Answering Your Real Questions (Should I Buy It?)
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To buy or not to buy? That is the question. Oh, it's $1.99? Yeah, I'll take two of those. Thanks. That's a no-brainer. It's not always that easy to decide whether you should buy something, especially when it comes to large purchases. So today I'm taking calls from real George Camel fans who are teetering on the edge of a purchase. Could be smart, could be dumb, could be both. Like this electric butter spreader. Link in description. And I'll also help them answer the age-old question, is it cake? Wait.

Sorry, wrong show. Should I buy it? That's the one. I'll also give you five simple questions that can help you become a smart spender with zero buyer's remorse. Before we get into it, pretend your finger's a knife and stab those like and subscribe buttons like Mikey Day lopping off a chunk of an edible sewing machine. Let's get into it. Malaney, welcome to Should I Buy It? You are the very first one to do this, so thanks for being willing. Yeah, of course. I'm happy to be here.

So what are you wanting to buy? So my husband and I are considering buying a box truck or an RV to possibly live in. That's a pretty significant move. That's beyond like a purchase. That's like an entire lifestyle change.

I know. What makes you want to live inside of a box truck? So my thing is, is like we have extremely cheap housing right now and that's going to change here at the end of September. I just feel like it's a really cool option to be able to travel and still have like really low expenses overall.

Okay. What's your financial situation? Are you guys debt free? Yes. We don't have any debt at all. We both make a decent income and our housing is only like, or our expenses, I guess, are only about $1,200 a month total. $1,200.

$1,200 a month for all expenses. All expenses. That's food, utility, shelter, transportation, insurance. Yes. Everything. Skagway is extremely walkable, so we don't have a car or anything. Our phone bills are like $50 a month. Our rent is like $600, and then we just do the rest on food. So you have no transportation? Yeah. So Skagway is only about 25 blocks by four blocks, and most of that is just houses. So we just walk everywhere. Wow.

What about if it's cold or raining and you got to get groceries? Like, what do you do? We just walk. I don't, I've gotten used to it. You're so brave. Just like a backpack and rain jacket. Yeah. What is this box truck slash RV going to cost?

So right now we have in mind about $20,000 for it. I'm hoping it'll be a little bit less, but that comes with the caveat that my husband can fix anything with a car, really. The mechanic costs I'm not like super worried about. It's just... He's real handy when it comes to that stuff. Definitely. Yeah. Okay. And how much money do you guys have saved up right now? Right now we have about $18,000. So we're really close to hitting that mark. But is that your emergency fund too? No, no, that's separate. Okay.

Okay, great. How much is in the emergency fund? Emergency fund, we have $5,000. Which for your expenses is over three months, which is wild to think about. Are these expenses going to change in the foreseeable future? Not as far as I can tell. I'm going back to school in the fall, but I actually have a separate fund to just cash flow that too. You got funds for your funds. I know. Wow.

You guys are on top of it. Okay, what's the take-home pay every month you guys are bringing in? So his are normally about $5,000. Mine are about $3,000. So about $8,000 a month. And your expenses are $12,000. So you guys are able to pocket...

Like $6,800 a month? Yeah. Into savings and other goals? Yeah, it's pretty crazy. That is amazing. Okay, everyone's jealous watching right now. She's an icon. She's a legend. And she is the moment. Explain to me the motive behind this purchase. I heard that you have like a dream of traveling.

Yes. So this is already kind of sort of traveling. I do seasonal work here. So I just work over the summer and then we save for the winter. He works during the winter too. I just don't want to be like tied down to an apartment or anything like that. Are you able to work remotely while you're traveling?

traveling the world with this dream? Yeah, not at the moment, no. But that's the end goal there. And you're telling me you can buy a pretty nice box truck slash RV for $20,000? So he found one that...

I mean, he sounds like he's handy and whatever goes down, he's gonna be able to fix it. But you're telling me you need to renovate this into living quarters. That one is actually already renovated on the inside to be a mini apartment too.

I just needed some cosmetic stuff and it was about $14,000. So we've been keeping an eye on that one. I'm just confused because you can't buy a 25 year old truck for $14,000 in today's world. So I just have I have some hesitation that if this is really a deal or for what's going to be a money pit and you guys go, we had to spend another 20 grand. Sounds like you guys are going to be able to cash flow whatever comes your way as long as you keep that income up.

