Episode 11 - Building a Legacy of Fiscal Responsibility with Amanda Teixeira

Unlock the secrets to a unified financial future with Amanda Teixeira from WalletWin, our guide through the tricky territory of family finances. In a heart-to-heart conversation, Amanda and host Deb Meyer discuss:

  • The process of merging bank accounts and viewpoints,

  • How a shared vision is pivotal to a harmonious future, and

  • Budgeting strategies that respect individual money personalities.

Dive into the world of financial literacy for the younger generation, where allowances and chores become tools for teaching value and responsibility. It's not just about saving and spending; it's about sowing seeds for a generation of financially savvy adults equipped to navigate the economic challenges that lie ahead.

Join us on this journey of transformation, and feel the support of a community cheering you on to financial success.

Full transcript

Deb Meyer (00:02.029)

Hello and welcome to today's episode of Beyond Budgets with Amanda Teixeira. She and her husband, Jonathan are the duo behind WalletWin, where they help everyday people create the life of their dreams by getting intentional with money. Additionally, they published the book, How to Attack Debt, Build Savings, and Change the World Through Generosity. And they are hosts of the podcast Catholic Money Show. Thank you so much for coming, Amanda.

Amanda Teixeira (00:27.344)

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's always a joy to be here.

Deb Meyer (00:30.75)

Wonderful. So I know you've worked with a lot of families over the years. What do you think is the biggest stumbling block when it comes to working together as a family team towards the financial goals?

Amanda Teixeira (00:42.988)

Oh man, where do I begin? There really, yeah, there could be multiple different kind of stumbling blocks in the way, if you will, um, for a family that's maybe not feeling on the same page around money and not able to meet the financial goals that they're desiring to, or maybe that don't know what their financial goals should be. There could be a variety of things influencing that.

Deb Meyer (00:46.826)

I know it's a big question.

Deb Meyer (00:54.51)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (01:10.088)

But I would say the most common one that we run into is couples that just never learned how to speak the same financial language, if you will. So both, you know, two individual people coming into marriage together, having thought about money differently growing up, having experienced what money was spent on or what it was given to, or how it was viewed growing up, two different families of origin coming together.

Deb Meyer (01:20.161)

Okay.

Deb Meyer (01:37.045)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (01:40.272)

And then somehow, you know, there's this idea that we'll just kind of magically morph into being one here on this topic. Um, but it just doesn't happen naturally. It's not something that just occurs by osmosis of being in the same room. Now, um, it's something that takes a whole active and intentional process, not just the actual physical merging of things like bank accounts and, you know, putting your spouse on as a beneficiary on this thing or that there's a lot of that involved practically for sure.

But it's more the, the heart, the mind, the viewing of money now as ours, the viewing of not only are the savings and the investments, but the debt as well as ours together. Even if one spouse isn't working, you know, we're viewing this together as a team. Um, and really unpacking the past before they can actually decide together as a team.

Deb Meyer (02:28.334)

Sure.

Amanda Teixeira (02:39.496)

What are the things that I'm bringing from my past that are not going to serve us in the future? And so what, what are those things that need to go and what things maybe from my past, do we want to keep or actually enhance and then what are we actually. Um, what are we lacking? You know, maybe just from both of our past, we don't have any skills on X, Y, or Z, you know, budgeting or getting out of debt or investing, we don't have any of those, and now we need to actually go.

Deb Meyer (02:47.342)

Sure.

Amanda Teixeira (03:06.56)

learn those things together actively and bring them into our, um, into our financial toolkit, if you will. Um, that's really that biggest stumbling block couples. They just don't do that. And it's not just a year that goes by. It can be decades that go by where couples are limping along, still kind of bickering at each other. They've kind of figured out how to operate a little bit logistically with the money, but not really being of one heart and mind around finances.

Um, it just can bring so much resentment into our, into a relationship. And so if that is somebody who's listening, you know, it's almost like one of those emergency moments where you need to just hit stop and go back and redo that before you continue to move on.

Deb Meyer (03:41.39)

Sure.

Deb Meyer (03:52.81)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know there's just a lot of talk about money personalities and you know, you might have someone that's more naturally inclined to save and another that's more naturally inclined to spend and how bringing that together in a marriage, even if it initially isn't that big of an issue, but over time, several years, it can create more of an issue and really getting on that same page financially is important. I guess, how do you...

suggest people approach it when there are those different kind of money personalities at work and finding that common ground where you can live in financial peace or harmony and not have the constant arguments or um agree.

