and Not having a foundation of

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what your finances look like can be

detrimental choosing to go to Costa Rica.

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I know it was not a fix, but

it was a quick decision is

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a quick financial decision.

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So, when you spend time getting

intimate with your finances.

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In these examples of quick fixes, you

spell things out for the next 6 months.

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It starts to create a.

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Routine in your brain.

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So when moments like my Costa

Rica trip come up, you can

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quickly do it on the spot.

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It may not be 100%, but

you can sit there and go.

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Okay, if I take this and divide it

out over 6 months or whatever it is.

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You can quickly do it in your head,

have a decent picture of it, and then

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make that quick decision if you need to.

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But if you have the time, pause, look

through all the scenarios, talk to

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somebody else about it, talk to your

partner, talk to your best friend, talk

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to somebody that you trust, whose opinion

you trust, write things down, plan it out.

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At the end of the day, it will

benefit you more not to do a quick

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fix than to do the quick fix.

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because you'll have a plan in place.

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I hope that the rest of your day, the

rest of your week, everything goes well.

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And if you're in the middle of trying

to figure out a quick fix and need an

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opinion from somebody and you don't have

a sounding board, shoot me an email.

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We'll hop on a call.

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We'll talk through it.

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That's what I'm here for.

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Talk to you later.