Yes. Yeah. And that is kind of the most up in the air part because our housing is based off of my job. So when that ends, it's sort of we have permission to stay here either way. But the income just won't be there from like September to April, really. Okay. There's going to be a gap in income where it's just your husband's income? Right. Yes. Which is still more than enough to cover you guys. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, so let's talk through this. You know exactly what you want to do. I feel like you have the right motive. You're wanting to travel and have this experience for a temporary amount of time. That's a noble thing to do at a young age for a married couple. You can afford it in cash. And it sounds like he's begun to do the research to make sure that he's buying the right thing

right price, not getting screwed on this, not buying a lemon of a truck. And then the last piece of it is just the timing of, you know, the opportunity cost of what are your other financial goals? Do you guys want to have a place of your own one day? Oh, definitely. Yeah, that's something we want to have like two or three places eventually. Whoa. Yeah. So

Talking about housing, I mean, houses do be expensive. So I'm going, hey, could that 20 grand, that sounds awful like a down payment that we're putting into a depreciating asset instead of an appreciating asset. Yeah, that makes, well, I've since fixed up my credit, but I have some past mistakes online that I think would make the rate for a mortgage higher than it needs to be. So until those kind of fall off, we're kind of just in a weird zone there. Yeah.

Yeah, that's the only thing that gives me a lot. You guys are completely debt free? Do you have any open lines of credit still? I do. They're all at zero balances. It's just old late payments. A lot of them from like two or three years ago that I've cleared. I've cleared all the accounts, but it has made my credit score below average still. His is great, but I just feel like it would be kind of a subprime rate if we went that way.

Well, it sounds like you guys have really thought through this. You know, I will co-sign that you have the ability to do this. Can I buy it? Yes, absolutely. Should you, I think we need to have a few more conversations before we just jump into this and get starry-eyed that it's all going to be amazing. Definitely. But it sounds like you guys have a good head on your shoulders. He's real smart. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to fix this up, how to renovate it.

and it's gonna be a passion project. But I would do this with the caveat that you keep your rental situation because it's so cheap, it's such a small part of your income, to have that stability to fall back on if in six months, two months, you go, this was a mistake. Just know that if you were gonna burn this pile of money on the table, you guys would be okay with it knowing we tried it. That's the caveat I would say. Otherwise...

Your wish is granted, Malaney. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Create a vlog, become a YouTuber on the road of like renovating the box truck. And then one day maybe I'll be on your channel. There we go. Yeah.

Thank you so much for your time. Tell your husband I said hello. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Okay, before I help the next caller make a decision about spending, let me help you make a decision about your savings. If you've got a lot of money sitting in a regular old dusty savings account earning dismal interest, it's time for an upgrade to a high-yield savings account like the one offered by Laurel Road, one of the sponsors of today's episode.

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So check it out or go to the link in the description. All right, let's get back to some calls. Steven, welcome to Should I Buy It? Where you, the contestant, tell me what you want to buy and I will grant you your wish if you say the right things.

All right, so George, the question I have for today is, should I buy a second child? So let me give you, I'm gonna give you some context. Let me give you some context. You're gonna need some context. - Is Teemu getting into children now? - You think you can just buy my friend's baby? - Since I was in high school, I've always envisioned myself having two kids. I'm at a crossroads between, do I realize that dream of having the two kids and then having to pay for IVF this time, or, and I hope you keep an open mind, okay, I am part of the FIRE movement.

So do I pick having the second child or do I realize my dream of being fire in the fire movement? Oh, OK. For those that are unaware, let me tell you about the fire movement. It stands for financially independent retire early. So you're saying going through this IVF process will financially delay this retire early part. Yes. Well, before my daughter was actually born, I was actually investing about

100% of my income. Once she came, that was all gone. You know, formula, diapers, daycare, that took a pretty big chunk out of my budget. The goal is once she's out of daycare, hopefully I'll be able to invest probably 80% of my income at this point.