Amanda Teixeira (04:32.916)

Sure.

Amanda Teixeira (04:38.936)

Mm-hmm. I think the, uh, we always like to have two things do the heavy lifting for couples. Uh, one, uh, a common united vision for the future. That's really compelling. Nobody wants to just save for nothing or for, you know,

Deb Meyer (04:53.489)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (04:58.839)

Right.

Amanda Teixeira (04:59.684)

for a rainy day or whatever these you know we kind of come up with these euphisms or we're saving for someday or nobody wants to do that i instantly want cheetos or a vacation instead of that and i'm a saver you know that just doesn't sound fun it's not so um coming up with something really compelling that both spouses are excited about bought into and agreeing upon. Different temperaments and personalities are going to be motivated by different things.

Deb Meyer (05:11.622)

Right. Hahaha.

It's not motivating, yeah.

Amanda Teixeira (05:29.332)

So sometimes you might come up with a practical, united goal, but then a really fun one right after that. So the spouse who wants the fun stuff knows we just got to get through this one to get to that next one. But a really compelling, crystal clear, measurable vision for the future, whether that's a goal we're going after over the next six months or...

something that's going to take us two, three years to go after, but you know, in your mind's eye, what it is that we are working towards. So that's always really important. Um, the second heavy lifter is just the budget, the tool of budgeting. I know this is the Beyond Budgets podcast, but sometimes it really is. It's, it's always, it kind of just always comes back to that. It's like all the financial wins in our life are beyond the budget, but

Deb Meyer (06:13.517)

It is a necessary tool to start with though.

Amanda Teixeira (06:24.436)

They kind of always start with the budget. And so going back to the budget, it's gonna help all financial personalities in the ways that they need it. So the people that are savers or more inclined to that, well, they're gonna get to go ahead and fill out all their savings and that's gonna be really fun and that's gonna be exciting and motivating to them. But then there's also categories where they are gonna put money down purposely to spend. So now all of a sudden they know

Deb Meyer (06:51.447)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (06:53.54)

their savings is protected. And so awesome. I can go have fun with the family. We can go to the movies. We can, you know, go out to eat or we can make this that or the other purchase because my savings are protected. And so I, I'm purposely and gladly spending all this other money because it's not hurting anything. And I think the saver needs to know that where the spender, um, what happens for them is that they

probably pay more attention to the categories where they get to spend money and that's exciting. And the budget is now visualizing like, all right, all the ways that I get to go out and spend money and I have permission to do that, knowing I'm not hurting the family. And there's boundaries around it. It's kind of like a playground that has a fence around it. I think there's studies that have shown that kids will just, they play even harder and.

Deb Meyer (07:24.439)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (07:35.187)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (07:47.428)

and more fully and they'll explore all of the grounds of the playground if it's fenced in whereas if it's not, they kind of stick to the equipment. And I think that a budget does that for a spender. They can just have more fun without that aftertaste of rut row. I just blew our chance to put into retirement savings or I just spent the mortgage money. It never comes with that bad aftertaste and so the spending is actually more fulfilling and more exciting.

Deb Meyer (07:50.858)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (08:00.194)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (08:11.298)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (08:17.596)

with a little bit of boundaries around it. So really it's that compelling vision for the future and then going back to that monthly budget. Those two things right there, whether you're a spender, a saver, or somewhere in between, it's a lot easier to get on the same page when you have those two things happening.

Deb Meyer (08:20.009)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (08:36.674)

Mm hmm. Yeah. And I've even seen with some clients, uh, just on the spending and budget part, they'll come up with a budget and say, this is what we want, especially on like discretionary expenses. But in reality, the budget and what they're actually spending are two very different numbers, right? You might have your goal, but what you're actually doing day to day don't align any recommendations for really coming to terms with the fact that like you do need to get back more towards that budgeted.

Amanda Teixeira (08:54.271)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (09:07.015)

instead of just continuing to spend, you know, through savings and other accounts. Any insights?

Amanda Teixeira (09:12.72)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So sometimes it's happening because there was an inner, they didn't budget enough. You know, that can happen. Like they're just going to their budget and saying they want to spend $500 on groceries a month. But realistically, you know, they have seven people in their family and that's just not going to work. It's just never going to work. You can't even, uh, cut, you know, frugal yourself to that.

