Dimitry Neyshtadt ChFC is an award-winning Financial Advisor who left behind his “office life” to spend 2019 traveling 25 States in 25 Weeks on the #moneyprotour. Make sure to follow along on Instagram and Youtube!
The Money Pro Tour rolled on from Maryland into Virginia in May 2019 and I had a really fun time. It started with a pit-stop in Richmond where we met up with Stefanie O’Connell who was in town speaking at a conference. Then I rolled on to Norfolk and Virginia Beach before heading on to North Carolina for State #5. Check out more about what went down in the V.A.!
Lunch with Newlywed Stefanie O’Connell
The average wedding in America costs over $33,000. The average wedding ring itself costs $5,700. That means that a couple is usually in a $40,000 hole as they are balancing paying back their student loans, car loans, credit card debt, all other bills, AND save for the future… Oh, AND have some semblance of a social life.
Meeting up with Stefanie O’Connell in Richmond was awesome. She is a blogger and leader in the Personal Finance community. She is also recently married! For all of y’all with a wedding on your horizon, I definitely recommend checking out Stefanie’s content as she was fully transparent in how she dealt with some big topics. We’re talking about wedding ring bling and an international wedding!
Finding a balance can be super challenging. In my own career (10 years as a Financial Advisor helping couples optimize their finances) I’ve worked with folks who are all over “the wedding spectrum.”
Some folks I’ve worked with have parents who are paying for the whole wedding, and the bride and groom don’t even blink an eye at the cost. Others were paying for everything out of their own pockets, their own savings accounts, and even some had to rely on loans or credit to help them (not ideal at all).
For those paying with their own money, the choices of how big, location, menu, and everything else can snowball to cost significantly more than ever expected. That could mean turmoil for the newlyweds when they come back to reality – and all of their bills and future goals are waiting for them.
How much more challenging is it to become a homeowner? How much tougher has the couple made it for themselves to save the right amount for their futures?
I can’t say enough about how great a job Stefanie does of providing her own insight and “realness” to the conversation. Go check her out – she’s awesome! www.stefanieoconnell.com
Dogs and Debt MeetUp in Norfolk VA
After leaving Richmond, I rolled on to Norfolk. Since I’m Full Time RVing across the United States with my French Bulldog Brady along with me, we often visit Dog Parks and Dog-Friendly Places in cities we visit. In Norfolk Virginia, it made sense for us to host a meet-up with the local community.
I called it “Dogs and Debt” and invited folks from the Norfolk area to join. We ended up with about a dozen attendees, as well as folks who just happened to be at the dog park at that time.
One of the highlights was a conversation with a woman who told us about how she was new to the area from Florida. She was planning on selling her home down south, and just as it was getting listed, a massive Hurricane came and caused significant damage to her hown.
After an insurance claim and extensive home repairs, she found herself in the middle of the Great Recession of 2008, where her home value had dropped by nearly 50%.
And that wasn’t the worst of it. While working for a large technology company, the CEO and Executives were convicted of fraud and there was a huge controversy over her employer – who’s name we will leave out for now. Her shares of company stock became worthless as the company went out of business.
The challenge she faced was that, with her former-employer’s name on her resume, she found it very difficult to land a job in her high-paying industry because of the stigma associated with the fraud scandal.
She found herself in a position where she suffered losses of over $500,000 combined between her home’s sale price and retirement plan decreasing. She kept working. She moved to Virginia and worked 3 jobs in her 40’s and 50’s to make enough money to pay the bills and save for her future.
Watch the video interview below to hear her story and learn from her experience – grit and perseverance will outlast any challenge.
Basketball, Beers & Budgeting in VA Beach
The NBA Playoffs were gearing up full-speed as I passed through Virginia Beach. Pharrell was coming in town for a concert that week. The town was full of a ton of energy.
I put together a Basetball, Beers, and Budgeting Meet Up together at a local bar famous for lots of TVs and great chicken wings.
What was unexpected was that the folks who got the MOST value from me putting together the Meet Up was the STAFF of the bar and restaurant.
Waitresses told me about how they make cash every night, but feel like they are “behind on their bills” and “how easy it is to spend money” rather than feeling like they were optimizing their savings or kicking butt with their money.
There are roughly 2,500,000 waiters and waitresses in America (source) and to think that all of them are struggling, stressing, and living month to month is scary to imagine. It shouldn’t be this way. Folks working a full-time job, long and hard hours, should be able to make their money work hard enough for them to not have to worry about next week’s bills.
The Bartender in particular, a gal in her 30’s who has been slinging drinks for over 10 years, found the Bank Account system that I teach to be incredibly valuable. “Whoa, so I should have TWO checking accounts? One for Bills and One for Spending – That makes a lot of sense.”
Cash Flow Management – meaning what you DO with the money you make ONCE you make it – is super important. When it comes to folks in the CASH TIP SERVICE industry, it becomes even more critical. Otherwise, just imagine, how easy it is to sit down at the bar after a long day of work and just drink away the money that you worked so hard to make!
#MoneyProHabit — How are you prepared for the expected AND the unexpected?
The future has two different things in store for you.
There will be things that happen that you EXPECT to occur – like a wedding after a proposal, or paying for childcare expenses after having a baby.
There will also be things that happen that you DON’T EXPECT to occur – like illnesses or accidents, accidents, and lawsuits.
What does it mean to #BeAMoneyPro ?? It means being prepared for BOTH the expected and the unexpected. One must make sure that their financial plan can withstand the test of time.