She's really not athletic or gifted musically, so I don't think I have to worry about sports. Hopefully not. That's comforting, I think. Or a diss. I don't know. Sick burn? I don't know. Okay. What is this IVF going to cost? The main thing is we're just going to go with three tries. That is it. I'm going to have to go with all-in.

20 grand. And are you guys debt-free? Absolutely, which I'm going to do an impromptu debt-free screen because we didn't do it, but we're debt-free. Woo! Okay, love that. How much do you have in savings right now? About 35 to...

50,000. Yeah. How much of that is your emergency fund? About 13,000 of that is my emergency fund. That feels real low. My thinking is my wife has a very safe job. So I was like, we don't really have to build up such a big emergency fund. I feel like she's pretty safe. Let's just to be on the very safe side. Let's say 30 is your emergency fund. That still gives you 20 that you can cover IVF today.

All three tries. Well, here's the plan was that that 20 to 30 by the end of this year is going to go pay for the second vehicle. So that way we have both vehicles that last for 10 years. Next year, we're going to spend all years saving up. If we do it, we would save up for the IVF. I'm not going to make your priorities, but I'm going to prioritize like if you told me at the start of this call,

call that having a second child was a big deal for you. Yeah, but fire is pretty big too. But here's the thing. I'll tell you my thoughts on fire. I think it's a wonderful thing to force yourself to live on less than you make to have financial independence. The part that I have seen in the fire community that is a little bit

scary is that the goalpost always moves you get to two million and they go well i think two and a half now would make me feel better and you get to five million go well i feel like we can just go a few more years and six million would be better and so personally i would prioritize your dream of having two kids over fire because here's what's gonna happen realistically both of your incomes will go up you'll still have financial independence and you're probably gonna say i could work a few more years or i could downgrade into a job that's less stressful and maybe pays a little bit less

You guys have already crushed it financially at a very young age. You're kind of saying this 20K IVF is going to delay my FIRE status by, I'm assuming, a few months at that point. I thought about a few years, actually. Okay, what is the household income right now?

I'm going to go with about 150 right now. Okay. So let me kind of try to go through this in an organized way so we can kind of understand where we're at. You want to do IVF. It's 20K. Your motive is I want to have two kids. That's an important thing for both of us as a family, right? Right. You can afford it in cash today.

- Yes. - Easily. And then the timing is the part that you're struggling with. And this is the opportunity cost. If we spend 20K on IVF, we can't upgrade the car. If we upgrade the car, we can't have a down payment on a house. I think the final step for you is to sit down with your wife and go, what are the priorities?

And we don't need to do it all at once. The cars are doing fine. We can have a car for 11 years instead of 10 before we upgrade. And I would encourage you to work through letting go of this goalpost of fire being at 45, I will be retired. I think that will free you and you'll have less regret because here's what I can guess what happened. You get to your age of 40.

fire, you get to that mile marker and you go, man, it's kind of empty. It's just a number in an investment account. And yes, it signifies that I hit a goal, but I really wanted this family. Like that's a richer life for me than just being able to retire two years earlier than I wanted to. It's a noble goal to have this number in your head, but I think it's

Now being a dad, I realize how much more important and special that is than having a certain mile marker financial milestone. And you're talking to a guy who loves a financial goal. I think also just I'm just afraid of like, I feel like once we add the second kid to daycare, I revert, you're going to have no savings. That part makes no sense to me. You make 150K. Okay, two kids in daycare. How much are you currently investing? Oh, it's slightly more than the 50% y'all recommend. At this rate, it's about 18.

So if you dialed it back to 15%, could you still have a great life and still be on track to build wealth over time, but give you a little bit of freedom as far as your everyday budget? Yeah, we dial back the investing for sure. We would have some wiggle room in the budget, even with two kids in daycare. That would free up $4,500 a year. Right, yeah. Just going from 18% down to 15%, which is pretty significant. That's about $400 a month of wiggle room you guys now have. And so-

That would be my encouragement. If you're going through the baby steps, you'll get to fire doing the baby steps. Investing 15%, I would save up for a down payment once, you know, mom and baby are home safe, everyone's good, emergency fund is back in place, car has been upgraded. Then I would begin the process of saving up a down payment over the next several years. Likely your incomes will have gone up.