Deb Meyer (09:20.152)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (09:35.891)

Right.

Amanda Teixeira (09:41.256)

really and still actually stay nutritionally balanced. So, you know, it just, sometimes you do have to be more appropriate. Now that's one extreme. I think more often you end up seeing people that put the parameters down and then just blow through all the categories. And that usually happens from one, not looking at your budget before you're about to do spending.

Deb Meyer (09:42.082)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (09:45.943)

Right.

Deb Meyer (10:01.303)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (10:09.5)

So I do encourage people, you know, you should have some sort of a budgeting tool that you're using, whether it's an app or you can use paper and pen. If that's how your brain works. But usually apps are pretty good for this because they just make it so seamless and easy. So right before I'm going to head into Costco, I'll just pull up my phone and I'll go ahead and take a peek and I can see what type of a Costco trip is this. Am I going to be able to enjoy going throughout the store and

Deb Meyer (10:09.676)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (10:28.48)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (10:36.412)

uh, maybe grab an impulse item or two, or is this later in the month where things are getting a little tighter? I really need to stick to that one thing, brick of cheese and you know, this other item that I'm here for, and then I need to have blinders on and just exit immediately and no, really exactly. You're not wrong. Sometimes at the end of the month, it's like, no, I need to do a Walmart.

Deb Meyer (10:43.79)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (10:54.674)

Or just not pick Costco, right? Pick a different store where you can go in and out.

Amanda Teixeira (11:04.54)

I can't even see the store. I need so much control over how much this is gonna be that it can't involve me in the store at all. Valid strategy. But really it's just re-getting in touch with your budget before you're about to go in and not maybe every single little purchase, but some of those bigger ones that are the categories where people end up blowing over, like maybe Amazon spending or going...

Deb Meyer (11:05.067)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Amanda Teixeira (11:31.264)

grocery shopping or possibly restaurants. These are categories that you should be looking at. And then that right there will automatically, cool down the situation or throw the wet blanket over somebody who maybe wants to go spend, but then is, ah, okay, I'm re-reminding myself. I really don't wanna have to go rob this, that or the other category to just overspend here. So right there, that'll stop some people in their tracks. Some people,

Deb Meyer (11:37.268)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (12:02.)

It won't. And so there's a little bit of a deeper dive maybe then that those people need to do on why they cannot seem to stick to this. Oftentimes there's some more emotional things going on underneath the surface and some habits that need to maybe change or shift or, you know, is there a search for dopamine? You know, are you having a rough day and you just need your

Deb Meyer (12:26.198)

Hmm

Amanda Teixeira (12:29.832)

That can happen with some people. And so we need to separate, I'm stressed out, I need a little happy hit with spending money. We need to separate those two things and find our happiness and our stress outlets elsewhere than spending. And then for others, it's just, they need to reflect a little bit more on just, especially married couples, having integrity in the moment for one another. And that's a virtue and a skill we have to build.

Deb Meyer (12:31.65)

Okay.

Deb Meyer (12:46.047)

Right.

Deb Meyer (12:58.645)

Mm.

Amanda Teixeira (13:00.028)

And it involves saying no to ourselves, but as adults, we need to say no to ourselves sometimes for the good of our family, for the good of ourself, for the good of others. And our culture is not so much a fan of that. We'll not tell, you know, what's trending on TikTok is not always tell myself no. What I see is indulge, book the trip, do whatever I want. Yes.

Deb Meyer (13:20.11)

Mm-hmm. Right. YOLO. Yeah, you only live once.

Amanda Teixeira (13:27.092)

That's true, I do only live once, but I'm gonna be a person of integrity. I'm gonna be a person of virtue, of prudence. I'm gonna live within my means and starting to tell myself a new story and kind of rewrite some of those scripts. And that's gonna help get to that budget boundary and actually stick with it.

Deb Meyer (13:49.902)

Great. Thank you so much. That's really, really helpful. Cause I know working on the financial advisory side, you know, I touch on cashflow, but that's not my main focus area. It's usually once we have assets to invest and things like that extra cash flow, we can strategize more into what type of account to put it in and things like that. And, um, but I know it's a, a genuine struggle. A lot of family sav is just.

Amanda Teixeira (14:03.033)

Yeah.

