Dreamnation Episode 173 – Jesse Mecham: How to Have a Life Budget Framework

There’ll be good days in our lives when we think we can be big spenders – we allow ourselves to buy this, buy that, use a credit card for every purchase made, or make unplanned purchases. But sometimes life hits us hard and suddenly you’re forced to take a step back and face a problematic situation such as huge debts or unemployment and you realize, you no longer have money to spend.

This may be a scary situation but don’t fret! You can still get out of this by listening to Jesse Mecham of You Need A Budget podcast.

Jesse Mecham is a personal finance expert, speaker, and business leader, and founder of YNAB (You Need a Budget) and is deeply passionate about teaching individuals, families, and business owners YNAB’s Four Rules to help them gain total control of their money.

Here’s What You Missed:

Your kids are the reflection of who you are

“I don’t know what the nature-nurture equation is. Haven’t figured that one out, but they come out their own people and you know, you just try not to mess them up while you have them.” (4:26)
“’Cause I always say with that personality, she either going to be in jail one day or she going to be a president.” (5:24)

Self-help books to not go into debt

“When I was about 14, I think my dad gave me a few books. And he’s like, you should read these and he didn’t, he didn’t do that a lot.” (6:21)
“I just kind of had this mindset adopted from those books that I hadn’t really realized, had sunk so deep into me, but the books were just like, don’t go into debt for stuff.” (6:56)

The Spreadsheet of Wealth

“And so we were just like hand to mouth, but in that moment, we still were super focused on, we don’t want to borrow any money.” (7:24)
“Maybe I could this little spreadsheet that I built just for me. And Julie is just for us to manage our meager income. I thought maybe other people would want to use the spreadsheet. And that’s all, it was just this little rinky-dink spreadsheet.” (7:59)
“Hey, I have this idea to sell this spreadsheet that helps people manage their money to help me and Julia. And he was like, Oh yeah, you should sell it.” (10:53)

Breaking down your goals

“I just thought I got to figure out a way to make some money. I still have two years left of school.” (9:35)
“I just went year-round and I, I got a five-year degree in four years by just not stopping.” (9:53)
“You gotta scope down on the on the goals so that you can get going on it.” (16:22)
“And it’s important that we make the goal small enough where we aren’t disabled by like how daunting it appears.” (16:51)

Hire genuine experts

“You might be the last to be fired, but you should be the last to start being regularly paid as well” (19:33)
“He would just try to hire somebody that was way smarter than him. That could take him to the next level, rather than trying to do it all himself.” (20:05)
“I think for so many people, again, they’re starting their first business and they want to make sure that again, they make the right hire.” (36:35)

Company’s character

“You do want, obviously the best you can get, but they have to fit the kind of the culture, the core value, the character profile of your company.” (21:08)
“We want people that are genuine. We want people that are open-minded that will change their minds. We want them to be, uh, you know, passionately pursue growth outside of work. We just want to hire interesting people that are expert experts in their area.” (21:21)
“And find people that have that character and then it’s just everyone gels and there’s there.” (22:33)
“I like to think a lot more about the company character. And that’s about the attributes that your people possess.” (28:40)

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The Core value questionnaire

“The meaningful questions that can tip me off in the beginning, in that interview process to know, yes, this is somebody that has the character that fits our company.” (30:12)
“But you get to those questions where people have an opportunity to display that trait” (31:42)
“So some people complain about having to do a little work and some people were like, I enjoyed the introspection and you’re like, well, that’s a humble stance for someone to have.” (32:45)
“What’s something we can do that’ll help us whittle down the pool a little bit. And that questionnaire does a good job.” (33:50)

Sharing ideas with the equally yoked people

“There’s some comradery there as you kind of realize, Oh, there are other people like me and I’ve gotten a lot of, a lot of value.” (39:12)’
“…that’s wherein the beginning you find your mentorship.” (39:43)

The money has to be the strategy

“Once it, once that focus becomes money, don’t lose it. Let’s keep focusing on it and execute even further.” (43:07)
“Where the cash goes is where your strategy is and where you want your strategy to be.” (44:02)
“…but there were painful times like that, but the big transformative one where I got really clear we’re on the money has to be the strategy.” (46:09)

What’s should be your next step?

“There’s, there’s always something you can learn because it’s different day-to-day. And you’re dealing with different problems than you did 10 years ago. And you might see a whole other angle that you would have missed.” (41:32)
“There’s a lot of things that we did that if we would have known better, we would have done differently.” (42:22)
“Once it, once that focus becomes money, don’t lose it. Let’s keep focusing on it and execute even further.” (43:07)
“It’s just next steps every day, a little bit more of the grind and the next, that next best thing that you can do. Is there and it’s, it’s there obvious for you in the moment, in that day.” (47:47)

Quotes and Advice from our host and guest

“And it’s important that we make the goal small enough where we aren’t disabled by like how daunting it appears.” – Jesse, (16:51)
“You do not have to love the journey. You just have to embrace it, but you have to be married to the destination.” – Casanova (17:33)
“It’s not just slow to hire and quick to fire” – Jesse (22:00)
“You never settle.” – Jesse, (23:56)
“It’s all of their best stuff, because everybody when they write a book, they want it to be phenomenal, magical. They spent so much time, energy that they want the hacks. They want people, they already envision themselves being able to share all of their wisdom on stages and, and seeing so many people that say, I read your book and it changed my life.” – Casanova, (40:02)