The kids will be out of daycare in the next, you know, five years. And so I think the... I wouldn't worry about the future problems before they're here. I would be focused on what our next thing is right in front of us. And so that's how I would prioritize it. I can't make that decision for you. Right. But as far as, you know...

Should I do this? It's 100% yes for me. Sounds good. I'm glad we had this talk, man. I don't have anybody to talk about this with, so I'm kind of glad we had this talk. That means the world, man. Thank you for trusting me with this. It's a big deal, and there's a lot of emotion around fertility and IVF and pregnancy and family. These are really, really big decisions. This is not, can I go buy a toy? This means a lot more to me. So thank you for trusting me with this, and I wish you guys the best with the IVF process. Keep us posted.

I just, I'm rooting for you. - Hey, thank you so much, George. - Well, that was fun, even heartwarming, and hopefully I was able to help some of those callers make a smart choice. And if you wanna be a part of a future episode, you can check out the form link below to apply to be a part of this segment. But here's the deal. You can't call me every time you wanna buy something. I mean, you could, but you're gonna get blocked real quick, bud. So if you wanna be a smart spender,

check this out. It's a handy little plan I came up with to help you make smart purchases. And it's an acrostic that spells out the word smart. Self-awareness, motive, affordability, research, and timing. And the process is simple. If you can answer five questions with a resounding yes, then you can make that purchase with confidence and intentionality instead of impulse and regret. So here's the question with self-awareness. Will this add value to my life? Will I actually use this thing not just once, but often enough to get your money's worth?

If you're not going to use it consistently, just rent or borrow instead. Number two, motive. Am I buying this for the right reason? This is a tough one. What is driving this decision? What's the sense of urgency? Is it slick marketing, pressure from friends and family, retail therapy because you're sad, tired, had a long day at work, you deserve it, you're celebrating? Maybe it's driven by insecurity or the need to impress someone. Whatever it is, ask yourself, if nobody saw this purchase,

Would I still buy it? And if you're honest with yourself, most people will abandon cart at this point. Next up, arguably the most important, affordability. Here's the question. Is this in my budget? Can I afford this thing in cash in full? And here's a wild thought. If we all answer this correctly, Americans would have $0 in consumer debt. So if you can't pay for it in cash today, then you don't buy it today. Period.

No monthly payments, no debt. Pay for it in full or wait until you have the money to cover it. Next is the R for research. And here's the question to ask. Is this the best option, retailer, and price? Most people overpay because they're simply not doing the research. So don't skip this step. Compare prices online. Search for the promo code. Ask for the discount. Negotiate. Use a coupon. Look up price matching policies. Check the clearance section first just in case. And when it makes sense, buy it used instead of new. Except...

Socks, underwear, and mattresses. Good rule of thumb, if it glows under a black light, don't buy it used. I'm going to write that down. My point here is simply slowing down and doing your homework can help you save time and money. And finally, timing is now the right time to buy it. The question here is about opportunity cost. What are you giving up by making this purchase? For example, could the money be better spent on an experience, an investment, or paying off consumer debt? P.S. The answer is always paying off consumer debt if you have any.

But look at your priorities, your budget, your financial goals, and decide if that money would be better spent somewhere else right now. So there you go, five simple questions. If you can answer yes to all five, you can confidently make that purchase. And if you answer no to any of these questions, it's a not now. So just pause, have some patience, do the work, do the research, build the savings, and do it with intentionality. Basically, don't be a toddler, be the grown adult that you are. And if you go through that process honestly, this smart spender plan will help you answer that age-old question,

Who wants to be a million? Sorry, did it again. Should I buy it? That's the show. There we go. And if you want to know more about how to be a smart spender, including how to avoid all the marketing gimmicks and financial traps out there, be sure to check out my book, Breaking Free from Broke, The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress. I've got a whole chapter on this called Spending is Self-Control. It's also available as an audio book read by the author,

That's me. And you can get your copy with the link in the description below. And if you want to take your smart spending and frugality to a whole nother level, keep watching this next video to see 17 things frugal people refuse to buy or click the link in the description to check it out. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.