Deb Meyer (14:15.138)

figuring out what that budget is, how to continue monitoring it. And like you said, being able to check frequently before you're making some big spending decisions or even going into a store like Costco where most times with my family, we're spending a couple hundred dollars every time we go into Costco, just three growing boys. So, yeah. All right, well, I'm gonna kind of shift gears a little bit and talk more about the parenting side of things.

Amanda Teixeira (14:32.643)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

Deb Meyer (14:44.97)

You know, for your kids instilling money habits at a young age is obviously a really important goal. Can you guys or can you share a little bit more about how you tangibly incorporate that into your discussions with your children?

Amanda Teixeira (15:00.316)

Mm-hmm. Sure. So I feel like we've only recently, it's been fun. We've only recently begun to have these fruitful discussions because our, our children are nine, seven, and five. And I would say you can begin a couple of things for those really little kids, but it, it really is that age of reason when things start to kind of click, I think, and the reality of money being

Deb Meyer (15:13.954)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (15:29.648)

the full tool that it really is kind of starts to click in like that grade school, early grade school. So we've only just gotten there in the last couple of years and it's been super fun to help our kids figure this out. And so one of the questions we'll often get from parents is just, you know, what do you do? Do you do commissions? Do you do allowance? What do you, what kind of model do you recommend? And

Actually, we recommend both, both giving your kids some money to actually, have as just a member of the family that they are expected to steward well and to manage properly. Kids do need to have money in order to practice these skills. And I'd encourage people doing that even from younger ages, like four or five, appropriate amounts of money, we're not handing them a $20 bill.

Deb Meyer (16:01.131)

Oh.

Amanda Teixeira (16:27.516)

Um, you know, for their allowance, it's, it's much smaller than that. And then I think there should be earned wages. And so I want all kids to connect the dots between sometimes I, sometimes I work hard and I earn money, but then sometimes I'm given it and sometimes, and that the bar of expectation on managing it is still really high, whether I earned it or not.

And, um, I just want kids to be able to internalize that any money that comes to me, no matter how it came to me is money that I should manage wisely. Uh, and so that's why we utilize both of those strategies and our kids, um, you know, we're, we're millennials. And so on Fridays we play the in sync song just got paid.

Deb Meyer (16:52.033)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (17:00.91)

Thank you.

Deb Meyer (17:11.601)

That's so fun!

Amanda Teixeira (17:13.356)

And you know, we'll just like start playing it in the kitchen and the kids from wherever they are in the house will hear it and they're like, and they start screaming and coming up or down the stairs into, you know, kind of come to payday. And then we teach them that, all right, on this money you're given and the money you earned from the different chores that you did throughout the week, you know, there's certain things in our family that are just, you got to do them because you're a member of this household and we live in community.

Deb Meyer (17:20.715)

Yay.

That's too funny.

Amanda Teixeira (17:42.864)

So you're putting your dirty laundry away, you're busing your dish after you eat, you're flushing the toilet, just, you gotta do this stuff. But then we do have some extra things that the kids could do where it would be a little above and beyond for them to like vacuum certain areas of the house or to go poop scoop in the backyard or to take the garbage out. These are a little extra above and beyond. So whatever they did there, we'll go ahead and pay for those things. And then we teach them to...

Deb Meyer (17:42.871)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (17:50.006)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Deb Meyer (18:03.03)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (18:12.516)

do one of four things. So what are they gonna do with it? How are they gonna make their plan for saving, for spending, for giving, and then possibly investing? So your children do have to have an earned income in order to be able to invest, and it can't just be I mopped the floors. But if you are an entrepreneur, or you own a family business or something, you can utilize your children in your business, and then they could actually take...

Deb Meyer (18:24.346)

Mmm.

Deb Meyer (18:33.57)

All right.

Amanda Teixeira (18:41.072)

You have to track this. It has to all be done by the book, but you could give them earned income that they could go ahead and put into an investment. So that's not gonna be open and available for everybody. But if you have teenagers that are earning a W-2 and whatnot, they could be taking advantage of some of those things. And so teaching your kids that there's those four things they could be and ought to be doing with money are just wise. I think growing up, all I knew was I get money and I spend.

There was no other goal. Um, and I think that's, that's for most kids. They just don't know that. Yeah. I could have been saving or actually I could have been investing. My gosh, that one was just so not on the radar for me personally. And if only we all would have been that, that kid who saved $2,000 from age 18 to 25, the charts we see out there, if we could have just been him.

Deb Meyer (19:11.86)

Mm-hmm

Deb Meyer (19:18.986)

investing.

Deb Meyer (19:32.459)

Right.

Amanda Teixeira (19:36.788)

And that's not even that much money. I mean, really it's not, it's so simple and how all 18 year olds don't just instantly know and do that. Uh, you know, I would like to change that in our culture and allow people to have more of that literacy from a younger age. So as parents, we might be doing all the right things, but we have to actively teach that to our kids or explain why we're doing it, and then we have to have them do it too, they won't just instantly see our good example and do it.

Deb Meyer (19:38.743)

No.

Deb Meyer (19:48.168)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (20:01.797)

Mm.

Amanda Teixeira (20:04.884)

they have to actually build the skill themselves before they launch.

Deb Meyer (20:08.794)

Yeah, well, I'll share with my own family. We don't do the allowance per se, because most of my kids are, I shouldn't say this, but they're a little bit lazy. Like I'll give them the option of doing the extra work and they just will say, no, not interested, you know? And I'm like, okay, we need to turn that work ethic piece around at some point, but.

Amanda Teixeira (20:21.152)

I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Deb Meyer (20:34.738)

My son, my oldest, he's 14 and he's willing to go do other jobs for other people. He just doesn't want to do them in our own home. So my methodology with him is really taking that money that he does earn, putting it into a savings account. And then now he's just started getting interested in investing and he was like, Hey, I want to get some stocks and things like that. So what we ended up doing, we took some Coverdell education savings accounts that I'd set up many, many years ago.

Amanda Teixeira (21:04.308)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (21:04.838)

I think I put $2,000 in because that was like the max you could at that time. And now it's grown to about $3,000 and I'm like, okay, if you want to take over a portion of this account, cause this is for your benefit, let's have you actually pick some of the investments in it. So I still have like the diversified investments in part of it, but then I have the other part that he's directing and he's picking those stocks. So.

Amanda Teixeira (21:18.088)

Mmm, sure.

Amanda Teixeira (21:28.879)

Ooh.

Deb Meyer (21:30.462)

It's kind of a fun exercise. And now that he's doing it, my 11-year-old just started taking an interest and he's like reading a book on investing. So I'm like, Hey, it works. Once, once one gets interested, usually it catches on to the others for sure. Yeah.

Amanda Teixeira (21:37.984)

Wow.

Amanda Teixeira (21:43.936)

Mm-hmm. Oh, that's super fun. He, yeah, they will definitely be that kid by age 18.

Deb Meyer (21:49.966)

Mm-hmm, for sure, for sure. Well, good, so thanks for sharing a little bit more about how you navigate that in your family. Now, I'm gonna do a little bit of a metaphor here. I was at this retreat recently, Sterling Jacketh ran it, and she was talking about, you know how on our journey, sometimes we're climbing this metaphorical mountain, and we have these rocks that we're picking up along the way, and they just keep weighing us down.

And for me, it was a kind of an aha moment for people that are going through those financial struggles where they just feel weighed down, burdened. Maybe it's debt, maybe it's unemployment, whatever the case may be. But in that moment of struggle, it's really hard to envision that top of the mountain, that summit where you look down and you're like, wow, this is beautiful, right? Because you're just focused on that uphill climb.

So I'm curious, do you have any insights for people who feel like they're stuck on that uphill climb and just suggestions on how to kind of let go of the rocks, have a quicker, easier climb?

Amanda Teixeira (22:56.265)

Hmm.

Oh, I feel like that's a philosophical, like it's a deep question, but it's, no, it's so good. It's really good. I think I'd say a couple things. One, sometimes you need smaller mountains to climb. Sometimes, especially with financial things, they could, you could take the better part of a decade to really implement an entire.

Deb Meyer (23:04.087)

I know, I'm sorry. I throw it at you.

Deb Meyer (23:16.162)

Hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (23:26.888)

really strong financial game plan. It could take a decade. And that'll paralyze anybody if you think about it that way. So I do encourage people to get a smaller mountain.

Deb Meyer (23:29.422)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (23:35.15)

sharing.

Amanda Teixeira (23:43.472)

maybe that mountain is literally just emergency savings. And once you're at the top, you can celebrate, breathe, do something to commemorate it, kind of stay close to what's coming ahead. And then when, you know, gather yourself for a couple of weeks, and then now it's time to go ahead and visualize the next one.

So I do think that is helpful, especially with debt as well, that could be something that can really, really discourage people. And I think it's important to just, yeah, celebrate the little goals. Back in the day, student loans, for example, used to be a lot smaller than they are. I'm meeting couples now that are graduating with six figures of debt. And so it's no longer a sprint or even a 5K for a lot of couples, it's more like a half marathon to a marathon.

Amanda Teixeira (24:41.264)

And so they have to break up smaller little winds in the middle of it, or else they will be totally paralyzed and not able to finish the journey. And so build in those little celebrations or water spots or whatever, where you're gonna refresh yourself on the journey. And then of course, just knowing that your value and your worth is not in these things. And being able to stay firmly anchored

Deb Meyer (24:59.772)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (25:11.76)

in things that matter and not necessarily, not that money doesn't matter, but our self-worth shouldn't be anchored to those things. It should be in other things. That's really helpful. And then I think I lost my train of thought there, but does that kind of answer the question?

Deb Meyer (25:15.755)

Sure. It does, it does. Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of people, just having that visual of the really steep uphill climb is scary for someone. But like you said, just trying to take it as more like, no, there's just little hills. I have to navigate lots of little hills over time and that's okay. That's a natural part of life, right? Yeah, I guess I just wanted to make sure for anyone that is feeling like...

Amanda Teixeira (25:40.942)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (25:58.098)

and let's focus on debt for a minute because I know you guys had your own debt payoff journey early on in your marriage. How did you get out of that cycle of like, okay this just seems so daunting to, okay we're on the other side here, and yes it took a little time but we worked together and made it. How do you have that kind of mindset shift?

Amanda Teixeira (26:01.909)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (26:16.016)

Mm-hmm. You know, I remember like crying at our kitchen table, like when we tallied up all the debt and just thinking it would never happen. And then it was less than a year later. So sometimes our brains will play tricks on us and we get discouraged and start thinking really dramatic thoughts like, this is never gonna happen and.

Deb Meyer (26:31.222)

Wow.

Amanda Teixeira (26:42.108)

It's just not in the cards for me or we, you know, some personalities are more tempted towards that than others. And mine is definitely one of them that likes to go to the edge of despair on all over everything all the time, not my best trait. And, but I married somebody who's more like tigger and chippy, and like positive it's a really good match. Um, totally. Um, but.

Deb Meyer (26:52.902)

Mmhmm. Shit.

Deb Meyer (27:02.619)

Yep. Balances you out.

Amanda Teixeira (27:11.456)

That journey, in some ways, it was just as much about the tackling this goal together as much as it was reshaping our identity and what we thought about ourselves. And I think that that, I wanted to talk about this at the beginning and my brain just kind of crapped out at me, but going up the mountain, it gives you a chance to re-identify yourself in many ways, especially with money.

Deb Meyer (27:20.622)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (27:25.917)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (27:41.356)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (27:41.596)

You know, you could start at the base of the mountain and think I'm just this loser, empathetic, like I must not earn enough, I'm not disciplined enough, I'm not smart enough. Like people get a lot of lies in their head about money and what it means about them. And they really just think I'm not a numbers person. Like you hear these things all the time. And I would like to challenge people on that of what do you really mean by that? And oftentimes if you peel enough layers back,

Deb Meyer (28:02.785)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (28:11.396)

It's just that they don't know what to do and they just feel really dumb about it. But every time you reach, so if the mountain's dead, by the time we actually got to the top of the mountain, we didn't think I'm not a numbers person and we're just debtors and we must be so financially imprudent. I didn't think those things anymore because the journey actually rewrote my identity. And now I actually just thought I'm a money,

Deb Meyer (28:16.451)

Mm.

Deb Meyer (28:37.623)

Mmm.

Amanda Teixeira (28:41.944)

Like, I'm disciplined with money. I'm good with money. It changed the script. And so I think, you know, I can see, you know, you went to that retreat, like we could do this with any area of our life, but we have to know that we aren't going to, sometimes the journey is going to be what rewrites it for us and helps us drop some of those rocks.

Deb Meyer (28:42.915)

Mm-hmm.

Deb Meyer (29:05.934)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Teixeira (29:08.54)

or those bad things that shouldn't even be in our pack to begin with, the skills we learn, the victories we start to rack up, that process is what chucks the rocks out and puts lighter weight on our shoulders and helps us to understand that we can change and we are doing better and we can learn the skills. And it's empowering and gives us confidence, but you just have to get started. And sometimes that's the most intimidating part of all.

Waiting for the perfect moment, waiting for this, that, or another to resolve. But I don't know about you, Deb, but I just haven't found a single time in life where the clouds parted and I had my perfect runway for anything. It's you. I want it to, I so want it to all the time. And then we just, ugh, yes. It's like, I want this to just

Deb Meyer (29:57.394)

True. That's adulthood, right?

Amanda Teixeira (30:06.432)

Can't something just start beautifully and then just culminate perfectly? Instead, it's always like a mess, two steps forward, one step back, things get tangled, something breaks, but like we keep moving forward. And that's really more what I've experienced. And if you can do that, life's gonna work out. And particularly with your finances, it'll work out. But if you can't...

get into that process, then you will continue to run into challenges. And the mountain will always be a someday status. But if you can just start going, you'll get there. You will get to the summit. And then there'll be a new mountain.

Deb Meyer (30:49.714)

Yeah. But hopefully not as tall or daunting, right? Yeah. Well, great, thank you. I guess I just wanna touch a little more on your work working specifically with Catholics. I know that's what you and Jonathan are known for in WalletWin. How do you think Catholics should approach money differently in budgeting or generosity, whatever facets?

Amanda Teixeira (30:55.061)

Right, yes, there'll always be another mountain. So really the big thing that I encourage Catholics to do is to really invite God into their money because sometimes the temptation is just to think, oh, I put some money in the basket at church, that's how God's involved with my money. Well, I mean, that's just so on the fringe. So he wants to be involved, not in the sense that he wants to control the brand of toothpaste you're gonna buy.

That's not what I'm talking about here, but he just wants to be a part of all of it. And so those financial fears and the worries or the wins and the victories, he just wants to be in all of that. So when you're sitting down to make your budget, um, taking a moment to just pray and ask God, is there anything you want us to prioritize right now? That's a really simple little habit, but it could really change things for your budget.

Um, talking to God about your money, about that job that is just overwhelming and maybe we should quit. Um, or w you know, he just wants to be involved in those considerations, paying off debt. He wants to give you encouragement as you're making those decisions. Um, and so that's the, really the biggest thing is that he doesn't want to just be relegated out to the 20 bucks I threw in the basket. He wants to be intimately included in, in all of it.

And he's ready to give you encouragement and just all the resources that you need to manage your money well, to be that good steward that you are created to be. And that includes all of just the practical money management that you're gonna be doing in your life. So, yeah.

Deb Meyer (33:06.606)

That's great. Thank you so much for joining us. I really have just enjoyed this conversation tremendously. Can you share with listeners where people can best find you online or any new projects that you're working on that you wanna focus on in the coming months?

Amanda Teixeira (33:20.4)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So we also have a podcast. It comes out weekly. It's called The Catholic Money Show. So wherever you listen to podcasts, just type that in and you can go ahead and follow us. We also have our Catholic Money Academy. And this would be like similar to a Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, but we have a couple of extra elements, not only an online course that kind of helps with that foundation around money, but also, we offer just ongoing financial formation on different topics.

Actually, Deb has actually been one of our guest experts inside the Academy at one point, and we discussed investments for kids around 529. So there's just really good stuff over there on learning money management. And then of course we're on social media at WalletWin.

And then we do have a budget guide. So for those of you who are Catholic and listening, it would be helpful for non-Catholics as well, so feel free to download it. But Cath we have a free guide on getting started with that tool, how to implement it in your household. It's kind of a mini video course, and it's totally free over at Cath And then our website is WalletWind.com.

Deb Meyer (34:39.731)

Thank you so much. It was great having you and yeah, any last takeaways you want to leave for listeners?

Amanda Teixeira (34:47.016)

Just that you can do it. You can actually win and thrive with money. And there are lots of people willing to help you do that. Would love to stay in touch. Thanks for having me, Deb.

Deb Meyer (34:58.978)

All right, appreciate it.

Deb MeyerWorthyNest LLCfamily finance, beyond budgets, financial goals, budgeting strategies, financial literacy, teaching kids, debt repayment, money mindset, financial education, allowances, financial stewardship, investment decisions, financial empowerment, Catholic finances, faith and finances, financial community, financial guidance, financial well-beingComment